Becoming a mom is an exciting time unless you're faced with leaving your child at daycare to go to a job. Many mothers look for a way to work-at-home, allowing them to have the best of both worlds; raising the children while also contributing to the family income. Unfortunately, finding work-at-home jobs, can be a challenge. Many are scams, but even when you find the legitimate jobs, getting hired is a long and frustrating process.

Plus, some aren't very flexible and still require daycare.

For that reason, many moms seek a freelance or home-based business opportunitythey can start ASAP. The challenges in starting a home-based business with children are many including, in order to be present for the children, you need a home-based career that offers a flexible schedule. Also, once you find that opportunity, a great deal of time and effort needs to be put into find clients and customers. 

The good news is that with organization and planning, these home business ideas may provide you with an alternative to finding a work from home job.

While both men and women can and do take advantage of these home-based business opportunities, this collection of ten home business ideas is especially suitable for moms and moms-to-be who want to spend more time at home. If you don't see anything on this list that spurs your interest, check out the full collection of home business ideas listed here at The Balance.

NOTE: The businesses profiled are only intended to stimulate thinking and give readers ideas of possible businesses they might like to operate.

1. Licensed Day Care Center Operator

One of the easiest ways to incorporate motherhood into making money is by offering childcare. Not only can you care for your own children, but for other children as well.

While you don't necessarily need to be licensed, getting a license can increase your appeal to parents, which, in turn, can lead to your charging more. Further, some states have food programs whereby you can get additional funds to help feed the children in your care. 

2. Pet Services Business

Along with children, pets are important members of the family. As such, there is a growing need for pet-related products and services, including pet sitting, doggy daycare, pet grooming, dog walking and other pet-related services. If your children are old enough, they can help you with many of the tasks involved in running a pet-related service, such as walking or feeding dogs.

3. Selling Homemade Baked Goods

If you're a mom with a culinary flair, why not get paid for it? You can focus on a specific type of baked goods, such as a cookie business, or offer a variety of baked yum yums. In line with that, you might also consider offering your services as a personal chef, as did Giada De Laurentiis of Food Network did before she became a TV sensation. Or you can become a home-based caterer. Don't want to bake? Consider starting a food blog to share your recipes and other food wisdom.

4. Tutor/Instructor

It used to be, you had to go to the schools or homes of students, or they had to come to your home for tutoring, however, with video conferencing, you can help students from anywhere around the world.

You can provide academic tutoring, or teach English to students from foreign countries. You can also provide other instruction such as music (i.e. piano instructor).

5. Direct Sales

Many moms avoid direct sales, also referred to as MLM or network marketing, out of fear of pyramid schemes or having to "sell." On the first point, while you need to research to find legitimate opportunities, direct sales is such a viable option, that you don't want the myths and misconceptions to keep you from considering it. Second, anything you do to make money requires "selling," whether it's selling yourself to an employer, getting someone to hire you as a freelancer, enticing customers to buy your products, etc. The key to success in direct sales is to choose a product or service you can get behind from a reputable company, and then do the work to make money.

6. Art/Crafts

If you're artistic, there are many opportunities to make money from home. At one time, you had to consign or go to craft fairs to sell your goods, but now with resources such as Etsy, you can build an online store to sell you items. The ideas in this category are endless and include making and selling jewelry, gift baskets, painting and more.

7. Blogging

You'd have to be living under a rock not to know about the success many moms have had in making money blogging. That's the good news. The bad news is that the market for any blog, mom-related or not, is crowded. Successful blogging requires picking a niche and focusing on reaching the target market for that topic. There are many ways to make money from blogging, including affiliate marketing, advertising (i.e. Adsense), creating a selling information products and more.

8. Freelance Writing

Although income from writing has decreased with the growth of the Internet, it is possible to make a living using words. Websites and online magazines need content, and many are willing to pay to get it. Of all the freelance writing options, copywriting is probably the most lucrative, but other types of writing include articles, resumes and more.

9. Web Designer

It's become easier and more affordable for DIYers to build and maintain their own websites, but that doesn't mean there isn't a need for web designers. To make yourself the most marketable, you should have an understanding of coding, but also, learn the major online platforms, such as WordPress, as well as programming so you can build sites that do what clients need (i.e. with shopping carts). While you don't need to know everything, you should know the major scripts and plugins that will help you build websites your clients need.

10. Microwork

Starting a virtual assistant business can be ideal for moms unless your clients demand a lot of time during specific hours. An alternative is microwork, in which provide many of the same services that VAs do, such as transcription, writing, research, etc, but your time is more flexible. In microwork, you take on time-limited projects, and when they're done, you're done. This allows you to get work when you want it, and not have to work when you'd rather be taking care of the kids. 

Bonus: Side Hustles

Not all moms are looking for full-time income. The truth is, two working parents households are expensive to run, and often, having one parent stay home can save money and be the more affordable option. In these cases, many moms just want some extra income to fill in the gaps or for mad money. Fortunately, there are many great, flexible side hustle income ideas that moms can run. Many can involve freelancing to a former employer or turning a hobby into a home business.

