We live in an uncertain world, but there is one thing we do know that is certain… and that is that times are tough. Inflation is rising on pretty much all fronts. You’re busting your tail to make ends meet, but just when you think you’re making some head way; Life throws a curve ball at you that strikes you out at home plate.
Bills are piling up, the cost of necessities is rising and gas prices continue to fluctuate. You have met a time in your life that working for a living seems to be shoving you further in a hole you can’t dig out of.
Take a Deep Breath… Relax … and review the following article as this will help you realize there is an answer to this maddening situation you have found yourself in. You can earn a living that doesn’t bury you like an avalanche. You can rise up and see the soul-warming sunshine that others have seen.
In lesson 1 we learned how to avoid the Internet scams and how to get started with your new online business.
In lesson 2 we learned about the types of legitimate online businesses.
In this lesson we will learn about:
Strategies to Make your Business Successful
Now that you’ve learned some different online businesses to choose from, you will want to learn some ways to market your business so it can become successful like many other internet marketers who have been down the path you want to travel.
Let‘s explore some of the more popular strategies of marketing your online business.
Website
Your online business website is the perfect place to start. If there’s one thing that could make or break your business, it would be the website itself. Here are some things that are important to know about your website for marketing purposes:
Domain name - The domain name is the address to find your site on the internet. You want to choose a domain name that matches closely to your site or business name. This helps any internet user find your business easily if they’re searching for a certain topic. An exact match would be the best option, but if it’s not available, try finding one that comes as close as possible.
Keywords - Utilize the best keywords to place within the content on your site. Keywords are words that internet searchers use when they go to the search engines to find information on a specific topic. The keywords would get indexed by the search engine and placed within the results page for a user. The higher your site is ranked on the results page, the more chance you have that the user will choose your site to visit.
Market with a Niche - A niche narrows down your business to market to a certain group of people. Narrowing down your marketing efforts to a smaller group to help you give what your consumers want. Larger groups have too many people that have too many different needs. This makes it difficult to get your audience interested in what you have. The smaller groups will be the people that are more likely to want what you have, so marketing will be much easier.
Your website will need to reflect whatever niche you choose for your business. If you’re targeting mothers with young children, your site should reflect that. You would have graphics that would connect to mothers with young children and the content on the site should be written to something they could relate to. This will help with the search engines as well.
Blog - Provide a blog to go with your website. It should relate to the theme your business site has. Personal blogs should not be used here. If you use a blogging program that isn’t connected with your site, try to design the blog’s template to match your business site as close as possible, so it appears that the blog goes along with the site.
E-Mail Marketing
E-mails are essential to any marketing campaign. This is how you keep your business and products fresh in your potential customer’s minds. Getting a visitor to your site is one thing, but getting them to remember you over the millions of other websites out there is a whole thing in itself; especially when they’re interested in buying.
E-mails come at regular intervals to provide information to website visitors to help build credibility as well as get your business name in the forefront of their minds. This can be done in a couple of different ways. To get e-mail addresses to send your messages to, you will provide an opt-in email feature on your site so that people can sign up for updates on what you’re offering or for more information.
Newsletters - These are used to provide small articles in topics that relate to your business. For example, if you sell vitamins and minerals, your newsletter can offer articles on alternative health practices, etc. to show how important your product is to them.
Newsletters can be sent to their e-mail inboxes with the introduction to an article and a link where they can go to your site to read the rest of the article. This enables users to become familiar with your site and makes it easier to remember you when they decide they want to buy something you’re offering.
E-Courses - You can have a sign up feature on your site for visitors to use to learn the basics about a topic. If you’re selling vitamin products, you can use an e-course to help teach your readers how to pick the best ones for different kinds of health problems.
E-courses are typically sent over a 5-7 day period and are often offered for free. This keeps your business name in their minds by reminding of it every day that the e-course comes into their inbox.
Updates - For those who have purchased something from you or people who have signed up for this feature, you can provide them with updates on your products, discounts, freebies, etc. This way if you don’t hook a visitor into buying in their first visit they may see something later on that catches their eye and entices them to buy.
The updates can also help bring in more traffic for your site. Those who have already signed up for your lists will have friends, family, neighbors and co-workers that they could refer to your business by simply forwarding the messages on.
