You will either sell someone else's products on line or you will sell you own. It should go without saying that it will always be more profitable to sell your own products. If you are selling your own products you will have total control.   No matter if you are selling your own product or someone else's, you can still choose which methods to use. I'll cover several popular methods in order of effectiveness from the least effective to the most effective marketing methods.

Unsolicited Email - Spam

I mention this method because it appears to be the cheapest way to get your message out. Many people use unsolicited email because, on the surface, it would appear to be the cheapest way to go. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If you employ targeted, unsolicited commercial email, you might make a few sales, but in the long run you will damage you reputation. If you are selling someone else's product, you will not only hurt your reputation, you will damage their reputation in the process.   Sure, you will see a ton of spam telling you that bulk email pays. Its true bulk email pays; it pays off for the people selling lists and bulk mailing services, not for you and I. I have yet to know any successful business using spam to successfully market their product on-line.

Even so called "opt-in" lists won't pay off either. For the most part, people "opt-in" to receive information in a specific area of interest - *NOT* to receive commercial email. Spam is such a problem now-days. All it takes is an accession of spam to lose your Internet service or your server. If you want to go out of business fast - use bulk email.

Banner Ads

You can purchase banners to run on popular websites that target your ideal customer. Banner ads work sometimes, but they work much better for the person selling you the banner. Considering that most web-surfers have learned to ignore banners, its effectiveness have been in doubt for the last couple years. If you want to use banners as a part of your overall marketing program, try to find someone who will only charge you for the number of hits or banner clicks you get, not for the number of times your banner is displayed. Better yet, find someone who will charge only for the sales you make. Most affiliate programs will supply you with banners to put on your website.  In general, banner advertising works best for higher priced products. If your product sells for under $50, banner ads may not pay off.

Banner co-ops are another way to market with banners. Usually you host a banner for someone else. When you display their banner twice, they display yours on someone else's website once. The co-op sells the second banner display to third party advertiser. Banner co-ops depend on you to help them sell banner displays to their paying customers. But why trade 2 banner display opportunities for one. You would think that choosing a banner co-op that offers targeted exchanges would be better, but think again. Lets say you are selling widgets. You display two banners on your website for your competition's widget in exchange for displaying one banner for your widget.  I use banners on my website. I use them for products that usually cost over $100. I use banners to promote other people's products, but only when I will earn a generous commission from every sale. I get offers from people who want to purchase space on my pages to display their banner, but why would I want to use my hard earned traffic to build someone else's?   Banners slow down loading time and send your visitors elsewhere. Use them sparingly.

 Links

Getting people to link to your website is a great way to earn traffic, but again there is a downside. Usually when people link to your website, there needs to be some benefit to the party offering the link. People usually offer links to websites that are content rich; ones that are not in direct competition with them. In general they want to link to your free content or information not to any product you are selling. Finding websites to link to yours is hard, time-consuming work. If you have a content rich websit, it's worth the effort spent to *GET* others to link to you. On the other hand, providing links to other websites or exchanging links usually isn't in your best interests because when you provide a link to others you are offering your visitors the opportunity to leave your website. On my website, I offer hundreds of links to other websites which offer useful content or resources my visitors should know about. I offer links off my website to other websites because my website is designed like a portal to act as a jumping off point for people interested in marketing their products on-line. I use a special kind of link that opens a new window whenever I link to other websites. I do this because they never really leave my website. The link will open a new window while my website remains on the desktop. Below is an example of a regular link that will open a new window:

<A HREF="http://www.smithfam.com">Regular Link</A>

<A HREF=" http://www.smithfam.com" TARGET=NEW>New Window</A>

It's hard enough to get a visitor; you don't want to send them away if you can help it. Manage your off-site links carefully. When you offer links to others, I recommend using the new window type link. Don't waste your traffic linking to websites that are already getting plenty of traffic of their own. For example, don't link to Netscape or Microsoft or anyone like that. They don't need your traffic nearly as much as you. However if you run a website with a graphics theme, you might want to offer a link to companies that offer great graphics resources or to companies that sell products like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, especially if you can earn a commission if they buy the product.

