Many entrepreneurs get excited when they hear those words, while many others SHUDDER with fear, regret and a sense of helplessness...

(I'll explain why a little further down)

But for right now, rest assured that THIS article is going to give it to you straight - no frills, no hype, and no "mis-information".

I'm just going to tell it like it is...

"De-Mystifying the Simple and Incredibly Effective World of Web Marketing - Internet Marketing 101"
--------------------------------------------------------

Every single day, billions of people use the internet to do practically everything imaginable, and millions of dollars are spent online - daily.

Clients are found and vice versa. Customers are busy researching potential products, and a good chunk of them are buying over the net. People that need to find a local service are now replacing the Yellow Pages with "Google".

And why not?

It's faster and more convenient. And there's a lot more options.

So the question is...

"How Do You Put YOUR Business, Practice or Product in Front of Thousands of Targeted Online Prospects?"

And this is where fact, fiction and superstition all seem to blend together to create a big "gray" maelstrom of confusion...

Even though, in reality, it's incredibly simple. In fact, the power of internet marketing could potentially transform your business to a level of profitability that you could've only DREAMED of previously.

Best of all - almost everything can be automated.

And so I'm going to try and break it down as simply as possible, in chronological order:

• Step 1 - Do Your Research

• Step 2 - Build Your Website

• Step 3 - Drive Traffic to Your Site

• Step 4 - Optimize, Automate, and Leverage Your Site to
Success

• Step 5 - Wash, Rinse, Repeat and MULTIPLY

Step 1: Do Your Research
----------------------------------------------------

Now, most people will tell you that the first thing you need to do is register a domain name (whatever.com) and build a website...

"BZZZZZ!" Wrong!

That's the biggest reason why most websites - and web marketing campaigns - will FLOP horribly.

Before you create a website, you need to find out what your market is already looking for specifically. You need to take a look at your soon-to-be competitors, and find out what seems to be working for them.

Know this:

THE BEAUTY OF THE INTERNET IS THAT ALL THE "HARD WORK" HAS BEEN DONE FOR YOU ALREADY

Others have already forged the path, discovering (the hard way) what works, what doesn't, and how to capture their market.

And all you have to do is take what's ALREADY working and run with it...

Now, here's how to apply this information:

What you're going to do is what's called "keyword research". Basically, that's a fancy way of saying that you're going to be discovering what your market is searching for (because that's how you'll be discovered by them, eventually).

So you'll be using a tool that actually monitors the major search engines to find out what people are searching for on the web - and it ALSO shows you how much interest exists for any given keyword.

It's at http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion

So for example, let's say that you're starting up a site to market yourself as an Injury Lawyer. Obviously, that's a lucrative market, but since you'll be targeting your local area, the competition won't be as heavy as a global market share.

(If you're selling software to a global market, for example, the competition can be fierce...)

So let's say you're from Las Vegas.

You'd type in "Injury Lawyer Las Vegas", and press enter.

The site will pull up that keyword - along with a ton of related keywords that people looking for a Las Vegas injury lawyer search for regularly.

Not only that - it's ALSO going to display how many daily searches each keyword gets on a sampling of search engines like Yahoo.com, AltaVista and others.

Type in a variety of keywords to see what people are actually searching for - and how much "traffic" is being captured by those searches.

What you want to do is make a list of every single high-traffic keyword that's targeted to your specific market. You should assemble at least 20 different key words and key phrases that get a lot of search traffic.

(Aim for keywords that get at least 50 - 100 searches daily)

Now...

These keywords are likely going to be "competitive". That means that everyone in your market is going to be competing for both the paid and "organic" listings in Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other major search engines.

And that's fine.

Because all we're going to do is find out which sites are dominant in your market, and IMPROVE on what they're already doing...

Here's how:

Take your top 20 keywords and run them as searches in each of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN).

In a few minutes, you'll clearly see which sites are the major players in your industry. Write them down or bookmark them in your browser. You can rest assured that these sites are getting a lot of traffic - and that they're doing something RIGHT.

(Note: At this point, just focus on sites that are displayed in the organic listings. Ignore the text ads).

What you're going to be doing is studying the top sites in your market and making note of the following:

• How is the site laid out?

• How many pages of content (information) does the site contain?

• Does the site offer a newsletter - or some other way of collecting subscribers? (Most major sites do - that's how they get "big")

• Is the site EASY to navigate?

• What KIND of articles does the site publish (professional, personal-sounding, "boring" stuff, stuff with personality, etc.)

• What is the main focus of the "home page"?

And so on.

Basically, you want to take note of this, because whatever they're doing - it's WORKING. And you'll be taking the BEST aspects of each "major" site and incorporating them into your site.

