For two weeks I have been talking about things that folks don’t see when it comes to a successful website. Today lets talk about what you can see. I’m not going to talk about adding photos. You can read what I have to say about that subject by visiting the following posts:
03/18/11   04/01/11   04/08/11   04/15/11

You should consider how to use and place your affiliate ads…check out my post on 05/27/11.
The use of your ads is a very important component to having a successful internet business. Not only should you follow the tips of that post but you should consider establishing a routine for analyzing your ads.

Remember to keep everything about running your internet business as simple as possible. Simple is always easy and easy is always best…there are no exceptions. So must your “routine for analyzing your ads”.

Once a month check out your ads…are the links still working? If the link works is the ad that appears look appealing to you? Are the ads relevant to your site and to the article content?

The text of the ad..does it move you to click on it? Ask a friend to read it….were they tempted to click on that ad because of the way it is written? Can you rewrite the ad? Should you rewrite the ad or should leave it as is?

Should you move the ad up or down the page? Should you make it bolder? Should you replace it all together?

Create a simple check list for your ads….check the list….it’s simple really and it allows you to keep the ads fresh and energetic.

We are not going to spend a great deal of time talking about content…the list of posts I have dedicated to that subject are numerous. However we will take a moment to touch on a few points.

The content for your articles must..Must…reach out and grab folks. The content of your website needs to engage your readers like I have stated in posts 11/11/11 and 03/30/12.

Be bold here! Let your information and your personality shine. How you approach your market…the words you choose… the life you breathe into it…is what helps make a website successful.

Your content must be revisited from time to time (don’t over do this) to keep it relevant. Read it out loud from time to time..how does it sound? Are there new facts that you should add? All I suggest is you review your work.

How is the layout of your site? Is it simple and easy or cluttered with stuff and folks have to use a machete to clear their way through the site? Just something to think about.

In conclusion…

Learn all that you can while building your website, experience the lessons of trial and error. Read, study and listen and you will understand that there is not ONE and Only ONE way to build a successful internet business (so stay away from those who claim there is).

What makes a successful website….you do.

Today you will learn about the Red Tuxedo!

Talking about what a successful website looks like last week, I mentioned that the first step was to choose your market wisely. I also mentioned that this first step is something you could not see.

An important piece of information to always remember…There are many parts to a successful website that at first glance you would not be able to notice, but they are there, behind the scenes.

Lets talk about another secret…don’t you just like the sound of that word? Guru’s do…I don’t. Remember what I always preach….”There are no secrets in the Internet Business World, just unlearned facts”……and here is one you should consider.

Big bone #2 a successful website has great meta descriptions.

Now don’t worry about the term “meta”. Before you sidetrack yourself (like a lot of folks) trying to get a clear definition of  what meta means, worry instead about what it does.

So what is the meta description and what does it do? First make a note that the meta description is considered by Google to be extremely important to your website, more so then meta tags.

The meta description is 155 characters that defines what the site page is about. It (meta description) is about the site page..not the website.

It is important to note that you need to use your keyword phrase for that page in the meta description…only once! Just a suggestion here, do not waste your characters, duplicating the use of your page keyword phrase.

That is what it is, now picture this…

Your website comes up in the top ten spots of a Google search…yes that day may arrive! You are now in a fantastic situation. The competition opposing your internet business is now 9 against 1. Your site is now poised to attack, and you are ready! At least we hope you are.

How? Because your meta description shows up along with theirs and if you crafted it well, then your site gets chosen. Simple isn’t it? Just create a better meta description then the competition and you win!

Of course the obvious question will be what makes a great meta description.

So ask yourself by considering for a moment your own experiences. What do you do when you are faced with ten websites…you begin to read the meta description of each site. Chances are you don’t make it through all ten, because you found what you were looking for and clicked on that site.

But why did you click on that particular one? Because it was wearing a Red Tuxedo that’s why, and that is what makes a great meta description. Oh you didn’t notice the Red Tuxedo?

The Red Tuxedo defined…

Realize that everyone is following the pure definition of a meta description. The end result is everyone is coming to the wedding wearing black tuxedos. In other words all the metas read pretty much the same.

But hear is where you are different. Yes you follow the basic rules…155 characters, use the keyword once….but that’s it. You are not hear to be part of the crowd. You are not going to allow yourself to be another lamb in the flock.

