This is a guest post by Victor on things to remember when you start an online business from scratch. You can check out the guidelines for guest posting on our write for us page. 

Factoring in the low cost barrier to entry into the Internet business world, and the public’s continuing romance with social media and the Web, embracing strategies that convert web and social media prospects to customers becomes critical for determining online business winners and losers.

Market Research – Basics of an Online Business

The foundation to starting a viable online business venture begins with knowing what your customer wants, and how they are currently finding businesses online to fill that need. Determining the keywords that are being used in an online search is critical information required for building an online business presence to attract those prospects.

The company website must be built around content that contains and addresses these common keywords to ensure that your website attracts customer traffic. Smart entrepreneurs wait to name a new company until research findings can be evaluated.

There is a Google Keywords tool that is free. It can be used to determine which keywords are the most searched. This tool is a great way to determine the words most used by customers to find companies that offer a particular product or service. There are also many consultants who will be glad to offer you help in this area.

Establishing a Web Presence for your Online Business

Building a company website is the first order of business for establishing a web presence. While many new businesses get bogged down financially at this stage of the game, there is no need to spend a fortune setting up a website. There are many free, or almost free companies like WordPress that can get you up and running for a reasonable price. Selecting a domain name should be done with care, since this is how people will find you on the web.

Entrepreneurs should opt for simple and memorable domain names. The company name with a dotcom at the end serves as the best URLs for new businesses, if the URL is available. This strategy works best, provided the company name was chosen with marketing in mind.

Blogging is a highly recommended form of attracting new customers to a company website. The reason blogging is so popular is that Google search ranks blogs higher than stagnant website information that does not change. By adding a new, customer-relevant blog to a company website three or four times a week, the website will rank higher with Google, and gain a higher page ranking in customer searches.

This free traffic generated through blogging and search engine results is called organic traffic. While it takes time and patience to get to the first or second Google page for popular keywords, after submitting interesting blogs for a few months it is possible to greatly improve a site’s page ranking.

Another option for companies to improve page ranking immediately is to use Pay-Per-Click advertising. The ads that are posted alongside Google pages are paid advertising. As the name suggests, an advertiser pays for each time a customer clicks through. This is one good way to jumpstart increased Google traffic, while the organic traffic from Google searches has time to increase.

Social Media – Engaging with your Customers

Social media is another inexpensive way to establish a web presence. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus are four social media tools that can be used to promote a company’s business. For a new business, it can seem daunting to try and tackle all of these tools at once. Utilizing one or two of them is sure to make a positive difference in business referrals. As the most frequented social media site being used, Facebook is recommended as a best bet.

Conclusion – Building a Strong Online Business

Opportunities abound for online entrepreneurs willing to commit time to develop an online business. By conducting market research to thoroughly understand the marketplace, start-up companies can jumpstart a new business online and flourish. Social media tools and blogging for increased Google rankings traffic are two important strategies for success in the contemporary online business environment.

About the author:

Victor is a writer and blogger experienced in online business development. He also often writes about finance and credit cards.

This is a guest post by Rohit Naik on creating a unique identity as an Internet Entrepreneur. You can check out the guidelines for guest posting on our write for us page.

In a situation where internet entrepreneurs are mushrooming everywhere, it is important that you develop an identity of your own. You have to have a unique place in the internet marketing world. If you are to succeed as an internet entrepreneur, you will have to put in a lot of effort to separate themselves from the pack.

Aѕ аn Intеrnеt Entrepreneur I practice these 5 Toр Tіps everуdаy and I want tо ѕharе them wіth уou because they make а hugе dіffеrencе in my dау tо dау Mаrkеtіng life аnd this іѕ hоw I ѕераrаtе myѕеlf, аnd others sерarаtе themselves frоm the pаck.

Hеrе yоu go!

Orіgіnаlіtу – The Asset of an Internet Entrepreneur

The easiest way to build momеntum for аn Intеrnet Entrepreneur wоuld bе by tаkіng ѕomethіng that аlreadу wоrkѕ and аpplying it for yоur own benefit. Thіѕ fаѕt way to gеt gоіng сan wоrk pеrfeсtly but there hаѕ tо be а рrіncipаl ingredient in order fоr that іdеа tо work for уоu: Mаkе it уour оwn!