Articles and Other Written Content
Besides providing good website content, articles and other written content can be used in several ways to market your business. Here are some of those ways:
Articles directories - Article directories provide great marketing tactics to use for your business. One of my favorite article directory tools is the Ventrian News Articles module. By writing and submitting an article related to your business site, you can achieve two things…
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Credibility in the topic you have written about
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Drive more traffic to your site by providing a link to your business website in the author’s bio section provided on the article directory sites.
These directory sites usually rank well with the search engine results page, so someone stumbling upon one of your articles submitted within a directory can find their way over to your website for more information on that topic.
Articles placed within other site’s newsletters or blogs - By being a guest writer on someone else’s blog or newsletter, you can reach a whole other group of people looking for information on one topic.
You would provide a link to your site within these articles and then reciprocate the favor for the other website owner to provide the same kind of articles on your newsletters or blogs.
Articles on Digg or similar sites - Having one of your articles submitted on Digg.com or a similar type site will gain you more access to your site. Digg is a site that provides articles other internet users have deemed as good informative articles. Those articles that receive a large number of “Diggs” will be pushed to the home page where a lot of users will see and review them. Your site link could be included for those people who want more information on the topic.
Offer E-books or Guides - These can provide your consumers with information on a topic while including a link back to your site to keep them familiar with your business. These can be offered for free or for a small fee.
The word Free can be a powerful word to any user and catch their attention quite easily. You would provide some basic information on a topic and could get them interested in buying an e-Book that has more in-depth information about the same topic.
Socializing for Marketing
One of the more successful ways to find traffic that are looking for what you have to offer is to socialize with others who are like-minded. Here are the most popular ways to socialize for your marketing needs:
Blogging comments - Find other blogs that have the same kind of topic as your website. Post a reply on some of their posts. Your website link will be associated with your name and those looking for more information on that topic will check out your site or blog and see what you have to offer them.
Join forum communities - Find message board communities that have topics that relate to your website. Your website link could go in the signature line allowing others to find their way to site to see what you have. Check with the rules of the board first to make sure this is allowed.
By posting regularly on these forums, you can build credibility as an expert for that topic and gain some trust with some potential consumers who may be thinking about buying from you. Also, the other board members may refer people they know to your site, so make sure you give back as much as you receive with these communities.
Social Networking Sites - Social networking sites include such popular sites like MySpace and Facebook. These sites attract people who are looking for others who are interested in the same things they are.
Internet marketers use them all the time to hook up with people in their target audience. People who have the same interest as you, can communicate and start to build trust with you. They will be more receptive to buy from someone who’s in their “group” or they could pass on your business info. on to other people they know.
Miscellaneous Marketing Techniques
Here are some other techniques to utilize in your marketing campaigns:
Affiliate Programs - Start your affiliate programs for your products. Let other people earn some money by marketing your products for you. More traffic will find their way to your site through someone else’s efforts.
Learn how to start your own successful affiliate program and create a web page on your site for others to sign up to be your affiliates. This is something that you can announce in your newsletters and update messages.
Adwords- Search engines offer this feature to Business owners to purchase advertising space on the search results pages. Every time someone clicks on that ad, you will be charged a certain amount of money to the search engine.
Because you’re paying for the clicks, you will want to provide the most desirable ad possible to increase your return of investment. Poor ads can cost you money, because not everyone who clicks through these ads will want to buy. Keep track of these ads and pull them or revamp them when necessary to avoid losing too much money for your business.
Word of Mouth campaign - This is the easiest marketing technique there is. A simple word of mouth campaign will get people to pass on the information to your business to other people and so on.
This works great for local customers and clients to hear about your business and pass it on to others that may be looking for the same products or information. This is also an inexpensive way to accomplish marketing for your business.
Use Press Releases - This option can be used if you’re just opening your doors or if you’re offering a discount or special sale. Press Releases are submitted to sites that publish them for internet users who are looking for specific information.
They are written as if they’re a news story and they showcase your “news” with eye catching and attention grabbing headlines and information. Your sale, discount or business startup would get plenty of exposure to potential consumers and clients.
A well written press release to announce what you are offering may just be what you need to drive a huge amount of traffic to your business website. Consider having one done on a period basis to help keep your business’ name fresh on people’s minds.
Place an ad in local papers - There’s no rule that says you only have to market on the internet. Why not try marketing locally, by placing ads in local papers. Those advertisements are seen by most everyone that lives within that area and receives that paper.