No! It’s Red Tuxedo time! You are going to write your meta description, in a very different way. You are going to present a question to the reader with humor or straight faced that begs to be answered. You might state an unusual fact that demands the audible…really….from the reader…..you are going to grab that reader by the lapels and drag them into your website.

You are going to unleash your creative side and cause folks to become like curious George and click (on your Business link) to find the answer. Hey if you sit there and tell me you are not creative…..then my reply would be to ask someone who is.

Now that they have clicked…the timer starts…and you have ten seconds to impress. Next week we will talk more about what a successful website looks like.

Until then contact me with your questions and or ideas.

Resting in the garden the other day, soaking up some extra rays, I was struck by an idea. Now it’s not that unusual that I have an idea, but this one actually sounded pretty good. So setting down by cherry lime drink I walked into the office, fired up the computer and began to contemplate…

What does a successful website look like?

Now you might think it shouldn’t be that difficult to find a successful website. Sure I thought I can just relate what I have done and that would answer the question. But as I considered that for a few minutes I realized that would not work. Why? Because not everyone has a website in the Yak Dog market. (yes I know I don’t either) The point however is just because I do something and make money at it doesn’t mean you would.

Oh I know that this kind of crazy thinking drives the snake oil salesmen nuts. They thrive on selling folks templates..”Just follow my easy 5 steps..do what I did and you too will be able to dump your ugly wife for a super model. Move out of that 3 bedroom house in suburbia and purchase a fine English type estate and don’t forget to turn in that Ford Pinto for the newest Ferrari. Yup and it will only cost you $299.00

You can not duplicate what someone else has done. You can copy it….(not the same thing as duplicate)..but that does not translate into success.

Instead of finding an example of a successful website to show you. I have decided to list the bones of a successful website.

Big bone #1 you must choose a market wisely. Wait you say! All you need is to be told what the hottest money making market is. That will be your choice.

Alright let me think about that. (You have to assume that I spent a great deal of soul searching, brain crunching and the consumption of two hot pockets before I came up with the following reply)

Silly me….what was I thinking? Of course you are correct. I will just tell you the hottest money making market out there. It’s earthworms.

Don’t believe me? Just check out the numbers…high demand low competition.

When I suggest to you that you must choose a market wisely it is because YOU must Choose!
Let us add the common sense factor to every decision you make. If you have no interest in a market you will have at best a very short run internet business. You will fail, there is no doubt in my mind.

The question you should be asking is not what is the hottest but what market (I have an interest in) can I get into that will bring me success if I work at it. That is the correct question.

Before you ask that question consider this one….How will you judge success?

Too many folks place too many walls before them to create an atmosphere of confusion around themselves. They put themselves in the position of having their noses against a wall and become blind to the answer. What everyone needs to do is take three steps back away from the wall….you will then be able to look to your right or to your left and see the doorway.

Fear of failure wins everyday. If you are afraid to fail you will. (Even if your not afraid you still might fail..it just won’t hurt as much)

A successful website begins with you deciding which market you will attack. Therefore you will arm yourself with the correct keyword phrase to act as your doorway into that market. Spend some time…OK a lot of time doing keyword research to find the phrases that will allow you to attack the market at its weakest points.

What does a successful website look like? Sorry to say it begins with the foundation and that my friends you never see.

Next week I will continue this discussion describing more parts of a successful website.

As always I like to hear from you.

Back in November of last year I wrote a post titled A Call For Engagement. Since then I have been asked to give a clear example of how one engages a reader. My instincts tell me that you already understand this but I will present a simple example.

Let’s first set the stage. Say you owned www.midlifeandyou.com (a nice site…not one of mine). The owner has added this to the bottom of his home page.. “Feel free to give us some feedback or share an experience that you feel may be of benefit to others in their midlife.” Now we are ready to proceed.

A reader comes along and emails the site an experience that helped change their life.

Here is what should/could happen.

The owner of the site emails the reader back…a very personal email thanking them for sending in the experience. Lets the reader know that it is appreciated and that it will be posted to the website in “x” amount of days.

This gives the reader a connection to the website. The website has responded, not with some computer generated auto response…..but with a real, almost like getting a letter in the mail(remember what those are) reply and that is a very cool thing.

