Internet Marketing The Easy Way

You basically need three things before you start.

1. An Idea

2. A Domain Name

3. A Web Host

A good idea can make or break your business. If you have something you are knowledgable about, or have an interest or passion in, then that's a good start.

Otherwise look to the news, online and offline stores, shopping channels, or magazines to see what's selling.

Once you have a rough idea of the niche you are going to focus on, it's time to purchase a domain name.

Your domain name should be relevant to the niche you are targetting, and contain "keywords" that will help your potential customers find it.

An example may help:

Say, you are interested in model trains.

A good domain name would be "modeltrains.com"

Unfortunately all the best domain names are taken, so you may want to try a different TLD (Top Level Domain - the characters after the dot - e.g. ".com").

So you could try "modeltrains.net" or "modeltrains.info"

.com's are always the best, so if a good TLD is not available perhaps you should try a different domain name altogether.

So we're going to sell model trains, right?

So something like "buymodeltrains.com" or "modeltrainsales.com" might be available.

As long as the URL contains the words "model" and "train" that's what we are aiming for.

Lastly, you need a host.

A webhost is a company that stores your site on the internet for you.

Personally, I use a couple of different webhosts, including thirdsphere.com and westhost.com - but there are many hundreds around.

Webhosts usually differentiate themselves on the services they offer.

The two main features are traffic, and space.

For example, webhost A may offer 10GB of Traffic, 10GB of space, and cost $10 per month.

Webhost B may offer 25GB of Traffic, 5GB of space, and cost $15 per month.

There is a lot of variety.

If you don't want to go through the hassle of comparing all hosts, go for the one that has a reasonable amount of traffic and space.

I don't want to complicate this introduction so you'll be fine choosing a popular webhost, such as hostgator.com

When the time comes that you need more features you'll be far past the scope of this lens :-)

Once you have your domain name and webhost, you need to link them together.

That is so "buymodeltrains.com" will show your website when someone enters it into their browser.

To do this you need to change the DNS (Domain Name Server) records on your domain name.

When you signed up for your hosting package, your hosting company should have given you your DNS records. If not, you need to contact them or check their website for details.

For example, they usually take the form:

DNS1.YOURHOST.COM
DNS2.YOURHOST.COM

Once you have these details, simply go your domain registrar, where you purchased the domain, login and change those records on your name.

Now you have a domain it's time to add content.

The easiest way to do this, and the most flexible, is to add a blog. This is a quick way to build a site that you add to as needed.

One of the most popular blogs is Wordpress, available free.

And if you're lucky your webhost may even install this for you automatically. Check with your host to see if they offer this feature. For example, hosts that have a "Cpanel" control panel will often have a feature called "Fantastico" that can install Wordpress with one click.

Other hosts, such as Westhost, also have an "applications install" feature that includes Wordpress.

Otherwise you'll need to install Wordpress manually.

For full details go to Wordpress.com.

There is a good complete beginners guide to installing wordpress here.

There is also a service at Siteground that combines a webhost with a professionaly installed copy of wordpress for $5.95 per month (at the time of writing) here.

Now you have Wordpress installed, and set up as you like it, it's time to start adding content.

Content can be text - such as articles, reviews, etc - pictures, products, or almost anything you can include on a webpage.

Content is important because it gives people a reason to visit your site and it gives the search engines a method to rank you in their search listings.

Your goal is for your site to appear on the first page of search engine results, if at all possible.

So if, to use our example, someone types "buy model trains" into Google, they find your "buymodeltrains.com" site right away.

The best form of content is plain text.

So you need to write posts within wordpress to reflect your choosen subject.

If you're passionate about your niche, I'm sure you'll already have tons of ideas of subjects to write about.

If not, it's time to do some research. Search google for your search term, and see what sites come up. Look at those sites and see what kind of subjects they are writing about.

Solving problems are always good, in the form of "How To" articles. As are lists, such as "10 Ways To" or "10 Sites That..."

But don't just write for the sake fo writing. Write to cover what people are going to be searching for.

So you need even more Keywords, deeper than your original idea.

There are a number of tools to help you here.

Google's Keyword Suggestion tool will tell you related terms to your keyword. So if, for example, you type "model trains" into it, it will give you a list of other searches people are looking for that relate to that subject.

So, for example, if one of the terms that come up is "00 model trains" (it is, I just checked) you can write about that subject.

Whatever the subject, include the keyword in the post title and in the content.

I don't know what "00 model trains" are, but a quick search on Google will usually give you all the information you need to write a quick article.

So...

Now I know 00 is a type of gauge in model train making. And I could quickly throw out an article on "00 Model Train Accessories" or something.

Whatever your niche, it's relatively easy to to find out what people are searching for, and to write the information that they need.

And of course, if it's a subject you know a lot about, it's even easier!

Now the fun part. You have a site, on the web, and you have content there.