Fіrѕt of аll уоu сannot соpy anуthіng bеlоngіng tо ѕomеone elѕe bеcauѕе thаt is plagіarіѕm аnd it is іllegаl. Rаthеr thаn јuѕt mаkіng a cоpу of іt, mаkе it уour оwn. Be orіgіnаl, twеаk, modіfy, chаnge… The еnd rеѕult will bе ѕоmеthing cоmрletelу dіfferent аnd new thаt сamе out оf аn аlrеаdу еxiѕting grеat іdеа.

Mаrket уоurѕelf first аnd thеn Market thе рroduсt

The internet іs іnundatеd with а lot оf gооd рroduсtѕ but аlѕо with а lot оf gаrbаge. Thеre is оne thіng that thеrе can оnlу be onе of thаt іѕ gеttіng mаrketed on thе internеt: YOU! Sharе уour ѕtоrу; sharе yоur visiоn and idеаѕ. Don’t bе afrаid оf рuttіng уоurself out thеrе, уour potentіаl сustomerѕ аre mоre іnterestеd in gеtting tо knоw who уou аrе аnd thеn whаt уou sell that саn help thеm.

Prасticе rеlatіоnshiр Mаrkеting

The intеrnеt hаѕ mаdе соmmеrcе highlу іmреrsоnаl, іt sееmѕ lіke you nevеr deal wіth а реrson and іt іѕ аll аutomаtеd. If yоu are an internet entrepreneur like mе, thіs can bе a bіt fruѕtratіng from tіmе tо tіme. Whеther wе lіkе it or nоt іt wоrks bесаuse іt iѕ hіghlу еffісient and cеrtaіnlу еffесtivе.

You dоn’t hаvе tо аvоіd аutоmatiоn or, bе on thе рhоnе all dау; you јuѕt havе tо buіld rеlаtіоnѕhіpѕ. What?? Yоu might ask. Thіѕ rеlаtеѕ tо my рreviоuѕ Tip, Markеt уоurѕеlf аnd then Mаrket thе prоduсt. Yоur tаrget market will resроnd а lоt bеtter tо yоur prоpоsаl if thеy cаn rеlatе tо уou and whаt уоu are tellіng thеm. Think аbоut it, wоuldn’t іt be eaѕіеr to truѕt ѕomeоne who уou feеl like yоu аctuаllу alreаdу know? (The аnѕwеr іs YES!)

Always ѕay the truth

It is mоrе еvidеnt еvеrу рaѕѕing day whеn sоmеbodу iѕ lуіng tо yоu whеn loоking for sоmеthіng оnlinе аnd whеn ѕоmeоnе іѕ bеіng truе.

There hаve bееn ѕо mаnу рeople lеft dоwn by оthеrs whеn buуіng or lоokіng fоr ѕomеthing on the іntеrnеt that роtentіal custоmеrѕ аrе dеvеlоpіng а “clinісal еye” fоr deteсtіng liеѕ аnd mіѕleadіng mаrkеtеrѕ. Fоr mе thiѕ lоoks lіkе an аmаzіng орpоrtunіty bеcausе I as an internet entrepreneur, dоn’t nееd to saу lіes and neіthеr dо уоu. Be true, рeoplе rеsроnd а lоt bеttеr to it.

Givе Valuе – Don’t Pitсh!!

Thіѕ Tір іѕ very ѕеlf exрlаnаtоry; dо not еxреct fоr роtеntial сustоmеrѕ tо рurchаse уоur рrоduct іf theу аrе nоt gettіng vаlue оut of the еxрerienсe. Whаt I mеаn bу thiѕ іѕ ѕіmple; givе them deсisіоn tools, givе thеm rеlevant and, оnce аgаin, truthful іnformаtіon tо helр them mаkе up thеіr mіnds аnd buу frоm уou.