The next thing that happens is the reader checks the website as directed to find their experience posted for the world to read. That becomes a very powerful moment for them, a sense of pride, because that is part of them and it is attached to this website.

The reader then goes out and every chance they get tells everyone of their friends and folks they meet (if the topic arises) and mentions how those folks should go and visit the website and see for themselves.

You see the reader has now taken ownership of the website. They have added to it. They have received thanks for their contribution and in a sense they have a small claim to fame.

The website like www.midlifeandyou.com has also benefited. They have received content for their site. They have a connection to a reader. They have gotten some extra traffic because of that reader.

Life is now good….but it can become even better. Yes it can. How you might/should ask? The owner of the site at some point should write another email to the reader, thanking them again for their contribution and add that they have gotten feed back from other readers who enjoyed the article.

A word here…. we are talking about a business….ways to improve and build the business….so this next comment might (just might) offend the faint of heart, so be forewarned.

When you mention to the reader that others have commented how they enjoyed the article…it need not be true. That’s right folks it might be that you have not heard a whisper from anyone about that readers submission. But you will still say that you have. Why, Why, Why would I even suggest something as base as a lie?

The same reason you tell your loved one that the green and yellow dress they are wearing looks fantastic, instead of the truth. The same reason you tell someone who is obviously overweight that they look like they have been losing weight. So why do you say those things?

The reason you tell the reader that others liked the article is to make them feel GREAT! Also you are asking if they have any other tips etc they would care to share. Enclosed in this email you would also ask if they would be interested in getting a monthly email from you. I shouldn’t have to detail the rest… you get the idea.

If you haven’t however, those monthly emails could/should have an offer or a link to one of your affiliates that never show up on your website….because they are special only to your monthly emails.

OK my friends that is my example on engaging the reader, remember…Engagement is a necessity for you business. Engage yourself and your readers.

As always I would like to hear from you.

From time to time I get into discussions with others in my field. By the time we are through I’m usually the one standing alone (the others have walked away shaking their heads.) This week was no different.

John (Not his real name. You know the old joke about changing the names to protect the guilty? In this case it’s true) was mentioning a number of tools that people don’t bother to use when promoting their Internet Business.

There were a few other folks around and most were nodding their heads in agreement. A few others were trying to discuss various tools…the merits of one versus the others. All was going well until I asked this question.

“Ever see a dog chase its tail?”

John, just smiled (you know that polite smile you reserve for strangers who appear to be a little off) and replied with something like, “What do dogs have to do with marketing?”

Once I knew I had their attention, I mentally adjusted my Guru toga, only kidding I don’t have one, (my legs aren’t as great looking as they used to be) cleared my throat and said;

“They (Dogs) don’t get anywhere chasing their tails. Neither do folks who are always trying new and so called brilliant ideas for promoting their websites.

There are over 350 Social networks, easily over 500 million blogs, there are hundreds of Internet Gurus on Twitter alone and I can not even begin to count all the online programs that promise traffic wealth and good looks.

Point being most folks end up wasting time and Money trying to do all things marketing because of what they read and hear on the internet. Like I said a dog chasing its tail.”

John replied (he is a nice guy but stubborn..probably why we get along) Norm you are not seeing the big picture. You are missing the point. Not everyones Internet marketing needs are the same. That is why there are so many options. What methods work for one person might not work for another.

“Do you know how many basic literary plots there are?” I countered..”Seven…now there are many versions of those seven..but seven is the number. Why do I bring this up, because most folks would have offered a guess in the thousands because that is their perception. Do you know how many choices you have in business…. there are only two!

Either you are a success or you fail. There are many versions of these two…some folks make $100,000 a year and they see themselves as failures. Others make enough extra money for a great time out once a month and they feel successful.

My point is you either make money or you don’t. success or failure is only a perception. Now John what you are saying has merit…however there are only a few “basic” ways to market and run a business that allows you to make money. Understand the basics, master the basics and then use them, that is how you make money. Forget all the other hype about this and that, save the red ribbon that is tied around “secrets” and such nonsense.”

At this point I found myself alone in that field.

I get so many questions from folks asking about this or that found on the Internet. Will this work etc etc….when what they should be doing is focusing on the basics.

As always I say what I feel is right…and you…need to do what you feel is right…just don’t get lost.