What you'll basically find is that most popular sites in your market have a lot of compelling content, they're easy to navigate, they're building a newsletter list, and they're focusing on creating an ENGAGING experience for the visitor.

Not just a "mediocre" one...

And the reason why they've been ranked so highly is because tons of other websites have LINKED to them voluntarily, due to the useful nature of their service and/or compelling content.

You'll not only be using their strategies - you'll be improving on them. And if you do this, in time, you'll become the top site in your niche.

It's inevitable - but it all starts with finding out what's working for others.

And that's why the RESEARCH stage is the most crucial part of internet marketing.

So hang on to your list of in-demand search keywords AND the list of the major sites in your industry. You'll need them for the next steps...

Step 2: Build Your Website
----------------------------------------------------

The first thing you need to do is choose a domain name.

Most people use GoDaddy.com for this, but there's a number of domain registration services all over the net. I'd personally recommend using NameCheap.com You want to register a domain name that's easy to say, easy to remember, and also something that's RELEVANT to your business. And if you can include one of your top keywords IN the domain, then that's all the better...

Once you've done that, it's time to build your site.

Initially, all you really need to do is build a home page. You can add other pages to it as time goes on, and as you develop your strategy. Your home page needs to present your offer - whatever it may be. Give your visitors a strong "call to action", and make it easy for them to give you their business.

Entire courses have been developed around this topic, so let me just say this:

Your site is NOT about you

It's about THEM - your visitors, NOT you!

Every word, every sentence and every article on your site needs to cater to your ideal prospect. People don't care about you. They care about THEM.

Save the "you" content for the "About Us" page, or whatever. But for every other page of your site - focus completely on delivering incredible content that your market will love.

And you already know what your market "loves" - because you now know what they search for. Build your site around what your market is looking for (your top key phrases from step 1).

Over time, this will pay off - BIG TIME...

Step 3: Drive Traffic To Your Site
----------------------------------------------------

Okay...

This is where things can get "murky".

There are literally HUNDREDS of ways to generate traffic to your site, and for the most part, they're all effective to some degree. Again, entire books have been written on the subject - along with $1000 home study courses and all the rest of it - so I'll just cover the basics and point you in the right direction...

Key Point: "Traffic" only means something if it's targeted. In other words, your objective is to get your ideal prospects to visit your site.

That's a basic principle, but so many people get carried away with "hits", "impressions" and all the rest of it.

Forget that stuff.

Your website is literally a "virtual" employee. It's job is to interact with your customers, leads and potential business partners so as to increase sales and automate your business. It's better to have 5 REAL visitors a day than it is to have 5,000 "hits" a day from untargeted sources.

So now that we're clear on that, here are a few of the most effective ways to get REAL prospects to your site.

Some of them are free, some are not:

A. Pay-Per-Click Advertising
----------------------------

This is usually a good way to start. "PPC" adverts are purchased directly from Google, MSN or Yahoo, and they are displayed contextually within their actual search results. This system, originated by Google, is usually the most effective way to advertise because your ad is only displayed to people who perform certain searches.

(This is where those top keywords and key phrases will come in handy...)

You pay by the "click", and you control your daily budget so that you'll never get hit with a bill you didn't expect. You can have an ad online in a matter of minutes, and you can start driving traffic to your site in a matter of MINUTES with this system.

It gives you complete control - and you can change your ad in real-time, whenever you want and as much as you want, which is a major advantage over traditional ad purchases.

PPC advertising is a GREAT way to initially test the effectiveness of an offer or direct-response ad of some sort.

PPC lines up with the previously mentioned requirement for building traffic - it puts you in front of your REAL prospects, at the moment that they're searching for a service, product or resource like yours.

This makes it very effective, and it CAN be very inexpensive in certain markets. In competitive markets, it can be outrageous, so be prepared to monitor your ad campaigns and budget like a hawk!

A good resource on PPC marketing is available at

• http://www.perrymarshall.com/google/index.htm

B. Article Marketing
--------------------

Remember the PRIMARY reason why your potential customers use the internet?

RESEARCH

They are looking for answers, information, comparisons, reviews, and eventually - they'll be looking for paid solutions.

And it's usually in that order.

As a result, it makes sense that if YOU provide the information that your ideal prospects are looking for, and then link that information to YOU and YOUR Business, your traffic (and sales) will increase - right?

It's true.

Article marketing is one of the most effective (and free) marketing strategies on the web, and it always will be. There's a number of different ways to go about doing this, but this is the strategy that I use, and it works very well:

a) Write a killer article that answers a common problem or "need" in my industry. Again, this is where those key phrases come in handy...

b) Submit that article - with full reprint rights - to all of the major publishers in my target market. These are the content sites, magazines and newsletter publishers that reach the majority of the market share in my industry.

