The first step to starting your online business should be to start a Blog.

Find a host (if you’re reading this post, then you’ve found one), sign up for a hosting plan, register a domain name, install WordPress… and then BLOG.

This should even come before your business plan for several reasons…

1. It will help to establish you as an expert in your chosen field.
2. It will naturally draw traffic if your posts are interesting and well written.
3. Those who read your blog are likely to be in need of products and services you recommend.
4. Once you’ve developed a subscriber base, you can test the market and begin to earn an income fairly quickly by joining affiliate programs and recommending those products and services with no additional investment.
5. You’ll determine whether or not you’re on the right track without a significant investment of time or money.

You’ll notice that we’ve incorporated our blog into our website… we write about things that are of interest to those who are likely to be in need of web hosting.  You can use this technique for virtually any type of business.

Are you a dog lover? Write about your dogs, pet care, and throw in the odd product review with an affiliate link to a useful product or service for dog owners.

Are you interested in mult-level marketing? For Pre-Paid Legal, blog about wills, taxes, buying or selling a home… and tie it in.  For Avon, blog about health and beauty. Want to pitch a weight loss product? Blog about weight loss, health, nutrition.

Do you have a hobby? Carpentry? Knitting? Motorcycles? Cooking? Martial Arts? Dancing?

You can blog about anything and then build a business around your blog, and if you love the topic then writing about it won’t even seem like work. Establish your readership, interact with them, find out what they want (and more importantly what they don’t want) and offer products and services that meet their needs.

While we’ve taken the approach of directly providing a service, you don’t need to. It’s an option, but if you’d rather not deal with maintaining an inventory, shipping, returns, etc. then just go with affiliate programs. If you do want to eventually offer a product or service directly, then starting out with affiliate programs will help you make the transition from employee to entrepreneur by gradually increasing your income, your capital available to invest, and the time you have available to devote to your business.

Start with a blog, then move on to a full blown business plan once you know what your readers will respond to. It’s a lot easier to get a business off the ground when you can actually ask your target market what they’re interested in buying rather than having to guess and then spend a small fortune trying to seek out new customers, only to find there’s no interest.

The main reasons that a business will fail is that there’s either no market for the product or service offered for sale, the product or service is overpriced, or it’s too costly to find buyers for that product or service. Blogging can help take the guesswork out of launching your business as your subscribers (if you can’t find any, then that’s your first clue) will give you valuable feedback.

The worst thing that can happen is you’ll end up writing about something you love, and you’ll perhaps meet some interesting people who share your interests. At best, you’ll have a well established clientele BEFORE you actually make the transition from employee to entrepreneur.