How to Start an Online Business as a Total Beginner

I first entered the world of digital marketing in 2018 as a Beachbody coach. During that era, cold messaging was the biggest marketing strategy. Of course, they would also tell you to post some clips of your workout to spark interest, but the biggest recruitment tactic was always through DMing.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t respond well to salesy messages from people I don’t know. I admit, there are some who I’ve spoken with, just to give them a chance, but most of the time, I delete the messages or block them.

I absolutely hated the whole thing. I loved the actual products I was promoting, but I just could not get on board with the marketing. Eventually, I gave up on coaching and decided to maybe start a blog or a YouTube channel.

I tried both, and gave up.

I don’t know if you see a trend here, but I have always had a bad habit of giving up on things that take too long to accomplish. I have always had the problem of needing to be great at something in order for me to enjoy doing it.

Because I wasn’t seeing the success I wanted to see in the time I wanted to see it, I would often fall off from being consistent in my posts every day, which means I was losing engagement.

When it comes to the business of digital marketing, every day, consistent presence is absolutely crucial! I’m not saying you need to create super high quality content every day, but you do need to be posting at least once(or twice, preferably) with something of substance. Even if it’s not the most aesthetically pleasing, as long as it contains value(information) that catches the attention of your audience, that is all that matters.

In this post, I will be covering the steps every beginner in digital marketing needs to take in order to ensure they set themselves, and their business, up for success!

Pick Your Niche

This will always be the first thing that ANY creator will tell you! If you want to set up an online business, you first need to decide what it is you want to talk to people about. For example, my main focus is teaching other moms how to be financially independent and live their dream lives. I do this by teaching about digital marketing, financial planning, and general life topics.

Basically, you want to think about who it is you’re actually trying to reach. Who is your ideal customer? It’s usually a younger version of you. Again, using myself as an example, I spent a lot of time wishing somebody had properly taught me about making money and growing your own wealth. I learned a whole lot about both of those subjects and now I take what I’ve learned and experienced and use it to help other people in similar situations.

I know it can be very tough to feel like you have to choose one thing and stick with it. Maybe you want to be more diverse in your content and incorporate other topics. You can absolutely do that, you just have to find a way to tie it all together. Like, even though I talk about business and managing money, I also talk about fitness, cooking, parenting, homemaking, hiking, etc. I may film some B-Roll footage of me doing any of those activities, but then add a caption about business or money.

Pick Your Main Content Platform

Alright, now that you’ve decided what it is you want your business to center around, it’s time to pick your main platform for delivering your message. There are several options here. Blogging, long form videos on YouTube, short form on social media. Or, you could even do a little bit of everything. But, maybe wait until you’ve gotten into your groove first.

My blog is my main spot for my products and services, my Instagram page is to help promote those products and services. With things like Reels, Stories, and carousel posts, I can create fun videos or images to help spread the word of my brand. Once people visit my page, they will then see my business links in my profile where they would be directed to my blog site. Which brings me to the next item on the list….

Pick a Marketing Platform

Your marketing platform is going to be the heart of your business, so having a good one is vital! I personally recommend Systeme.io. It is quite literally the most versatile marketing platform available! With this platform, you can set up your email list, which is going to be your biggest marketing tool. Even if social media goes away, as we now know it can, as long as you have your email list, you can still reach your audience.

With this platform, you can also set up a website, a blog, a landing page, sales funnels, automations, products, paid communities, courses, webinars, etc. There are so many ways to run a business with this platform and I cannot talk about it enough!

In fact, I actually wrote a blog post about it a little while back. You can check that one out here.

Sign up for Canva

Whether you want to create your own graphics or customize some templates from other creators, Canva is super crucial to online businesses. People are very visual, and if you’re promoting your products with fun, eye-catching graphics, people will be more likely to be drawn to it.

Canva can also be used to create products that you can sell. I, for example, create and sell templates for Instagram. You can create templates for anything! You can also create things like ebooks, workbooks, checklists, planners, courses, webinars, etc. You can also create print on demand products as well. One of these days, I want to create my own bookmarks!

Join a Digital Community for Creators

Although you’re in business for yourself, you don’t have to be by yourself. There are so many communities of other likeminded people where you can get ideas or advice on certain areas of your business, or you could do the same for others.

Last year, I invested in a course that came with Master Resell Rights, and with it also came a wonderful community of other entrepreneurs who just want to help everyone succeed. We also hold trainings every single week so that people can continue to learn and grow. As social media trends change, you have to learn how to adapt yourself and your business to those changes.

If you want to know more about the course that changed my social media game, click here, and you’ll automatically get my free guide on getting started.

Or, if you just want to skip that part and sign up for the program today, click here.

Conclusion

Starting a new thing can be hard, scary, and super stressful. You know you need a change, but then you don’t know if you have what it takes to make it work, and then you question yourself constantly, and then you give up….until you start all over again because you remembered that you need to change your life.

Don’t keep repeating the cycle of self sabotage. Take the small steps, pace yourself, don’t put too much pressure on yourself, and just have fun! The whole point of this content creation thing is to live a life full of joy! So, stop holding yourself to an impossible standard, don’t worry about the haters, and just go have some fun!

You can start by giving your Instagram profile a makeover with my customizable templates! (Psst…they’re free)

I’m cheering you on, babe!

xoxo–Amanda