Philip Harman How to Start a Home Based Internet Marketing Business
Everyone in the world is marketing something. A parent is constantly marketing a good value system to their child. A teacher is marketing knowledge and skill to their students. Fashion moguls are marketing their latest creations to anyone who wants to look good and business owners are marketing their services or products to us in every possible way.
The internet has made marketing evolve in ways never dreamed of before. As more and more people search the internet for what they need as a solution to their problem or needs or wants, an amazing opportunity has presented itself to anyone who would like to own their own home based internet business.
Starting a home based internet business is not difficult if you learn how to go about setting up such a business. Here are some key steps in starting your own such business.
Step #1 : Educate yourself about how a home based internet business is run
Investing time in finding out how such a business operates is a critical step you must take once the passion and inspiration to involve yourself in such a business takes hold. Just going online and buying programs that promise riches is not good enough. if you do this, it will cost you a lot of money and a huge amount of frustration.
Where can you find information that gives you an insight into internet marketing ? Forums about internet marketing are a good place to start with. Article databases such as Ezine Articles are a great place to find quality articles in the internet marketing or home based business categories. Spend at least a week reading and researching on the net such sources of information and make some notes. make notes especially about things you may not have heard of before – concepts and terminology that is commonly used in internet marketing.
Step #2 : Ensure that you have the necessary equipment to drive an internet business
This might sound very obvious, but many an aspiring internet marketer has found themselves in an awkward situation because they did not consider some basic requirements before starting out.
You will need a computer ( a personal computer or a laptop is what is commonly used) with a suitably fast internet connection speed. Slow download speeds as they occur in some countries can be exceptionally frustration and may destroy your enthusiasm. Some writing pads and pens and pencils are always useful to write down things you need to do or remember.
A credit card with at least $ 200 available to you is going to be necessary to invest in some learning materials online. it is foolish to think that you can drive an internet business at home with absolutely no money. Such a situation will frustrate you enormously and sap your enthusiasm as critical pieces of the puzzle become unattainable to you.
Step #3 : Invest in a high quality online internet marketing training program
Getting good information and access to high quality knowledge is absolutely critical to success in your internet marketing business. To make money online you need to have the attitude of an apprentice learning under a master mentor. Without a mentor, your progress will be very slow and filled with trials and errors that could take you months or years to figure out or overcome.
Fortunately today, there are some brilliant people in this industry who have put their minds to educating entrepreneurs like yourself. this can be done right in your own home courtesy of internet and video technology. You can literally study right in your own home and at your own pace to master the basics needed to set up your own home based internet business.
Searching the forums and blogs can reveal such mentors and you can even ask in such forums or blogs for referrals to a suitable program. A good clue to a high quality training program is how long have they been running such a program. if it is over 5 years then you may have a reasonable quality program. Most weakly constructed programs do not stand the test of time.
Do not make the mistake of buying the cheapest program available. This is usually a waste of your money. A good quality program is going to cost a bit more. If you are committed to making your business succeed, then rather save your money until you can afford the better program. There are some free programs online that will teach you parts of the necessary skills. Most such programs leave out essential steps and skills.
Step #4 : Learn the broad brush strokes involved in setting up an internet business
Like a jig-saw puzzle, internet marketing brings together many pieces of effort and knowledge to get to the final outcome of making a sale online, for which you will be paid.
To start with, you must know how to find a suitable domain name, how to buy a domain name and from which domain seller (there are many). You will need to have a hosting service (a service that will enable you to make your website visible on the internet). You will need a simple website (which can be developed for you by web developers). You will need to know how to point your domain to your hosting service if your hosting service provider is not the same company who sold you the domain name.
You will also need to learn how an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program works and how an HTML program (an editing program for your web files) works. You will also need to know how payment platforms such as PayPal or credit card processing services work. An auto responder service such as Get Response or Aweber will also be needed. This will be necessary to collect names and e mail addresses of people who may be interested in your offers or services.
Now all this might sound overwhelming and you might feel that this might be too much for you. Don’t despair – all of this can be learned in a very short time and in a systematic way if you have a good training program and mentor.
The technical stuff has to be mastered to some degree to make your understanding of what is happening at each step of the process of conducting an internet business. Any program that suggests that this is not necessary is just setting you up for failure. If a training program does not teach you the basic technical elements and how to perform them, stay clear of such a course.
The need for the technical knowledge becomes apparent when you understand how the marketplace (eg ClickBank), the seller (sometimes called the vendor), the affiliate marketer (that’s you) and the buyer (the millions of people looking online for a product, or service or information that will solve their problem or satisfy their needs or wants) and the payment portal (such as PayPal) are connected electronically via the internet.
If you are vague about this understanding, you will not clearly understand the strategies needed to market (drive traffic to your website or offer that sells the product or service.
Step #5 : You will need to study the various ways to market / drive traffic to the offer you are promoting
There are many systems for driving traffic or marketing an offer. A good training program will expose you to many such systems. These systems can be combined in many ways to give the best consistent flow of traffic to the offer. Social media marketing, article marketing, e-mail marketing, mobile ads marketing, YouTube marketing, video marketing, classified ads marketing and forum marketing are just some of the marketing systems available.
Such systems will become the life-blood of your business. Learning them well is only prudent.
Step #6 : Become aware of the mental and emotional adjustments you will need to make to run an internet marketing business
The mindset of an internet marketer is different from someone running a brick and motor business. The demands can be very different because of the nature of the internet marketing process. It requires you to understand the behavior of people online and how they look for products and services, their buying attitudes and preferences. Frustration at the lack of quick success can be discouraging and you should be conscious of the changing nature of the processes happening in you mind.
The journey to becoming a successful internet marketer, owning and running your own business is a passionate and fulfilling one – provided you get the right training before you start operating your business.