 Opt-In Email

You do have a house list don't you? If not, you need to start building one. You can start by keeping a list of your customers. One of the cheapest marketing strategies you can use is to sell more products to people you have already sold to in the past. Build several small specialized lists and only mail to them when you have something new or important to say.

I don't usually use "opt-in" lists for commercial mailings often although some people have done so with good results. Remember, it's not an opt-in list as soon as someone complains. It's not usually worth the risk unless you know for sure they are interested. The best form of opt-in mailing list is a regular newsletter or ezine. They work great because: - Newsletters are 100% "opt-in" and subscriber based - You can offer some commercial content - You can offer classified ads to pay for your efforts - You can use them to comunicate and to build credibility If you use opt-in email, make absolutely sure people request to be removed from future mailings easily. People's interests change, so always provide an easy method for people to get off your list. You might notice at the very end of this newsletter I provide a simple way people can be added or removed *AND* (this is important) I include the email address I have on record for that subscriber in every email. I use AY Mail. It's a great low-cost program to do opt-in mailing.  >> http://www.aysoft.com/

 Newsletter Ads

Ads in Newsletters and ezines are a great ways to attract customers. The key is to target your ad as precisely as possible. You want your offer to go to qualified people already shopping for your product and who can afford to buy it. Nobody wins when an ad doesn't sell. Ad prices are usually roughly geared to average targeted sales expectation. Newsletter & ezine ads are the most cost effective for bigger ticket items. I keep my ad prices low because it encourages repeat business. For example: if you bought a $50 ad that went to 5000 subscribers and your profit was $1 for each sale you would need 50 total sales, or 10 sales per thousand to break even. On the other hand, if your product had a profit of $10 you would only need 5 sales to break even. It's usually a whole lot easier to make five sales than 50 sales.

When you list a URL in a newsletter ad, add a question mark and/or an ad code to your URL so you can check your results to determine if your ad is profitable. Here is an example from a classified ad in this newsletter http://www.ejfa.com/scripts/index.cfm?Partner=11294&Code=?sf    Everything after the question mark is ignored by the browser but your server logs will list it as a separate URL, so you can tell which ads and publications work best. If you don't have access to your server's logs you can ask prospects to reply to an your ad with a special Id number, or use a unique email account address to track each ad. Test your ad several times before running a big promotion or ad blitz.  

A Personal Recommendation

It goes without saying that, if you are respected in a specific area, that whatever you recommend will carry proportionally more weight. Many people abuse the power of a personal recommendation so the less you give it out, the more weight it will carry. If you cry fire one time in a busy place everyone will scramble, but if you do it every day people will learn to ignore you. For example, car alarms go off by accident so often many people don't pay much attention to them any more.  

Associate & Affiliate Programs

I like to save the best for last. Out of all ways you can advertise your product or service nothing compares with the raw power of the associate or affiliate program An Associate Program is the least risky, least expensive way, by far, to acquire new customers and to explode your sales in a short period of time. It sure beats the heck out of paying for advertising up front. Why not pay for advertisers only after a sale is made? It's the ultimate way to advertise. Associate Programs are hands-down the hottest and fastest way to sell your products and services on-line! You ONLY pay for advertising that generates your sales - not impressions or click-troughs, but actual sales. There is zero out of pocket expenses! It just doesn't get any better than this! The only downside of running an associate program is that you need web based software to automate tracking of commissions and sales.

I have researched software that automates the process of starting and running an affiliate program during last year. One affiliate management product stands heads above the rest.This article is already too long, so I'm going to recommend you check out the following URL if you are interested in exploring how to setup and manage an Associate program for your business. There you'll find over 50 pages of material explaining how to harness the power of other people's efforts" for free. You'll learn how you can setup and manage an affiliate program to sell more of your products & services. >> http://www.smithfam.com/trac/

Best Wishes
Bob

If you are just getting started, or are considering an Internet based business, this article should help you avoid many of the errors that can ruin your business before you even get started. My Path has been two steps forward and one step back. You can get it right from the start by planning your business before you waste a lot of your valuable time and money.  