Pitсhіng mаkеs peорlе unсomfortablе and іndесisіve, on thе other hаnd gіvіng valuе mаkеѕ pеople acknоwlеdgе what thеу trulу wаnt and/оr nееd. The ѕkeрtіcіѕm wіll be out the wіndоw! This is the key to success of an internet entrepreneur.

Being a different internet entrepreneur

It is not difficult to be an internet entrepreneur who is different from the pack, which you will have realized after reading the 5 tips above. What is important is that you keep providing value to your customer.

Put theѕе 5 іnсredіbly effеctіvе Tips to thе tеst аnd begin еxреrіеnсіng thе diffеrеnсе they makе in уour buѕіnеss.

Tо уоur immeaѕurablе ѕucсеsѕ as an internet entrepreneur,

This is a guest post by Patricia on mistakes that a new Internet Entrepreneur makes. You can check out the guidelines for guest posting on our write for us page.

So, you’re an Internet entrepreneur. How exciting! There’s nothing quite like planting your very own seed and watching it grow into your very own money tree! Just don’t let that excitement go to your head. As a new entrepreneur, you’re still on shaky ground, and the world wide web is a vast expanse of endless possibilities for success – and failure. You have a lot of fertilizing, watering and tending to do before your crop yields a bounty. Be careful not to nip your success in the bud.

5 Mistakes an Internet Entrepreneur should avoid:

As a new internet entrepreneur, there are those certain and easy mistakes that you tend to make. It is these mistakes that could prove fatal to your business and its success.

Here are five mistakes a new Internet entrepreneur should avoid.

Market Research

Just because you’re featuring your business in a global marketplace doesn’t mean everyone on the globe is going to be interested in your business. Take some time and put some serious consideration into your target audience – who you are trying to reach – and target your website and Internet marketing to that audience. Carving out your niche and targeting a specific market sector is the best way you can stand out amongst the competition.

Pre-packaged Solutions

The Internet abounds with workshops, training programs, self-help gurus and business experts that claim to have the secret formula to ensuring your success as an Internet entrepreneur. All of these programs costs money and, unfortunately, when you invest in a multitude of success schemes, you’re only succeeding in fattening others’ pockets. Remember that there is no substitute for good, old-fashioned time and experience. You must get your feet wet in order to learn how to swim.

Outsourcing

No one can do it all. Consider what your strengths are, and where your expertise lies, and focus your attention on what you do best. Outsource the rest. For example, if web design is not your thing, then don’t take a chance on attempting your own web build just for the sake of saving a few bucks. Not only will outsourcing the job to a professional save you time and headaches now, but it could end up saving (or making) you a lot of money down the line.

Balancing Time and Money

Yes, you want a great website, built by the best designer, and you value all of the expert advice you get from those marketing consultants you pay by the hour. Just remember that spending money on you venture does not replace the need to invest your time in developing it, managing it and growing it. As a new internet entrepreneur, it is important that you spend time in building your business.

Patience – The virtue of a good internet entrepreneur

Don’t expect to get rich overnight. Expect to put an insane amount of blood, sweat and tears into your business before you start reaping the benefits. You may get lucky and see an early payoff, but it’s best to plow forward in the spirit of doing whatever it takes, for however long it takes.

Succeeding as an internet entrepreneur

There are too many distractions out there that will lead to a lack of your focus as a new internet entrepreneur. Most internet marketing businesses fail because entrepreneurs tend to deviate too much from their original business plan.

Becoming a successful Internet entrepreneur is no small feat. Avoid the pitfalls that we discussed above and you are well on your way to seeing your new venture as an internet entrepreneur, through to greatness.

This is a guest post by Megan on remarketing. You can check out the guidelines for guest posting on our write for us page.

There are a lot of things an entrepreneur has to learn to do. Every small business owner wears many hats, but as an entrepreneur you wear them all, at least during the early stages of your business.

