Are You New to Internet Marketing?

Are you brand new to e-commerce and want to figure out how to make money online? The Web Marketing Today site is huge (2,500 pages plus) and it's easy to become overwhelmed. The basic tasks are:

1. Researching to see how to make money online
2. Building a website
3. Creating content for your website that will draw people
4. Getting traffic to your website
5. Using e-mail to keep your existing customers
6. Earning money from your online business

Use the guide below as a jumping off place for each of these areas.

Site Organization

First, let me tell you what I do. I provide information about Internet marketing in the form of articles, annotated links to key articles, newsletters, books, and seminars. Here's how the site is organized:

1. Web Marketing Today Free Edition is our free e-mail newsletter is our e-mail newsletter published to 104,000+ confirmed opt-in subscribers , which is designed, over time, to help you learn your way around Internet marketing. Each week I bring you a short article or two. Within a month or two you'll be getting your bearings. Why don't you subscribe right now, join nearly 100,000 subscribers, and browse the recent articles? You can also search my articles for keywords using the search form at the top left of every page in the site.

2. Web Marketing Today Premium Edition offers you get a ton of key e-books about Internet marketing that are worth several hundred dollars. It's a tremendous deal for only $49.95 annually, but since you're just getting started, look at the free stuff first.

3. Books. I've written more than a dozen books on all facets of Internet marketing. John Wiley and Son published my Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy -- a good place to start. I've also written self-published books on shopping carts, e-mail marketing, landing pages, promoting a local business, and starting an e-business on a shoestring. You'll find lots of wisdom collected in these books. You can download most as e-books or order as print copies.

4. Annotated Links called the Web Marketing Info Center, are comprised of more than 21,000 articles and resources on Internet marketing. Every month my team and I scour the Internet for new articles and resources on 105 topics. The database of annotated links includes the author, title, publication, date, URL, and a brief synopsis of what the article is about, saving you huge swatches of research time. Every month we add about 150-200 links and periodically purge the bad links. About half of these are free to all. But the topics about selling online are reserved for my paid subscribers. (I have to make a living, you understand.) You can search the annotated links database using the search form at the top left of every page in the site.

5. About Dr. Wilson. I'm a pretty known entity online, having been a pioneer in the field of Internet marketing since beginning Web Marketing Today in 1995. Tens of thousands of successful online businesses have gotten their start from articles, e-books, and information on my site. If you need more, you can find online a brief bio, press mentions, and various awards.

Now let me show you where you can begin to learn about the six basic parts of Internet marketing I mentioned at first. Realize that I'll just help you dip your feet in.

1. Researching how to make money online

I truly believe that the most important thing you can do first is research. (If you have an existing local business you want to take online, you may have done this already.) Many people rush to build a website that is doomed to fail. Why? The Internet is very cluttered and competitive. The best way to succeed is to find a niche that you have researched where you (1) can add value from your own knowledge and experience, (2) don't have too many serious competitors nationally, and (3) can earn money (see point 6 below). Here's an article I've written to help you understand niche marketing -- no charge.

• Define a Unique E-Business Niche

People make money on the Internet in a number of different ways. One way is to build websites that attract traffic, and then send visitors to other sites through an "affiliate link" where they make a purchase -- and you earn a commission. If this is your approach, you'll want to research to see which keywords get the most traffic vs. how expensive it is to purchase those keywords through Pay Per Click ads on Google or Overture. There are now several tools available that help you do this kind of research (available on other sites):

• Site Build It! from Ken Evoy developed the first tool of this kind. It is just one of about a dozen tools available on Site Build It! to help you research, build a site, optimize it for search, purchase keywords, and sell online. Highly recommended!
• The Market Research Wizard from WorldWide Brands. Includes a component to search eBay listings and bids.
• Product Idea Evaluator from Activo Software.

You'll also want to look at your competitors' sites and see how you can "build a better mousetrap." Many competitor sites are mediocre. Yours must be excellent!

