DOESN’T TAKE MUCH TIME TO LEARN
Internet marketing is an exciting field to learn, and if you hitch it to
your passion, it will seem like fun learning and not like homework. However, if you think that all you have to
do is to learn how to put up a blog, that's just the bare minimum. You will have to learn how to get traffic to
the blog and then have the right offers to create income from the blog. It's not just the technical aspects of
setting up a website that take time to learn. It's the art of marketing online, which is even more important,
that will take some time to learn. Expect that there is some work and time involved, and don't be discouraged if
at first you don't make a single penny and spend a few weeks simply learning the ropes.
BUILD IT
AND THEY WILL COME
This might have been true five years ago, but today, the Internet is
flooded with competing sites. Don't expect that you can just put up a blog or site and people will flock to it.
More than likely, you'll start off with one or two visitors a day, and then you'll have to take action to
attract traffic back to the site. That's where learning the art of marketing starts.
Trying To Be Too Perfect
The first thing you have to remember about the Internet is that you don't
have to be perfect to start making progress with Internet marketing. You just have to have a solid niche, an
online presence to expose that niche, and traffic that is targeted to your chosen demographic. That means that,
as much as a fancy, colorful, and perfect website is nice to have, it's not as important as your marketing.
Instead of spending thousands of dollars putting up a very complex site, think in terms of simple, fast sites
that you can put up quickly and many at a time if necessary. Until you know which niche is going to be
profitable for you, you may want to experiment with several sites at once that are quickly put together, don't
cost much to host or maintain, and can easily be dumped should they prove to be losers. The following elements
are the basic mistakes beginners make when setting up an online presence.
YOUR
NOT-SO-HOT NICHE
Hitch your passion to a profitable niche, and your chances of success
increase dramatically. Do a little research before you even pick a domain name to decide what niche you want to
target. This way, even before one piece of HTML code is installed onto your website, you have a good idea of how
much success to reasonably expect and to avoid the losers before you spend too much time on them. Once you pick
a topic or niche of interest to you, you can check out the competition just by entering search terms related to
your niche on Google. Look at some of these sites, and then check them out on quantcast.com. It will give you an
idea of the demographics of the site and whether they can attract sufficient eyeballs to reasonably market the
niche. Pay attention to the types of products and services that appeal to that demographic. Think how you can
market to the same niche, while putting your own unique twist to it. Once you have a few possibilities, start to
see what domain names are available to the market.
YOUR
MANGLED DOMAIN NAME
Pick a descriptive top-level domain name that is easy to remember, flies
off the tongue, and isn't easy to misspell. Avoid hyphens and other odd characters if you can, as these are very
hard for people to remember. Make it all one word. Go to GoDaddy.com and see if the domain name is available.
You may have trouble with getting one- and two-word domains, as these have mostly been sold out. However, a
three-word domain is still a pretty good choice and you can get these very cheaply through online domain name
registrars. Pick a few good domain names that are representative of your niches and get a package to host your
website too.
EXPENSIVE
AND FEATURE-LESS HOSTING
There are multiple Web hosts out there that offer packages for a basic
website with limited e-commerce, and they step up to include that service too. While you're learning how to do
this whole website thing, it is better for you to grab a package that puts up a website pretty quickly without
too much of a learning curve on your part. You can do that by setting up a blog, which anyone can do, using
Wordpress.org. Hosting sites like Dreamhost.com will give you instant installations of the most popular website
packages without having to learn a single line of code. Pay upfront for one year, and you avoid extra charges,
including setup fees, in some cases. This way, you won't be billed on a monthly basis, and if the website fails,
you can simply let it expire and move on to a more profitable one.
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