Internet marketing - Putting an Online and offline models together. Part 2

So what are these 3 big steps you need to take? Here they are:

1) First you have to have a crystal clear picture in your mind of exactly what you want to do. What do you want to sell, and what do you want your store to look like? Spend some time dreaming, so you can see everyone who is in your store and what they are buying. Your store needs four walls, a floor, doors and windows, and a roof. You need to decide on size, the first step is to figure out what you want to sell. You think about what people in your town need and buy regularly, the availability of these products in other well established stores, and decide on your niche and your location. Maybe it's bread, canned goods, cereals, candy, ice cream, soda, milk, and cigarettes on a busy corner near a residential area with no other store in walking distance. Maybe it's a natural food store in a yuppie neighborhood. Maybe it's gas and snack foods near a highway.

2) Secondly, you have to understand what you need to have in place to make that dream come true, and how you're going to do it. What does your store need by way of infrastructure? You need shelves, freezers and refrigerated cases, a counter and a cash register. Probably you need a small office and bathroom as well. You need electricity, lighting, heat, air conditioning, desk, chair, phone, fax, maybe some music, paint, flooring, security cameras and so on.

Once you decide on the layout of the store, you will know what size of a building you need to build, buy or rent. How are you going to finance this, and how will you afford to stock your store, from savings or from a loan?

3) Assuming that you now have a fully-stocked and operational store, how will you get people to shop there? You could advertise in newspapers, radio and tv; put up signs; offer door prizes and/or sales; offer free advice and information (recipes, menus, shopping lists, health and nutrition information, diet information); sponsor events (a booksigning by a famous cookbook author, co-sponsor a food related festival); build familiarity and trust by joining social, charity or business clubs, or volunteering at local events.

Fine and good, you say, but I still don't know how to make money online. Let's take the example we just developed and convert it to online business.

We will take an example we just developed and convert it to online business in other posts in series of "Putting an Online and offline models together".

Internet marketing - Putting an online and an offline models together. Part 1

If you're just starting out in internet marketing, you probably feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information available. The learning curve is less like a hill and more like a cliff! If you've been at this business for a while, you may be frustrated that you're still not making any money, or not enough money. You may be wondering why no one is reading your ads, or why all those visitors to your site are not buying anything and not returning. Where do you start? How do you convert the casual visitor to a return customer?

Relax and breathe. None of us was born an internet marketer. We all have to start someplace. A great place to start is by looking at something you already DO know, offline business. We all shop somewhere. Pick a store you're familiar with, maybe the grocery store where you shop at least once a week. Pick a small store to focus on, not a huge supermarket. Now pretend that's just an empty lot or building, and you're an aspiring grocer. What do you need to do?

There's 3 big steps you need to take. We will discus it tomorrow.

Marketing online

Are you fully leveraging the power of the Internet with your marketing efforts?

It's kind of amazing, but I still meet lots of small business owners who don't think the Internet is crucial for their success. "I'm just a small local business. I don't think the Internet is necessarily the right place for me to focus my marketing efforts." I'm still hearing this sentiment from many a small business owner.

Hey, I was one of those people for almost a year with my own business. And I've set my stall out as a small business marketing guy.

Listen, whether you're trying to get people's attention from half-way around the world or just half-way around the block, you need to consider the power of the Internet. More and more people are turning to the Internet before (or in lieu of ever) turning to the yellow pages. That's true even when they're looking for things in their own town.

It's a place where people go to begin gathering information to make a decision. It's the place where people prefer to start when someone has made a referral or recommendation. It's the place people would generally prefer to go after they've met you at a networking event and were interested enough to know more.

The Internet is not going away. In fact, the trends show us that it's becoming a more and more integral part of the communication media we depend on. Anybody notice how interested the cable companies, phone companies, and cell phone service companies have become in putting out products and services that work with the Internet?

Are you fully leveraging the power of the Internet with your marketing efforts yet? Do you have a web site? Email newsletter? Blog? Podcast? Vlog?

Does the mere mention of all these terms intimidate and overwhelm you? Don't let it.