All we are going to do today is talk about a few more mistakes that folks sometimes make when they are engaging in the social marketing of their internet business. Last week we went through a few ideas and we will use that same format today. I was told that I came across a little rough in that last post.

If I did come across a little rough..then fix the mistakes, make some sales.. and take yourself out to dinner….because…

Marketing is essential to your business. It is the life blood of your business. Without effective marketing you have absolutely no chance of making any real money with your website. No one wakes up in the morning looks into the mirror to discover that they just became a marketing expert. This is an area that you learn through failure. Don’t panic because you will experience some success as well. But remember you never really learn how to ride a bike until after you fall.

Last week we went through five mistakes, here are a few more for you to consider and change if necessary.

1) Have you heard the one about the door to door salesman who visited hundreds of homes just to say Hello? No you haven’t and you never will. So why then would you spend a ton of time and effort to do marketing but never ask anything of anyone. Why wouldn’t you at least say “Come and see what we have?” Why would you not suggest that “We have what your looking for!”  Get the hint? I hope so….Ask.

2) How many of you want to get an email from me talking about my Uncle Stan’s cat Fredrick? How about a phone call where we talk about how I feel depressed today because my big toe was run over by an old lady on a moped? (No disrespect to old lady’s who ride mopeds). Truth is I wouldn’t want to hear that stuff. Just like I wouldn’t want to see your marketing efforts sliding down that slippery slope of being too personal. Keep the focus on business, because that is what it is.

3) That leads us into the squishy place called profiles. I am not a big profile guy (for good or bad) I don’t like talking about myself. I don’t mind talking about others (kidding) but it is an effort for me to sell me. So if you suffer the same problem then here is a hint. Don’t talk about you..except in the third person. Write your profile as if you know nothing about yourself except that which the public would have an absolute need to know…..professional only, but make it count.

4) If running an internet business can be compared to being in a war (that is how I approach it) then your marketing ideas are a series of battle plans. So how good are your plans? If the business is war and marketing are plans then your various websites/blogs are your troops. Are you communicating and engaging your troops in a united and concentrated effort? If not, why? You are making a critical mistake if you are not combining all your assets.

5) Would Custer and the 7th Cavalry have benefited if they had retreated? (Never mind that they should have never attacked). Yes they would if they could have. They would have realized that they had just stepped in it and it was time to regroup. Should you ever retreat? Yes if…you are staying on top of your marketing and realize that you are going in the wrong direction. But here is the tough nut to consider….are you really so engaged that you can truthfully say…time to rethink my marketing.

There are more areas to consider but the bottom line that leads to failure for anyone is a lack of consistency. In the last two weeks we have gone through ten areas that need to be done correctly in order for there to be success in marketing. Like I said however there are other areas of marketing that we have not touched upon…yet.

Last week I began the post by saying that marketing, marketing and more marketing was all you needed to be successful in an internet business. However the one true piece that is absolutely necessary for success is the consistent belief and consistent action on your part that you will succeed.

Till next week.

Marketing, marketing and more marketing. That is the answer. That is all you ever need to know to become successful with your Internet Business. Just stop what your doing (after you read this post that is) and grab your marketing hat and get to work. OK I’m not being totally honest here.

The reality of running an Internet Business is much more then reaching out and saying hey visit my site. There is more then just placing social media icons on your site or just saying “like me.”

Yes there is much more but today no one wants to hear that. What they want is to sit back in their hammock and listen to the rustling of those greenbacks fluttering around the yard. The hammock part is great but I’m too much into money to just let it flutter away. Admit it… you are too.

Marketing is all everyone wants to talk about. You would think that with all the chatter out there folks would be able to get it right. But no….mistakes, mistakes and more mistakes. How can we (I will include myself to make it fair) make so many mistakes especially in Social Marketing?

Here are a few thoughts that you might want to consider…see if you can relate to these mistakes. If you do…change what you are doing.

1) Haphazard and half way attempts to get your message out. You know what I mean. One week you are on top of your marketing game with guns a blazing. The next week you have more important things to do and you make about as much splash in the social media pool as a gnat. Something to think about when “life” gets in the way of your business.

2) How many folks do you know that have absolutely no personality….yup your right… none. Everyone and I mean everyone has a personality and yes you are correct some hide it very well. So tell me is your personality hidden in your marketing? If it is you lose…game over..take down the tent and just go home.

