The Top Ten Steps to Springboarding Your eBusiness -- Part 1
By Kamau Austin
 
If you are new to Internet marketing, or even a seasoned web pro, the correct promotional usage of applications like RSS, blogs, viral marketing, and ezines, can be confusing.  Often web gurus and pundits overwhelm new website owners with too many advanced Internet marketing concepts.

New website owners are constantly bombarded with a lot of information overload, and are unsure exactly how to get their Internet businesses off the ground.

Even seasoned pros may need to be reminded of some steps they may have overlooked, or forgotten in helping them establish their online presence.  

Are you confused about what essential eCommerce elements should be in place to launch your online business? Are you unsure of the most effective marketing mix for your website?
 
Usually the following basic ten steps are essential for spring boarding your Internet businesses to eventual online success.

These ten steps are especially important for those new to Internet marketing. 
 
1. Topical Research

The first thing you should do is search engine keyword research, forum and group observation, and eBay discovery.  You are looking to see if there is enough interest online in the business you are launching.

Use www.Wordtracker.com and the Overture.com (now Yahoo! Search Marketing) suggestion tools to find if people are searching for or buying the products and services you will provide.

Examine Yahoo! groups and forums like About.com, to see if there are significant numbers of people interested in what you will be offering.  When you visit these groups pay special attention to the problems people face.

Remember you will have a better chance for a viable business if you look to solve people's problems.  See if you can create products and services to solve problems like the ones you observed in the forums.

Discover if your item sells on eBay.  You want to sign up and do an advanced search on eBay to see how many sales closed on items or services related to yours.

Most importantly you want to note related items sold on eBay and at what price.
 
Make sure there are other businesses making money in the market niche or sector in which your business will operate to make a profit. The best way to do this is to see if similar businesses are advertising on a consistent basis.

Advertising is very expensive, especially Pay-Per-Click advertising.  Therefore observe whether other businesses are buying advertising in your business sector.

If they buy advertising over a significant amount of time, be assured that they are making enough money to reinvest into advertising.  If there are a lot of long-term advertisers on the search engines related to your business sector, you more than likely are entering a viable Internet market.
 
2. Brush Up On Your Web Site Copywriting

Take some copywriting courses online and learn to sell the benefits and later features of your service.  A good place to do this is www.adcopywriting.com or www.successdoctor.com .

Despite the move to broadband services by many net users, there are still bandwidth constants for audio and video online. Therefore what you write on your site will primarily compel your website users to buy your products or services.

If you overlook the power of compelling sales copy on your website you will diffuse the impact of your online sales message. In short your business will suffer from a lack of sales. 
 
3. Familiarize Yourself with HTML

Go to a community college or adult training program and learn HTML.  It is very easy, and only takes a few evenings to learn.  You don't have to become an expert. Just learn the basics.
 
You will have a hard time optimizing your site for the search engines without knowing basic HTML.

By learning the basics of HTML you understand how it relates to putting your keywords into things like Title, Meta and Heading Tags.  Also you will better understand concepts like placing your keywords into your anchor text.

Another reason it is a good idea to learn HTML is to install a Popup script.  You want a script the popup blockers cannot stop.

You will need to know HTML to create a form on your site, or install a popup window that the popup blockers can't stop.

4. Create No Stop Popups to Capture eMail Addresses

Although popups are controversial they work!  Unless you are a copywriting genius and can create irresistible squeeze pages, use classy and unstoppable popups.

Popups are usually up to ten times more effective than traditional forms on web pages!

Plus they are more bearable with a cookie to show them only once a session on your website.  You must of course have a valuable offer with your ezine to get your site visitors to share their email addresses.

Most Internet marketers would agree, to be successful in developing an Internet business you have to develop a responsive email list.  Your ability to sell and profit online is in direct relation to the responsiveness of your list.

In most cases you will have to learn to sell people on joining your ezine or email list, before you learn to sell other products and services on your website.

For example when I take my summer vacation and stop publishing my ezine -- sales on my sites almost completely dies!

Despite email filters and declining open rates, ezines are still effective tools for the soft sell.

Just join an email service with good relations with the ISPs and make sure people double opt-in to receive your message.  You still should be able to generate profits from your list if you follow these guidelines.
 
5. Create an Autoresponder Course or Evergreen eZine.

Most people don't usually buy the first time they visit your site.  On average it takes 6 to 8 communications before a potential customer buys from you.

Therefore I suggest setting up an autoresponder course or evergreen ezine to capture email addresses. The ultimate goal of the autoresponder course is to cultivate customers over time with useful information related to your expertise or products.

Develop an informative course on the topic or subject of your business.  On the other hand you could have an evergreen ezine. Both courses and ezines could be delivered via autoresponders.

Evergreen ezines (short for electronic magazines) are created in advance and emailed to your subscribers automatically on a regular basis via an autoresponder.

The reason I suggest evergreen ezines over traditional ezines is you avoid struggling to develop an ezine manually on a regular basis.  Writing a regular ezine even bi-weekly can be a daunting task to say the least.

If you are not good at writing I would get a college student to do it for you.

You could also get a freelance writer to write it for you.  It would only cost you a hundred dollars or less from elance.com or rentacoder.com to get someone to write it for you.

The autoresponder course or evergreen ezine will literally put your Internet profits on automatic pilot! This is because it will constantly give you top of mind awareness with your customers.

Your autoresponder course or evergreen ezine can also be monetized and work well as info teasers.  They could lead back to your website featuring your products, affiliate programs, and Adsense™ Ads.

In part 2 of our article you will learn five even more powerful ways to springboard your business to unstoppable eCommerce success.  Until then learn to focus on these first five basic steps of eCommerce development, and you're on your way to -- selling online in record time!

 

Kamau Austin helps businesses develop search engine friendly sites as sales tools to build their business.  He is publisher or www.SearchEnginePlan.com and the author of "Always On Top" How to get the highest search engine ranking for your website -- every time! Pick up his book at www.AlwaysOnTopthebook.com