When you’re a college student, how to start an online business might not be on your mind, but it should be. As a college student, you typically spend 4 years getting your degree.
While doing this, you also have to do several hours of homework per week.
You can start an online business using this same methodology. Furthermore, creating a long-term, sustainable online business usually takes a couple of years for natural, organic growth to occur.
Pay attention. This is important…
Starting an online business in this way, usually only takes 0 – 5 hours per week on average. One of the most important parts of this process is age… time…
So start early, then by the time you’re done with college, you should already have success.
However, you have to know how and properly perform this process. So the question is, how do you start an online business in college?
Here’s how to start an online business in college:
- Get a Good and Affordable Hosting Server
- Learn the Process of Starting a Sustainable Online Business
- Spend a 0 to 5 Hours Per Week On Your Online Business
Start With a Good and Affordable Server
One of the biggest, long-term mistakes people make is starting with the wrong server. A slow server will make it hard to rank in Google, and make most users leave before your website loads.
As a developer, I only use two web hosting companies:
A2 Hosting (shared): Click to View
Good for small projects, basic websites.
Cloudways Hosting (Vultr HF): Click to View
For larger developments, easily scale server as needed.
Poor web hosting servers will lead to a massive amount of problems throughout starting your online business.
These two are the best there is, have free SSL certificates (security), and are incredibly fast. Also, if you have an existing website, they will migrate your website to their server for free.
Learn the Process of Starting a Sustainable Online Business
After you get your reliable web server, you need to learn and apply the process of starting an online business.
You don’t need a great online business idea to get started. Not if you are trying to basically “start something for later…”
However, you need to learn what to do next. For that, this article would take days to read. Video is better anyway. Instead, take a free or cheap online course that you can follow along with.
Take a look at this.
Online Course: Start an Online Business in 12 Weeks (Click to View)
Look at the online course above. It has a free trial and a massive amount of videos. At the time I wrote this, it was only $9 after the free trial.
This particular online course is a “follow along and build” type of course. It actually shows the instructor starting an online business.
Most of the videos are screen captures showing the process, many of which are over an hour long.
Try it out when you get some free time, it will show you exactly where to get started.
Spend a 0 to 5 Hours Per Week On Your Online Business
You don’t have to spend a lot of time on making your online business or website. You can keep it simple, and even go weeks without working on it.
Remember, the important thing is that you start it now.
Search engines will see that you’ve started something. Then over the weeks, months, and even years, the search engines, like Google, will look at your progress, track it, and rank it as it gets older.
Search engines like Google have a ranking algorithm. In fact, most of the social media platforms used Google as a model for ranking content, because Google’s algorithm has been around and changing for so long.
The difference is, Google’s algorithm is better and more long-term than the social media platforms. One of the biggest factors for ranking on Google, is how long your website has existed online.
This is one of the reasons why it’s so important to start right now.
Furthermore, if you start now, then just work on it when you have time, eventually it will become an “Authority Website” on the web.
When your website becomes any type of Authority Website in a topic, search engines will rank your website higher in the search results. Even for new content.
Your website becomes an Authority Website by:
- Existing over time.
- Having content in a specific topic.
- Evolving and adding content over time.
- Getting linked to on the web over time.
Conclusion: How to Start an Online Business in College
I started my first successful online business while I was in college. If I could go back in time and do it again, I would have started 3 or 4 more.
To start an online business in college, you need a good web server, some basic knowledge, and just a little bit of free time here and there.
The knowledge you need to start an online business is more basic and easier than most of the stuff you study in college.
Being a student entrepreneur was easier for me in college, than being a non-student entrepreneur now after college. Just something to keep in mind.
