So you know you'd like to become an online entrepreneur, but what are the first steps to starting an online business?

Many people overestimate the costs of starting an online business but have you ever considered the costs of not starting one?

Who is the true king of the urban jungle?

Are we free or does the urban jungle like to keep us locked up in zoos and pound-foolish corporate parks?

When you really think about it, you’re here because you’ve realized that the only thing you will ever achieve with your day job is 100% utilisation of your so-called medical cover and paid holidays.

“Life started getting good when I started making money.”

– Balthazar Getty

Now, don’t get me wrong, everybody’s gotta eat, live well and even afford that occasional trip to the Tropics once in a while.

But once your entire life becomes primed around chasing bills and mortgages to the very last minute; that’s no different than a lion in captivity.

Are you a lion in the zoo?

Sure, he may get regular meals, safety, security and even routine visits from the vet, but make no mistake; his entire livelihood depends on his productivity as well as the zookeeper’s charity.

The king of the jungle, wholly dependent on a man without any claws, fangs or fur to survive a single night out in the wild.

On the other hand, you have the ultimate predator – free, wild, strong and proud, ruling over his kingdom with an iron fist, entirely independent of handouts.

A wild lion doesn’t need any safety nets and will survive with or without the help of blood sucking corporate suits that pull each and every string of your hectic life without you even realising it.

Whether you’re a wild animal or an employee, one thing’s for sure; you want to be where all the action is.

For lions, they follow the buffaloes knowing that they will provide an endless source of food forever.

Humans, we’re more bred to be scavengers, following the obese, money-wielding employers hoping for ever increasing morsels of what should be a feast.

If you’re tired of grinding that dead-end job all day, every day without any real rewards to show for years of hard work; I’m talking to all you who just want to live life without worrying if the next paycheck will make it in time, then you need to know where the green is really at.

Online earning is not only versatile, but it’s the future.

Here, I’ll show you the first steps to starting an online business that will have your financial future secured without having to rely on a single soul for your income.

Here's a quick video from Practical Pyschology that will run your through the 3 basic principles of starting an online business:

Like the Sound of Money? Launch your First Affiliate Marketing Site Today

Still the fastest growing online business on the web, affiliate marketing entails earning commissions and rewards by promoting products from other companies.

The reason why this strategy has become a massive success is because you don’t need to invest lots of time and money to create, produce and introduce a new product in the market.

By creating a niche website and focus on unique niche products; you can significantly maximise your overall revenue.

Now, I’m not here to tell you that this is the ultimate get rich quick scheme or that I have discovered a bulletproof system to milk the web.

The journey will not be easy, (listen to my story here) and you might hear some things that you don’t like, but if you follow this guide and implement it, you give your affiliate marketing site the best chance it has to succeed and even surpass your expectations.

1. Brainstorm on a Niche

When building the stairway to your affiliate marketing empire, a great niche will be the foundation of all your success.

The goal here is to find a balance between marketability and competition.

Sounds simple enough, right?

But there’s a catch.

The exact point of equilibrium is so subtle and elusive that it’s almost impossible for most people to find. On one hand, you want to market a product that will sell and make you oodles of cash.

On the other hand, you definitely want to find a product that is not too popular, doesn’t have plenty of competitors.

This conundrum often makes it seem way much harder than it really is.

So, how exactly do you know what niche will work for you? Relax, look around and just try solving some of the problems that come at you from all sides of life.

Did a product assist in resolving this or did it fail miserably? Is there another product that works better than what people currently have?

Be honest! Just open up and let your audience know every ugly detail about it.

Everyone loves something they can relate to. Soon enough, you’ll have millions of people all eager to hear what you have to say.

Simply put, a niche is just a tiny segment of any broad market.

Recommended reading:

What to Start A Blog About? Helping Find Your Niche

10 Hot Money-Making Website Niche Ideas for 2016 & 2017

2. Conjure up the Digital Architect Inside You (or just pay one)

Once you have the masses’ attention, the next part comes easy.

Naturally, most companies and businesses will want to know the URL of the website you intend to sell and market their products. This is, of course in everyone’s interest because they need to ensure any content on your website will not hurt their reputation.

This is when you need to build a really great home to take both your affiliates and visitors around whenever they come knocking.

A few decades ago, developing a website required massive amounts of time, money and manpower. Today, you don’t even need training, experience or coding knowledge to get a website up and running thanks to the invaluable resources available.

What do you need?

• A Domain Name – Make it catchy, make it exciting, and make it intelligent. But most importantly (and this is where most people go wrong) make sure you choose a domain name that immediately hints to the direct nature of your content. Word of caution, watch out not to use any trademarked names.

A little creativity will go very far here.

• Get Web Hosting – This is simply the company that houses servers for your website. Excellent web hosting services allow you more than one domain, plenty of allocated space and even reasonable database limits.

There are also some very efficient platforms and applications that enable you to create, develop and design your website.

3. Create Exceptional and Outstanding Content

Great content is the pollen that attracts money bees to your site; without it, the customer will not set foot on your site, no matter what you’re selling.

What makes for a good read? Well, first, you have to appreciate the fact that writing might not be your strong suit.

Sure you could write something pretty decent all by yourself, but why go to war with a shrapnel grenade when you could hire someone to craft the Mother of All Bombs?

It is only with highly informative, creative, entertaining and 100% unique content can you achieve a solid link in the affiliate marketing chain.

Create content, establish your authority in the chosen niche, attract incredible amounts of traffic to your site, then when you feel confident enough, just like a lion patiently stalking his next meal, you go for the jugular!

That’s right; it’s time to turn all that hard work, creativity, SEO, research, patience and hunger into cool, clean and sustainable liquid cash.

4. Go for the Jugular; Affiliate Marketing

Once you understand why a lion prefers to get as close as possible to its prey before making a kill; only then will you realize where most people with a dream go wrong.

Like most people on the planet, you probably want to make lots of money as fast as possible.

Which is why most affiliate marketing newbies focus on monetization strategies first; VERY HUGE MISTAKE.

If you don’t have any value or advantage to offer the big boys, how on earth can you realistically expect someone to pay up?

It’s all about worth – you need to create value to the customers first.

Only after you have achieved this can you truly say that you are confident and popular enough to provide value to advertisers

Not only does affiliating yourself with companies let you earn passive income, but using redirect links with your domain also makes your site look more professional and trustworthy.

This contributes massively to improving conversions and overall click rates.

See that?

By monetising at the very last stage, you create a well-oiled, automated revenue-generating machine that will be generating all types of income for years to come.

The Bottom Line

These steps might seem simple and very easy to follow, implement and emulate, but putting them to work and having the strength, patience, and willpower to see them through is a whole different story.

There’s no secret system in practice here or any particular software that will get you on your way to being an affiliate marketing tycoon.

There are no shortcuts either; it could take you weeks, months or years to get it right. But once you discover the specific ingredients that combine to make your very own bowl of success, there’s no limit to what you could achieve.

If you're interested in taking the exact same steps I took to create a profitable affiliate website, check out my free 10 day make money blogging course here.

Here's to your online success!