You’re your own administrative assistant, boss, marketing department, salesman, accountant and HR manager. Effective marketing is a full-time job in itself, but when you’re running your own business you don’t have time to micromanage advertising campaigns and it becomes necessary to find tools that can help you simplify the process while still giving you as much control as possible so you can tailor your efforts to match your needs.

One tool that can help increase profitable conversions on your website is remarketing. Knowing the basics of remarketing, what it can do for you and how you can implement it, can save you time and money while driving sales on your website.

The Basics of Remarketing

Remarketing, a service offered through Google AdWords, allows you to display ads specifically to people who have previously visited your website. If you set up remarketing, your ads can be displayed on the pages of any website that displays ads from Google’s network. You’ll have to choose categories and pages you want to promote; then add remarketing tags to your pages defining their categories.

When users visit your pages without making a purchase, Google will keep track of the types of pages they visit, according to your tags, and will later show them ads based on their browsing data.

The Effects of Remarketing

There are many reasons you’ll want to utilize remarketing on your website. Many users will visit sites looking for pricing information; then visit another website to compare. When they leave your site, they’re less likely to come back unless you can present them with a deal to make it worth their time.

This is a great time to show them ads detailing special deals or, promotions you’ll offer them if they return and complete their purchase.

Offer them coupons, free shipping or a special deal if they purchase their item with another complementary item. Identifying visitors who have abandoned their shopping carts helps you narrow down your focus. You already know that visitor is aware of your products and intends to make a purchase; you just have to close the deal.

The Process of Remarketing

Managing every aspect of an Internet marketing campaign can be a daunting task. Fortunately, there are many tools that make it easy to manage multiple aspects of your advertising system at once while providing you with valuable feedback.

Whether you use Google’s built-in tools, or a third party demand side platform, you’ll want to make sure you’re using a system that will help you gloss over aspects you don’t want to worry about while still giving you the option of adjusting any aspect of your campaigns you desire.

You’ll have to tweak your site a bit, tagging each page you want to use for tracking and setting up different campaigns for each type. You’ll also have to define who you want to track and how you want to display ads to them. You can choose to show ads to everyone who visits your site or, be more specific by targeting only those who visited certain pages or, abandoned shopping carts.

You can further customize your ads by showing everyone the same set of advertisements or, defining different ads that should be shown depending on the page category they viewed. For instance, if a visitor looked at pages of televisions, you might not want to show them advertisements for washing machines.

Don’t rule it out, though, because remarketing advertisements can be invaluable opportunities for up-selling or, cross-selling. As far as remarketing goes, your imagination will be your greatest asset and your main limiting factor.

This is a guest post by Matt. You can check out the guidelines for guest posting on our write for us page.

I’ve asked a few entrepreneurs in the past, what is more important, “a great idea or great execution?” and I’ve gotten many different answers. The people who seem to think a great idea trumps execution are wildly enthralled with perception based success. Those that believe in execution, aren’t necessarily visionaries, but are people who can simply, grind out work.

I believe strongly that both a great idea and great execution is necessary when starting a business, but in the early stages of product development, marketing doesn’t need to distract the focus of your entrepreneurial endeavor.

As an entrepreneur and marketing graduate myself, I’m a victim to falling in love with marketing ideas and having them consume my mind. The only thing I’ve learned from this is that in order for my business to progress I’ve got to forget about marketing ideas almost until the final stages of a business launch.

Marketing Distracts the Mind

I will be the first person to stick up for a marketing idea as long as it’s actionable and makes fiscal sense. But the truth is, there are very few ideas like this. When it comes to an entrepreneurial startup business, I think that marketing takes a backseat to strong sales initiatives, resource planning, and customer service.

When sitting down to write a business plan with your partner(s) every time someone mentions an idea about promoting a product or something relating to marketing, have them do 10 pushups. This simple rule helped break my business out of our rut, when half of us fail to even realize the way we process and come up with thoughts.

You will be excited once your business develops, and once you have achieved sustainable growth, then is the best time to ramp up your marketing processes (when the ball is already rolling).