After the internet became a mainstream phenomenon in the late 1990s, it changed life as we know it. Communications, travel, music, government… shopping.  Yes, retailers large and small have embraced the Internet as a way sell to customers across the country… and around the world.

E-commerce has grown exponentially over the last decade and shows no signs of slowing down. Consider that 40 percent of the world’s internet users, that’s more than 1 billion people, have shopped online at least once.

And worldwide business-to-consumer online sales were $1.7 trillion in 2015… and that grew to $2.35 trillion at the end of 2016.

Large e-tailers like Amazon and eBay, as well as traditional retailers like Walmart, have embraced the online business model wholeheartedly. But even though they may dominate the industry, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for small operators like you.

In fact, there’s never been a better time to get involved in selling online as a solo entrepreneur. It’s so much easier to make money with an online business than have a bricks-and-mortar store. The risk, the investment, and time spent is so much smaller.

Along with all this e-commerce activity has grown a whole new way to create and sell products. And it happens to be the easiest, most cost-effective, and oftentimes most profitable way to operate an online business. I’m talking about selling information products.

What Are Digital Information Products?

An information product can come in all sorts of formats, but at its heart a product like this must pass on useful advice to the consumer.

Despite the name, people don’t want simply information. They crave tips and strategies for making their life better. They want guidance. And that’s what the best information products provide, whether it’s a video, an ebook, an audio, a webinar, a membership website…

Keep in mind that in this case, although a CD or DVD or a printed book is technically an information product, we want to focus solely on those products that are delivered electronically, usually via download or some secure membership website.

For example, an ebook in PDF format, a video on a password-protected site, or an audio recording downloaded from your website.

The reason for this is because this way your customers can order products anytime day or night, from anywhere in the world, and get their product instantly, without you being involved in the transaction. It’s money while you sleep. Sure, you will have to handle customer service and keep an eye on sales. But it’s much less hassle than having to keep track and send out orders.

Why You Should Sell Digital Information Products Online

There are several more advantages with digital information products.

1. They are easy and cheap to create. You can make a digital information product using nothing but your time and mental energy. That’s free when it comes to your investment money-wise. You just need ideas. Then you write your ebook, film your video, record your audio, create your webinar… whatever you plan to do. This also means that if the product doesn’t sell as well as you like, you haven’t sunk any money into the project. That reduces your risk and financial exposure.
2. It’s virtually free to store them. Because these products are digital, they are simply space on a server, on your computer (make sure to back it up), or on the cloud. For people with physical products, if they're not doing online drop shipping, they have to carry large inventories. That costs money to store and manage all that product if you have a warehouse and have hired a fulfillment house or other provider to oversee it.  And don’t even think about doing it at home — you’ll quickly become overwhelmed. Much better to stick with digital in which your products take up basically no space.

At this point, you might be worried. You’re thinking that if you have digital products being sent to customers… what’s to stop them from sending copies to their friends or selling it on their own? Nothing really. But rest assured that 99.9 percent of your customers won’t do this. And for the most part information marketers aren’t too concerned about this issue cannibalizing sales.

How to Find a Profitable Market for Information Products

So how do create your own information products… and make sure they’ll be bestsellers?

The first step is research. You need to follow the trends and figure out what the most profitable niche markets online are right now and what format would work best to meet that need. A great place to start is with your own interests. If you can match a profitable business with a passion, you’re all set.

So start with an interest you have. Then start checking around online to see whether you are the only one who loves… online poker, for example. Look for blogs, Facebook groups, and online forums for discussions about this niche. Look at the mainstream news — is it mentioned? Look at retailers like Amazon or eBay to see what products they have for sale in this niche.

For information products in particular, you should check out the site Clickbank.com, which used to specialize in information products although it has branched out into other areas.

You’ll find many categories in all of these places, from yoga to dog training to travel planning to weight loss and fitness… there’s sure to be something that you’re interested in.

From all these sources you’ll get a good sense of whether or not this a viable trend with sales potential. You should also research what sorts of products are offered, the topics they cover, the prices… this is also vital market data you can use to guide as you create and sell your own similar information products. You’re not plagiarizing or ripping off — you’re getting inspiration.

It may seem counterintuitive to seek out thriving markets and then try to join in. But that simply means that there is a ready market for your products. It’s not good to be a pioneer and try to create a market from scratch — that’s often a recipe for failure. Your prospect’s follow trends and latch on to fads… you should too. At least until the next trend comes along.

How to Create Digital Information Products

As far as creating your information products, that’s easy too. Remember that the content, whatever the format, should be useful advice. You could create how-to guides, strategies, tips, and tricks… provide something the prospect can’t get on their own.

For ebooks, magazines, and similar products, you can create them in Microsoft Word and then save them as a PDF. For the cover, find a freelancer on a site like Fiverr.com to create a professional looking cover for you for very little money — as little as $5.

To film videos you can use your smartphone or a simple point-and-click camera. Once you have the “raw” movie file, you can use an intuitive video editing software like iMovie (if you have a Mac) or Windows Movie Maker to create your own cleanly edited video.