Choosing a Product

The easiest way to go wrong is to start out with the wrong product. The wrong product is one that won't sell well on the Internet. The best product is one you own and control. Products that sell well on-line include in the following order:

Information products
Internet related products
Software
Services
Low cost products
Computers
Hard goods
Health related
Multi-level Marketing

Your main product should be one in which you own all the marketing rights. Your other products should be related to your prime product in some ways. Visit the following URLs for more information about choosing the right products:

The Easiest Path To Success  http://www.smithfam.com/news/april00a.html

Choose Your Products Carefully http://www.smithfam.com/news/march00d.html

Grow Your Own Associate Program http://www.smithfam.com/news/march00a.html
Launching A Complementary Product http://www.smithfam.com/news/april00ab.html

A Professionally Designed Web Site

Would you hire your brother in-law to repair your teeth, fix your clock, or sell your house? Probably not, you look for someone who has developed the skill and expertise to give you confidence it will be done right - the first time. One of the most common mistakes is to have your business website designed by yourself, a family friend, or inexperienced beginner. Website designers are specialists; they should understand how to make a good first impression. In many cases, they can bring you at least 10 times more traffic if they understand how search engines will rank your pages. Forget about fancy graphics and sound for now, you want your business pages to look clean and load fast. 

Obtain Your Own Domain Name

It's a must to have your own domain name. Make it as short and memorable as possible. Contrary to public opinion, there are still plenty of good domain names available. In fact, when I got my domain I assumed that smith.com wouldn't be available but a year later I found out it wasn't registered. You can check if a name is available here:

http://rs.internic.net/whois.html/

Get A Professional Hosting Service

Changing hosts can amount to starting over; especially once you have interactive scripts installed. In short, you want a host that has 24hour 7day online support as well as 800-phone support. You want a host that has been in business for at least 2-4 years. In general you get what you pay for, so don't be too cheap finding your host.  The hosting service I use costs a little more than the low-end server where the most support is required. It's a lot lower cost than others for high-end services like dedicated servers. You want a host that can handle all your future needs no matter what. You also want one that will set up your domain for you as part of the deal; my host offers that service free.

The Facts Of Web Hosting: http://www.smithfam.com/hosting.html
Hosting Services & Options For Comparison http://rsmith45.adgrafix.comoptions.html

Develop A 3 Step Marketing System

We all have heard of the 2 step marketing system, Get a prospect, and then make the sale. I added a third step. It goes like this:

1) FIND A PROSPECT - Use e-zines advertising, Opt-in Email, and Offline advertising

2) FOLLOW-UP - Provide a series of short follow-up messages and don't forget to ask for the sale

3) OFFER RELATED PRODUCTS - Once you have made a sale continue to build your relationship, support your customers and keep in touch with regular email messages.

Increase Your Sales And Profits - 3 Step Marketing Process http://www.smithfam.com/news/june98i.html

The Cyber Two-Step http://www.smithfam.com/news/ma15.html

Develop Your Own Opt-In Email List

You can't usually meet face to face on-line with your potential customers, yet you need to build a trusting relationship over time. You absolutely MUST develop your own opt-in mailing list. Make it easy to join. Answer your list email promptly and completely. Don't make promises you can't keep, and always say what you'll do - then do what you say.

Opt-In Email Lists  http://www.smithfam.com/news/1e-lists.html

Follow-Up

One of the most successful ways to follow-up is to set up your own automated follow-up system. Deliver a series of messages for every product you sell. This will save you a lot of time. This has boosted my on-line income over 400%.

How I Doubled My On-line Sales http://www.smithfam.com/autoinfo.html
Double Your On-Line Profits Using Programmable Follow-up http://www.smithfam.com/news/sept99b.html

Communicate With Your Customers Regularly

Plan your Internet business by creating your own product if possible. Later add complementary products that fit into your business niche. Don't try to do everything yourself. Get help with the difficult jobs. Use specialists when you lack professional level skills. Don't start your business from a free server. Instead start out with your own domain name and a professional hosting service. Develop a two or three step marketing system using opt-in email and programmable follow-up. Once you establish a relationship, use it to communicate with your customers and prospects regularly.

Best Wishes

Bob