Are you thinking about starting an online business? Want to get an overview of how the online system works?
Jeanette Cates has always been the go-to person for straightforward tips to relate technology to marketing – and fun, too. Here’s a reprint of one of her articles.
If you are working online or thinking about it, one of the best ways to relax and have fun learning is to set up a fun site. How do you define a “fun site”? It’s a site dedicated to a hobby, an interest, or maybe even one for your kids’ interest or project.
So with fun in mind, here’s your seven day plan, assuming less than an hour a day – and that includes learning time. Remember, it’s just for fun!
Day 1: Do your basic plan – who are you creating this for? What type of information will you include? Where will you get the information? Remember, you can use articles, videos, audios and photos – all about your topic.
Day 2: Buy a domain that describes your topic. If you were doing this for profit, you would definitely want a keyword-rich domain name. But since it is for fun, you can use a creative name.
This is also the day you want to set up your hosting account so that you have a place for your site to “live.”
Day 3: Set up a WordPress blog on your site. Then install a theme that reflects your topic. While you can spend hours looking at themes, remember to keep your “work time” short.
Day 4: Start adding content to your blog. Remember that you can pre-schedule content, so if you get excited and start writing a lot, you can save some of the posts so they trickle out over time.
Day 5: Go over to YouTube and find several videos that fit your topic. Use the embed code from YouTube and add the videos to your blog. Again, you can do a bunch of these at once and trickle them out over time.
Day 6: Add a plugin to your blog that will let people add it to social media sites. Just search for social media plugin and you’ll find a list of them. Remember to choose one that’s easy to use – no point in working when it’s fun.
Day 7: Celebrate and promote! You’re ready to tell everyone about your new site. Of course, you may have been sharing your progress as you go, but now’s the time to invite people over to comment on your content.
Most of all, enjoy this process. While a fun site is not one that you build for profit, it may turn out to be profitable in the long run. Regardless of the outcome, you had a good time doing it and learning along the way.