You don't have to do all of these things at once. Make this the year that you begin leveraging the Internet to grow your small business.

But, the power of the Internet is something you simply can't ignore if you really want to take your business to great new heights. Make a commitment to learn more about this powerful, ever changing medium called the Internet. And then pull out your marketing plan and figure out how to make it fit into your strategy.

Internet niche marketing - why it's so important

"Say your target customers are everyone, and you will sell to no one."

If your website is not producing as much revenue as you'd like, chances are you're guilty of not targeting your audience sufficiently.

Today’s business environment is so competitive that a small business's best bet is to focus on developing niche products where there is less competition from large firms.

Take the online book market. Amazon.com dominates the field, so smaller start-ups are wise to focus on books in specific niches. There are sites for best sellers, out of print books, used books, Oprah's Books, teen books, 3-D popup books, e-books, Christian books, and so on and on. Imagine a small company trying to compete with Amazon's huge inventory and variety. Then imagine that same company aiming for more depth in a much smaller field.

Another reason for niche websites is because you want to get listed in the top 100 sites on any particular search engine. By making a website based around a highly focused niche you reduce considerably the number of competitors that you have. This makes it easier to rank well in the search engines (first 3 pages, or top 100 sites).  Without a high Website ranking it is not possible to attract free search engine traffic and hence free visitors.

If you’re an affiliate that thinks big and joins dozens of programs, you’re in for a bit of a shock. Your site is indistinguishable from a myriad others, no one knows it exists, and you’re very lonely. Am I right?

You need to promote what you join, and it’s impossible to promote that many programs effectively. You won’t succeed at any of them, you’ll lose interest, and your business will disappear.

Instead, you need to focus on one thing that you love and create a lot of good content.

Everyone who has a website is constantly trying to improve their search engine rankings by carrying out optimization and getting inbound links etc. However one of the easiest ways is to create content that no one else has- unique content. Unique content written for an extremely focused niche market is a sure ticket to promotional success.

If your website contains your main keywords as well as a variety of related ones, used in a natural way throughout your pages, you will outperform your competition with fewer, less targeted pages.  Using all these keywords throughout your pages also makes your content more interesting, rational, and satisfying. Imagine that...the question isn’t whether you simply occupy a niche, but how much obscure secret stuff you know about it, how much of an expert you are about it, how passionate you are about it, and if your site is interactive and fresh.

Yet another example of "build it and they will come."

Internet marketing - how it works?

Interested in Internet marketing or network marketing, unsure, what it is, or even how it works? Is it a modern day version of a pyramid structure that is right now on the Internet? No, it is not a pyramid scheme it is a network of people who promote products. You probably have been one of those buyers. The way that internet marketing functions is that several individuals have an extensive knowledge of products that are going to sold. This is not the same as going into a shop and requesting a sales person for information on a product, they after that look at you as if you came from another planet, and they have no idea how to response your question. Those with these details teach others to be as knowledgeable as they are and then they do teach people and so on. While the teaching takes place, every representative will promote these products by using word of mouth and everyone profits financially.

Multi-level internet marketing (MLM) varies because they are a large company that will train people to sell a product and then these fresh representatives will educate another when they have learned about the products and each succeeds at several levels of compensation. In MLM the businesses financial growth doesn't depend on the number of products sold their income proceeds from the amount of individuals who are a part of their organization providing the products although they actually require that the products are only sold through multi-level marketing (MLM) business.

In order to increase to the top of organization in the economy of today you usually have to work for them all your life and that is not done as much as it was executed 50 years ago. Most workers are usually in search of the better off and will not hesitate to leave the firm they are with if they are offered a better financial package. This is one of the draws of multi level marketing that they can make a residual profits for the rest of their existence and work it as either fulltime or part-time. You can perform a current job and do internet marketing on the side till you are ready to perform network marketing full time. What most people like about this sort of earnings is that there are no barriers to the amount of money you can make or any type of discrimination or the idea of not having enough qualifications. The risk is low, the financial requirement to begin with is low, and you don't need to restock items. Your primary investment is a good work ethic plus a motivation to meet new people and let them know how their lives can change for the better.