Guest Post by Kathleen Gage

A dream for untold numbers of entrepreneurs is to build a viable, sustainable and profitable business, and to do so without leaving the comfort of their home. In years past the definition (and reality) of a home-based business was very different from what it is today.

Because of the Internet, multiple six- and seven-figure businesses are being built every single day. Small empires have grown out of nothing more than a dream and a desire for the dream to become a reality. This doesn’t mean it happens in a day, but the seed is planted and, with time, it grows.

We’ve all heard the rags-to-riches stories of someone building an extremely successful online business starting with a solitary computer, Internet hookup and an unconventional idea. Many of us have not only heard about it, we are living it.

Yet for each success story, there are dozens more fatalities in the field of dreams of home-based online businesses. Therein lies the problem; it’s not a field-of-dreams mentality that creates the success of an online business. The best thing anyone who is serious about building an online business can do is to get rid of the thought, “Build it and they will come.”

Sure they may come, but they have to know about it first. The field-of-dreams mentality is one of the greatest obstacles to one’s success in business.

This thought process isn’t new to cyber-business. I recall facing more than 20 years ago the resistance of small business owners who didn’t see the need to market. Their belief was people would somehow miraculously find them and flock through the doors. Often this belief was born out of a secondary belief that they could not afford to market or word of mouth would provide them all the business they needed.

Sadly, it was often when they were holding the going-out-of-business closeout sale that they finally marketed to let consumers know there was a huge sale going on.

The fact is had they been marketing from the beginning, they likely would never have had a closeout sale. Granted, there are other aspects to a successful business such as quality of products and services, customer care and follow through, but marketing is at the core of a solid business model.

Fast forward to today. With all that is available for marketing online there is no reason anyone should not be doing so. Budget is no longer a limitation with the onslaught of social-media marketing, social networks, joint-venture partnerships, viral marketing, affiliate programs and the power of an honest-to-goodness high quality, ethical bribe. Simply put, an ethical bribe is something you give a current or potential customer in exchange for their contact information.

Before you can market though, you have to know to whom you are marketing. This is an often overlooked step; a step that when done right can save you lots of time, money and frustration. You see, you have to make sure you are not marketing to those who have no need, interest or desire for what you offer.

A mistaken belief by some is that everyone wants and needs their products and services. If you hold this belief, I recommend you change it as quickly as possible. Regardless of what industry you’re in and what products and services you offer, there is a niche market that you need to be targeting rather than trying to reach a wide, unidentified market.

The nature of marketing has drastically shifted since the massive influx of social networks. You’ll go a lot further if you go deep into a niche market and become visible within that market as an authentic and transparent entrepreneur.

Sure, there will always be the exception to the rule, but in an overwhelming majority of cases, to be known, liked and trusted by a small- to moderate-sized tribe of consumers is far more productive and profitable than to spread yourself too thin.

About the author

Kathleen Gage is an Internet-marketing advisor who works with spiritually aware speakers, authors, coaches and consultants who are ready to turn their knowledge into money-making products and services. Find out how you can learn from Kathleen on how to build a sustainable and profitable business using the Internet faster and for less through her Street Smarts Marketing VIP Club.

Internet marketing for beginners is somewhat of an oxymoron. This is because while, in theory, the concepts behind Internet marketing might be quite simple, executing effective strategies can be extremely difficult. This can even be tough for those who are quite experienced in the world of Internet marketing.

With this in mind, this article will attempt to explain the concept of Internet marketing for beginners and will outline some basic strategies which can help a business owner to launch his own Internet marketing campaign. We will cover concepts such as creating a website, placing banner ads, sending out e-newsletters, orchestrating an email marketing campaign and optimizing your website for search engines.

One of the most basic steps for starting an Internet marketing campaign is to create, in my humble opinion, a blog website. If you don’t have a blog, or have a poorly designed website, you should consider creating or re-designing a website to adequately market your products. One of the nice benefits of blogging is that it’s very easy to add content. Most hosts, like BlueHost, offer one button WordPress installation. You can be blogging in minutes.

Banner ads are another popular option for advertising your business on the Internet. Banner ads are advertisements which typically appear along the top of a website but it may also include smaller ads in other locations. Banner ads typically include graphics and text which entice Internet users to click on the advertisement. Once a user clicks on the ad, they are directed to your website. This type of advertising can be very effective when care is taken to place the advertisements on high traffic websites which attract an audience who may have an interest in your products.

Sending out e-newsletters can also be a part of an effective Internet marketing strategy. E-newsletters are essentially emails which may contain a variety of information including informative articles, useful quizzes, relevant advertising or any other information which is deemed worthwhile for the recipients of the e-newsletter. The importance of these newsletters is that they can be used as marketing tools which are not viewed by the recipients as an advertisement. One way to do this is to incorporate links or other soft sale approaches into the copy of the e-newsletters. However, care should be taken to keep these references minimal so the e-newsletter is not viewed as spam. Using a service like Constant Contact or GetResponse will ensure your E-newsletters get through to your readers. They even have archiving services giving your E-newsletters a longer life.

Email marketing campaigns can be another successful aspect of an Internet marketing campaign. Email marketing essentially involves sending out emails to a group of individuals who may be interested in your products and services. Care should be taken in sending out these emails to avoid sending emails which are unsolicited and will be viewed as spam. One way to do this is to only send out the emails to users who have requested inclusion on an email mailing list. Another way to do this is to provide value in the emails as opposed to just including advertisements. This can be done by offering relevant advice in your emails and other useful information which may be of interest to the recipients of the email.

Finally, optimizing your website for search engines is a critical aspect of an Internet marketing campaign. Search engines rank websites according to quality and relevance for particular search terms. Many Internet users appreciate the effort by search engines and use these search engines to find the best websites on a particular subject. This means the Internet users are likely to only visit websites which rank well with search engines. Therefore if your website is not high ranking, you are not likely to generate a great deal of traffic from Internet users who use search engines to find relevant websites. Top ranking websites are likely to obtain the most traffic from search engines and all websites falling on the first page of the search engine results will likely enjoy some degree of success in improving their traffic.

Join the conversation, let me know what you think by commenting.