Internet Marketing WAHM

There are many moms out there that are wanting to stay home to raise their kids, yet they still want or need to contribute financially to the family. Through the countless hours of research and wasted money on get rich quick schemes trying to find the "perfect" opportunity, you begin to wonder if working from home online is reality or just another pipe dream.

Working from home online is a reality and there are plenty of opportunities out there for all of us. You need to remember that as with ANY business, it takes a little bit of time to grow. Just like with any crop or garden, you must plan, prepare and plant before you are rewarded with a harvest.

As you learn more about techniques and strategies along the way, you can begin to apply them and determine if they are suitable for your small business online.

Internet Marketing is all about providing information, resources and opinions on products or services to businesses and consumers. The world would come to a stand still without it (not really...but close)! Everything on TV, Radio, Internet and multitudes of other types of media utilize internet marketing to get the word out about everything we want and need in our lives. TV and Radio Spots are expensive and the audience is limited. The internet has a much larger audience and the expense for advertising is much more reasonable. Advertisers and small businesses need Internet Marketers to spread the word about how their product or service is exactly what someone is looking for and they will pay you to do it for them.

Now, I bet you're saying, "But, I have no experience in advertising and selling, I am not qualified to do this sort of work or I have no money to start up a business!" I'm here to tell you that you do have experience and you are very much qualified to do this and you can even start doing this with no money!

How often do you share information about a great product you found to family, friends, neighbors, etc.? Were you trying to sell them on it to make a buck or two? Of course not! You were merely suggesting that you had a solution for them and guided them to the product or service that you found to be helpful and useful by sharing yours or someone else's experience with it. See! Simple as that! There's no selling, nor do you have to set yourself up to compete with the big advertising agencies. Most consumers buy based on trusted reviews about how something works and if it's a quality product.

To begin your journey as a lucrative Internet Marketing WAHM, you must decide if you want to offer someone else's product or service or create and sell your own. There are several key factors to help you make this decision. Whether it is a need versus a want or to provide a solution to improve the quality of life, you need to find a need and fill it. Make sure you are not jumping in to compete with the big players out there or in a saturated market where everyone else is offering the same thing wrapped in a different package. Keep in mind that you need to have a narrow market, or rather, a niche. Internet marketing is not like a brick and mortar store where you need to be generalized or a "one stop shop" to make money out of convenience for the consumer. To be a successful internet marketer, you need to first stand out from the crowd by specializing in uniqueness and then build upon it.

For example, take a popular retail store and really take notice of everything that they have to offer. Sure it would be nice to have an online storefront selling everything that they are displaying to meet the various preferences of everyone, but you must realize you are just starting out...baby steps. Okay, now pick one item in the store that you know the majority of people on this planet use each and everyday. Maybe even something that needs to be replaced seasonally or just because. It could also be an item that can be included in a collection or a theme. You would be amazed to find what people collect and display.

You could also go through a similar process if you wanted to offer a service based business. If you take a look at tasks you have performed throughout your employment, determine if it is a skill that the majority of businesses or entrepreneurs or newbies such as yourself need and specialize in it and market it to a specific industry. Are you following me yet?

If you are creative and crafty, you could showcase and offer your original items as well. My point is, there is a market for everything and anything out there, you just have to take some time to research your interests and the interests of others.

Once you have figured out what you want to offer, you need to figure out how to source the product if you don't have a product of your own and how you are going to tell the world about this fabulous product you have that they need. You can only make money if people know you have what they want. Here's where we discuss some marketing tactics.

You can earn generous commissions by becoming an affiliate of a retailer or service and pre-sell their items to drive customers to their websites by effectively utilizing targeted marketing techniques such as keyword marketing, article marketing, social media marketing, review blogging, forums, groups and several other methods to get you to page one or better yet, first position for your product or service.

The content you put out onto the web must be original and targeted, and if you are able to personally relate to the consumer the better. If you can provide someone a scenario as to how the product or service benefited you, how you used it, why you used it, or even if a comparable item was a disappointment and offer an alternative solution, you will secure a commission if you are able to get people to relate to your experience or opinion.

You can also become an Independent Distributor for a company and sell their products for them while building a network of additional Reps to sell for you as well in order to reach a larger audience. Most Direct Marketing companies and Independent Distributors are utilizing the internet to grow their network and address the needs of the online shopper rather than limiting themselves to "home parties" to sell their merchandise.

I've mentioned "targeted" a few times now, so I should probably touch base on that. By targeted, I am referring to the various ways your customers search for the product you are offering. For instance, you are selling a "thingamajig". If you go to Google's keyword tool and type in "thingamajig" (not really...but use your product) you can see all the different words or phrases that people type to find that "thingamajig". You will also see that the competition is probably in the hundreds of thousands if not millions. You don't want to be a grain of sand in that vast sea. So what is special about your "thingamajig"? What is it used for? What color is it? What size is it? Who uses it? When is it used? Why is it used? How is it used? Now type in those scenarios and phrases into the keyword tool. Amazing huh! You've now compiled a list of keyword phrases (customer search terms) with very little competition that you can use to market to your target audience with your "thingamajig". After a while, or quite possibly immediately, you will see YOUR search term at the top of page one on Google. Your conversions will be better because your customers were looking for exactly what they needed and what they needed it for and you had it right there for them!

In tough financial times like these, most of us are looking for a fast buck. There are other methods to making money online to just make a few bucks here and there. I will address those in another lens at a future date. As for internet marketing for the WAHM, think of this as planting a garden, whether it's floral or produce, you need to first prepare the seedling or the soil to start. You then transfer the new growth to a larger area to grow further and encourage blooms or a crop by regularly maintaining it and working it. The point is, this takes time to produce a bountiful harvest.

For some people who diligently apply effective techniques, they will see almost immediate results. For others that may have a difficult start out of the gate, may see results in three to six months or even a year down the road. Each individual is different in addition to the product or service being offered. Stick with it though and give it time to grow, but also be sure to tend to it! When it all comes together, you can let everyone know that you are an Internet Marketing WAHM!