Do you find it tough to start an online business in Laos? Well, I must say – your timing is perfect. I am about to show the easiest ways to start an online business in Laos.
Before getting into the meat and potatoes, it’s necessary to understand that Laos in ASEAN is full of opportunities. If you don’t, you will be in the majority group of average people.
There’s an old saying, “You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.”
To achieve something, you have to believe that it will work.
Why Should You Start an Online Business in Laos?
The digital era of Laos has not started in the ASEAN economy. Do you think it’s not a good idea to start an online business in Laos? Let me tell you something!
If you get in now, you will be glad because the majority will regret it later.
Can you read the above image? Look! 4.54 Billion internet users are there in Laos. What would happen if even 1% of them buy a $10 product from you? Yes, you can make a whole lot of money.
What Do We Need to Start an Online Business in Laos?
Without proper tools and knowledge, it’s impossible to start an online business in Laos, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, or any other Southeastern Asian nation. If you don’t have these, all things will mess up like a stubborn knot.
Here’s what you need to start an online business in Laos.
Find A Need and Niche for Your ASEAN Business
My mentor once told me a simple quote, “find a need and niche.” When I heard him, my mind froze for a moment. I was like – what did he say?
I kept thinking about those 5 words all day long. Somehow, I realized that this quote can bring a significant change in my life. And guess what? After 10 years, here I am teaching others the same!
“Your Life is Controlled By What You Focus On” – Tony Robbins
Gather Initial Investment to Make the Best Startup in Laos
No, you can’t start an online business in Laos without investment. To appear online, you need a good Asia web hosting and domain name. Besides, you need some additional tools to make your ASEAN business work.
If someone is teaching you a free way, it means they’re hiding a good offer, which is not good for you at all. The fact is – they will snatch your hard-earned savings. Please don’t fall into these traps.
I am not here to force you into buying something. I am here to tell you the most affordable way to start an online business in Laos.
“There’s Only 1 Way To Get Rich, Quick! But Not Through A Get Rich Quick Scheme. There’s A Difference.”
Make A Unique Selling Point in SEA
You can’t operate a business without a unique selling point. Do you have an offline business? If you have, you must have already understood what I am trying to convey.
Simply, you need to make an online stall for people. If they come, what would you show?
Here’s what you can show them.
- Website
- Blog
- YouTube Channel
- Shopify Store
Now you must be wondering – how would you leverage these channels in Southeast Asia?
It’s okay! Let me show you the easiest way to market on these channels.
Let’s Learn: Make Your Unique Selling Points to Start an Online Business in Laos
If you want to earn a buck online, it’s not going to happen overnight. You have to develop some sort of skills. But first, learn to make a unique selling point. That’s the most important aspect!
How to Make A Compatible Southeast Asia Website or Blog in Laos
A website can’t be built without a good domain name and Asia web hosting. In that case, you should choose Bluehost web hosting because it comes with a free domain name.
An ASEAN web hosting is the base of your website. If it’s not good enough, you can’t rank on top of the Google search results. More importantly, if it goes down, again and again, customers won’t buy from you either.
That’s why I am going to explain a step by step procedure to make a WordPress website with Bluehost.
Alright! Let’s build a site for Asian e-marketing!
- Choose a $3.95/month plan.
- Pick an easy domain, which anyone can remember easily.
- Fill in basic information.
- It’s optional to pick additional features. If you want, you can select them.
- Add payment details.
- Create a strong password so that you can log in to cPanel later.
- Install WordPress
- Visit the credentials and change the username and password of your website.
- Login with the credentials you have just made.
- After login, go to the appearance section and customize the theme of your website.
That’s it, you have successfully made a good ASEAN website. Now, if you want to sell digital products, you can start a website, blog, or both. There’s no need to build a store. If you’re into eCommerce, install WooCommerce.
Turn Your WordPress Website into an eCommerce Store
If you’re into Southeast Asia eCommerce marketing, you need to install WooCommerce plugin, which is free of cost.
