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The Online Business Web Book
A free, honest, chapter-by-chapter book about starting an online business: what the work really takes, how to pick a model that fits you, how to test demand before you spend, and how to find and keep your first customers. Every chapter is free to read and useful whether or not you ever use AdvertisingBusiness.us.
13 chapters · Published
Table of contents
- Chapter 16 min
What Running an Online Business Actually Takes
The four jobs every online business runs on, the time the work really takes, and an honest look at what an online business is — and is not.
Read chapter 1 : What Running an Online Business Actually Takes - Chapter 27 min
Choosing a Business Model That Fits You
Six common models compared in plain terms, five questions that reveal your fit, and a close look at how an advertising business actually works.
Read chapter 2 : Choosing a Business Model That Fits You - Chapter 35 min
Picking a Customer and a Problem Worth Solving
Narrow to a describable customer, name the outcome they pay for, and write the one-sentence positioning statement every page and conversation will test against.
Read chapter 3 : Picking a Customer and a Problem Worth Solving - Chapter 46 min
Testing Demand Before You Spend Money
Cheap tests that produce evidence: conversations, a written offer, a small paid test with a written stop point — and how to tell real buying signals from polite interest.
Read chapter 4 : Testing Demand Before You Spend Money - Chapter 56 min
Creating Your Offer and Setting Your Price
The five parts of a clear offer, a four-step way to set a defensible price, and how to make starting easy without promising outcomes you cannot guarantee.
Read chapter 5 : Creating Your Offer and Setting Your Price - Chapter 65 min
Getting Set Up: Names, Registration and Taxes
Check your name, understand business structures in plain terms, and research the registration, license and tax basics — with links to the official SBA and IRS pages.
Read chapter 6 : Getting Set Up: Names, Registration and Taxes - Chapter 75 min
Building a Simple Online Presence
The one-page minimum that carries an early business, the five things that page needs, how to be findable with consistent details — and why to skip the ten-page site for now.
Read chapter 7 : Building a Simple Online Presence - Chapter 87 min
Finding Your First Customers
Five legitimate ways to reach first customers, the consent and opt-out rules that protect you from day one, and how to use paid traffic with discipline.
Read chapter 8 : Finding Your First Customers - Chapter 96 min
Follow-Up: Turning Interest Into Customers
Every contact in a stage with a next step, a four-touch follow-up rhythm that adds value instead of pressure, and consent handling that never slips.
Read chapter 9 : Follow-Up: Turning Interest Into Customers - Chapter 106 min
Managing the Money: Costs, Records and Taxes
The records to keep from day one, the three numbers that answer almost every strategic question, and the tax basics to research early — not in April.
Read chapter 10 : Managing the Money: Costs, Records and Taxes - Chapter 115 min
Tools and Systems That Keep You Organized
Five tools worth having at the start, the four weekly blocks that make them work, and the rule for when a tool earns its place: name the pain first.
Read chapter 11 : Tools and Systems That Keep You Organized - Chapter 126 min
Growing: Retention, Referrals and Recurring Monthly Business Income
Retention that compounds, referrals earned at the right moments, and the honest math of recurring monthly business income — a delivery promise, not a money trick.
Read chapter 12 : Growing: Retention, Referrals and Recurring Monthly Business Income - Chapter 137 min
Your First 30 Days: An Action Plan
Four weeks, one job each week — decide, build, contact, review — followed by the mistakes that sink first-time owners and the whole-book checklist.
Read chapter 13 : Your First 30 Days: An Action Plan
How to use this book
Read the chapters in order the first time — each builds on the one before. Then use them as references: the checklists are written so you can return to a single chapter when you reach that stage of your own business. If you want shorter, topic-specific guides instead, the Online Business Learning Center covers the same ground in three focused guides.
A note on expectations
This book describes work and decisions, not outcomes. Individual results vary. No sales, income, customer, or business outcomes are guaranteed. The Training Academy is separate: it is operational training for Business Owners using the platform day to day.