Grind It Out

Integrating a marketing plan, both online and offline is important once you have figured out exactly who your business is. Most entrepreneurs don’t even know what their business’s core value add is until they go to market and people start to purchase. If you can grind out the first phase of your business without online/offline marketing initiatives you will grow much faster once you begin implementing marketing programs.

I would compare this thought process to exercise, if you can exercise and achieve results without supplements, you are setting yourself up for even more success once you add supplements to your fitness regimen.

Of course, every business is different and if your business is primarily online you will need to establish a sound SEO and social media plan to attract customers in the first place. However, for a more traditional business entrepreneur, stick to the basics and you will find that your success is largely a direct result of your actions rather than marketing methods.

Operating an online business can be a great way to bring in money and retain the freedom of working from home. Though your business might not occupy a corporate space and onboard hundreds of employees, it will still accrue expenses that are tax deductible.

An online business owner might rarely see his/her clientele in person, especially in the case of out-of-state customers, but allowances still apply.

It is extremely important that you keep a track of all these deductible expenses because you would not want to pay extra tax when you can claim an exemption for it and thus give away your hard earned money.

Deductible expenses for online business owners

Here are five deductible expenses that online business owners might overlook.

Computer Equipment

While it’s no surprise that you can deduct the cost of a computer for an online business, keep in mind that computer accessories are also part of the deal. Whether you need monitors and desktop systems or a laptop and a spare laptop battery, it all applies.

Remember to include expenses like the purchase of memory sticks, rewritable CDs, and even batteries for a mouse. Keeping track of myriad expenses in your online business can be time consuming but you’ll be glad you did when it’s time to fill out tax forms.

Email Service

While most of your business will likely be conducted through your website or online store, especially if you’re operating a crafting business through a site like Etsy, being able to stay in touch with customers is paramount.

Online businesses that use an Internet service like EarthLink will be able to deduct its cost when it comes to tax time. The IRS defines business expenses as “ordinary and necessary” and email certainly qualifies. The permissible expense might encourage online business owners to use “plus” versions of ordinarily-free email services, like Yahoo! Mail, as well.

Online business Shopping Cart Service

Online business owners can use any number of shopping cart services, including PayPal, Google Checkout, or Americart, for their businesses. These services will come in handy for persons who are operating a business on their own – that is, independently of a site with its own cart service.

Allowable deductions will also apply to the supplies used to mail out products, including padded envelopes and postage.

Internet Ad Service

Promoting your online business will obviously help bring in more clientele, so don’t forget to deduct the cost of a pay-per-click service like Google Adwords. The cost of advertising your online business in a print publication, like your city’s daily newspaper, is also applicable, as are ads that run in conference programs or on billboards.

Software

Though you may only turn to its services when you are offline, you can still deduct the cost of administrative supplies, like bookkeeping software. Using a program like Quicken can help keep expenses in order and make tax time easier by helping you prepare and export necessary information.

Business costs might start out inexpensive – a box of pens, for example – but they can quickly add up. While you probably won’t be furnishing your office with mahogany desks and silk curtains, your online business is not that different from any other company.

Your needs as an online business owner will be a bit different than others but you will still benefit from deducting the expenses that help you keep things running smoothly.

This is a guest post by Nisha. You can read the guidelines to guest posting at our write for us page.

Succeeding in business today requires flexibility, focus, discipline, perseverance, good planning and organizational skills. Businesses fail every day for many reasons, from mismanagement to changing market conditions, and while it is difficult to predict the success or, failure of any venture, there are certainly steps you can take to maximize your chances of success.

• Start with a great idea. – Too often would-be entrepreneurs start up a business with only a vague idea of what it is they want to achieve. You don’t necessarily need new products or services to establish and grow a business, but you do need to have passion for your business idea. Unless you are genuinely excited about your business, it will be hard to motivate yourself and persevere through the tough times.

• Look for a niche market. – Do some market research. Find out what is already available and how you can make your product or service stand out from the competition. Often a new twist on an old idea will give you a competitive advantage. Is there something that customers need that other businesses are not providing?