Audios are simple too. Just use GarageBand (if you have a Mac) or the Sound Recorder app on Windows Media Player to record your voice. You will need a microphone.

If you want to interview others, you could use something like Skype or GoToWebinar.

Another option, if you’re showing people something your computer screen, like explaining the features of a piece of software, you can use the screen capture program like Camtasia to film every second of what you do to playback later.

How to Market Your Information Products

In many ways, no matter how far we’ve come when it comes to technology and online selling… the same principles of marketing and consumer psychology hold true. And that’s definitely the case with your online venture.

The name of the game here is direct-response marketing. Back in the day, this was done with snail mail flyers, letters, magalogs, catalogs, and other printed material. Yes, so-called “junk mail.” But they wouldn’t send it out by the millions if it didn’t work. These days this sort of content is sent out electronically. And it still works like a charm to get customers to open their wallets.

The good news is that you don’t have to spend a ton of money when you engage in direct-response marketing online. Email marketing is a virtually free method to reach sell your products. And that will be the basis of your marketing efforts.

The basic idea is create a list of email subscribers. You send them both useful content — free valuable information related to your product/niche, as well as offers to buy products. Sending them the free content will speed up the process of them knowing, liking, and trusting you enough to buy your paid products. The novelty of buying stuff online wore off years ago and now people have a lot to choose from — you must give them a warm fuzzy feeling to be the one they buy from.

Yes, only a small percentage of people will actually respond. But that’s how direct response works. You should have enough prospects coming in that even a small percentage of conversions will result in a profit.

To build an email list, you can employ a variety of methods.

1. Search Engine Optimization: In a nutshell, you use valuable content on your website or blog to catch the attention of Google and get listed high in the search results.
2. Paid ads: Whether you use Google’s own pay-per-click ads or banner ads or run ads on a blog network, this can be a viable option, albeit expensive.
3. Social Media: Networks like Facebook are invaluable at reaching a targeted customer base these days.

So how do you take it to the next level? You tap into that small amount of people who buy your introductory product, also known as a front-end product. You contact those people differently than your normal subscribers.

Because they have bought something, they are more likely to buy similar products. So you offer them more in-depth, higher-priced products, known as “back end products.” That’s where the big money is. A back end product could be one-on-one coaching or an event, for example.

Putting It All Together

As you can see information products make for the perfect online business. They’re digital, easy to create and deliver. And the profit margins are huge.

So next steps…

1.  Find your niche – make sure it has bestselling potential.
2. Figure out which format works best for your niche: audio, video, ebook, etc.
3. Create your information product(s).
4. Create an email list and then market to that list.
5. Profit!

On a final note, another simple way to make money online is selling digital information products as an affiliate.

It has advanced entire societies, improved our standard of living and given us 50 different ways to watch Seinfeld. It has also changed the way we do business. But in a world where customers expect new products and services to change as quickly as the seasons, how can we, as entrepreneurs, anticipate current trends?

Here are a few ways to stay ahead of the pack:

 

Allow time for creativity.

First and foremost: think. One of the forefathers of business philosophy, Napoleon Hill, wrote, “It is in the quiet that our best ideas occur to us. Don’t make the mistake of believing that by a frantic kind of dashing around you are being your most effective and efficient self. Don’t assume that you are wasting time when you take time out for thought. Thought is the foundation upon which all else is built by man.”

Become a dedicated trend watcher.

You have to know your market before you change it. Keeping tabs on industry best practices and your competitors’ activities can help you strategize and improvise. Read industry newspapers, magazines and blog posts. Watch webinars and attend conferences. Track trends with Google Trends, Feedly or Mashable. Talk with your clients, friends, customers, competitors and co-workers.
Trend spotters understand that trends have a mood, a unique behavior and a lifespan. Being able to recognize those traits can help you forecast, anticipate changes in trends and maximizes your profit potential.

Think like a customer.

We are all consumers. We all know what we need, like and think is cool. One way to be a trendsetter is to think like a consumer. What products or services would you love to see?
“Creating a customer-focused culture of this nature is a business opportunity that should not be overlooked,” wrote digital marketing executive, “Most businesses are failing when it comes to the customer experience, which is your opportunity to swoop in and enchant those same customers into falling for your company.”        
Some of the best innovation originates from responding proactively to customers’ needs. Never underestimate the relationship you share with your loyal customer base. Their feedback is a reliable (and highly affordable) platform for exploring innovative ideas.
It was Walt Disney who said, “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”
In this fast-paced world, being the first to introduce a new product, service or technology can be a “make or break” scenario, especially for a startup company. But if you rely on creativity, invest resources and time in identifying trends, and invite a fresh perspective on what your company provides its customers, you won’t be chasing the current trends; you will be defining them.

While the online business space is dominated by major players like Amazon and eBay, there are still plenty of opportunities for solo internet entrepreneurs to start up a profitable online business.
Whatever your niche, whatever your product, whatever your industry, there’s a place for you in the marketplace. And thanks to a bevy of tools, services, and proven strategies available to online entrepreneurs, it’s never been easier to start an online business make a hefty profit.The opportunity -- and the potential to profit -- is only getting better in the online marketplace.There are several factors at play here, thanks to some very positive online business trends.

