Do you own your online property?
There are many different ways that you can be online as a business owner.
Having your own website may not be the first thing that you consider doing. Instead, many are opting for a third-party platform like social media.
This choice can and will be a massive mistake for your business and it’s longevity.
Convenience
Starting a business can be expensive and you may be trying to limit your costs as you get started. Perhaps you are just testing the waters for a product.
Just make sure that this is not your long term plan it should only ever be a short term plan for your business.
Potentially you start by having a store on eBay or on Amazon. Maybe you have a Facebook page that you use to run your business. Instagram may be your one platform as an influencer, what happens when Instagram make changes that affect you. What is your backup plan?
Do you earn all your income from just one place that you do not own? Is it time you considered spreading the risk!
It is vital that you have a plan to move beyond just convenience and take ownership. It is this ownership that makes your business far more secure and not 100% reliant on a third party.
You have to consider, what happens if one of these third-party platforms makes a change. They decide something that will affect your livelihood, it is completely out of your control.
Instead of risking 100% of your livelihood to a third party – spread the exposure and take ownership.
Having your own website
By having your business on your own website you are in control and ownership is all yours.
You start by purchasing a domain name that is your business name or as close as possible to your business name.
Then there are many platforms to choose from with WordPress being one of the most popular to choose from. WordPress has endless possibilities and can seem quite complicated in the beginning.
WordPress – WordPress is web publishing software you can use to create your own website or blog. Since it was released in 2003, WordPress has become one of the most popular web publishing platforms. Today it powers more 1.3 billion websites — everything from hobby blogs to some of the most popular websites online.
With WordPress:
- Hosting – make sure you choose a high quality hosting for your website. This hosting is essential to the performance of your website.
- Ongoing updates/maintenance – WordPress, its themes and its plugins all require constant updates for security.
- Ecommerce – Over 30% of all online stores are using WooCommerce for WordPress.
If you are an eCommerce business you will find that Shopify has become one of the most popular choices for online stores. It has been created to provide you with everything you need to have an online store, all for a small monthly cost.
Platforms like Shopify, Wix and Squarespace look after the hosting and software updates for you making them a popular choice. However, they are yet to pass the popularity of WordPress which remains the most recommend and used platform.
They all work well for search engine optimisation (SEO) and will rank within Google when your site is optimised.
Conclusion
So, do you own your online property? If not, it is time to take the steps to do so. Having a website not only increases your online exposure, but it also gives you ownership of your business online.
Contact Kelly @ My Sassy Business to see how you can take ownership of your online property.
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