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Despite the promises some people will make you about running a home business, it’s not all rainbows and kittens. And even once you start doing well things can go awry for a time.

Just call it learning experiences.

You can take the best instruction on how to build a home business out there, follow it to the letter, and still have things not work. Or they work for a time, then someone (often Google) changes the rules and you’re in a tailspin, little to no money coming in.

I’ve gone through a few of these. That’s why I’ve been working so hard on having more than one income stream.

Some of my income peaks have come at exactly the times I’ve needed them, such as when my son needed Doc-Band helmets to reshape his head after he had craniosynostosis surgery at 3 months old. The insurance only paid for half. My income somehow jumped up just nicely enough to let us handle that.

Then it just as mysteriously dropped.

Actually, I know why it dropped, in part. Great rankings in just one search engine do leave you very subject to the whims of that search engine.

When my husband was laid off, once again I managed to drive my income up, a bit more deliberately this time. Odd thing was that the week before his new job started my rankings started back down again.

Since this was more deliberate, I’ve been able to hold onto things better. I have a broader base of traffic coming in. Still, it would have been nice to hold the peak a while longer. Say a number of years longer.

Even though the lows are frustrating, I’m keeping in mind that each low is a bit higher than the one before. That’s because I’m learning with each one.

The more you understand about why things go bad for a business, the better you can work around the problems. This isn’t something you always pick up from ebooks, especially if what the ebook taught you is what changed and caused the drop in the first place. This is what you learn from experience.

What’s the Best Way to Get Experience?

I mentioned multiple streams of income. I love multiple streams of income. But until you have some idea as to what you’re doing, they’re probably just a distraction. Doing too much slows down your learning curve, and what might have been a drizzle of trouble with your business can turn into a downpour if it all crashes at once.

It’s often smartest to start with one focus. One site. One marketing tactic. Master that first, or at least get pretty good with it.

Once you’re comfortable, start adding on.

I generally try adding in marketing tactics first. You can start with pay per click for the quickest start, then do blog commenting to start getting search engine attention, then Squidoo lenses, article marketing, Twitter… in whatever order works for you.

You Can’t Stop All the Rain

No business will ever run perfectly smoothly, no matter how many streams of income, how many types of traffic you bring to your site, things can go wrong. That’s just life.

But the more you learn, the better your chances are. The harder you work, the better your chances are.

And if the rain’s falling hard enough, maybe there’s a new opportunity. Could it be time for a bucket?

Tags: challenges, home business

A solid website should the one of the keys of a great online business. Pay per click marketing is a good idea too, but if you can’t direct people through your own site you are paying for each and every visitor.

Creating a website can sound intimidating, but with the right tools it’s really not that hard.

Website Hosting and Domain Names

A good hosting company is one of the first things you need to find. While you can go free with Blogger and other services, to really get the respect as a legitimate business you should have your own domain name.

You can get your hosting and domain name at the same place or separately. I keep mine mostly separate. Domain names are cheap enough and I value my control of them enough that a host offering one or more free domain names is not a particularly strong selling point for me. Sometimes those come with uncomfortable terms.

Your domain name should reflect something about your business. Don’t start typing in domain names until you have brainstormed several and are ready to buy. People have found that names they inquire about then buy later somehow get bought up.

Choosing a hosting company can be quite challenging. The vast majority of hosting company review websites are simply affiliate sites and will give a good review to whoever gives the best commission. I personally use Site5 for some of my sites, which has overall been the most reliable company for me. This particular site is hosted on Dreamhost, but I’ve often considered switching away from them, so don’t consider them top of the list, even though the amount of bandwidth and space they include is delightful. I have a discount coupon for Dreamhost; just type in 2GETSTARTED for a $50 discount.

There are a lot of good companies out there. My uncle hosts with BlueHost and loves them. My dad adores Site Build It’s sheer range of features. It took him a few months to recognize how powerful the tools are, but once he got it, he was quite impressed.

