So you decide to take the plunge into online money making opportunities after some research and due consideration. And you may have already decided on a niche market to target, so where and how are you going to start? As a newbie, the most frightening part of starting out making money online is you don’t really know where to begin. I understood this point well as I have walked through this path before. So I have written out this starting out checklist to guide you along the path to online success. This checklist is for those who want to get their own domain name and set up their own sites.

To facilitate your online business, make sure you have a credit card or debit card which allows you to do online purchases and receive payments at the same time. A PayPal account is a must have and essential for your online money making opportunities. If you do not have a PayPal account currently, you can sign up for PayPal here.

1. Decide on which money making opportunity you want to go into. Focus on one. For example if you want to start a blog, go out and learn all about blogging. There is tons of free information available online. This is a great place to start off with!
2. Do some serious research on a niche market to tap into. If for example you want to start a e-commerce site on pets’ stuff. Make sure you do a lot of research on the pets industry and whether are there a hungry and ready market for your products or services. Remember "Hungry and Ready Market! There is no point going into a niche market where there are no ready customers for your products and services, you are basically wasting your time and efforts.
3. Look for a suitable a domain name for your website. You have to do a bit of looking around as most 2 syllables domain names are taken up. If possible put keywords into your domain, it will help in your domain’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You have to do a bit of keyword research here. For example if you are selling dog’s products, make sure you have dog inside your domain name. In this way, it will be easier for the search engine to index and spider your website.
4. Once you found a suitable domain name, quickly go and purchase it through domain registrars. For a list of good and cheap domain registrars, check out my “Recommended Resources” section. I highly recommended using Godaddy.
5. Sign up for a web hosting account. Check out my post on guidelines in “Choosing a Suitable Web Host”. For a list of good and reliable web hosts, check out my “Recommended Resource” section.
6. Design and create your website. Now you really have to spend a bit of time to design and select your website. You have many choices in choosing how your site should be set up. If you are setting up a content heavy or ecommerce site, go for Joomla or Drupal which are both very good CMS (Content Management Systems). If you are promoting affiliate products and just need a few page website, use DreamWeaver or FrontPage to create your site. You need to understand and learn basic HTML and CSS. For those who are setting up a blog, go for WordPress. WordPress is one of the best blogging platform available and best of all it’s free. If you are one of those who are adverse to building up your own site, you can always engage some web designer to set up your site, just be prepared to spend a couple of hundreds for engaging one. I would advise building up your first site yourself and you can engage a professional to do it for you when you have made some money. For good resources on setting up your website, check out my “Recommended Resources” section.
7. After you have set up your website, test it and ask for opinions. Make sure your payment system, affiliate links and everything else that should be in place are working well. When everything is tested and working fine, that’s where the fun and money begins.

Well, the checklist above will get you started on the right track to online success. The checklist is by no means comprehensive, but it will probably save you a lot of time and effort. There are many more key elements and work involve until you can achieve success, the key is to focus and do it one step at a time. And also remember to check out his site regularly for your online success. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at admin@profitablepoint.com or just leave our questions in the comment section. I will try my best to assist you.