Who said Internet marketing was easy?
It’s not. Setting up your own online business then marketing it is just as hard if not harder than a brick and mortar business. It can be painstakingly tedious and exceedingly difficult. For those that don’t have a business plan and a marketing strategy in place before starting online it can be almost impossible.
That’s why I decided to write these 9 idea's of marketing success, to help you get a grasp of what it takes be a successful online-penuer.
1. Business Model: Internet marketing is chocked full of choices, and your first choice is deciding on which business model you are going to follow. If you don’t make this choice carefully, you’ll find yourself hopping from business model to business model, spending money on programs and “secrets,” and not making any profits at all. Trust me when I say that finding a business model that appeals to you and working with that model will go a long way toward helping you succeed online.
2. Choosing A Domain Name: Your Internet marketing business is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Whether you’re creating a flagship blog for your business or registering a domain for your niche site, you need to take some time to find the right domain name for you. Consider having a domain name with your business + keyword.
3. Choosing A Web Host: Without a web host it’s virtually impossible to make money online without your own dot com. it’s important to give web host provider a lot of thought because once you start building the cost can be astronomically high to move it to another web hosting company. Although you can certainly build up a lot of secondary sites using third party websites like Squidoo or Hubpages, at the end of the day you need to own your content. It just makes sense to have your own website. And you can’t have your own website until you choose a good web hosting service.
4. Website Brand: Before launching your new blog or website you need to think of your brand. What colors are you using right now in your offline business? If you don’t have a business in the real world then you need develop a particular color scheme and not only use it for your website but all of your online marketing messages and social networking. By utilizing your particular color scheme will strongly associated you in the minds of your potential customers.
5. Content Delivery System: Whether you use content management software such as WordPress or static html pages, you need to create content that is accessible to readers, of all types, including blind, color blind and the deaf. You must consider every type of user when creating content. Many readers will be turned away by small fonts that is hard to read or unusual backgrounds that make text difficult to read. If you choose to include the fancy websites and html emails, at least offer an option for people who would prefer a simple text version instead or an audio or closed captioned video.
6. List management: In the world of Internet marketing, building a list is absolutely essential. Most site owners don’t have the expertise or the time to set up a list management system on their own server. Instead, most use a list provider. A list provider will allow you to collect e-mail addresses from buyers and visitors to your websites. List management is an essential part of any Internet marketing business. Capturing a person’s name and e-mail address when they visit your site allows you to send them helpful information, build your relationship with them and offer new products. It’s absolutely essential that your list provider be easy to use and have the capabilities to deliver professional messages.
7. Social Networking: Use social networking to your advantage. Creating brand specific content on social media sites can generate many more readers than you might expect. Readers equal extra traffic to your website. Simply asking your friends or followers to share your page, can cause a website to go from a little known to a having huge audience, in a matter of days. Plus Google uses social signals to help rank your site.
8. Goal Setting: Set a goal for your website. If you’re just starting out, goal setting will help you evaluate your progress. Goals can be sticking to a content calendar delivering content 2 to 7 days week. You can also set goals for traffic back to your site. If you’re getting zero people hitting your site right now you can set a goal to get 100 people landing on your site by the end of the week. By goal setting you will begin to get new business and begin to prosper.
9. The Future: Considering every one of the tips is just getting you started. Now consider this…The future of the web isn’t search engines but your own network. Anything that you set up that gets clicks back to your site is your network. Whether it is special content such as articles, blog posts, social content, free ebooks, audios or videos, etc. you need to build a gathering place such as a blog, ezine, forum or even a FaceBook Group.
If anything, these tips should help you to narrow down what you need to consider as far as starting your online Internet Marketing business. It's not going to be a cake walk but nothing worth doing ever easy. Apply these tips correctly and focus on what you need to do and your business will begin to grow and profit.