How do you make money from this?

One of the simplest is through accepting advertising on your site.

Google AdSense is an obvious example. By signing up to Google you can display ad boxes at your site, and everytime a visitor clicks on one of those you earn anything from a few cents to a few dollars.

Google's ads are context sensitive, so they will show ads that are relevant to the content on your page.

And because they are "pay per click" no-one even needs to buy anything. They just need to click it.

So to ensure people click your ads, it makes sense to put them in a prominent position.

In your Wordpress blog you could have them at the top at the page, at the start of each post, and at the end of the post, for example.

Another method is to sign up for affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs pay you a percentage of a sale.

By going to an affiliate network, such as commissionjunction.com , you can search for relevant programs that complement your content.

So if, for example, you were writing about baby clothes, you could include a link to a company who sells baby clothes.

And because affiliate programs usually let you go much further than that, you could dedicate an entire post to a review of a nice new pushchair or something, with a direct link to that item that's for sale - and you earn each time someone buys one.

There are other types of affiliate programs, such as "CPA" programs. That stands for "Cost Per Action" and the "action" could be as simple as filling in a form.

You'll usually find these for services such as credit cards. So if someone fills in a credit card application, you could earn $40 just for that "action".

There are many different ways to add paying links to your site and it depends on the niche you are covering. Here's some more examples:

Love/Romance Site - Links to Dating Agencies
Personal Finance - Debt Restructuring, Credit Cards
Movie Reviews - Movie Rentals, Movie Sales

You can also digital products, from Clickbank.com

These usually offer high percentage payouts, up to 75%, and they usually sell e-books (downloadable books).

Clickbank is a big place and whatever type of site you create there's likely to be something there you can offer.

Other Options.

AdSense isn't the only ad network. You may also want to look at:

Chitika.com - who can run attractive "mini malls" at your site.

Kontera.com - which can automatically convert words on your site into paying links.

However, to get readers you still have to provide quality content, and if your blog turns into a mass of adverts with the content taken second place it can only damage your income.

The best site in the world, with the best content, and some attractive and cleverly placed income strams placed there will be no good without visitors.

Promotion is probably the biggest subject in this report, and the one that will reap the most benefits. There are many tactics you can use.

You'll be happy to know you've already taken the first step to promoting your site. Because you have thought about keywords in the domain name and in the content, this will help your search engine placement.

Search engines, specifically Google, rank your site according a number of criteria, such as:

Content (Keywords)
Age
PageRank

Luckily, Pagerank is something you can influence!

A page is ranked from 0-10, with 10 the best. And this rank is largely determined by how many other quality sites link to you.

Site that link to you that have a high rank themselves count for more. As do "one way" links, i.e. sites that link to you, but you don't link to them.

There are a number of strategies you can use to start driving your pagerank up.

The most obvious one is to contact the owners of other sites in your subject area and ask them to carry your link. Sometimes offering to link to them too will help seal the deal.

Otherwise, it's time to get creative!

Try leaving comments on other blogs, with your link included. You can also to link to other blogs posts from your own blog, as this can trigger a "trackback" that shows this fact on the other blog.

Or frequent forums and messageboards that apply to your niche, and post there. In a forum it's common to have a signature after your message, and that can carry your link.

You can also write articles and submit them to article directories, as well as ensure your site itself is submitted to web directories.

Articles have another bonus: they met get carried by other websites (along with your link), and they help to brand YOU, and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Some of these tactics will also generate direct traffic as well as increase your page rank.

Whenever you make a link to your site, whether it's in a blog comment, on a forum, in an article, in a directory, or from another site if possible use anchor text as your link.

Simply put, instead of - for example - www.netpreneurnow.com (where the site name is clickable as a link) you'd use Marketing Tips - which also links to to the site, but uses keywords as a link.

Search engines like this kind of thing, and it helps rank you for specific keywords.

In fact those keywords you created at the start of this article should be used everywhere. In your blog post titles (which also doubles as the actual web address of the post), in your domain name, in the main body text, and even as the "alt" text on any images you use.

Another option is to buy traffic directly, using a service such as Google Adwords.

I wouldn't recommend that for the beginner, but the short version is you can bid on keywords (perhaps using the list you already built up) and your short Google Ad will show in the Google search results.

And you can exchange hits with other sites by joining services that show ads on your site, in exchange for your ad being shown on another.

Finally, you can build up an e-mail list of subscribers by including a form on your site. By offering a gift, such as a free e-book, you can ask people to enter their details.

That way you are free to e-mail them whenever you have something to say, or a new post to recommend, and these e-mails can include promotional material.

There is more information on building e-mail lists in this Squidoo page: How To Build An E-Mail List

By carefully creating sites, focused around keywords, that are full of relevant content and payment opportunities you can start earning an income from the web.

And with a network of these sites, the skys the limit!

Happy Marketing :-)