Many online marketers fail because they do not know what their business is. Those who write ebooks and short reports believe they are in the ebook information business, while software creators or marketers both think their business is software. Neither one is even close.

When people trying to run a business do not have a clear idea of what that business actually is they will be unable to produce business plans, write compelling sales copy or build a loyal following. In short, they will not have a business at all.

Regardless of what your product is, your only business is MARKETING. It doesn't matter if your business is online or in a retail store in a mall. Your business is MARKETING. Successful marketers develop a marketing mindset. No one was born with it. They learned how to think like a marketer and to make decisions marketers need to make.

Your first step in this process is to develop a marketer's mindset, rather than an ebook seller's mindset, for example. If you've been selling products on eBay or on your own website, you've probably been consumed by finding interested niches, driving traffic, testing ads for conversion rates and building a list. As necessary as those tasks are, they are the product of a seller's mindset and, while you might make some sales with that mindset, your business will not soar to new heights.

In order to develop a powerful marketing mindset, you have to learn to focus on the one question that will govern every step you take online. All of your business decisions have to be looked at though this question: "How will this action provide true benefits and create loyalty among my customers?" If you cannot provide an answer to that question, you might want to rethink your plan of action.

For all the planning, designing, researching and testing that goes into a successful marketing campaign, the customer is actually in charge of your business. All your success depends on a sale of your products or services and that is 100% dependent on your customer and THEIR needs.

When you develop a successful marketer's mindset, you will understand the motivations that make your customers buy from you. You have to find out what they need and what they want before you start offering products to them. If you are a member of several forums, read the questions that are asked in any category and focus on providing solutions to them. That's a ready-made, customer-driven market for your specific answers provided as a short report, longer ebook or services.

In the past, marketing was all about selling products to a constantly changing market made up of anonymous customers who made a purchase and disappeared. Giant sales based on holidays or current events were designed to bring that anonymous customer back to the store or service to make another purchase. The customers were still anonymous.

Today's marketplace, the worldwide Internet, has demanded a shift from anonymous marketing to building personal, nurturing relationships with customers and that demands exceptional, over-the-top customer service, to start with. Your customers need to develop a personal, trusting relationship with you or they won't even open your emails and, eventually, will just unsubscribe. Click...Gone!

What used to be an Internet of quickly-built, simple web pages promoting products to an anonymous audience no longer exists. The new marketing principles are based on a social Web, with people interacting directly with each other and mega businesses. Open communication and honest answers have become the driving force behind any online relationship.

Those relationships are dynamic, vital and dependent on the customer's behavior, attitudes and interests. Now, a single customer in a very small town, way out in the country someplace, can reach out and grab the attention of a mega company on the other side of the globe and have an effect on their customer service or the products they provide.

Now that's worth thinking about!
 

Have you ever noticed that some internet marketers don't practice what they preach?

They go on and on with what sounds like really good advice and then you notice that they don't follow the business model or best business practice they're touting.

Here are some examples:

They say...Don't send your list promotion after promotion. 

They do...Promotion after promotion. 

You don't have to bother opening their email after awhile; you know what's going to be in it - a promotion for their buddy's new product.

Send the people on your list meaty valuable content and sprinkle in some promotions.

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They say...You should be blogging on a regular basis to build your brand.

They do...Not keep up with their own blogging.

Are they just too busy? Is blogging really not a good business model?

Blogging can be a great platform for building your brand by giving information that shows you're an expert and by doing it in a way that shows your personality. People like that and will not only follow you but buy your products. It's also the place to sell affiliate products, do honest product reviews and show a personal picture or two.

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They say...Use article marketing to drive traffic to your site.

They do...No article marketing.

While it's true some of them may still do article marketing under a pen name, many have moved on to easier and more lucrative ways to bring traffic in. They may have established a good following and don't have to constantly write articles. 

Article marketing can definitely work, but it's harder than it seems and there are a lot of nuances you need to know, like how to make your title bring in readers and how to craft your bio so people will click on your link. And be aware article marketing is not the only way to generate traffic.

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They say...Put AdSense on your sites and you will make some good money from that.

They do...Little, if any, AdSense on their sites.

They use the space to advertise their own products, affiliate products, and paid product ads.

The reality is Google is not going to fill your pockets with AdSense money unless you practice a little search engine optimization, use some awesome longtail keywords, and get the necessary traffic.

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They say...You've got to create a product, load an autoresponder, bring in traffic, and so on.

They do...Not tell you how to do it.

You can't build your business on "you shoulds". 

If you don't know how to do something find a mentor, hire someone to do the more difficult aspects, or look at YouTube for an instructional video.

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They say...You should do blah, blah, blah on your website.

They do...None of what they just told you to do.

Sometimes you'll read or listen to someone's words of wisdom and when you check to see if they've done it, it's obvious they haven't. If they aren't doing what they tell you to do it makes you wonder... Are they purposefully leading you off course? Are they just spouting words they've heard others preach? Do they not know how to technically do it? Are they just trying to sell the latest and greatest but would never use it themselves? How does this make you feel about that marketer?

Now, if they tell you to do something and admit it's something they need to work on too, then it's all okay.


The bottom line is if you're going to preach, then preach what you practice. And when others are preaching to you, listen to what they say and form your own judgment. Some of what marketers are preaching is yesterday's news and not what really works in today's marketing. Another thing to consider is that your circumstances may be different.

As an online business owner, finding new ways to increase website traffic should be one of your top priorities. There are literally hundreds of ways to generate traffic. Some methods are free and some can be quite costly. The free methods are fine to use if you don’t have a lot of money starting out. But when the profits start coming in, you should invest some of that money back into your business with some great paid traffic generation methods.

