BUSINESS, MARKETING, and MONEY

Starting your own internet business can be a little scary especially if you are not computer
savvy. Relax, it's not hard to do. Here is my list of 5 things you need to start an internet business:

A website

Whether you have your own product/service or you are an affiliate marketer, you need your own website. The free website you receive with your affiliate membership is basic and all affiliates have the same website. You need something different. Something that stands out. Where do you get a website?

* Global Domains International. GDI costs $10.00 per month and included in the price is a domain name, hosting, website builder, 10 email accounts. There is also an affiliate program available. The domain name you want may be readily available if you choose the .ws instead of .com, .net or .org. GDI has been around for 10 years and is a stable, reliable company.



* Godaddy.com is by far the most popular domain and hosting site. You can get a domain name with free hosting for as low as $6.99 per month. One disadvantage is that good domain names are already taken. Godaddy also has a reseller program that costs $99.99 per year.



* Yahoo offers a free domain with the purchase of website and hosting service. The prices range from $9.95 per month to $12.95 per month. You also get a site builder and email accounts. Yahoo is well-known and you can expect a quality product.



Your picture on your website

This is very important. You want people to see your face so you are recognized as an expert. You will become "famous" and that is what you want. You want to brand yourself. Make sure you choose a good picture because it will be seen all over the world!

Advertising

Advertising is the only way to get people to your website. I will start with the free methods which I recommend until you start making money. You can spend a lot of money on advertising but if you don't know what you are doing, it will be wasted.

Free Advertising methods:

* Traffic Exchanges are places where you earn credits by looking at ads and then using those credits to show your ad. Don't discount traffic exchanges as a waste of time. They do work. All you have to do is spend half an hour each day and you will get results.



* Safelists are where you can email many people but in return you agree to receive emails from these people. You get a lot of emails so you will want one or two junk email accounts. I recommend Gmail. Sign up for as many safelists as you can and send your email ads every day. Some safelists will only allow you to send emails every 2, 3, 5 or 7 days so you can easily have several safelists to email to every day. You can probably complete this task in approximately 1 hour.



* Text ad exchanges are sites that display a text ad which is a one line eye-catching ad that links to your website.



* Banner ads. We have all seen banner ads. They seem to be on every website. Traffic exchanges have them and so do safelists but you can join a banner co-op so your banner is seen on many websites.



Paid advertising methods:

If you have money to spend and the knowledge of key words then paid advertising will work for you. Here are my choices:

* Google Adwords

* Yahoo Search

* Miva Search

* Enhance Search

* 123 Search



A Goal

It is very important that you have a goal. Whether it is to make $200.00 per month or $10,000 per month or to retire in so many years. Write it down, post it by your computer and read it every day. Never lose sight of this goal and you will succeed.

Persistance

If you want to reach your goal be persistent and consistent in promoting your business. Don't start and stop...it won't work. Remember an internet business is like an offline business. It takes 2 - 5 years to make real money. There is no such thing as "get rich quick". There will be times when there will be little or no results from your efforts but never give up and success will come your way.