• Write a business plan. – A well-crafted business plan provides you with a road map for your business. Since one of the major reasons for business failures is poor planning, attempting to launch a business without a plan to guide you is courting disaster. You can find excellent resources online to help you through the process.

• Begin branding your business immediately. – You need to establish your presence in the marketplace. These days all businesses need a website, but for online businesses your website is your brand. It should be professional, informative, well written and have good search engine optimization. Utilize a variety of internet resources to market your products and services.

• Stay on top of the day-to-day tasks that are essential to the success of your business. – Stay organized with a daily to-do list and check things off as you complete them. And keep detailed records. When you are busy, relying on memory alone is not a good idea. Being organized and knowing exactly where your business stands at any given moment, can allow you to recognize and head off potential challenges.

• Learn to take calculated risks. Successful entrepreneurs grow their businesses by taking calculated risks. They analyze potential opportunities by looking at the downside; the worst case scenario. That knowledge can help you determine if your business can afford the risk. Calculated risks can generate impressive rewards.

• Provide great customer service. Providing excellent customer service creates loyal customers who will return to you time and time again. It can also be one of the factors that will give you a competitive edge.

• Don’t lose your focus. Just because you turn on your computer or open the doors of your business, doesn’t mean you are going to make any money right away. It takes time to get established and grow your business. Stay focused on your business plan and achieving your short-term goals.

More than half of new small business start-ups fail within the first four years. More often than not it is because they have failed in one of these areas. To survive and grow your business you need to make sure you leave as little as possible up to chance.

This is a Guest Post by Susan. You can read the guidelines to guest posting at our write for us page.

Email subscribers list can be one of the biggest assets for just about any online business. The contacts you build and make over the years can all be encapsulated into however big or small your business email list is.

This opt-in list, therefore, is of supreme importance for more than one reason. At any given time, it provides your business an opening to reach your clients for follow up marketing. There are many ways of increasing or even building your email lists via your website. Some of these methods are more in practise than others. Following are some of the simplest methods of expanding and/or building your email list.

Incentive

Have you heard the saying, ‘there is no such thing as a free meal’? Well, it is true even in this case. In order to build a list, and get your targeted customers to sign up for your newsletter, you need to entice your visitors to leave their email addresses. You can offer them an incentive that can be anything. One of the most popular means of ensnaring more and more people is free giveaway. These giveaways can be anything ranging from a free eBook to a discount or whatever you think can work for your customers without putting much pressure on your budget.

Blog (subscription)

Blogs can serve multiple services and bringing in new email subscribers is one of those benefits. If you are offering quality content that people find helpful in any way, then more and more people would be looking to stay updated via your blog. Rather than coming to check your blog for the updates all the time, they will just opt for signing up as subscribers. That way you get their email address and your visitors get to access invaluable information as soon as it is uploaded, providing convenience for both the reader as well as the business.

Squeeze Page

Amongst all methods employed to get the email address from your visitors, this one perhaps may sound a little desperate. A squeeze page is designed with the sole purpose of forcing a sale or subscription out of the visitor. This is a very aggressive method, and it can be a little off putting for the visitors, for obvious reasons.

These Squeeze Page tactics are more often a miss rather than a hit. Nevertheless, it remains as a widely employed method.

Buying Business Email Lists

You can just read the heading and know for yourself that this method really kills the purpose of having an email list. Developing a list of subscribers is not easy and it might take business years in building a sizable list. Nobody would be wasting so much time or resources on building these lists if buying lists can serve the purpose. You cannot just go and buy lists and consider all the work done.

There are many ‘companies’ out there selling ‘authentic’, free of spam business email lists. I have not really tried many, and maybe there will be some that work to some extent, but still nothing beats creating a list of your own…

Conclusion:

Remember, the techniques employed for making your visitors to subscribe will differ from one type of business to another. So sticking with just one method is probably a bad idea. You should experiment with different techniques and try to come up with your own ideas as well, when you do, please share it with us via comments.

This is a guest post by Sachin. You can read the guidelines to guest posting at our write for us page.