• More people than ever are shopping online. According to industry watcher Mintel, 69% of Americans do so regularly.
• The software and online tools available make it possible for anyone to build and manage an e-commerce website. And you can do it for well under $100.
• Marketing online is cheap and easy - again, anybody can do it. And with social media platforms like Facebook, there are ever-increasing ways to reach your customers.

But how do you get started? How do you go from where you are now, to a massive passive income that allows you to quit your day job and enjoy ultimate time and financial freedom?
Like anything in life, you start from the beginning. Here are the steps to creating your online business, proven methods used by thousands of successful online business entrepreneurs.

Pick a Profitable Market

This is where you have to set aside your own ego for a minute.

You may have had a “dream business” in mind for years. You just know in your heart that a certain niche is profitable, or that a certain product will sell like gangbusters. But until you do the actual market research you won’t really know. And it’s not worth investing your startup capital -- time and money -- until you know for sure a particular market is worth pursuing.

Basically, you have to start with the market first. You have to identify what niches are popular right now, and what types of products are hot. But be careful not to pick something that is a flash in the pan. (Remember those wheeled “hoverboards” that were all the rage a couple of years back?Where are they now?) Instead, you want something with staying power. Such stable markets include:

• Pet care
• Exercise programs and weight loss
• Nutritional supplements and natural cures
• Travel
• Photography
• Video games

Some ways to identify a hot market are to look at online retailers like Amazon.com -- what are the top sellers? Keep an eye on the news, too: Pick up magazines and see what’s advertised or written about. And see what people talking about (or what's being advertised) on Facebook. All of these provide clues for finding a potentially profitable market.
It may seem counterintuitive, but you want to see a lot of competition in your market. It’s actually best, at least for a small-scale entrepreneur like yourself, not to be a pioneer that is first to market. You want to go where there’s already a large group of people ready to buy.
What’s left is matching one of these proven profitable niche markets with something you’re interested in. With so many potential markets out there, you’re sure to find some way to match your passion with profits.

The Easiest Way to Start an Online Business: Affiliate Marketing

Once you’ve picked your hot market with profit potential, it’s time to figure what to sell them. Fortunately, you don't have to develop, produce, or even source your own products! There's an easy way to leverage existing products with a proven track record for profitability. It's called affiliate marketing.
With affiliate marketing, the products are proven to sell, and you won’t have to worry about delivery, storage, managing orders, customer service, refunds, or any of the other traditional aspects of retailing.
In an affiliate marketing business, you do the marketing and promotion of products through your e-commerce site, but the online reatiler (or the company that created the product) handles the rest. And, as an affiliate, you get a commission (from 5% and up, depending on the product) every time somebody buys. This is a great way to get started with your business.

Amazon has a good affiliate program, with a huge variety of products.Clickbank.com specializes in information products, although they have physical products too. You’ll also find big-name retailers on CJ Affiliate by Conversant (formerly called Commission Junction). But just about every niche and industry has an affiliate program. Do some online digging if these don’t fit your market or business.

Other Sources of Profitable Products

Affiliate marketing is the perfect way to dip your toe into an online business. And it might be your only source of products – that model has the potential to be very profitable, and can be scaled up easily.
But there are other sources of products out there, and you don’t have to commit a big financial investment to use them.
Drop shipping is very similar to affiliate marketing. In this model, you also sell other companies’ products. You market the products on your website. But this time you process the orders. When they come in you send them on to your drop shipping partner, which is usually a manufacturer or wholesaler. You pay them, and then they send the product directly to your customer.

 

You make money on the markup from what you pay the drop shipper and what you charge your customers.

With white label products, you partner with another company that has an established product. You simply put your name and branding on it. Often, this online business model is combined with drop shipping. Supplements, cures, and other health-related products are a very hot niche for white labeling.
Of course, if you’re ready to create your own products, you could do that, too. But creating a physical product requires a big upfront investment with no guaranteed return.
A lower risk way to sell your own products would be to create information products, including ebooks, membership websites, videos, and audio programs. For example, if you were in the organic gardening niche you could have an ebook special report on growing organic watermelons, or a video showcasing the best techniques for pest control without pesticides.
If it’s electronic, it can be easily stored in the cloud or on your hard drive, and delivered over the internet. That makes it extremely low cost and low-effort. The only thing you spend to develop these products is your time and expertise.

