Relationship Marketing | Build Your Online Business

This article was written by me and published on EzineArticles.com in August 2009.

Many people who embark on Internet Marketing have an intense desire to become known as “The Expert” in their particular niche.  This desire is fed by claims that once you are known as the Expert your list will grow exponentially and you'll be able to monetize your list.  There is basically nothing wrong with wanting to become known as the “Go To” person in a niche, and in fact, is a very good thing.  However, is that enough?

Marketing on the World Wide Web offers endless opportunities and there are countless stories of amazing successes, but as large as the web world is, it is also a small world because it's just as easy to lose credibility as it is to gain it.   Stories abound of questionable marketing tactics like someone pre-selling a product that they had not even begun to work on and giving a deadline that they know will be impossible to meet?  What about ordering a product from a well-know marketer and three months later it has not been received?  You may be good at what you do; design tools to make it easier to do amazing things on the internet, but what about your reputation? What about your know, like and trust factor?

It's well-known that people do business with people they know, like and trust.  They may know someone because of their being known as an Expert in their niche, but they personally have to develop (more…)

“The Money is in the List” is a popular expression among Internet Marketers and this is partially true.  Many successful Internet Marketers teach that it is essential to have a large list of prospects and Followers, Friends, or Connections on Social Media. However, it's hardly likely that if you are just starting your online business you will immediately have a large list of followers, and while you do want to grow your opt-in e-mail list as quickly as possible, you should not be overly-concerned as there are also very successful Internet Marketers who do not have a very large list by comparison, but who make a substantial monthly income.  One of these is one of my mentors, Connie Ragen Green.  What makes the difference? Basically, it's the quality of the list. A responsive list is what makes the difference.

Article writing and marketing can be used effectively to drive traffic to your web sites and build a very responsive list.  For article marketing to be effective, you must write and submit quality articles regularly to article directories. Your articles must provide very good information. When I first came online because of my love of writing, the first course I took was on Article Marketing and during the course it was stressed  that the higher your article volume, the higher all of your other numbers, including the number of people on your list, would be. In order to grow your responsive list quickly, it's recommended that you work at submitting one article everyday. This may initially seem a daunting task and you may wonder where you could possibly find information to write one article per day. Hopefully, as part of your initial marketing plan you have already determined your niche; therefore your articles would be geared to providing content for the people in your niche. (more…)