2. Building a website

Once you've done your research and selected an online business, you'll want to build your website. This is a huge topic, with plenty of information available on the Web. Instead of telling you the nuts and bolts of website construction, I stress the importance of business design so that the site is effective. See my free article:

• 12 Website Design Decisions Your Business or Organization Will Need to Make Correctly (or you'll have to do it all over within a year). This will give you the basics you need to know about developing a website -- or outsourcing it to a web developer.

I regularly write shorter articles on aspects of website design for Web Marketing Today. You can browse the Site Design articles. You can also find annotated links to Business Website Design in our Web Marketing Info Center.

3. Creating content for your website that will draw people

Ask yourself the question: Why should anyone come to my website? If you can't find a good answer, then start building content. For your model railroad site, write articles on "Model Railroad Buildings," "Model Railroad Trees and Shrubs," and "Model Railroad Lighting." If you can't write, get a helper or pay a knowledgeable person to do it for you. Read my article:

• Web Marketing Where Content Is King

You can also check the Website Content section of the Web Marketing Info Center.

4. Getting traffic to your website

You'll find a great deal of information about getting people to your website. The place to start is my widely-acclaimed article:

• The Web Marketing Checklist: 31 Ways to Promote Your Website

Once you've read that, you'll want to get deeper into various areas. You can browse the Site Promotion articles and Ads and Affiliate articles that have appeared recently in Web Marketing Today. The Web Marketing Info Center contains many topics in this field. You can search on a keyword or browse topics such as:

• Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising Techniques
• Search Engine Optimization Techniques
• Associate/Affiliate Programs
• Linking Strategies
• and dozens of others

Once you learn how to use the Web Marketing Info Center you'll have lots of information at your fingertips.

In addition, consider ordering one of my books -- either in e-book format for immediate download, or print format for reading at your leisure:

• How to Promote Your Local Business on the Internet
• Dr. Wilson's Plain-Spoken Guide to Search Engine Optimization
• Reciprocal Linking Tools

Another book I recommend in this area was written by a friend, Andrew Goodman, Google AdWords Handbook: 21 Ways to Maximize Results, to help you understand how to succeed with Pay Per Click advertising.

5. Using e-mail to keep your existing customers

Once you get some online visitors, you'll want to build a relationship with them. The way you do this is by asking for their e-mail address and permission to send them a monthly e-mail newsletter. Even in this day of spam overload, people do want information via e-mail -- so long as they trust you not to spam them, that is, send them e-mails without their permission. You can also find E-Mail Marketing articles from Web Marketing Today and lots more information in the E-Mail Marketing section of the Web Marketing Info Center. I've written the classic book on this subject:

• The E-Mail Marketing Handbook
  and
• The E-Mail Software Survey 2004 (which updates The Handbook)

6. Earning money from your online business

I come to earning money last because unless you do the research, build a site, create content, develop traffic, and build customer loyalty, you won't be making any money. It's simple: You've got to build the traffic before you begin to earn!

Once you've got the traffic, then you must learn to sell online -- and continue to raise your "conversion rate," the percentage of visitors who actually make a purchase from you. For beginners that may be 0.5% to 1%, but with careful attention and testing, you can raise this to 2%, 5%, 10%, and perhaps higher. I give a lot of attention to online sales on my site. Here are some sources:

Web Marketing Today articles in the sections on E-Commerce, Conversion, and Transactions.

Web Marketing Info Center sections. Note: Most of these require a paid subscription to Web Marketing Today Premium to see all the information.

• Online Store Software
• Credit Card Sales
• Transaction Security
• Fraud Prevention
• Shopper Demographics and Behaviors
• Store Design
• Shopping Cart Software Database of 225 carts
• ... and many others

I've written several important books on this subject. Some of these books you'll find nowhere else:

• The Shopping Cart Report. This most comprehensive book on e-commerce software anywhere, with more than 225 carts listed, with 50+ in detail. I recommend 36 different carts for various kinds of stores.
• 10 Steps to E-Business on a Shoestring. Explains how to sell online with a very low start-up cost.
• How to Develop a Landing Page that Closes a Sale. Essential if you advertise at all with PPC ads.

Okay, that gives you a pretty good idea of how to get the most out of my website. Enjoy! I wish you God's blessing as you develop a successful online business.