Pathway to Success in Internet Marketing

Did Lebron James, Tiger Woods (ignore recent antics), Sidney Crosby, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and those like them start out on top? Clearly everyone knows that it took hard work and dedication for these great success stories to achieve their goals. These same principles include everything in life – including Internet home businesses and marketing. I recently read an article asking if article marketing was dead. My response to that is, if you are writing for the purpose of marketing your home based business opportunity, it is dead to you. It is hard when you are first starting out and results are slow and fleeting. But much like the Chaos Theory or the butterfly effect, it is impossible to know what the ultimate tipping point will be to push an Internet entrepreneur over the edge to success. However, failure is imminent if one skips the basics and tries to fast track their way to success. This is the beginning of a series that will help define some of the basic things that should be in the repertoire of all Internet marketers to ensure growth of their home based business opportunity, as well as a well-rounded approach that will protect your home based business idea in the event of the Google Slap. The topics will range from the various forms of free advertising and paid techniques and ways to optimize the their use. Here is a quick overview of the topics to be discussed:
Article Marketing:
This is often overlooked when beginning a legitimate home business as people immediately want to post ads on Google Adwords to get results. Yes, it is going to take time to build anything near the traffic pay-per-click (PPC) can with a collection of articles, but those articles do two things: 1) They build credibility for you as a marketer 2) As a result of the credibility that you establish your future campaigns will be more successful. This is an all important first step to building your online brand. How and why this helps with Search Engine Optimization will be discussed in that particular piece. My favorite sites for posting articles: Better Networker, Ezine, ArticlesBase.
Video Marketing:
The core principles with video marketing are the same to article marketing. The goal is to establish credibility and get your name out there. Videos clearly have the added benefit of introducing your personality to viewers. Yes, some of this can come across in articles and accompanying photos, but seeing you will help them get a feeling for who you are and that you are a real person. Done correctly these can have a powerful impact. A great way to distribute your content: Traffic Geyser.
Social Media:
When Facebook is neck and neck with Google for the most popular website in the world, it is hard to not take notice. Social media is an affective tool in two particular ways. First, with the size of the traffic any business can benefit from advertising on such sites. However, the one piece that is often overlooked is the benefit these site provide in character building. Much like the videos discussed above, social media outlets allow for potential customers to do research and figure out who they are dealing with. Similarly, when networking with friends the topic of profession will often come up – the perfect time to introduce your business. The other king of the industry: Twitter.
Blogging:
This is a must, and quite possibly should be first on the list, but getting in the habit of performing these other tasks will aid in the development of your blog and/or website. You need a hub for which all of your material is linked. It will make it easier to find you and the things you are involved with on the web. An underrated part of this is keeping your material up to date. While some people hate producing content, or don’t see it as revenue generating, having out of date material is a big red flag. When people see a site that has not been updated since 2008, it calls to question how reliable any of the other content may be. Best place to start: WordPress.
Search Engine Optimization:
While this is something that takes time to build, it is imperative to success. If Google Adwords or the like is your only tool, you are leaving a ton of potential customers on the table. Look at this heat map from Eyetools.com. It tracks eye patterns and clearly shows that the majority of the attention is on the free side of the page and even the first 5 listings get more attention than the number one spot on the paid side. Utilizing the above tools religiously and linking them back to your main page will help conquer the beast. Here is a great educational site: Bruce Clay.
Email marketing:
Everyone hates to have a full inbox of junk, but the reason all the emails keep coming is that some of them work. There are techniques that can be used to make yours stand out. This is also a very good way to get some cheap practice for PPC. A couple of good sites that you can jump on to get started: List Joe, Viral URL.
Stay in touch with your list:
First off, if you are not keeping in regular contact with those who asked for information from you, why not? If you cannot get those who are already interested to buy your products, how do you expect to get others. And if you are not keeping a list, start today. This is a great way to establish a report with your potential customers and get your home based business opportunity off the ground. You can get started here: Aweber.
PPC:
Last, and definitely not least, is PPC. This is the focus of many online marketers, but I feel it should be the capstone of all of the steps taken above to provide a well-balanced Internet home business. The numbers don’t lie, and this can be a very profitable way to market your business, however there are many steps that should be taken to assure that you do not lose an inordinate amount of money testing ideas – whether that is from paying too much for ads that don’t produce, or from passing up on what would have been a successful campaign. Since Google is the king, start here: Perry Marshall: The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords.