Perhaps a quick introduction and a handy disclaimer is the best
way to start this article on Internet marketing. Mainly because
you should know who is talking and you should definitely know
what you're getting yourself into...
I have been a full-time online marketer for over 5 years now, and
I run 9 or 10 sites on the wwww - wonderful world wide web. I
make a very respectable living and I enjoy every minute of it.
But if you're under the impression that all you have to do is to
slap some content together and place it on a web site and watch
the money roll in; then you are sadly mistaken. Don't get the
wrong impression, you can become a successful online marketer,
but it will take a lot of time and work on your part. It just
doesn't happen overnight, at least, this has been my experience
and we can only write about our own experiences and views.
Over the years, I have also found it helpful to get pointers from
someone who is actually doing what we want to do. So below I have
put together 7 Tips for becoming a successful online marketer.
Knowledge Up
The whole concept of online marketing may seem quite simple, just
place some content or product onto a website and you're in
business. The reality is quite different. It may take you years
to learn all the complex techniques and tactics to compete in the
online marketplace, which is becoming more and more competitive
as more companies and individuals discover its great potential.
Sure we have all heard stories of people who come up with a great
idea and make an online fortune very quickly. People also win the
lottery... but if you want to become a successful online marketer
you first have to learn your trade.
You have to acquire all the knowledge you can on Internet
Marketing. Read articles and ebooks, take online e-courses, study
and examine successful websites and/or marketers... there is a
wealth of marketing information on the web. Just find it and use
it. When I was first learning all the ropes, I made tons of
mistakes but I was fortunate enough to come into contact with
some successful online marketers who were actually doing what I
wanted to do. People like Marlon Sanders, Ken Evoy, Corey Rudl,
Neil Shearing, Brad Callens... I quickly became acquainted with
these individuals and learned everything I could from them.
This was not out of the ordinary or hard to accomplish, since all
these marketers have comprehensive affiliate training programs to
show even the most novice webmaster or marketer the ropes, most
of these programs are free because these marketers want to teach
you how to sell their products. This is a very simple way to get
a quick education on how to market online. I personally liked the
numerous free ebooks offered thru Ken Evoy's SiteSell program...
many of these will drive you bonkers, especially if you're new
at this game, but only because they are so comprehensive and
thorough - all the information can be a little overwhelming to
say the least. But if you can work you way through some of
SiteSell's free marketing manuals and ebooks, you will get the
basic knowledge to further your goal of becoming an online
marketer.
Find Your Niche Market or Subject
Unless you already have a product or business you wish to market
online, then your first task will be finding a good niche market
or subject which you can explore and exploit on the web. Best
advice, find something that you already have a strong interest in
such as a favorite hobby or past-time, an area where you already
have special training or something you always wanted to study and
examine. This niche market or subject will take up countless
hours of your time, so you have to really pick something you like
doing. The major point here, if you're doing something you like,
it won't seem like work.
No matter which subject area you choose, you must check out the
commercial viability of your topic. In other words, if you want
to be successful, there must be enough commercial interest in
your market or subject. There must be enough people searching for
your product each month so that it's viable. Use a program like
WordTracker or Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find the number of
searches made each month for a keyword. Keywords are words or
phrases web users type into search engines to find what they're
looking for on the web. You must have plenty of good searchable
keywords relating to your subject in order for it to be workable.
Another Keyword tool I like using is Microsoft's Detecting
Online Commercial Intention, which tells you the probability a
certain keyword or site will have enough commercial potential
customers who will purchase a product or service. http://adlab.msn.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/Default.aspx.
Google Up!
Google is the most important player on the web. While you
shouldn't ignore the other search engines, I would suggest you
learn everything you can about how Google both indexes and ranks
pages on the web. Getting a number one or even a top 5 listing
for your chosen keywords in Google, can make or break your online
business. Google simply sends/controls the majority of the
quality search traffic on the web, get those top rankings in
Google and you will succeed.
Now Google gives webmasters many valuable webmaster tools and
devotes a whole section to help webmasters with their sites. One
valuable resource which is loaded with helpful information is
Google Webmaster Tools. Use it! Also, if you're just starting
out, another good resource is Google's "Search Engine
Optimization Starter Guide", which is a handy pdf file you can
download.
Always, keep in mind, Google is only like any other company
supplying a product and in this case the product is their SERPs
(Search Engine Results Pages), so the higher the quality of your
content and pages - the higher your rankings in Google will be.
Of course, seasoned webmasters know quality one-way backlinks is
one of the most important keys to getting high rankings in
Google. But it all comes back to quality, if you have quality
content, people will bookmark it in all the social media sites,
and related webmasters will link to your quality content. This
does really happen, so creating high quality content should be
your first and most important SEO strategy.
Building Your Site
Regardless of what kind of site you're building, you must follow
some very simple SEO rules. Make sure your site's structure can
be easily navigated by both your visitors and the search engines.
Try to keep your site's hierarchy simple, with all your pages
reachable from the home page. Most webmasters only use three
levels - homepage, topics and sub-topics - with all pages linking
back to your homepage and no more than 3 clicks away from it. It
is also a good idea to have a sitemap link on each page so that
you don't leave your visitors stranded. Check with Google's
Starter Guide for more information on how to create a proper
lay-out.