Set Up Your Website So You Have Total Control

You have your market, and you have your product. Now it’s time to set up your online storefront, which is where you’ll market and sell your products.
You don’t have to be a tech genius to set up your own website for your online business, and you don’t have to hire an expensive web designer, either. With the software and online programs and services available today, anybody can create a professional-looking website that includes a shopping cart, list building capabilities, blogging, and everything else you need for your thriving online business.
And the best part of all is that it’s either free, or at least very low cost. Programs like WordPress or Squarespace they offer ready-to-go templates. Creating your site is as easy as filling up boxes with your sales pages and email sign-up boxes, filling in your products in your shopping cart, and creating other relevant content. If you can send an email, you can set up a website. Plus, you can update and change your site's look and content without needing any web development experience.
These are robust platforms, with plenty of apps and plug-ins for search engine optimization, marketing efforts, analytics to track visitors to your site and much more. As far as getting web hosting and picking a domain name, you can often handle that through the same service you used to build the website, or go with a specialized service like GoDaddy. It’s up to you.
Of course, you could hire a professional to build your website, but this approach carries significant downsides. They’re expensive, for one. They often take a long time, especially if you hire one with a backlog of clients. You have to contact them (and pay them) whenever you want to make changes. And they charge by the hour, which isn’t good when you’re on a start-up budget.
But with the providers I've mentioned, you don't have to worry about any of that. You'll be in charge of your website and can make changes 24/7 -- and that puts you in total control of your online business.

Create a List and Promote Products with Email Marketing

When you have a business, you need customers to survive. That’s a no-brainer. But how do you find prospects -- people interested in your product -- and turn them into buyers?
For a startup, small-scale online business, it’s best to seek out your target market, ask for their email, and then market to that list. You can build your email list in a variety of ways. Once you have your list of subscribers, you have to start marketing to them. But it’s not about sending sales offers day after day. People will soon unsubscribe or even report you as spam.
It’s important to pass on valuable information to your prospects as well. Give them plenty of freebies -- tips and tricks in your niche. This makes them know, like, and trust you. You could “warm them up” with valuable content in a newsletter, for example. You could also do so in your blog, ebooks, special reports, Facebook posts, videos, and audios.
Of course, while you may be a nice person, you’re not in this to simply be a humanitarian. You want to make money with your online business. So you also have to mix in sales offers alongside your content.
It pays to have finesse here. You can’t just send them an order form: You have to show them the benefits of the product. You have to paint a picture (figuratively) that shows them how their life will be better if they use your product. You have to provide proof that it works. And finally, you have to give them a push to buy the product -- a special offer they can’t refuse. People are naturally resistant to buying something new, so you have to create excitement and desire for your product.
You do that with effective sales copy. It’s the art of using words to tap into consumer psychology. And you must use these principles in just about every communication with customers, whether it’s on your website, your email, your social media posts, or your paid ads.
If you plan to write your own copy it’s important to study copywriting and marketing techniques, concentrating on direct-response marketing. And there is a ton of free information out there, from groups like American Writers and Artists Inc. and Copyblogger.com. You can also hire copywriters through sites like Upwork.

4 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Online Business

The cheapest -- but most time-consuming method -- to drive traffic to your online business is to slowly but surely add valuable content (written or video) about your niche to your website and/or blog. This will attract the attention of search engines like Google. These search engine optimization (SEO) efforts will pay off in increasing traffic to your website by those people searching for information on your topic. A percentage of those people will sign up for your email list as well. That’s why it’s best to have a sign-up box, usually asking for a first name and email address, prominently on your homepage.
But for this to work, you do have to be consistent. You must add fresh, relevant content several times a week, if not daily. Say you have a yoga-focused business. You could write about trends, review yoga DVDs, comment on yoga-related new stories, and comment on yoga styles. Start a conversation with your prospects and offer valuable information and insight, and do it in a way that will appeal to potential customers searching for information on the topic.
Social media is another low-cost way to drive traffic to your website and build your list. With Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms, you can set up a free account and post content related to your business. As with blogging or web content, it should be a mix of useful and actionable content, as well as direct invitations to visit your site and sign up for the list (or even buy products).
Again, post regularly and be consistent with your messages.
One of the most important traffic drivers out there is YouTube. In many ways, it’s one of the world’s top search engines: If people have a question about a topic, they often go to YouTube to find the answer. To take advantage of that, you can post explainer videos, talking head videos where you explain a topic related to your niche, and how-to videos. Just provide useful content – and a link back to your website.
Of course, there are also paid advertising methods to drive traffic as well, including banner ads, insert ads, pay-per-click ads, and more. But this can get expensive. So I recommend focusing on free ways of driving traffic at the beginning. Get your website just how you want it to be, get your product mix right, fine-tune your online business overall, start making some sales. Then, once you have a little revenue you can sink back in your business, you can explore paid ads.

Putting It All Together

This has been a crash course in starting your own online business from scratch. It may seem like an intimidating process. It doesn’t have to be.
But it will take some time and effort, and you’ll have to make some tough choices along the way. The trick is to do a little bit each day, and go in order: Find your market, then your product, then build your site and start marketing. Do this, and you'll build a solid foundation for a business that will last and bring in income for years to come.

1. Create a business Page, not a personal profile.

First thing's first: You need to create a business Page -- not a personal profile -- to represent your brand. Pages look similar to personal profiles, but they include unique tools for businesses, brands, and organizations. Your fans can Like your Page to see updates from you in their News Feeds, which is something they can't do for personal profiles.
Not only will this maximize Facebook's business potential for you, but it's actually against Facebook's Terms of Service to use a personal account to represent something other than that person, like a business. If you've already created a profile for your business, you'll want to convert it into a business Page, which you can learn how to do easily here.
Setting up a page is simple. Just visit this page and follow the step-by-step setup instructions.