Below are some vital things you must do if you want to get and keep quality visitors – before you even think about paying for your traffic.

One of the most effective ways to increase website traffic is to offer original, quality content on your site.  You should have information on your site that visitors cannot find anywhere else. Make sure the content is useful. Give out information that will help your visitors solve a problem, achieve a goal or be entertained. Update your site at least weekly with more quality information to keep it fresh.

Another way to get website traffic is to focus your content on the keywords related to your site.  This is called search engine optimization or SEO. The importance of SEO cannot be stressed enough. Don’t just stuff a bunch of keywords onto your site and think that you have optimized it. You want to make sure the keywords you use flow naturally within the content. Be careful not to overdo it with too many keywords because this can result in very low search engine rankings. SEO is a fine balance of the right keywords, in the right amount, placed in the right areas on your site. Become proficient at SEO and you will be unstoppable.

Now that you have your search engine optimized site up with original, quality, content, it’s time to get linked. This is a very powerful way to increase website traffic. Exchange your website link with other sites that are closely related to your site. Just be careful to only exchange links with high quality sites. You don’t want to ruin your online reputation by having links to junk sites on your website. By exchanging links with a website that is already doing a lot of traffic, you can get a lot of traffic of your own. This method is free and it works fast.

Finally, you need to advertise. There are hundreds of ways you can advertise your website. Find out ways to advertise from a reputable Internet marketer. This information will be like gold to you. Use the methods that he or she recommends and you can have thousands of visitors to your site each day.

Getting website traffic may seem like an impossible task at first. But the more you learn about traffic generation methods, the easier it will become. One thing that any website owner has got to learn is patience. Traffic doesn’t usually appear overnight. It builds up over time. As long as you are seeing a steady increase in the amount of traffic your site is getting, you are doing things right.

If you've been looking for simple, yet powerful ways to drive more traffic to your website - without spending a lot of money to do it - then you're in for real treat.  For a limited time, internet marketer Justin Michie is giving away a FREE report that shows you how he generates 100’s of thousands of unique visitors each month and how you can do the same.

For more information, or to download your free copy, please click here.

One of the major costs of any business start-up is advertising. No one will buy your product if they don’t know that you exist. But, Internet Marketing takes money, right? Yes it does usually, but if your funds are limited, you can find ways to get started without spending any money.

To market for free online you have to start thinking free. What would entice you to try someone’s service or product? I look for information all the time on the Internet about how to get started in this or how to improve that. The one thing I hate to see (and I did say hate) is an offer to buy a program where some information should be.

I am more likely to revisit a website if they give me something to work with. Sure I will buy your product, but if I want information, I’m not going to pay when I am not sure it is even the information that I need. Consider giving potential customers a little taste with some tidbits to whet the appetite.

Offer free e-courses on your site. A site that is geared towards selling crafting supplies could offer e-courses in how to sew, or how to create crafts for flea markets. The e-courses should be geared around your product. You have told them about creating crafts and making money at flea markets, so they will now come back and buy their crafting supplies from you to get started.

Let’s say that I wanted to know how to grow vegetables. I need an easy guide. I would pay for that guide on your website but not without some proof that the information would be to my advantage. Upload free videos for customers to watch on various aspects of growing vegetables. The videos could be about choosing the right seeds or when to plant. You don’t have to steal information from your guide, but demonstrate other things that are important to vegetable growing that they would be interested in.

Give your customers an offer they can’t refuse. For a certain dollar amount spent, they get a free report on a choice of subjects. Have contests where the condition for entering is joining a free forum on your website. Once they are there, you can reel them in with other advertising strategies.

There are other ways to get the word out and keep people coming back to your website. Join social networking sites, forums and post on message boards. Talk about your business and what it offers to customers. Never miss a chance to advertise what you do and how people can find out more about it.

Internet Marketing in ways that take very little to no money involves creativity. With the entire world at our fingertips via the Internet, we can market our product in a number of places without spending a fortune doing so.

by Kathleen Gage

Recently I received an email message that went something like this, “I want to do exactly what you are doing in my business.” Come to find out what this person wanted to “do” was make lots of money using the Internet without having to work at it.

I almost fell out of my chair. I wasn’t sure if it was from the fact that I was now in my tenth hour of working that day and I was tired or being taken off balance by my surprise at this person’s belief that you don’t have to work at something to be successful. I don’t know why this would really surprise me as I have been hearing people say this type of thing for years.

The fact is my business did extremely well in 2004 and much of that has to do with my knowledge and use of the Internet in my overall marketing. It also had to do with the fact I am very systematic in my approach to building my business.

More times than not, people who are successful online and off have systems in place. The fact is anyone, yes anyone, can increase revenues substantially by incorporating the use of the Internet into overall marketing. However, to think you don’t have to do anything and reap unbelievable benefit is the great frustration of those of us who are using the Internet effectively.

Increasing revenues using the power of the Internet takes vision, planning and implementation. All of this is connected to your systems.

Do you have systems in place?

If so, how effective are they?

Are you consistent with what you do?

Do you track your results?

Do you think in the short term or long term with your systems?

Anyone who is succeeding using the Internet in their marketing has effective systems in place, they are consistent, they track results and they think in both short term strategies and long term.

Do you?

Kathleen Gage is an award winning keynote speaker, author and business advisor specializing in marketing and promotions. She is the recipient of the Home Based Business of the 2004 Year in Utah. Access Gage’s’s FREE eBook "Street Smarts eMarketing Tips Guaranteed to Jump Start Your Internet Presence to Put You Miles Ahead of the Competition" at http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm

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