What is the Foundation of Your Marketing Business?

If someone were to ask you what the foundation of your Internet Marketing business endeavors consisted of, would you have an answer? If you find yourself hesitating for even a moment, then it may be time to review this age old concept and analyze how it impacts your online ventures.

From a very early age, we were all taught that a building is only as strong as its foundation. This analogy was usually used when teaching a life lesson - whether to enforce the importance of a strong foundation in matters of family, emotions, friendships, education, or business endeavors. And for brick and mortar businesses, the concept of a solid foundation is usually not lost on most people either.

When it comes to online marketing however, this principle often eludes Internet Marketing Professionals. The apparent reason is the vast amount of options and diversity of revenue streams that are available and the ease of their implementation.

Because it is much easier to institute an online business than a traditional brick and mortar, the importance of creating a solid foundation is often overlooked in the swiftness of the inception of new niche products or marketing efforts.

In Internet Marketing circles, you frequently hear a lot of talk about the importance of focus, and this certainly touches upon the concept of creating a solid foundation; but just being admonished to maintain focus is not going to suddenly manifest a solid foundation for your online pursuits.

The idea behind a foundation is to uphold the entire structure. When Internet Marketers are told to focus, what should really be stated is the importance of focusing on the foundation. Not just focusing on a given product, or a specific project or a dedicated niche. To the contrary, the foundation of your online business is the glue that holds your products, projects and niches together.

You don't have to look far to see the effects of a lack of foundation. In fact, all you have to do is listen to the panic that ensues every time Google has one of their infamous algorithm changes. This is akin to putting all of one's eggs in one basket and has caught many a marketing guru in the proverbial cross.

With Internet Marketing, the prospect of laying a proper foundation is a double edge sword. On the one hand, it is not advisable to jump from one project to anther; but on the other hand, it is critical to stay current with trends and technology. While trying to maintain a balance between these two, you walk a fine line in establishing a solid foundation that will be both dynamic as well properly grounded.

Whether you have been marketing online for a while or are just beginning to assess your place in the Internet Marketing world, take stock of the direction you are going and where it may leave you in the months and year to come.

For example, when choosing a niche, by its very definition it is based upon consumer demand. And that demand is largely dependent upon current fads, available technology, market need or some combination of all three. Regardless of whether you choose to serve that niche through email marketing, affiliate programs, blogging, or authority sites, in each instance you will be rising to meet the current trends.

So using the above example, a typical scenario would be to capitalize on a niche topic like MP3, podcasting, or something similar. However, the moment that technology makes these things obsolete and replaces it with the latest and greatest electronic wonder, the profitability of this niche would swiftly decline.

If however, you choose a niche such as consumer electronics or audio video equipment, then your foundation would remain much more solid and have the ability to stand the test of time. Establishing yourself as an authority in the consumer electronics niche -- albeit through promotion of iPods, MP3s and podcasting today -- gives you the reach for incorporating anything else that may turn to favor tomorrow.

These are the types of things that need to be considered when addressing a proper foundation for your Internet Marketing endeavors. Utilizing this method of reasoning will insure longevity and to do otherwise will insure only short term success at best.

Top Internet Marketing Techniques

The Internet offers many means of affordable marketing, often with full-color imagery to go along with text. And multimedia components add some spice to the mix and increase online visitors and purchases. Here are some top Internet marketing techniques to help increase your sales and income.

1. DIRECTORY - Create your own directory on a specific industry topic, placing your own ad or banner along the top. Then invite others to add their website links via a link exchange program, listing themselves in your directory. This will result in lots of free advertising for you as your directory expands with links across the World Wide Web. Enter “link exchange software” into your favorite search engine for help with setup.

2. TEACH A COURSE – Write out a simple step-by-step instructional class in your area of expertise. Then break it up into smaller segments and set them up in an autoresponder as email messages with your ads included at the top and / or bottom of each message. Invite website visitors to sign up through on online form or email subscription address offered through the autoresponder service. Then as people sign up, they will learn more about you and your products and services.

3. EZINE EBOOK – Forget about small daily or weekly ezines. Try publishing one large monthly e-zine as an e-book format, preferably an Adobe .pdf file. Include a large number of articles with each issue and regularly featured areas like inspirational quotes, industry tips, favorite sites and advice from the pros. Also insert full-color graphics, multimedia components like audio file links, if you like, and ads. Then you can charge a monthly rate, with an annual discounted package purchase, and sell advertising spots.

4. TIP OF THE DAY – Set up your own Tip of the Day targeting your own area of expertise, relating to your own products and services. You can set it up on your website in a targeted box, via autoresponder, a blog, an RSS feed, an audio file or others means of communication. Add your own ad along with your tip for whichever product or service you want to target or maybe even your own online store for all. This will gently remind your target audience where to go to learn more.

In summary, by using Internet Marketing techniques customized to fit your own products and services, you can reach out and increase your website traffic and purchase opportunities. Internet marketing can mean a more affordable way to grow your business.

5 Reasons Why Beginner Internet Marketers Sometimes Fail

Reason 1: Beginner Internet marketers sometimes set unrealistic goals for themselves. Set goals for yourself that you can easily attain. By setting and achieving reasonable goals, you build confidence in yourself and your abilities. This allows you to confidently set ever-increasing goals that you can regularly meet. People who set unrealistic goals often fail in Internet marketing because they get discouraged when they do not achieve their goals. After getting discouraged month after month, they often believe they cannot succeed and they stop trying. Don't let this happen to you.

Reason 2: Beginner Internet marketers often lack a unique product. If you want to be really successful in Internet marketing you need a unique product that you can call your own. Having a unique product allows you to harness the power of affiliate marketing. Having hundreds of marketers actively promoting your product allows you to multiply your efforts on a huge scale.

Reason 3: Beginner Internet marketers often lack commitment to success. If you want to be successful in Internet marketing you have to make a commitment to becoming successful. This means setting time aside each day for your Internet marketing activities and, more importantly, performing those activities each day without fail. You cannot expect to achieve any level of success in Internet marketing if you can't commit yourself to doing the very things that you need to do to be successful each and every day without exceptions. It's that important.

Reason 4: Beginner Internet marketers sometimes get caught up in the details. It is important that you know what kind of tasks you are good at. Don't make the same mistake that countless other Internet marketers make of trying to do everything yourself. There are places online where you can hire inexpensive help, on a per project basis, to perform the tasks that you are not an expert in. For instance, if you are good with graphics programs, then go ahead and do your own graphics. Otherwise, contract the graphics out and spend your valuable time doing something you are good at. The same can be said for web design or copywriting. The point here is that you do what you do best, and you can inexpensively hire others to do the rest. You won't believe how inexpensive it can be and how fast you can put it all together.

Reason 5: Beginner Internet marketers sometimes plan themselves to death (paralysis by analysis). If you want to be a successful Internet marketer, at some point you will have to put a plan into action. Once you have formulated your plan you must be able to take the next step and put that plan into operation. There are so many Internet marketers who come up with a good idea, formulate a plan and never put that plan into action because they constantly analyze and refine that plan - without end. This is called paralysis by analysis. This is not to say that your marketing plan doesn't need careful consideration and analysis. It does. At some point the analysis must stop and the action must begin. Don't be afraid to take that first action. You will be amazed at how much easier each successive action becomes.

In conclusion, you might be asking yourself why you should follow these recommendations. That's a fair question. Many marketers have made each of the mistakes described above and have learned a great deal from those mistakes. This was written so that you could also learn from these mistakes. The choice is yours.