 

2 Add a great cover photo.

Facebook's page design lets you feature a 851 x 315 pixel cover photo at the top of your business Page. You'll want to optimize that cover photo to capture the attention of new visitors, encourage them to explore and learn more, and provide an effective mobile experience -- all the while ensuring you're following Facebook's Page Guidelines.

3. Add a recognizable profile picture.

Pick a profile picture that will be easy for visitors to recognize -- like your company logo, or a headshot of yourself if you're a solopreneur or consultant. Being recognizable is important for getting found and Liked, especially in Facebook Search. Your profile image is pictured at the top of your Facebook Page and is also the thumbnail image that gets displayed next to all your Facebook Page updates, so choose wisely.

4. Add milestones.

The "Milestones" feature lets you highlight some of your business' biggest accomplishments, like award wins, product releases, major events, or other accolades. Recent milestones will be posted to your Timeline, and users will be able to find them later under your "About" tab.
To add milestones, click on the "Timeline" section of your Page, and click the "Offer, Event +" option in the page update composer near the top of your page.

5. Choose a call-to-action button.

The option to place a simple call-to-action button at the top of your Facebook Page. You can learn how to add a CTA button to your business' Facebook Page here.
You can choose from seven pre-made button options ("Sign Up," "Shop Now," "Contact Us," "Book Now," "Use App," Watch Video," and "Play Game") and link it to any website that aligns with your business' goals. It could link to your homepage, a landing page, a contact sheet, a video, or somewhere else.

6.Create custom page tabs.

By default, your page tabs are set as Timeline, About, Photos, Likes and More. But Facebook lets you create and leverage custom tabs -- which are basically like landing pages within your Facebook Page, or calls-to-action where you can feature anything from case studies to marketing offers to other promotions you're running.

7.Post at the best times for your audience.

Another common question: When’s the best time to post to Facebook? Unfortunately, there's no perfect answer -- different businesses may find different days and times work best for them. Timing often depends on what your target audience uses Facebook for, the region(s) you're targeting, the content of your post (e.g. funny or serious), and your goals (e.g. clicks versus shares), and so on.
That being said, there is data out there on optimal times to post on Facebook:

• The best time to post on Facebook is 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Other optimal times include 12:00–1:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and 1:00–4:00 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays.
• Engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays, and weekdays from 1:00–4:00 p.m. tend to see the highest clickthrough rates. On Fridays, Facebook use spikes by 10%. Since people tend to be happier on Fridays, Neil Patel suggests posting funny or upbeat content to match your audience's mood.
• The worst times to post on Facebook are weekends before 8:00 a.m. and after 8:00 p.m., according to SurePayroll's research.

Think of this data as a general guideline, and use it to help you find the optimal posting times for your business.

8.Make sure your blog posts' meta descriptions are complete.

Have you noticed that when you post a link to Facebook, it pulls in a brief description as well as an image?
The description gets pulled from the page's meta description, which refers to the HTML attribute that explains the contents of a given web page. It's the short description you see on a search engine results page to "preview" what the page is about, and it's also the copy Facebook will automatically pull in the populate the description of a post.

Use Facebook Insights.

Facebook Insights is Facebook's internal analytics tool right that helps you measure and analyze your Facebook presence. The tool provides Facebook page administrators with analytics data about Page visits and engagement, which can help you understand which content is and isn't engaging to your fans.
Access your page's Insights here, or by clicking into the 'Admin Panel' on your Page. We've also published an informative blog post and video that walk you through how to analyze Facebook Insights to improve your content strategy.

9. Schedule posts in advance.

Scrambling for Facebook content is not a new phenomenon. We have meetings. We run late. Things come up. That's why you'll want to use a third-party Facebook application like HubSpot's social media publishing tool to schedule your Facebook posts (and other social media posts) in advance.
First, download our free social media content calendar template to help plan your posts in advance. You can fill it in at the same day and time every single week to prep for the following week's social media content. Then, use that third-party Facebook application to actually schedule out your posts.
However, just as we advised against too much Facebook automation with blog auto-posting, the same holds true for scheduling. Don't get caught in the trap of turning your page into a robot, and make sure you're actively engaging with your fans, too.

10. Add Facebook social media buttons to your blog and website.

Adding Facebook social media buttons will help encourage visitors who are on your website to also connect and interact with you on Facebook, as well as spread your content and expand its reach.
The Facebook Follow Button lets you expand your Facebook reach by making it easy for your site visitors to Like your business' Facebook Page with just one click. It displays your page's number of Likes, as well as faces of people who already like your page, using social proof to amplify its effectiveness.

To customize your button, visit this page and follow the instructions.

The Facebook Like Box lets you promote your business' Facebook Page on your website and blog, highlight other users who have already Liked your page, display your follower count, and feature recent posts on your page. With just one click, people can Like your business Page -- without leaving your site.

To generate a Facebook Like Box for your website, visit this page and follow the instructions.