You want to consider what you need. If you want a WordPress blog, Site Build It is not for you. But if you want a lot of tools to help you build a successful website, they’re a wonderful choice.

Most hosting companies have one-click install of WordPress, and if you want to blog, WordPress is the most popular choice. It’s the software I use for this blog. It’s not that hard to do the basics, and there are tons of free plugins and themes to make it look and work however you want it to. And of course paid designers if you need something more than the freebies can get you.

Blog? Website?

Yes, I’ve been throwing around the terminology a little, and if you haven’t ever run a website before it can get a little confusing.

A blog is a particular kind of website. It can be attached to static website or be run separately. Which is best depends on your goals.

A regular, static site is the classic way to go. I have some sites of this type, although most I have since switched to use PHP includes to simplify management. If you aren’t comfortable with CSS and HTML, you’ll need a website designer to help you. Don’t assume you can create a good-looking, well functioning site with no experience. It’s hard work.

Site Build It has tools to help you build your website, so there’s less to know if you don’t want to take the time. They’ll also walk you through the brainstorming and website creation process, which can be a huge, huge help.

On the other hand, WordPress can be used to create a blog or something that looks like a static website. I recently read WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin, and if you’re wanting to use WordPress it’s a fair resource. I’ve been using WordPress for long enough that most of it was familiar, but I did learn a few new tricks I need to use.

Above all else, be willing to hire help when you can and when you need it. An amateurish site won’t sell nearly as well as one that looks more professional. The money can be very, very well spent.

Plan It Out First

Even with something like WordPress, Site Build It or a website designer you need to take the time to plan your website out. What are the categories? How do you want to promote your product? What kind of articles, if any, are you going to write for it? How often will you update it? Are you hoping to eventually have paid advertisers?

Planning is a step you will have to repeat through the years, as you learn about what really appeals to visitors about your website. Sometimes a part that you didn’t think would attract anyone turns out to be huge. If it happens, take advantage.

All I Want Is for the Search Engines to Love Me!

There’s nothing like finding out the search engines love your website. But it really is not as easy as putting a site up. You have to give the search engines what they want.

Ideally without annoying your visitors. In the long run and the short run, you need them.

Search engines look for many things in websites. They tend to love content, and the more relevant to what you are selling, the better. For those of you who choose to go with Site Build It, their tactics can really help you to create the kind of content you need.

For others, you will want to learn about the things that search engines like. You can study forums such as Digital Point and Search Engine Watch, but you will have to be aware that sometimes bad information is posted.

A faster but pricier way is to buy a good resource on search engine marketing. SEO Elite is probably the top software in this area right now. Brad Callen is one of the most popular resources for information on search engine marketing. His SEO Book is also a hugely popular resource if you would rather simply read about what you need to do. It comes with free lifetime updates, and he does update it. That’s important, because what search engines want changes all the time.

But of course what search engines want goes beyond what is on your pages. You’ll need links to your site. Links from online directories have recently waned in popularity. I’ve had good luck with article marketing. Short version is that you write articles, not linking to your site within the article itself as a rule, then you submit it with a resource box that does link to your site to relevant article directories, websites and webmasters. I’ll do the long version later.

You can also link out to quality, relevant resources. This has two impacts. First of all, you are sharing good resources with people visiting your website. You don’t want to lose sales to these other sites, so think on that first, but linking out can show that you do know what you are talking about.

But it can also encourage people to link back to you. This is particularly common in blogging. WordPress notifies users of new links to their blogs, which means you have a shot at them linking back to you.

So Much of This Costs Money!

Yes, yes it does. We’re talking about a serious business, not a hobby here. You can go free, get a blog with Blogger and make some money, maybe even a decent amount of money, but if you spend money to get things started off right, the process will probably be faster and more profitable.

No guarantees, of course. Not everyone succeeds in business.

But even if you went with all the paid resources I’ve recommended here, a home business is much cheaper to get started than any other kind of business. That’s really something.