These publishers and "big sites" are ALWAYS looking for new content - that's their entire business. So if you've great stuff - and you're offering it for free - then you'll be amazed at how many big-time publications will literally jump at the chance to use your article.

While the article itself usually isn't too heavy on the self-promotion, the "author bio/byline" is, and it directly markets my site with a hyperlink.

c) Submit that same article to numerous article directories that other webmasters visit to add content to their sites and email newsletters.

Such sites include EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com and SearchWarp.com

I also use ArticleMarketer.com (mass distribution service) for even further reach.

The best way to go about this is to create GREAT articles that you would be happy to publish on your own site - because that's the only way that OTHERS are going to publish them...

And if you're going to use articles to market your site like this, then you need to be consistent. Aim to write and distribute one GREAT article every week, or even just once a month. If you do this, you'll be amazed at how much long-term, quality traffic you can build for your site...

C. Search Engine Optimization
-----------------------------

If you have a website currently, you've no doubt wondered just how to get YOUR site on the top listings of the Google search results for your main keywords...

Well, instead of explaining how it works or what to do, I'm just going to point you to the best resource available (for free) on search engine optimization. Go to this site, and just sign up for the newsletter that pops down on the page. It will send you a "mini-course" on SEO to your e-mail addy over the next week or so, and you won't regret it...

http://www.SEOElite.com

If you don't get the mini-course (like, you know, if you're crazy or something :-) , then here's a VERY basic rundown of how search engines work...

• Search engines stay in business by displaying relevant results to their visitors

• Search engines determine how sites rank by factoring in the following:

» How many related sites link to the domain

» The theme of the content on the site

» The title tags of each page on the site

There's a few other factors, but that's basically how it works.

• Sites with LOTS of unique content (that isn't published anywhere else or re-printed) and LOTS of incoming links from other related sites in the target market will get substantial traffic from the search engines.

That, in a nutshell, is how it works.

Find out everything you need to know in the free mini-course at www.SEOElite.com

D. Mutual Benefit Traffic Strategies
------------------------------------

There are thousands of ways to do this. Basically, this is the art of creatively getting traffic from other established sites

This could include:

• Trading links
• Trading articles for reprint
• Trading ads in eachother's newsletters
• Doing a co-project of some kind
• Contributing to someone else's site, in exchange for promotion or backlink
• Creating a useful application for sites in your niche - and then having that application link back to your site (such as a mortgage calculator script or something...)
• Putting together strategic alliances or commission-based affiliate relationships
• Offer a special event or discount for one site's visitors/subscribers only

And so on.

These types of strategies can be very powerful, and I've used them in the past with varied amounts of success.

Well, like I said, I'm just scratching the surface here for traffic generation. There's thousands of ways to do it - and they'll all work...

...IF you're reaching your precise, targeted market.

So whether you pursue one of the strategies above, or one of the hundreds of other methods - such as Press Releases, Banner Advertising on targeted sites, forum posting, joining social networks, creating viral products and so on - just make sure that you keep an eye on what's working for you, and what isn't.

Some traffic strategies will work better than others. Press on with what works, and dump what doesn't.

It's as simple as that.

Step 4: Optimize, Automate, and Leverage Your Site to Success
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, so now you know how to get traffic.

That's great!

BUT...

Even with thousands of visitors interacting with your site each month, you're likely only seeing a FRACTION of the business that you could be - simply because your website isn't "optimized".

(When I say "optimized" here, I'm not talking about search engine optimization. Totally different animal...)

For example, let's say that on average, you convert 1 out of every 300 visitors into a customer. And so you naturally think of ways to increase your traffic so that you can get more and more batches of "300's" to your site and therefore, more customers.

What if, by making even the slightest of changes to your site - you could make your site convert 1/100 instead of 1/300?

---------------------------------------------------
You'd be getting THREE TIMES as much revenue for the SAME AMOUNT of traffic!
---------------------------------------------------

Can you see the logic here?

Now, this also is a topic that's been covered by hundreds of marketers throughout the years, and like traffic-generation, there are tons of courses available for web copywriting, effective website design and so on.

So I'll simply summarize the PRIMARY things that will affect your response-rate on the web more than anything else:

a) Your Headline

Yes, you need a headline. And it BETTER NOT be "welcome to Our Website" :-)

Your visitors need to have a good reason to keep on reading your site. Make it compelling, and make it believable.

b) The Position of Your Offer or "Call-To-Action"

I see a lot of sites out there that HIDE their offer (whatever it is that makes them money) in some obscure place on their site - usually at the bottom or off to the side somewhere.