The Facebook Like Button lets people easily Like your content. When a user Likes a piece of content, it may show up in your friends' News Feeds because the algorithm takes it as a signal your friends will find it relevant.
(Note: This button doesn't allow them to add personalized messages to links before sharing them. To allow users to add a personalized message, use the Facebook Share Button, explained below.)
To customize your Facebook Like Button, visit this page and follow the instructions.
Facebook Share Buttons act similarly to the Like Button by sharing your content on their Timeline and in friends' News Feeds, except they also let people add a comment or message to the link when sharing it.
To generate a Facebook Share Button, visit this page and follow the instructions.

11. Subscribe to Facebook's Official Blog for future announcements from Facebook.

Give yourself a competitive edge by staying on top of the latest announcements from Facebook such as new features and tools by subscribing to the official Facebook Blog.

Tips For Advertising on Facebook

23. Choose the right advertising tool. (Probably the Ads Manager.)

Facebook offers users two different tools for creating a paid ad: the Ads Manager and the Power Editor. The Power Editor is usually best for larger advertisers looking for more precise control over many campaigns. If that doesn't sound like you, the Ads Manager works great for most companies. Figure out which is best for your business based on your company size and the number of ads you plan to run at once.

12. Use Audience Insights to learn about your audience.

The best Facebook ads are high-quality, relevant ads that fit seamlessly into the user's environment on Facebook. Learn more about your customers and prospects using Audience Insights, which you can find inside the Facebook Ad Manager in the left-hand navigation.
The tool will help you target your ads more effectively and learn about your audience -- even if you are not advertising to them. How? The data can help you build stronger buyer personas, create more compelling content, and uncover some gems for your competitive research. (Read this step-by-step guide to Audience Insights for more detailed instructions and tips.)

13. Test multiple versions of a single ad.

Running a single campaign won't give you much to work with in terms of finding your audience, optimizing your ads, and determining if Facebook advertising works for your business. You need to be able and willing to run multiple campaigns to test and experiment with different parts of a single campaign.
Test your targeting first, using a simple advertisement and basic image, suggest the Brian Carter for Convince & Convert. "There are usually at least five to ten ways you could target your prospects," he says. "Find the one or two audiences that convert best at the lowest cost per lead."
In order to reach and test on a wider audience, you're going to have to invest a reasonable amount of money on your campaign. The folks at BuzzSumo suggest that number be in the thousands. The reason for this? Facebook ads reward you for testing more ads and targets. Whereas cost-per-click doesn't change much when you're advertising on Google or LinkedIn, Facebook ads cost a lot less if you're diligently testing them.

 

-- Publish Relevant Content

Quality content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content. Quality content created specifically for your intended user increases site traffic, which improves your site’s authority and relevance.
Identify a keyword phrase for each page. Think about how your reader might search for that specific page (with phrases like “mechanical engineering in Michigan,” “best applied physics program,” or “Michigan Tech degrees”). Then, repeat this phrase several times throughout the page—once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs, and two to four more times throughout the remaining content.
Don’t forget to use bold, italics, heading tags, and other emphasis tags to highlight keyword phrases, but don’t overdo it.
Never sacrifice good writing for SEO. The best pages are written for the user, not for the search engine.

-- Update Your Content Regularly

You’ve probably noticed that we feel pretty strongly about content. Search engines do, too. Regularly updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy, so be sure to keep it fresh.

-- Metadata

When designing your website, each page contains a space between the <head> tags to insert metadata, or information about the contents of your page. If you have a CMS site, the UMC web team will have pre-populated this data for you:

• Title MetadataTitle metadata is responsible for the page titles displayed at the top of a browser window. It is the most important metadata on your page. For those with a CMS website, the web team has developed an automated system for creating the meta title for each webpage.
• Description MetadataDescription metadata is the textual description that a browser will use in your page search return. Think of it as your site’s window display—a concise and appealing description of what is contained within, with the goal of encouraging people to enter.
• Keyword MetadataKeyword metadata are the search phrases that people type when they want to find your page. You’ll want to include a variety of phrases. However, don’t get greedy: if your list becomes excessive, the browser may completely ignore the data. As a general rule, try to keep it to about 6-8 phrases with each phrase consisting of 1-4 words. A great example would be "computer science degree."

-- Have a link-worthy site

Focus on creating relevant links within the text. Instead of having “click here” links, try writing out the name of the destination. “Click here” has no search engine value beyond the attached URL, whereas “Michigan Tech Enterprise Program” is rich with keywords and will improve your search engine rankings as well as the ranking of the page you are linking to.

-- Use alt tags

Always describe your visual and video media using alt tags, or alternative text descriptions. They allow search engines to locate your page, which is crucial—especially for those who use text-only browsers.
These are only a few of the many methods for improving your search engine ranking. If you want to learn more, we recommend the following resources:

• blogs.mtu.edu/webmaster—specific post about SEO and Usability
• www.moz.com—professional blog and SEO tools
• www.google.com/webmasters/tools—a great reference for understanding your Google site stats 

Unique SEO optimized content:

First of all, the most important step is to create a good unique content for your site or the blog. Search engines love quality and unique content which is been updated on a regular basis and the search engines will crawl your site very often. The fresh content of your site will attract other webmasters to link to your site that will give you a precious one way inbound links. More over, after Google recent post algo, it’s important to have a blog with a decent updated post every month, as you might see your site ranking dropping in search. Maintain a post frequency and make sure you spread your content via social media channel.

