The aim of this article is to introduce newcomers to the internet marketing business. As with tackling anything new it is necessary to have guidelines to ensure that you do all the right things and in the right order. This action plan will lay down a track to follow for all internet marketing beginners as you begin to develop your business.
Many people new to the business will first look around for something to sell, as that seems the logical thing to do. However, before that comes the critical question; who are you going to sell to? Until you have that first step in place the product is largely irrelevant. So step one is to find your marketplace. The often quoted view is that we are looking for a hungry crowd of people in a popular but not oversubscribed niche who have money to spend. Only after finding your marketplace do you look for an appropriate product to sell. One important decision to make is whether you are going to choose a digital (downloadable) product or a physical one such as a DVD or printed information of some kind.
The promotion of your product will then require a domain name & hosting company to establish your web presence. The domain name should reflect your business in some way and should not be too long. You will need a hosting company to look after your website. There are some hosting companies who will host your website free, but there are certain disadvantages with these for business websites. Hosting really isn’t an expensive issue at all so I would recommend to all internet marketing beginners that you search for a paid hosting company who will meet your requirements for just a few pounds a month.
Once you have your domain name and your hosting arranged then is the time to create, or have created, a website. This will be your online shop window. It isn’t difficult to create your own website with the technology now available but if you really don’t feel happy about doing it yourself, you can ‘outsource’ to professionals who will do the job for you quite cheaply. Your website should have a style of its own. A few appropriate graphics can enhance your webpages but don’t overdo it as too many graphics will slow down the loading of your pages. Ensure that your site navigation is obvious and user friendly.
The final step in your sales process will be to incorporate a payment processor and autoresponder. If you are selling digital products, Clickbank is the obvious choice for your payment processor, although there are other options too. An autoresponder is your own personal assistant which can deal with many of the mundane everyday tasks of running an online business.
If you have followed each step of these internet marketing strategies you should now be all set to go; ready to promote your product(s) and ready to begin making money. You will need to decide on which option you are going to use for the internet promotion of your offers. This could be by posting free articles to draw traffic to your site. You might choose Pay-Per-Click advertising or purchasing a prospect list from a reputable list broker. You could choose to post web-ads in newspapers or magazines. There are many ways to advertise your business. You will need to research to find the approach that suits you best.
Once your website begins to draw traffic you can begin one of the most important aspects of an online business; that is, you will begin to build an opt-in list. Each page of your website should have an opt-in form where your visitors can subscribe. They are usually encouraged to do this by the offer of a free eBook, report, digital download, etc. Your list then becomes your customer database. They will be the source of much of your profit in the years to come.
I wish a bright and profitable future to all internet marketing beginners. If you wish to learn even more then visit www.internetmarketingmanual.com.