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

Search engines, eBay, ezines, affiliate marketing, viral 
marketing, blogs, and now RSS feeds are heavily promoted by net 
gurus.  However, how do you get a handle on where to begin in 
your ecommerce marketing?

In Part 1 of this article I suggested avoiding information 
overload in your initial efforts with Internet marketing. 
Furthermore to avoid information overload I advise ten essential 
steps in spring boarding your eBusiness to unstoppable success in 
this 2-part article.

These ten steps seek to simplify the core essential strategies 
and tasks new Internet marketers should do to jump-start their 
businesses before taking on more advanced tactics.

Too many advanced Internet marketing concepts can be confusing 
for new Internet marketers.  Even experienced Internet marketers 
can lose their way if they are unfocused with too many advanced 
techniques in e-marketing.

You won't be off track if you keep it simple, and focus on these 
core basics when you first start out in web marketing.

If you missed the first 5 steps you can see them at the Search 
Engine Plan Blog at... 
http://www.SearchEnginePlan.com/blogs/seoblog.htm

These last 5 steps will further you along the road to selling 
online in record time.

6. Test Your Website's Sales and Subscriber Conversion Rates with 
Google's Adwords.

Buy Google Adwords and test your sales and email subscription 
conversion rates while you optimize your site.  This way you will 
know in ten minutes if your site is setup to convert site 
visitors into subscribers and eventually customers.

Once your conversion rates for subscribers (10% or more) and 
customers (at least .5%) are at a promising level you can decide 
to invest or focus on search engine optimization. It takes more 
work to obtain top high rankings in organic listings of search 
engines.

Therefore you should test your sites sales and subscriber 
conversions first with Google Adwords, then you can determine if 
it is worth investing in long term SEO.   

7. Put Up a Preliminary Website ASAP

Don't wait for the perfect web site before you upload your site 
to the Internet.  Put up a preliminary website first with some 
basic information and start promoting.

Buy or trade links with established websites already in Google's 
database.  This will get your site indexed quickly.

On the other hand you could post provocative or informative 
comments on a popular blog, which allows you to link back to your 
site. The links from established sites or blogs will help Google 
and Yahoo to send their spiders to find and index your site.

Your goal is to get listed with a preliminary site of (5-10 
pages) to get the clock ticking in your favor. This is because 
Google has delay filters AKA Google Sandbox on new sites for 
about 3 to 6 months.

Therefore, you want a jump-start to eventually obtain a higher 
ranking.  This strategy will get the clock ticking ASAP in your 
favor with a timelier high ranking.

Focus on this preliminary strategy to get you in the search 
engines much quicker than waiting two to six months to perfect 
your website.

8. Optimize for the Search Engines in Your Planning Phases

One of the biggest mistakes new website owners make is paying for 
or developing razzle-dazzle websites few people will ever find. 
This is because too many web designers focus on creating visually 
stunning sites.

However these visually stunning and animated sites are usually 
incompatible with search engine's algorithms and their indexing.

Others make the mistake of designing and then attempting to 
optimize their sites.  Actually your site should be optimized in 
the design phase.

If you design with SEO in mind you will avoid having to redesign 
your website to rank well in the search engines. 

Have your site optimized in your planning stages and you should 
start to see search engine traffic in three to six months.

9. Maintain Your Optimization with an Ongoing Link Campaign

Get a good link campaign going with other related sites.  Make 
sure you use your keywords in your link or anchor text (very 
important).

Maintaining an ongoing link campaign is necessary to keep your 
search engine rankings high.  Moreover, it can also have a viral 
and traffic generating impact.

Modern search engines still measure link popularity and 
reputation as important parts of their algorithms.  Link 
popularity focuses on the number and quality of your incoming 
links.

Link reputation is essentially what other sites indicate about 
your site in the anchor (AKA link text) and surrounding link 
content.

10. Master Content Marketing

Write some articles on topics of interest in your industry. Have 
them distributed in article directories in categories related to 
your industry (this you can start now).  Your articles will 
create links to your site.

Articles do 4 things: 1. Brand you as an expert; 2. increase your 
traffic and visibility; 3. help with your link popularity for 
higher search engine rankings; and 4. leverage your promotional 
efforts with other web masters looking for good content (working 
the magic of viral marketing).

Before you become engaged in the more advanced marketing 
strategies like RSS, affiliate marketing, application 
development, or joint ventures make sure you have these more 
basic top ten essential steps in place.  These Top Ten Steps will 
certainly spring board your ebusiness and help you in your 
efforts to Sell Online in Record Time! 

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