Marketing

By Vanessa Osbourne
Posted Friday, September 3, 2004

There is so much hype about making money on the World Wide Web. You could spend the rest of your life reading, purchasing software programs, exchanging links and never really make any significant cash. The truth of the matter is, there is no easy or quick roads to success. No sure fire way to make a boat-load of money. If you are an average entrepreneur out to start up a business, there is no replacement for hard work and determination - proven character traits that have been the hallmark of great men and women throughout time.

This is a series of 12 articles that will show you the most effective way to earn income on a long-term basis. So, what is the real truth….Well, an individual should list his/her financial goals. What income are you seeking and how much do you need to sell to reach your projected income. How much are you willing to spend. In other words, can you afford to fund this internet business. What sacrifices do you have to make and for how long?

ü First, you must keep a journal, write out your plans and set a start date for your business. Determine what you want to sell whether products or services and investigate the legitimacy of your proposed business. You can use a day timer or just create a spreadsheet to log activities and projections for the next 6 months. Each month, determine whether you need to make modifications to your business or product offerings. At the end of six months evaluate your progress or determine what major changes you may need to make.

ü Second, find a good moderately priced Web Host ($100/yr.).The one that has a help desk service for 24/7 on-line, off-line support; this is the one for you. Don't look for free hosting. But look for an experience web-hosting company, which offer free tools, basic training and excellent services.

ü Third, Setup and Design your Web Site; use templates to get going initially. If you are experienced in 'html', then customize your site with power 'words' and attractive matching colors (non-clashing colors). Today's websites incorporate media where appropriate. When and where possible, add a little music and video, hopefully without reducing system performance.

ü Fourth, Link Exchange with sites that are higher ranked than you are. Download the 'Google tool bar' (upcoming Article #2 of this series) to determine the Google ranking of sites that you deem worth linking to. Spend one hour per day linking to sites that will add flavor to your site and who have higher web presence than you do. Email the proposed link partner with offers of Ebooks, Ezines subscriptions or other freebies to gain the privilege of being linked to their site. Link popularity is a key parameter in having potential customers click on your site. This means a site linked in 'google' a 9 out of 10 will definitely be one that you want to be a part of if possible. When one is just getting started your rank is 0 out of 10, so even a 2 out of 10 is higher in popularity than you are. So, initially, you may want to try to link with 5 out 10 and work your way up to the big ones; 7-9 out of 10. For those that have the tenacity you can endeavor to become link partners with the higher ranked sites, the worse that could happen is that you are refused…right?

ü Fifth, Generate Traffic to your site. There are numerous strategies and programs designed to drive traffic to your site, but the real truth of the matter is what type of traffic and from where. It would be pointless to have traffic generated to your website, if the hits or web traffic originates in China, but you only sale products/services in the United States. It's like having targeted traffic generated to the Institute for the Blind, but you sale reading glasses only. So what if millions of emails go out and millions of hits stop at your site. The question is whether the millions are your targeted audience. Series # 7 of this article will cover details relative to determining which is the right package for your business.

ü Sixth, Link to Killer Sites on the web. Take the time about 4 hours searching the web for and creating relationships with link partners (do this weekly). You are looking for sites that display link partners on the main page. Check out your competition, what is there 'google' rating and who is linked to them. Reciprocal linking takes time and extra effort, but the payoff is big. Series #2 will cover link swapping and detail information on using the 'google toolbar'.

ü Seventh, Write an Ebook or Ezine. This is a powerful way to create and maintain your customer base. Exchanging articles is similar to exchanging links. This is viral and you should spend about 30 minutes to an hour daily submitting articles to various Ezine sites.

Next week's issue (Series #2) will discuss in detail how you can increase your link popularity and link swapping advisory.

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