Personally, as an online marketer I seek out the top searched for
keywords in my niche, and then create pages around that keyword
or keyword phrase. This ensures you're getting targeted
visitors/customers to your pages. You can have hundreds of these
keyworded pages on your site and connect all these pages together
in a thematic arrangement so that the search engines can easily
find and rank them.
As for choosing a domain name, I also try to get my main targeted
keyword in the domain. This helps tremendously with your search
engine rankings because every backlink will have your main
keyword in the URL. This will tell the search engines exactly
what your site is about. Again, if you're brand new at this, I
would suggest you use a program like WordPress, which is free
blogging software you can use to create a blog site. Another
option, is to purchase or buy a SiteBuildIt hosting package from
SiteSell, but this is more than just hosting, it's a complete
online marketing system you can use. It will take you
step-by-step through the whole creation and marketing of your
site or business on the web.
Promoting Your Site
This is probably the hardest part of online marketing, but it is
something which is essential to its success. Too many
webmasters/marketers build a fantastic site and then sit around
and wait for the visitors/customers to pour in. Sad fact is,
unless you actually get out there and promote your site you will
get very little, if any traffic. Of course, there are exceptions,
some sites instantly attract visitors and acquire countless
backlinks just by word of mouth, but for the most part this
simply doesn't happen.
You have to actively promote your site and URL. One method that I
use is article marketing - writing simple helpful articles and
distributing them all over the web. These articles have keyworded
links back to your site. Simple and effective way to get your
site out there. Another free way to promote your site is to tie
it in with all the social media and bookmarking sites, so use
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube... to promote your site.
Videos also have become very effective recently and you should be
taking advantage of their great potential. So too is using a
simple social bookmark program like the Addthis Button, which
lets your visitors bookmark and build your backlinks for you.
Google seems to be paying special attention to how many social
bookmarks/links your site is receiving. It is a simple form of
voting for the quality of your content if actual web users see it
and bookmark/recommend it to their friends. The more Tweets,
Diggs... your content gets, the higher it will rank in the search
engines, besides all those links bring in targeted traffic, which
is what you want.
Monetizing Your Site
There are countless way to monetize or make money from your
website once you have a steady flow of traffic coming to your
site. We are not talking about tons of traffic here, a site
getting just 100 or 200 visitors a day can prove very profitable.
Personally, I like choosing affiliate programs which give a
residual or have a re-occurring element to their payments. Make
one sale and get paid for years to come, I am still receiving
monthly payments from sales I made 5 years ago. So if you decide
to place affiliate links on your pages, try to go with a company
or program which gives you residual income for the life of the
referred customer.
I also like promoting high-end affiliate products simply because
the commissions are obviously higher. Why sell a $20 item, when
you can sell a $2000 one? Of course, there are countless
strategies to marketing online, if you sell 100's of that $20
item, you still end up in the same place. As for finding
affiliate products to promote I like using the major affiliate
networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare, Shareasale,
ClickBank, Affiliate Window... these networks are totally
professional, do all your tracking and give you valuable
information on how to market online.
Another very simple way to monetize your pages is to use Google
Adsense, now the payments won't be as high as with promoting
affiliate products but using Adsense is a simple and quick way to
monetize all your pages. I also find Adsense very consistent and
totally reliable, besides getting that check from Google each
month, always puts a smile on my face.
Track Everything That Moves
Another major key to online marketing success is having extensive
tracking in place. You must track where your visitors are coming
from and what keywords they're using to find your site. And what
they do once they hit your site. I like using Google Analytics
for tracking all my content but I don't just depend on
Analytics, I also use all hosting stats such as Awstats,
Webalizer... I also regularly check my site's traffic logs and
daily visitors.
All this tracking tells me what's working and more importantly,
what's not working. Check your bounce rate and the amount of
time people spend on your site as these are more than likely
ranking factors. Also check how fast your site loads, Google is
said to be making this another ranking factor which they use to
rank your pages.
Carefull reading of your site's stats and logs will show you
which keywords are profitable and making you money. Then you have
to simply fine-tune your marketing to target those lucrative
keywords or phrases. Keep building your rankings for those
keywords over a period of time and you will be successful.
Bonus Step: Persistence Brings Home The Bacon
I couldn't finish this article without mentioning another key
element to succeeding on the web - persistence. Maybe it's just
me, but it took me around three years before any of my sites
became really profitable. Now most marketers and webmasters
become profitable in much shorter periods, but I still believe it
takes time to build a solid online business. It takes time to
build up your customer base, it takes time to build up your
rankings in all the search engines.
Guess, what I am saying is this: if you expect overnight success,
you're setting yourself up for disappointment. But if you take a
long-term strategy and build your site and marketing up over a
matter of months, more likely years, then you have a much better
chance of becoming successful. Mainly because, you're not just
building a site, you're building an online business that will
take some time to become established and it may even take more
time to become prosperous. Be persistent and you will succeed.
Titus Hoskins is a full time online affiliate marketer who
operates numerous niche sites, as well as two sites on
Internet Marketing, where you can get valuable marketing tips
for free: http://www.marketingtoolguide.com/
or try here http://www.bizwaremagic.com/.
Copyright (c) 2010 Titus Hoskins.