It is important for a business that relies on its computers to have proper IT support. You may have a large enough company to have your own internal technical support team. If this is the case then any problems you may have and maintenance of your computer network will be handled by your team. If you cannot afford to employ specific IT support staff, or you just prefer not to have an IT department, then you can look to outsourcing the care of your computer systems to IT Services Melbourne.

Saves you time and money

Having your IT support handled by an external service can save you both time and money. Instead of having your own technical support team you can use an outside IT service. This can save you a lot of money as you don’t have to advertise for IT staff, which can be costly. Your savings continue in that you don’t need to pay an IT team wages, superannuation, sick leave, holiday pay or any other benefits.

You can also concentrate on areas that are the main focus of your business, rather than worry about updating your network, running anti-virus software and backing up data. In the long run not having this added worry will help improve your businesses efficiency and increase your profits. It will also simplify your business systems if you don’t need to worry about the maintenance of this technology, and it will also save you a lot of time, and time is money.

Twenty four hour support

Nearly all businesses rely on computers and larger companies depend on a whole computer network. An IT support service can offer you twenty four hour support for your computer network and internet connection. Having a support service means you can keep your system up to date constantly. A support service will also offer you other services, like keeping your data backed up, handling your virus protection and network security and look after your software licensing.

Why your business needs IT support service

By using an IT support service you can be sure that are getting experienced and fully qualified technicians helping your business. IT support services can send people out to your office to help you with your computer network, they can offer you telephone support or even help you via remote access.

If you have a small business having IT support can be hugely beneficial as you may not have the funds or the space within your office to have staff hired specifically for this task. Many small business owners find themselves diverting time away from running their business properly as they have to handle all aspects of it, from planning and implementing the marketing strategies, looking after the financial side of things and just running the day to day aspects of the business.

If they are not experts at handling computer systems or any problems that may arise then they will waste a huge amount of their time trying to solve these issues. They are much better off making use of an IT support service.

This is the first of such a Q&A.

I recently received this question from Mike -

“Hi landed on your site by coincidence, I read your 16 internet topics and found them very enlightening and more informative. I am a very frustrated beginner and no one seems to give a rip. I have ordered 3 or 4 programs all promising the end all and be all. All designed to help the beginner. Once received, these programs proved to be extremely difficult to understand an implement. Not one of them included more than two of the 16 tips you outline here. I am mid 50′s and am intently looking for a way to start an internet biz of some kind to supplement our income. Is there really a program out there a beginner can find that would outline the steps a beginner like me and i assume many others can follow? Thank you in advance for your response.”

This is not a first of the kind question. Almost every newbie on the internet face a similar situation when they want to make money online. So what is the solution to this?

First things first. Internet Marketing is not something that requires a doctorate  or, a management degree. Neither will you require a flurry of tools or, a bagful of dollars as investment to make money online.

All that is required to succeed in Internet Marketing is a little bit of patience and a lot of attitude – the attitude to succeed, to remain in the race and be consistent.

My Formula for an Internet Marketing Business

Let me assume, you have no idea about how to start and run an online business, leave alone an internet marketing business. Where will you learn about all the nitty-gritties about an online business.

The answer to this question goes back to the very source of an internet marketing business – THE SEARCH ENGINE.

Use it.

Search for everything that you have a doubt about and browse through a few links that you see. Don’t hesitate to go into the depth of the search engine results. You will find some really valuable content in there.

Keep taking notes. If you can spend about 3 hours daily for about a week, I can guarantee you that you will find more than enough information to master the basics of internet marketing.

This is basically how I learnt it. It takes some effort but it is worth it.

So, you may ask, if it is so easy, then why is it that the success rate is so low?

Because, people think that there is a shortcut to everything and are not ready to take the difficult route to success. The result – FAILURE.

The 4 Steps in Internet Marketing

For the purpose of this post, I am assuming two things -

1. You do not have any product or, service of your own to sell online.
2. You are relatively new to the concept of making money online.

Internet Marketing has 4 very simple steps. I will explain it without using any of the GURU jargons.