In order to install WooCommerce, you need to visit the plugin section. From there, you can search “WooCommerce” and install it.
To get comfortable with it, you can read our free WooCommerce tutorial.
Build A Shopify Store
When it comes to features, Shopify is a boon for many eCommerce businesses. If we talk about rest of the world, Shopify is taking care of 500K businesses in more than 170 countries.
Although WooCommerce is good to start an online business in Laos, Shopify is way better than WooCommerce because of its additional benefits. That’s why it’s more expensive!
If you can’t afford Shopify, you should go for WooCommerce. If you can, you should not miss Shopify because it gives a good return on investment.
The process of making a store on Shopify and WordPress is really different. To understand the ins and outs of it, you can grab the Shopify tutorial from here.
Start an Online Business on YouTube in Laos
Along with a proper website, you can also utilize the second most popular search engine and first most viewed social media platform for your business.
A YouTube channel and website take the same level of effort because both require SEO. If you’re starting a YouTube channel now, you need 6-12 months to make a good subscriber base in South East Asia.
What I like the most about YouTube is its compatibility. From Southeast Asia eCommerce to affiliate marketing – you can do almost everything here.
DJ Taly Remix is the Biggest YouTuber in Laos
Utilize Other Social Media Platforms to Start an Online Business in Laos
3.8 billion active social media users are there in Laos. If you’re about to ignore social media, you’re leaving money on the table. However, it doesn’t mean that you should completely rely on social media.
Before promoting anything on the below-mentioned social media platforms, I recommend you to make a good looking unique selling point in Southeast Asia digital marketing sphere.
Most of you must be already aware of how social media platforms work. But the question is – Do you know how to market products on these platforms? Yes, that’s what we’re going to learn!
Instagram Marketing in Laos
The total worth of Instagram is $100 billion at the moment. If we view it globally, there are 1 billion users on the platform. Do you know how to leverage these 1 billion people?
Here’s the trick:
- Search a hashtag related to your topic. For example, we’re into Asia digital marketing. So, we’re going to search #digitalmarketingtips
- Now pick a post and click on likes to find prospects.
- Take a look at those people! They’re potential buyers in ASEAN and across the globe. If you visit their profile and leave a good comment, it would be a good start to have a conversation with them.
Once you start talking with them, you can get into the DM to build a relationship. After a while, a lot of people will start seeing you as a serious Southeast Asian business leader.
Answer to Quora Questions for e-marketing in Asia
Quora may not be much popular for now. It can become an amazing social media site in the next few years.
Indeed Quora is not popular in Laos, you can use it to sell digital products and services because you can deliver them online.
Here’s a little overview of Quora.
- If you want to market your products and services on Quora, you need to gather some most important questions about your niche.
- Search the question and see if anyone has asked the same question or not.
- Click on “answer” and a box will pop up.
- The answering editor of the Quora is pretty good. You can use features like bold, italics, ordered, and unordered lists to create a stunning Quora answer.
Whenever you write an answer, you should make it as helpful as possible. Otherwise, no one is going to take an interest in you or your ASEAN business.
Get Visitors to A Website in Laos Using Medium
Medium is a good web 2.0 platform for link building and marketing. The domain authority of the website is above 90.
Do you know that websites of high domain authority rank well on Google?
If you write articles on such a powerful blog, you will definitely rank without backlinking because there’s little to no blogging competition in Laos.
Medium is super simple and easy to use in ASEAN nations. Once you click on your profile image, the “new story” feature will pop up on the menu section. Go ahead and write! That’s all needed to use Medium.
Just like Quora, you can insert a URL in text. I would recommend you to write structured quality blog posts because they have better chances of ranking on Google.
Here’s A Little Summarization of What We Learned to Start an Online Business in Laos
- Understand why it’s necessary to start an online business in Laos
- Research Southeast Asia consumer trends and find a need and niche
- Make a unique selling point to start an online business in Laos
- Leverage social media for promotion