 Use heading tags and Keywords:

As I mentioned above writing high-quality post will help to rank better and it’s true, but at the same time you need to be found on Google. The best way to be found in Google is by putting yourself in page 1. Obviously, this can be done by few things: Keyword research > SEO optimized post > Social media promotion > Backlinks. So that’s the shortcut way, but now the most cruicial in this is optimizing your content for certain Keyword.
Here is a useful post, which teaches how to do onpage SEO optimization. Basically, you need to take care of your heading tags like H1, H2, h3, Keyword placement, Keyword density and so on. You can use plugin like EasyWpSEO, ScribeSEO for better optimization. You can refer to post on Onpage SEO:

• OnPage Optimization factor for Better Keyword ranking

 Backlinks

The most important player in this exercise to improve Page Rank of a website or a blog is the inbound links for a particular site. In fact, the success of the great Google page rank is highly dependent on the number of inbound links to a page. Not all links are equal when it comes to backlinks. Links to high PR sites are more valuable than low PR sites, but these inbound links should come from relevant sites to have a beneficial effect on the PR.
Harsh has already shared a post on how he boost a website PR to 3 with no content by blog commenting, which you can read here. Backlink generation is not a tough task and we have already learned 101 ways to get quality backlinks, but for your convinience I’m sharing some quick and easy way to get backlinks:

• Blog commenting on Dofollow blog
• Guest posting
• Forum posting (With signature)

 Article directory submission:

Write the high quality of articles to the popular and high PR article directories with a link back to your site in the bottom of the article at the resource box. Some times These articles will be taken by the webmasters and they will publish on their website that will give you a precious one way inbound link to your site. Google considers these links as the popular votes for your blog or the site and inturn it will help you in increase Google page rank.
Though, after panda backlinks from Article directory is not considered as high backlink, that’s why I recommend to prefer guest posting. But at times, when you need to get quality links in little time, Just to improve page rank, article directory is a good idea.
But before, we move ahead I would suggest you to look into this post:

• Article Marketing or Guest posting : Which Is better for Backlinks?

 Submit blog to Web directories:

A simple way to improve the PageRank of the site is to submit the site or the blog to an appropriate class of high-ranking web directory. If you submit your site to more directories you will get more backlinks, which will increase your sites chance of ranking high in the Google.

Ask other blogger to link to you:

For many this sounds like what I’m saying, but believe me there is nothing wrong about letting other blogger know about an awesome researched article you have done. For example, if you done a great researched article on Getting page rank with 0 backlink, you can tip for that to other bloggers, who write about SEO or page rank, and you might be lucky to get some high quality backlink.
This is what I did couple of twice, I covered some breaking news like facebook launching new photo viewer, and I tipper that to site like mashable.com, all facebook.com and they covered it with a backlink, which is a high quality backlink. More over, getting a mention on good site, also attracts more links, from the reader’s site.

Organize Blog contest:

Blog contest is like easiest marketing formula a blogger can follow. Being a blogger, you can find many product related to your niche and you can run a contest like write a review and link to your blog, or do social bookmarking voting and get free Google+1 and other votes, which helps in better ranking. I also suggest to look out this guide on getting free Blog sponsors for contests. This way, with a contest you will not only earn backlinks, but also it will add into your branding of blog.

See your site in search:

A proper site structure is very important for a SEO optimized site. You need to make sure, Google indexes your site properly and indexing all your content.
First do a search in Google.com with following term :  Site:domain.com
Replace domain.com with your site name, and go to the last page. If you see omitted search result option, click on it and see what all useless pages now Google are showing. If it’s category and tag pages, you can noindex them using Yoast SEO plugin. If your wp-admin, wp-content are indexed, you can stop crawling using WordPress robots.txt.

Fix broken links:

This is one thing, which I highly suggest you to do to keep your blog more search engine friendly. You can use plugin like Broken link checker for WordPress, or Broken link checker websites to identify all broken links and fix them. You can also use Webmaster tool to find all broken links and pages linking to it, and work on changing the links or setting up 301 redirection.
Strong Internal linking:
If you have been following Wikipidea, I’m sure you must have seen Wikipedia SEo strategies with internal linking. Probably, one of the best example for a proper internal linking. When we talk about Internal linking, in simple word it means you should link to your older post from your new post. Not only that, make sure you add it with proper anchor text. For example, check out this post and number of pages I have linked.  This helps in better indexing of internal pages and as well as increase SEO ranking of the target keywords. There are many useful plugins for the same, which includes:

• Insight WordPress plugin
• SEO smart link Premium Plugin

There are many others way, which you can do but mostly it’s back links which helps. Try to maintain a consistency in back-link building process, which makes it very effective, else too many huge spikes might be a bad idea. You can use backlink checker tools to see how much is your back-link, and you can set a target to get more backlinks and start working from today.