As John Gaule said, ?A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.?
Wow not so much of a revelation, but for me a round about internet journey.
Wow not so much of a revelation, but for me a round about internet journey.
The reason for me becoming involved with Internet marketing in the beginning wasn't because I wanted to crack the Google code or steal affiliate sales, or make $30 0000 in a day. It was purely to gain an international market for my artwork.
I had dabbled in Ebay, listing my artworks for various prices for over a 12 month period, but the fees far outweighed my success in selling any of my artworks. Finally what killed me off with Ebay was a potential $10,000 sales to Hungry, which almost sent me packing my bags to deliver the item personally only to find alas the buyer was hooked up with a doggy Escrow service. This was a disheartening event as it could have been the difference between finally cracking a big sale and leap frogging my work into the international arena.
So this is when I became disillusioned by the Ebay experience and went back to concentrate on growing traffic for my art based product store. I had never really considered how proper marketing online could enhance my business.
I have to admit however I didn't get the process right in the first place. It had been suggested to me that driving traffic was the key. Although important in the process this isn't the only aspect in developing a business online you should follow particularly for a small business or home based business.
There are more important steps to take and understand before you launch yourself into the traffic generation arena, because if you have any doubts with your personal direction you can quickly be distracted if not ripped off for a product or advice you can actually find for free yourself if your prepared to do some research.
If I was to begin all over again this is what I'd do. With my business plan and yes you need one online as well. I would test market my idea by creating blogs and articles as I am now doing. Work with the tools that you can find for free via the back office of your Google email account to explore your idea and concepts. If you take the time to research as much information that is available to you from the beginning the less likely you are to fall for scams or mediocre products or programs sold at high velocity on many traffic generation and social networks.Do your home work, work with Google Key Word search, find out what people are interested in. This may mean you need to refine your business or just purely your tags attached to blogs or articles. Work with Google Analytics as this not only gives you a wealth of information about who is looking at your information it also allows you to try out different variations on your idea or business Niche.
Importantly with your Google email account business plan and blog sites join up with an auto-responder/ email service. This is important for numerous reasons mainly as this grows your contacts and sales market. If you are going to spend some money this is where you should start. Make sure you are include optin and subscriber applications within your blogs. This could take the form of some free information or products.
Work with your direct interest and passions. This is really the same when starting any business. You need to be able to be enthusiastic when it comes to the information you are sending out to the world. It also helps you stay interested in what you are trying to achieve whether this is sales for your services, advice, products or affiliate sales.
Remember keep an eye on the Google Key Word search to keep you up-to-date with current trends.
Get connected and build a real relationship with people online. Comment on other peoples work, blog and articles. Don’t go crazy or be too pushy with your sales.
Let people get to know you.
Work and look for free tools that will enhance the look of your personal, blog and business
pages. This can make a big difference to your credibility and if you don’t have a good knowledge about creating your own graphics do a quick search online as there is some great free content out there to use. Including buttons, icons, widgets, images and other applications that will enhance your blogs and sites.Importantly when you are starting out you don’t have to fork out too much money to have a web-site. Your web-site can be your blog and you can even buy the .com version to make the blog look more legitimate. Buying the rites to your .com name will not break your budget. Before you start to create your blog, look around at some of the free xml template sites on the Internet. There are some very interesting designs that you can use. If you have the skills you can adapt and learn how to create your own dynamic designs. The great things about blogs and sights like Blogger / Wordpress and others is that you don’t need to be a programming wiz kid to make your site fully functional and collecting the right sort of information about your potential customers.
Make sure you include adsense as part of your content as this is where you can start to make some money with your blogs. This is again another area that is good for you to study before you put pen to paper.
Now about Adwords I am not expert when it comes to this tool. I know there are people who have lost quite a lot of money with this service, so believe it is very important to do your research before forking out too much money with this service.
Here are a couple of links about this process:
http://www.adwordshowtos.com/learn/become-adwords-expert.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?Adwords-Advice-For-Amateurs&id=409087
http://www.squidoo.com/freewebtraffic
Mind you this is part of my next learning curve and the above are the links I’d start with.
If you a looking for some ideas then please come and check out Daily Niche Ideas it is a good place to learn more techniques and strategies.
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