Sometimes, businesses gain their first sales transactions from local customers, so don’t leave out your local area when planning your marketing campaign.
Podcasting - Podcasting is audio content that people use to provide information that people listen to instead of read. It gives them a different medium to learn about a topic their interested in. People love the option of the podcast to listen to while they do something else and not have to be glued to their computer screen.
Your business gains credibility and trust amongst the listeners. Those listeners can become customers, so your website will be linked to the audio program.
Marketing On The Fun Side
People love to have fun, so why not provide it with your marketing techniques. Here are a few ways you can give it to them:
Run a contest - People will come from all over when a contest is announced. Run one on your blog or site to drive more traffic. You will have to market the contest pretty heavily to get people to hear about it, but once they know they will come running.
Make your contest fun that almost anyone can participate in. Offer a worthwhile prize to the winner of the contest. If you don’t people won’t come running the next time you run a contest or anything for your business.
A contest could be quizzes to take, an internet safari to participate in or just a raffle to draw names in.
Have Promotional products with your business logo - Websites like Cafe press will make products like T-shirts, pens, mugs and even hats with your logo on them. Some of these could be given away as gifts or you could have internet visitors purchase them through a link on your site.
These promotional items could be displayed so that anyone who comes in contact with that item will see your logo and be curious about whose business is on them. They can then search out your site to find out what exactly you offer.
Final Thoughts
Anyone can run their own online business whether you have extensive business experience or not. All you really need is the drive to succeed and the ability to work hard and learn as much as you can about the business you choose to go into.
With the numerous options available for online businesses, you can find one that meets your needs and skills you have to bring to it. Use all the Marketing methods you can to get your business to reach all corners of the internet globe and drive traffic to your site.
The hard work and sweat you put into it initially will be worth it in the end as you can start to relax a little and maybe hire someone else to do some of your daily tasks for you. What better way to earn a living than to hire someone else to do your grunt work for you.
The Internet brings more and more cash making opportunities to business owners every day, so why not get on the bandwagon now and start to reap some of the rewards that other internet marketers are achieving? If they can do it with little experience in the business field, so can you.
I want to thank all of you that followed the entire course. It means a great deal to me. You should congratulate yourselves on willing to put in the effort to learn about online business opportunities and your desire to succeed. Most people never even try. While you were reading this course, they were probably watching a rerun of the show "Friends" for the 800th time. They just don't understand that there is a an opportunity to have a better life for them and their family.
I know you are not like them and want to learn more on how to make online business work for you.
FORTUNATELY THIS IS EASY TO FIX!
Maybe you have already tried a zillion training courses on Internet marketing or DotNetNuke... and most of them have been duds.
I KNOW what that's like. I went through the same thing. All I can say is this:
IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!
See, most training systems are dead-wrong.
In fact, I'd say about 99% of marketing training will actually hurt your chances for success. You see the Gurus usually teach you how they made millions of dollars in some 24 hour launch.
They never really show what tools and tips that it actually took before they reached this million dollar level.
They are in the business of offering massive million dollar launches that contain information that is usually way over our heads and cost thousands and thousands of dollars.
Hey, I am probably going to get banned from their affiliate programs for saying this, But, come on. They are Fortune 500 kinda guys, What are they going to teach me? How to become a Fortune 100 company?
They surely don't show us how to start to make a decent living or to use tools like DotNetNuke to increase our success in our own online business.
Hey, when I started, I would have been ecstatic if somebody had offered to help me learn how to consistently make $10,000 or $20,000 per month and show me the tools and strategies to make it happen. I didn't need zillion dollar pipe dreams. I needed solid information and action plans that would allow me to make a good income and allow me to take care of my wife and two sons.
Let's get real, gurus. Just show me the basics on how to make a good living online.
Well, I covered a lot of ground very quickly in this tutorial and only scratched the surface. If you need help in any of the areas that we discussed, I am not a guru but like you, I had a starting point, worked hard, found mentors, learned the formulas for success, learned how to use the DotNetNuke modules that are important to making my business grow, and really enjoy the fun, freedom and the leisure lifestyle that an online business offers my family.
My son Justin on our fishing trip to Lac Seul, Ontario Canada
P.S. - Do you know the storyline of tonight's episode of FRIENDS? I hope not.
'til next time,
Buck