3) More more and more……more what? Well more of everything. Folks just like more. Now you younger folks won’t appreciate this but back in the day….really back….more wasn’t necessary because stuff was quality stuff back then. Food was quality…movies were quality…products were quality….there is a theme developing here. Today we are used to more being less in every aspect of our lives. Don’t make that mistake in your marketing! It isn’t about more no matter what you are told. Ask yourself…How is the quality of your content?

4) Social…what does that mean? Used to mean knowing your neighbors, talking over the fence. Used to mean being polite and courteous. Used to be being interactive with folks. Well it still means those things. When it comes to social marketing, folks just seem to have forgotten what being social means. Do you approach social marketing like an irritating neighbor that is always trying to sale you Avon? (No disrespect intended to the Avon folks). Are you genuine in your marketing? If you are not being social your just another bothersome bug on someones windshield.

5) Ever notice how people judge you by the way you dress. It’s true we all know that. When we were teenagers we didn’t care about that right…wrong we did…we wanted to fit in with the rest of the group. Marketing is the same. You will be judged on what you say..how you say it and if it is put together correctly. Now if you have read this blog for any length of time you know that I have no clue about spelling, punctuation or grammar. But hey I’m not selling anything. You are…don’t be perceived as an uneducated amateur.

Today we covered 5 areas that you should be focused on when your marketing your website. There are more mistakes that you might be making so lets cover those next week. As always I would like to hear your comments..good or bad…I like them all.

It’s March and the weather here is fantastic. So great that I’m sitting out in the garden sipping on a cool herbal tea and watching the ladybugs patrol the turnip’s.

I could spend a great deal of time describing the garden and how beautiful and full it is. I could talk about the additional planter boxes I have to build to handle the transplants my wife is nurturing. But why think about work today?

I love the garden and am fortunate to have a wife who has both, green thumbs and fingers. She has a creative flair for the management of our garden and so it prospers. I on the other hand am the manual labor force that does what he is told. Not that she doesn’t put a lot of time an effort into the garden…because she does. But I’m the one who is best suited for the building and digging….not, for lack of a better term, thinking.

All in all it’s a team effort and a lot of work.

Back when we first started gardening and our friends would see our efforts for the first time they would ask… is all this work really worth the effort?  There was only one way to answer that question. We would send them back out to the garden and asked them to pick whatever they wanted for their personal salad. With only one exception (he still longs for the days when the gas station attendants pumped your gas for you and feels that should still be the case today) everyone agreed the results were worth it.

So what does our garden have to do with Social Media Marketing?

Everything!

The greatest slam Social Media Marketing gets is that it’s so darn hard to prove if your getting ROI (return on investment). That would mean of course that you are spending money on your Social Media Marketing. Now if you are then you must email me with the “WHY?” Yes why are you spending money. You might have a perfectly great answer and I would love to hear it.

The next black eye Social Media Marketing gets is that it is so hard to do and you can’t control when you will get results. You should know by now what I think about that statement, but for conversation sake lets say you are correct…it’s hard.

Finally everyone knows Social Media Marketing is so time consuming and really with so much out there where does one spend the time. Is it really that time consuming?

This all ties into gardening how?

Not every seed grows into a plant. Not every plant produces. But do you know which seed in advance will not grow? No…so you plant. You might not be able to track your ROI for Social Media Marketing even if all you count is your time. However you should know that something is happening (like seeds in the ground…after all most seeds will grow). You might not be able to track your results (contrary to what the Guru’s with software for sale will tell you) but common sense will tell you that something is happening…..because you are getting traffic.

The seed packet says you will have results (edible food) in x amount of days. Will you? If all goes well it will…if not you won’t. How can you guarantee it ..you can’t. But you plant anyway. Perhaps when it comes to Social Media Marketing you won’t get the results you expect in the time frame you set. Not everything is perfect but results do occur as long as you work it.

Some plants take extra time and extra care and you look forward to them producing because they are worth it (like sugar baby watermelon). What if the weather kills them or nasty little critters get to them….you plant anyway. What is time in Social Media Marketing? It is how long it takes to get your first visitor. Sometimes it’s immediate…but let’s say it takes a week or a month. Does it matter? No! Once it starts it starts….all you have to do is keep it going.

