If an entrepreneur is going to launch an internet business, there are essential tools that must be in place if success is to be the ultimate outcome. This article discusses the tools that I have found to be the essentials thus far.
This is not a long list, but if any of these are missing from your tool box, you would do well to incorporate them. Interestingly, these can be used to market small brick and mortar businesses as well as internet start-ups. All of the marketing techniques are the same in the virtual world as they are in the literal world. So here we go.
1) You must have an idea, a niche to pursue. You must have something to offer. You have to have something to sell. It could be knowledge, services, hard goods, soft goods such as software, or simply informational products. Whatever the case, you have to have something. You cannot simply sell "nothing" and expect to make money. I once saw a website about "nothing". It was a blog about "nothing" and contained a series of articles written about whatever popped into the authors head. I looked at the site for a while and never really got anything from it. I left, never to return. Interestingly, the blog was monetized with Adsense. Needless to say, I was not a targeted visitor, so I did not click on any ads. Do not waste your time selling "nothing". Find an affiliate program. Most brick and mortar businesses offer them and usually, it is just a matter of visiting their website and signing up. More often than not, HTML code will be provided for the products. Remember, pick a niche product that you believe in and enjoy writing about.
2) You must have your own domain name. Nothing screams a lack of professionalism like the name "yoursubdomain.yourdomainhost.com". No offense to the free blogging services, but if you use one, you may as well be running a business from the inside of a jail cell. Your hands are completely tied. Usually you have great limitations on how you can modify your code. You have limitations on what plugins you can install. There may be now and will assuredly be limitations on how you can monetize it in the future. If one day you decide that you have had enough and you want to sell it and all of it's content, guess what...YOU CAN'T! You do not own it. Web names are cheap. You can find them for $10 bucks per year at
http://www.GoDaddy.com. Get your own domain and rule it!
3) Launch a blog! Blogs are great. Search engines love them. If you add unique informative content on a regular basis, you will have visitors. Think back to tool # 1, an idea or niche. Blogging is much easier if you enjoy what you are writing about. In you niche, there are individuals with an extremely wide variety of experience and knowledge levels. Even if you are not an expert, there is someone who knows less than you do and will benefit and learn from what you write. Additionally, blogs are very easy to monetize. You can write reviews on products and add an affiliate link to that product at the end of the article. Sometimes, business may come looking for you. If you have a contact form on your blog like the one at the very top right of this page, sometimes, businesses will drop you a line asking you to review their product. Usually, they will offer you money to do so. Additionally, you can sign up for an Adsense account and let Google rotate your ads for you. Once the article is written and on your blog, it is essentially monetized forever if you use Adsense.
If you keep your blog updated, perhaps one post per week, you will always have visitors and you will, more than likely be writing about current topics. This is where blogs are superior to static and stagnant websites whose content rarely, if ever, changes. At least, that is how search engines seem to be viewing it.
4) Get yourself some good hosting from a reputable host like Hostgator or 000webhost. It is true that there are free web hosting services that offer some pretty nice functionality such as PHP support and MySQL databases, but in the end you need that plus RELIABILITY. What good is a free host with all of the functionality in the world if it chokes when ten people try to view your website at the same time. I have had my experience with free hosting and trust me, it wasn't free. I paid dearly for it by losing traffic.
5) Sign up for an auto-responder such as Aweber or GetResponse. Nothing has the ability to drive repeat visitors to your website like a double opt-in email list. This tool can be a bit complicated to master because you have to handle it in a special way. An auto-responder has to be used in conjunction with an irresistible give-away such as a free report relevant to your niche. In my experience, if you offer something for free in exchange for an email address, generally, people will allow you to contact them. Once they are on your list, provided they do not unsubscribe, you can email them a newsletter or notifications of product launches be they yours or joint ventures. Either way, the money is in the list.
6) Get yourself a cool opt-in form like the slide up that you saw at the bottom of this article whenever you loaded the page...that is, if you are viewing this article at TheBitBot.com. Opt-in forms that pop up or slide up are proven to attract the attention of visitors. If they take note of the free report or tool that you are offering in exchange for their email address and the right to contact them in the future, they are more likely to opt in if they like the offer. Advertising is all about capturing the attention of your audience. Now you can market to them over and over again as they are a targeted audience.
7) Grab yourself a beer or glass of wine and reward yourself.
