You may use this image in your ezine or website if you choose to publish my article. Click here to see the picture full-sized.--- Kamau Austin

If you are new to Internet marketing, or even a seasoned web pro, 
the correct promotional usage of applications like RSS, blogs, 
viral marketing, and ezines, can be confusing.  Often web gurus 
and pundits overwhelm new website owners with too many advanced 
Internet marketing concepts.

New website owners are constantly bombarded with a lot of 
information overload, and are unsure exactly how to get their 
Internet businesses off the ground.

Even seasoned pros may need to be reminded of some steps they may 
have overlooked, or forgotten in helping them establish their 
online presence.  

Are you confused about what essential eCommerce elements should 
be in place to launch your online business? Are you unsure of the 
most effective marketing mix for your website?

Usually the following basic ten steps are essential for spring 
boarding your Internet businesses to eventual online success.

These ten steps are especially important for those new to 
Internet marketing. 

1. Topical Research

The first thing you should do is search engine keyword research, 
forum and group observation, and eBay discovery.  You are looking 
to see if there is enough interest online in the business you are 
launching.

Use http://www.Wordtracker.com and the http://www.Overture.com 
(now Yahoo! Search Marketing) suggestion tools to find if people 
are searching for or buying the products and services you will 
provide.

Examine Yahoo! groups and forums like About.com, to see if there 
are significant numbers of people interested in what you will be 
offering.  When you visit these groups pay special attention to 
the problems people face.

Remember you will have a better chance for a viable business if 
you look to solve people's problems.  See if you can create 
products and services to solve problems like the ones you 
observed in the forums.

Discover if your item sells on eBay.  You want to sign up and do 
an advanced search on eBay to see how many sales closed on items 
or services related to yours.

Most importantly you want to note related items sold on eBay and 
at what price.

Make sure there are other businesses making money in the market 
niche or sector in which your business will operate to make a 
profit. The best way to do this is to see if similar businesses 
are advertising on a consistent basis.

Advertising is very expensive, especially Pay-Per-Click 
advertising.  Therefore observe whether other businesses are 
buying advertising in your business sector.

If they buy advertising over a significant amount of time, be 
assured that they are making enough money to reinvest into 
advertising.  If there are a lot of long-term advertisers on the 
search engines related to your business sector, you more than 
likely are entering a viable Internet market.

2. Brush Up On Your Web Site Copywriting

Take some copywriting courses online and learn to sell the 
benefits and later features of your service.  A good place to do 
this is http://www.adcopywriting.com or 
http://www.successdoctor.com .

Despite the move to broadband services by many net users, there 
are still bandwidth constants for audio and video online. 
Therefore what you write on your site will primarily compel your 
website users to buy your products or services.

If you overlook the power of compelling sales copy on your 
website you will diffuse the impact of your online sales message. 
In short your business will suffer from a lack of sales. 

3. Familiarize Yourself with HTML

Go to a community college or adult training program and learn 
HTML.  It is very easy, and only takes a few evenings to learn. 
You don't have to become an expert. Just learn the basics.

You will have a hard time optimizing your site for the search 
engines without knowing basic HTML.

By learning the basics of HTML you understand how it relates to 
putting your keywords into things like Title, Meta and Heading 
Tags.  Also you will better understand concepts like placing your 
keywords into your anchor text.

Another reason it is a good idea to learn HTML is to install a 
Popup script.  You want a script the popup blockers cannot stop.

You will need to know HTML to create a form on your site, or 
install a popup window that the popup blockers can't stop.

4. Create No Stop Popups to Capture eMail Addresses

Although popups are controversial they work!  Unless you are a 
copywriting genius and can create irresistible squeeze pages, use 
classy and unstoppable popups.

Popups are usually up to ten times more effective than 
traditional forms on web pages!

Plus they are more bearable with a cookie to show them only once 
a session on your website.  You must of course have a valuable 
offer with your ezine to get your site visitors to share their 
email addresses.

Most Internet marketers would agree, to be successful in 
developing an Internet business you have to develop a responsive 
email list.  Your ability to sell and profit online is in direct 
relation to the responsiveness of your list.

In most cases you will have to learn to sell people on joining 
your ezine or email list, before you learn to sell other products 
and services on your website.

For example when I take my summer vacation and stop publishing my 
ezine -- sales on my sites almost completely dies!

Despite email filters and declining open rates, ezines are still 
effective tools for the soft sell.

Just join an email service with good relations with the ISPs and 
make sure people double opt-in to receive your message.  You 
still should be able to generate profits from your list if you 
follow these guidelines.

5. Create an Autoresponder Course or Evergreen eZine.

Most people don't usually buy the first time they visit your 
site.  On average it takes 6 to 8 communications before a 
potential customer buys from you.

Therefore I suggest setting up an autoresponder course or 
evergreen ezine to capture email addresses. The ultimate goal of 
the autoresponder course is to cultivate customers over time with 
useful information related to your expertise or products.

Develop an informative course on the topic or subject of your 
business.  On the other hand you could have an evergreen ezine. 
Both courses and ezines could be delivered via autoresponders.

Evergreen ezines (short for electronic magazines) are created in 
advance and emailed to your subscribers automatically on a 
regular basis via an autoresponder.

The reason I suggest evergreen ezines over traditional ezines is 
you avoid struggling to develop an ezine manually on a regular 
basis.  Writing a regular ezine even bi-weekly can be a daunting 
task to say the least.

If you are not good at writing I would get a college student to 
do it for you.

You could also get a freelance writer to write it for you.  It 
would only cost you a hundred dollars or less from 
http://www.elance.com or http://www.rentacoder.com to get someone 
to write it for you.

The autoresponder course or evergreen ezine will literally put 
your Internet profits on automatic pilot. This is because it will 
constantly give you top of mind awareness with your customers.

Your autoresponder course or evergreen ezine can also be 
monetized and work well as info teasers.  They could lead back to 
your website featuring your products, affiliate programs, and 
Adsense™ Ads.

In part 2 of our article you will learn five even more powerful 
ways to springboard your business to unstoppable eCommerce 
success.  Until then learn to focus on these first five basic 
steps of eCommerce development, and you're on your way to --
selling online in record time!

 

End of Part 1. 

Kamau Austin helps businesses develop search engine friendly 
sites as sales tools to build their business.  He is publisher or 
http://www.SearchEnginePlan.com and the author of "Always On Top" 
How to get the highest search engine ranking for your website... 
every time! Pick up his book at http://www.AlwaysOnTopthebook.com