If all you looking for is to make money online just like Mike, then two options you have is either Blogging or, Affiliate Marketing. The 4 steps are as follows -

Blogging -

1). Find a Topic of interest that you can blog about – This is slightly tricky, but the easiest way to find one is to write down all of your hobbies on a piece of paper and use the method of elimination. Rank them and eliminate all that falls lower in the order.

2). Start a blog – You can use one of the two free blogging platforms, Blogger and WordPress and start your blog.

3). Monetize your blog – There are numerous monetization options that you can choose from – Adsense, Text-Link-Ads, Sponsored Ads, Chitika, Kontera etc. are some of the favored and recommended ones.

4). Drive Traffic to your blog – This is considered to be the most difficult of all the above steps. But the fact is that it is not as complicated as it sounds. The only problem is that we don’t want to accept the fact that it can be this simple and hence make it even more complicated.

Generating Traffic has no shortcuts. These are the only methods you can use to generate traffic -

1. PPC Ads – Advertise with search engines. I will not recommend this.
2. Article Marketing – The easiest and most effective method of generating traffic. Research your keywords and write 20 articles for every keyword. Submit at least one article everyday to ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com and articlesbase.com.
3. Document marketing – Convert each of these articles into simple powerpoint presentations and submit them to sites like slideshare.com. Also create pdf files and submit them to docstoc.com, esnips.com etc.
4. Video Marketing – Create screen-capture videos using the presentations you made and submit them to video sites like vimeo.com, youtube.com.
5. Blog Commenting – This is another effective way of traffic generation. Identify about 15 blogs in your niche that are high on pagerank and Alexa rank and comment on them regularly.
6. Guest Posting – Volunteer to guest post on high traffic blogs. Forums like myblogguest.com can help you find blogs to guest post.

The above 6 methods sum up everything. Follow all of them or, pick a combination of any three and you are sure to generate enough traffic if you do it consistently.

You will not need another software or, course to learn anything else. If you need any more information on any of these, you will find thousands of articles on the internet for free.

Affiliate Marketing -

The only difference in affiliate marketing and blogging is,

1). Find a product to sell.

2). Create a website – Here I would again recommend using Blogger or, WordPress.

3). Setup a Squeeze page – You will have to use an autoresponder for this. There are lots of self-hosted autoresponders which will be free of cost. Even wordpress has one inbuilt in the form of a plugin. Amongst the paid ones I recommend aweber.

4). Drive traffic to your offers.

That is all it is to internet marketing. This is so simple, isn’t it. It indeed is. But you will have to follow them judiciously and consistently.

If you are still looking for some guidance in the form of courses, then you might be interested in the ones mentioned below.

Best Online Course to help make money online.

Two good courses if you want to make money online blogging are -

1). Become a Blogger – This is a course by Gideon Shalwick and Yaro Starak. Both are known names in the world of blogging. The course is extremely simple and handholds anyone wanting to make money online blogging. They have a set of 10 free videos on how to make money blogging. This in itself is very informative.

2). Blog Mastermind – This is a course from Yaro Starak. This course takes you by hand and guides you to success in blogging. There is a free report called as Blog Profit Blueprint, which is quite informative and a good way to start.

Affiliate Marketing -

If you wish to make money in affiliate marketing, then I would recommend you get the following handbook -

1). Affiliate Secrets Explained – This handbook has everything that you will need to learn and know about affiliate marketing. You will not need anything else. This book is authored by Adeel Chowdhury who is a successful affiliate marketer. You can find affiliate secrets explained here.

2). Affiliate Project X – This was a real good book on affiliate marketing but is not available now. If you can get a copy of this, it can be really helpful.

Other resources -

What I would recommend you should really invest in is -

1). Keyword Research Tool – Get a good keyword research tool that can simplify things for you. I use and recommend Micro Niche Finder which is a very simple tool to use and is very effective. Order Micro Niche Finder here.

2). Auto responder – Building a list is extremely important and this can be effective if you use a good autoresponder. I use Aweber and recommend them because they are cost-effective and simple to use. Check out aweber here.

In case you have any questions, please feel free to write to me.