Your offer has to be front and center!

Why stuff it away in the corner or make it hard to see for the sake of looking "chic"?

You only have one chance to reach your target prospect. Don't blow it by making it hard for them to see what you offer.

c) Images, Bells & Whistles, Loading Time

Guess what?

Your visitors are FAR LESS excited about fancy graphics and "flash intros" than you are. They want answers. They want information - more specifically, answers.

They want to fulfill a need or a want - and that's why your business exists. Your business DOES NOT exist to entertain someone for 15 seconds before getting to the point...

Picture this - you're walking into the insurance office to file a claim. Just as you walk in the door, a group of employees surround you, sit you down in a chair and then make you watch them perform an interpretive dance to represent their company logo and "image".

Not only does it completely waste your time - it also ANNOYS you. You just want to go there, do what needs to be done, and then leave.

Your web visitors are no different. Make sure your website gets to the point and loads fast.

d) Unleash the Power of Automatic Follow-up

Once your website has a compelling offer, the best thing you could possibly do is to offer your visitors an immediate incentive to join your "newsletter".

(For example, we offer a complimentary ebook to members who join our Law Firm Management Tips newsletter at www.lawyerbillingtips.com)

Using an automated follow-up service like www.Aweber.com, what you do is set up sequential newsletters in ADVANCE to benefit your subscribers - and remind them about your site and your products/services.

Automatically.

This will absolutely explode your conversion rate (visitors/customers), because you'll be following up with them on auto-pilot.

Not only that, you can also send out a broadcast to your list any time you have an announcement, such as a product launch, a special or something like that. Remember that they've opted-in to receive your mailings, and with a system like Aweber.com, they can easily control their membership settings, or cancel if they want off your list.

This will take your internet marketing to the next level, and this will work for practically ANY kind of potential clientelle.

You can find out more about how effective this really is at http://www.ListAndTraffic.com

Final note on creating EFFECTIVE websites:

If you're serious about having your website convert a much larger percentage of your CURRENT traffic into customers, there's one book that I recommend above any other...

It's called "Web Copy That Sells", by Maria Veloso. I don't care if you're offering legal services or golf clubs - you WILL benefit your business and increase your online profits by following the principles laid out in this book.

Pick it up at your local bookstore, or get a copy at Amazon.com for a few bucks. Well worth it...

Step 5: Wash, Rinse, Repeat and MULTIPLY
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whew!

We've covered a lot of information so far...

But I hope that you're beginning to see the SIMPLICITY of all this. It's really just about 3 simple factors:

1. Finding Relevant Traffic Sources (and Keywords)

2. Driving That Traffic to Your Site

3. Converting Those Visitors into Customers

And that's it.

So once you've discovered all of the places where relevant traffic in your market exists, and once your website is a smooth-oiled response generating profit machine - then it's time to ramp it up in the TRAFFIC department.

So here's a list of possibilities for MULTIPLYING your current traffic:

a) Keep on adding great, unique content to your site. This keeps the incoming links steadily coming in from other sites, and it gives the search engines more reasons to send you traffic for the content that you provide them with...

b) Build a massive network of other sites that all point back to your "money site".

Info sites, mini-topic sites, forums, squidoo.com lenses, blogs, building your own social networks by using scripts like phpfox - and so on.

The options are endless, and you can cross-promot each of these sites to "kickstart" each one you launch.

In time, you will have a raging flow of ultra-targeted traffic to anything that you want to publicize.

c) Create "viral" materials, such as ebooks, that others can distribute or sell. The ebook would cross-promote your site(s), obviously.

d) Start an affiliate program, where other webmasters can put a special link on their site to track referrals and get paid each time they generate a sale for you.

You can actually get free affiliate script to manage this entire process at www.jv-web.com/jrox

e) Become your own "competition". Start up a sister site that sells the same thing. You can also release related products/services into the same market that all compliment, and cross-promote, eachother.

And so on...

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This article is an overview of how to succeed with marketing your business on the web.

It's not hard, it's not mysterious. But it DOES take work...

If you were to do even just a FEW of the things I've mentioned in this letter - and if you persisted - you'll be amazed at how effective it will be for your business, and really, for your lifestyle.

Nothing beats being able to leverage the power of the internet to bring in customers all day long without having to lift a finger - let alone hit the streets on a sales campaign...

Regardless, I hope you found this to be a realistic introduction to marketing yourself on the internet.

Sincerely,

Chris Rempel
The Marketing Guy
LawyerBillingTips.com

Partner/Marketing Director
Accept by Phone, Inc

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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