There are plants that grow and over produce beyond what you expected. There are volunteers that you know you didn’t plant but they add to your produce. Once you start Social Media Marketing you will begin to get results from places you did not enter. All it takes is one person posting a link to your site on a site you never knew existed. Remember it doesn’t take much.

I have explained this before but it bears repeating. One visitor engages two folks who because of that engagement visits the site….those two each tell two…those 4 now tell two more…which turns to 8 who tell two. So that first visitor (counting himself) accounts for 31 visits. Now if we used real numbers you could see that the amount of visitors could be a basket full.

But it doesn’t stop there. You see if you use Social Media Marketing correctly, links are left behind like cookie crumbs (much better then bread) for others to follow.

Social Media Marketing is worth the effort because it doesn’t cost anything (if you do it yourself) is easy to learn, it’s easy to apply and it doesn’t take as much time as working a garden every week and it works.

Speaking of work I should go back into my office, because my wife has been staring at a spot in the backyard for a while now…and she just glanced at the tool shed. Yup it’s time to go.

Would like to hear your thoughts and ideas.

There is no way to discuss marketing your Internet business without mentioning the need for a social media strategy. For the sake of this discussion I will assume that you have some understanding what makes up social media but are still searching for a strategy.

I will admit that the internet is filled with experts of every stripe who will gladly share their opinion on the best way to market your website. If you were to take the time to research all their ideas you could walk away having a better understanding of what a social media strategy is. You would also have a major headache trying to make sense out of all your research, as no one ever agrees.

To save you from taking extra strength pain relievers, I have decided to boil those findings down into a pleasant and hopefully easy to understand post on developing a social media strategy.

You might have noticed the posts title. Well the fool proof part is easy you see There are no rules! That’s right no one including myself has the market cornered on how to best market your website.

For those of you who like your answers fast and easy you can leave now. For those who are interested in finding out the whys please continue but be warned we will be talking about common sense!

Here is an example why I say there are no rules. My Internet Business is all about Red Widgets. I have carefully constructed the site to utilize SEO practices. Everything is in place and I’m ready to go.

Darn, your website is also about Red Widgets and you also constructed the site to utilize SEO practices. Now that is not supposed to happen (in my plan). But ding dang that will be the reality, other folks with similar sites. So what do we do?

We come up with a social media strategy to market our sites and hope we can out do the other. To accomplish this a plan must be created and then implemented. Common sense will tell you that we will be using some of the same areas of marketing.

Common sense again…If there was a one social media strategy rules fits all plan, and we both implemented it, how would we defeat one another for getting traffic? That’s easy…I’m smarter then you. (Only kidding)

You see being smarter has very little to do with anything. Knowledge is important but it’s what you do with that knowledge that separates businesses. Book smart will only get you so far, so just stop putting that flimsy road block ahead of you.

Why there is no one size fits all example:

I was talking to another Internet Marketing Coach not long ago and he informed me that if someone was going to use Twitter as part of their marketing, they must tweet 8 times a day. Now he was firm on that 8 times a day. So I asked what is so special about the number 8?

His answer….if you could hear it as a recording…would be the sound of crickets in the middle of the night!

Twitter is one of those free marketing tools (you know I love free) that you use (like every other tool) in a way that works best for you. Lets face it some folks are natural born tweeters…others are somewhat  challenged. By the way the I think the #8 was his lucky number. You can pick any number and build a case as why that number works best….for you.

Everyone has access to the same tools, just use them as best you can. Sometimes not knowing that something can not be done is a blessing. Take a look at all the successful folks out there that didn’t realize they weren’t supposed to be successful.

How do you determine the right number of tweets for you? Trial and error, time constraints and writing ability. Simple.

Most folks fall into one of two categories when it comes to implementing their social media strategy.

The first group believes all the hype about how difficult this is, so they place their business in the hands of others. Is this bad? Not if you:

(A) Have the money to spend.

(B) The amount of money (asked for) is reasonable, to you.

(C) Find someone you can really feel you can trust.

If any of one of those three are lacking….don’t do it.

The second group will do the work themselves but they look for the “quick and easy” way. Their problem compounds itself because they do the easiest of things but never on a consistent basis. They fail to see that all their doing is nothing more then dipping their big toe into the social media lake without a strategy. How do they compound the problem?

