Relationship Marketing | Build Your Online Business

Starting an internet business can be confusing and challenging.  As a beginner doing research on how to proceed you will frequently see the statement that to be successful on the internet, you must create your own product.

Creating your own product is a goal that all internet marketers should strive for.  But, is this the best starting point for a beginner or ‘newbie' to internet marketing?

Pros:

• Your first product will likely be a free report, but you may also create an  ebook for sale. Digital products are the most popular products to create.
• A well-written ebook will give the author expert status and sales; the author can become well-known quickly, allows for Joint Venture opportunities.
• The reader is able to download the ebook immediately. Solid information on a specific topic in provided in one place; one document.

Cons:

• A well-written ebook may take several weeks or even months to complete research and writing.
• Being new in starting your internet business you may be relatively unknown so you may not be perceived as an expert who can provide information that people may want to buy.
• Lack of experience in marketing online so as to promote your product effectively and implement systems for payment.

Of course there are always exceptions, as someone may already be a successful writer or have offline marketing experience that allows him/her to transition more quickly into their internet business and produce a 25-30 page or more ebook very quickly.

If creating your own product may not be the best starting point in your internet business, what are your options?  My Mentor, Connie Ragen Green has often said that Affiliate Marketing was what she started with when she started her business online, and Affiliate Marketing is responsible for approximately 50% of her income today.  I was a student in Connie's 1st Affiliate Marketing class earlier this year and am allowed to attend her new session, which she's teaching again.  Connie is an expert at teaching Affiliate Marketing as she has become a Super-Affiliate. It's not too late to join Connie's class today.  This is the last time she will be offering this class in 2010. Click here to learn more.

I recently decided to do some research on link building to make sure that I was using the most effective link building strategies in my online business, and especially as it relates to the hub of my business, my blog. During my research I discovered many link building strategies, but here  are 10 basic tips to link building that even persons who are brand new to internet marketing can begin to implement.  I will go into more detail on some of these in a future post.

1.  Offer valuable, high-quality information on your blog.  This will bring more ‘organic links' to your blog.  This means that you will naturally attract readers or traffic to your website  by providing good content.

2.  Make your visitors feel welcome to your website by sharing a little about you in a “Bio” or on an “About” page; and make it easy to navigate.

3.  Ask and answer questions on Yahoo Answers.  There are lots of Google groups that you can visit and ask or answer questions.  Your comments will link back to your website or blog.

4.  Visit forums in your niche.  Spend short amounts of time getting a feel of the forum as a guest then when you decide to join, create a signature which will include your URL to your website or blog. When you ask questions or post comments you will link back to your blog.

5.  Become an active part of the blogosphere.  Bloggers are like a community online and when you visit other blogs and leave valuable comments you usually can post your website address. Many bloggers will visit your website and return the courtesy.

6.  You can submit your site to web link directories.  There are paid ones, but initially just submit to directories that allow free submissions.

7.  Be a Guest Blogger on other blogs.  These blogs can be in your niche or they may relate somehow.  You'll see examples of Guest Bloggers who have submitted posts on my blog.  My most recent post as a Guest Blogger was “4 Effective Ways to Attract Traffic to Your Online Business” on http://kathryngriffiths.com.

8.  Article submission.  A good-quality article that has a keyword rich title and one that is optimized with keywords can be submitted to not just one but to many article directories.  Once people are able to find your article and benefit from the content, you will get inbound links rather quickly.

9.  Social Media is an effective way to get inbound links.  The main sites that I'd encourage you to spend some time on if you are not already doing so are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

10. Social Bookmarking.  This is one area that I have not explored, but my research indicates that it's an effective strategy.  Social bookmarking sites like Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon are great ways to get links to your site.  You  register and submit your site or articles for people to bookmark, which gives you popularity and more links.

If you were to read my recent guest post mentioned above, you'll note that some of these strategies are mentioned.  This is because many of the marketing strategies that attract traffic to our website or blog are the same that will give us back-links, one-way links and grow our link building strategies effectively.

Savvy internet marketers consider their blog their home on the internet and therefore seek to improve their writing skills to become a better blogger.

Here are two ways that we can implement in our blogging schedule to become a better blogger.

1.  Write Keyword-Rich Posts

There are times you write an article about a topic that answers a question one of your readers asked.  However, it's recommended that you optimize at least post every week.  A quick way to identify keywords and long-tail keyword phrases on your topic is to use Google keyword tool at https://adwords.google.com or wordtracker.com.

2.  Create Variety in Your Posting Style

To create variety for your readers, you may want to write posts of different lengths – some long, some short.  This post is an example that. Most of my posts are between 300 and 500 words so to have a post of  less that 200 words took a lot of effort on my part to condense these points.

I'd love to get your opinion…and I promise not take it badly:)  I want you to enjoy your visit to my website.  Which type of post would you prefer to read on my blog?

1.  Longer, ‘meaty' posts as is my preferred writing style, or

2.  Short, concise posts.

Please leave your comments in the ‘Comment' section.