I have been in IT for more than 20 years now and I am not in any way an expert on webshops, online presence and all the SoMe lingo - BUT let me just give you a brief overview of all the things you need to consider if you want success online and google is a key player in that.

Now there are more than enough YouTube tutorials out there for each of the subjects below, but it is kind of hard to find your way around the different subjects if you are no expert.

You don't have to to pay big bucks to get started, but you do need to put in some time to learn the basic terms and its a good idea to go through the list from step 1 and onwards, as you may need some of the outcome of a previous step to go ahead with the next.

Step 1

Find a name/brand/logo - There are plenty of online communities that have freelancers that do this for a living and will provide you with a full package of logos for all social media platforms etc. at a fairly low price eg. www.fiverr.com is a good place to start. If you want to try and design something yourself - there are plenty of online logo designer tools available too. Before deciding on a name, make sure the www.yourbrand.com or whatever address (domain) you want, is not already taken.

Step 2.

Find a domain name (www.name.com search page, and see if your desired brand name is available as a URL. E.g creativecph.com. There are many services that provide this out there - here is one. https://instantdomainsearch.com/. Owning a domain name, will cost you xx money per year. Make sure you pay for this on time, otherwise you can loose your whole brand if someone else takes it.

It can be a .com or any other you prefer, prices vary depending on what you chose.

Step 3.

Once you have your domain name - you need to purchase a webhotel. Its just tech for a place where all your data (pictures, videos/product descriptions) etc. are stored. I use wordpress.com, as it is both cheap, comes with both webshop options and website templates for easy use. But you can google "webhotel" and see other options.

Step 4.

Design your webpage - if you have tech skills you can build it online, if you don't have tech skills, draw your webpage on paper and ask for help to build it from someone or go nuts in the sea of how to videos.

Most larger webhotel provides have templates and plug and play options available so you can start up quickly.

Step 5.

Webshop - if you want a webshop, there are several things to consider. I would strongly advice you to hook up with a tech person if this is what you want. Here you have to consider GDPR rules, security certificates, payment options etc. if you are up for the challenge, there are plenty of how to videos, but be careful as personal data and payment gateways can cost you heavy fines if not handled correctly.

Note: Once you have a webshop, you can request a instagram business account so promote your products.

Step 6

Set up instagram account/TikTok/Youtube/facebook etc. Make sure to use your brand and logo. Link them all to your webpage

Don't use your private account for this.

Step 7

IMPORTANT- Create a google business account - This is key to get attention and traffic on your webpage. Get help for this or use on of the million YouTube tutorials like this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81nhmYRTYZM

Step 8

Set up what is called SEO. Its a way of structuring your website so that google can find the content easier and make sure that when people search for anything related to your site, it comes first in the search results. Again - watch some videos - its not brain surgery. You can do this. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpwD50v0Ubo

Step 9

Start creating content such as blog posts, videos, products etc. and make sure you use the SEO plugins that area available for your website. I am actually doing it right now as I type this post, so that it will be easier for you guys to find it.

This is it for now - if you can get thorugh this list - you are well on your way to having an online presence.