When they see they aren’t getting much in the way of results, they panic. They look around for a “quick and easy” fix to their problem. They become easy prey to the snake oil salesmen, who promise great results with no work. End result they end up spending monies on programs that are useless.

So what about you? What should your approach be? I’m glad you asked.

(1) Understand the tools at you disposable before you create a social media strategy. It’s not as complicated as folks make it out to be.

(2) Set goals for your internet business. Write them down, be realistic and then cut them in half.
Set your sites high but understand nothing ever goes as planned.

(3) Now develop your social media strategy to fit your strengths. I often hear it said the most difficult and time-consuming pieces are the most effective. Two things to remember when you hear statements like that.

First, there is nothing you are using that is difficult or time-consuming. Like everything else in this Internet World, there is a learning curve, get past it and your fine. A little ways back I did mention folks will do the “easiest of things.” By that I meant they might post a few comments on Facebook (which is easy) but they didn’t give it much thought…no direction.

Second, there should never be just a few pieces to your social media strategy. You must make sure they all work together. If you do, then the plan works and only then will you be effective. No one or two pieces will bring you the results your after.

In conclusion. it’s easy to lose your way in this business world. All you have to do is just relax, use your common sense and develop a social media strategy that makes sense to you….and you will always be on target.

I get many requests (and I’m grateful) from folks who want to build a website. Creating an Internet Business is one way to make income that can always come in handy. I am a firm believer that no one can make too much money (despite the occupy Wall Street and our present administration beliefs). Matter of fact I have never had a client ask me “How do I limit my income.”

I think it would be safe to assume then, that you being here wanting to know how to build a website, that you are not opposed to the idea of making money.

Where does one begin when considering to build a website? No I am not going to take you through a check list to determine if you are cut out to go into business. Let us just assume you are. You are over 18 years of age you know how to use the Internet and you know that to build a website and running an Internet Business does take work.

The first decision you must make is a simple one. Do you want to build a website or will you pay to have someone do it for you? In other words do you want to throw money down a hole and learn nothing by having it done…or do you want to gain the knowledge and become your own master.

It should be obvious which side of that picket fence I stand on. I feel so strongly on the subject that I tell every client in the first session that my goal is to give them knowledge so they will NOT have to pay someone again. Learn what it takes to build a website. Learn how to market that site and leave your poor wallet closed. Trust me your wallet will thank you.

The first hurdle is figuring out which market you will get into. Again I’m always told “It doesn’t matter what the market is as long as I can make money.” Wrong answer. No doubt about it. Just because I build a website in a particular market doesn’t mean you will be successful in that market as well.

If you lack the interest in the market then everything you do will reflect it and your business will fail. Your website is a living thing that you must tend to, if it is to grow and mature. Lack of interest leads to neglect, end of story.

I should note there are some markets you would do well to stay away from. Which markets? Try staying away from Religion, Politics, Professional Sports, Get Rich Quick, and sites that are solely about Art, Books, Music, Electronics and Travel.

I realize that some of these markets you have seen, heard or have even been encouraged by various Gurus to build a website about.

Have you ever run through deep snow? For those of you in the south an inch of snow is not considered deep. I’m talking running through snow that comes almost thigh high. If you have, you will understand how exhausting and non productive that can be. If not trust me it is not something you want to do a lot of. These markets are like running through that deep snow.

Just a note here…don’t confuse products with markets.

Once you have decided which market you will build a website in…you then have to create a plan of attack. Yes you need a plan before you build a website. You need to know how you are going to attack and overcome the competition (business is a war).

A great part of your plan is to understand how to use keyword phrases. Consider keyword phrases as your ground troops attacking the weakest points of the market. By carefully laying the foundation of your site with keywords you will position yourself  for success once you implement your marketing plan.

So is that all you need to build a website, keywords? Of course not there are numerous nuts and bolts that go into building your business. You will need to understand how the internet works, search engines, directories and the not so mysterious SEO to name a few.

What does it take to build a website? Simply put knowledge and a big dose of common sense. If you are serious about getting into an Internet Business and want to build a website, then you should. Before you start…do a little research, write down a ton of questions and then find a mentor who is more interested in you then your money.

Good luck and push ahead.