Welcome once more to my online venture.
Having read my introduction/welcome, you may well be questioning the seriousness of my intent and thinking here is another dreamer who hopes to make some money with little effort. You may also be wondering (if you have noticed) why I have the ‘tag line’ – ‘sharing your passions’.
In answer to the first point, I don’t believe that it is ‘easy’ to make money online unless you are very, very lucky (my next post will have more of my thoughts on that) or you have the money to pay somebody else to set up your online presence, in which case, you may have an investment, but will everything be to your liking and can you keep pace with the ever-changing demands and/or progressions in the online world? Most corporate entities now have an online presence, even if they have been in business for hundreds of years, but they have spent many thousands of dollars to establish that presence, which thus endorses the value of being online.
I mentioned ‘sharing your passions’ and that is probably my greatest motivation for going online now. Since I was a very young child, I have been mad on cars and throughout my entire life I have been interested in cars. When other lads were interested in football, I was only interested in cars. This probably all developed from the fact that my dad had a garage and conveniently it was next door to our house! This meant that I could spend every hour, when I was not at school, in the garage. Hence my ‘passion’. I have never been in the financial position to fully explore my passion and have always ‘got my fix’ from reading car magazines, watching car films, going to car shows and watching car programmes on TV. With the arrival of the online world and having more time available, I want to share my passion and I have decided to do that by developing a website and blog.
I hope over the next few weeks and months to develop a website devoted to my passion which is mainly ‘Classic’ cars from the ‘golden era’ of British cars of the 1960s to the 1980s. I will be setting up my website and hope to share the journey with you as I develop my online presence.
Is online marketing a business? The ‘gurus’ or those ‘experts’ who want to sell you their courses will often say that it is not only ‘easy’ but also cheap to set up an online business or more correctly online presence. Well, as we all know, the internet is overflowing with ‘experts’ and ‘gurus’ but unfortunately it is also overflowing with ‘conmen’, ‘charlatans’ and ‘chancers’ and having wasted many, many hours and dollars, I have found that not only is it not as ‘easy’ as many would have you believe, but nor is it as ‘cheap’ as they would have you believe. Yes, it is cheap to go online via Facebook or Instagram, and it is relatively cheap to set up a ‘basic’ webpage, but if you have lots to say and you want lots of people to read what you have written, and you want to ensure that you are not going to break any laws, then you are into a whole new ballgame. Hence why I consider it has to be a business in order to pay for those costs.
If you want to develop your website as a hobby then it can be relatively cheap and there are a number of companies offering free website building (Wix, Webstarts, Jimdo, Webnode, Mozello, and Weebly). The disadvantages however can include restrictions on the amount of content, limited opportunity for ‘personalisation’, difficulties in promoting your website (the website will be an extension of the domain of the hosting company) and above all, it is never actually your property and this can prove extremely difficult if you wish to build your own website later and ‘migrate’ all of the data. Other hosting companies will also provide low cost building plans (1&1 IONOS, Hostinger, 123-Reg, Bluehost, GoDaddy, DreamHost), but the same limitations apply, if you choose the cheaper options and use the in house website builders. There are lots of stories on the internet about bloggers and small businesses who have started with cheap in-house web building plans and later regretted it when their business has taken off and they have found the shortcomings.
The internet is a minefield for anyone starting out and I have no doubt that I will make lots more mistakes, but I have put my faith in John Thornhill and his Partnership to Success programme and through that, I hope to not only learn myself, but pass on some of that knowledge to my followers. In the meantime, I will leave you with these thoughts:
- Do as much research as you can before setting up your website, but think carefully why you are doing it. Is it a hobby, is it to make a living or is it to promote an existing business? Google can be your best friend (use search terms such as “how do I set up a HOBBY website?” or “What is the best FREE website builder?” – always be clear and specific about what you want to know). Google can also be your worst enemy! Remember that the first few results are often PAID advertisements.
- Don’t be afraid of the ‘techy’ stuff, (I know I was and still find it difficult sometimes, but overcome that fear) and try and find the genuine people to help. There are plenty out there, but you have to find them!
- Jump in and do it if you have that ‘passion’. I have delayed for far, far too long and regret it. BUT only jump in if a) it is not going to cost you too much or b) You are sure, as far as possible, that you have made the right choices, be that the right web host or the right tutor/course.
- It will take time, certainly more than the ‘experts’ will promise and probably a lot more than you hoped or imagined. It is a long and often lonely road to becoming an established presence on the internet.
