A merchant account enables one to accept credit card payments. There are different kinds of merchant accounts, and Internet merchant accounts are one of them.

Such accounts can be used only for online transactions. To process credit card payments one has to use a payment service gateway. These kinds of gateways are now part of most business webhosting packages. They can be customized to cater to the requirements of merchants. The transaction fee charged by Internet accounts is higher than the retail and Mail Order-Telephone Order (MOTO) accounts.

While operating an Internet merchant account, security is an important issue. The nature and volume of business determines whether you need an Internet merchant account or not. One should read and understand the terms and conditions for operating this account carefully, before accepting them.

If you have $100, you can easily open an Internet merchant account; if you are paying more than this amount then you are being overcharged. Internet merchant accounts provide an account holder the ability to process transactions anywhere in the world. You can do it while traveling.

An Internet merchant account can be opened in a few minutes by filling out a form which is available online. It gets activated within seconds. Earlier, when online merchant accounts were not available, it used to take at least a few days and a few hundred dollars to open a merchant account. But the advent of the Internet merchant account has revolutionized the concept of merchant accounts. Even small businesses can afford to open such accounts. If you have a problem in operating your Internet merchant account, you can use the technical support made available by your banker.

But before you go for an online merchant account, you must find out whether you actually need it. Businesses dependent on online transactions generally find it beneficial. It is better to have a website before one opens an Internet merchant account.

If you're the owner of a small service business, having a solid Internet marketing plan in place can both increase your name and brand recognition locally in your geographic area, as well as expose you to a whole new set of potential clients throughout the world. If you have a business plan or vision that is written, you only need to integrate this Internet marketing piece into that existing plan. However, if you are like many of my clients, you carry your business and marketing plans in your head without bothering to commit anything to paper.

Here are ten considerations you need to make as you complete your Internet marketing plan:

1. Objective of Internet Marketing Plan: What do you want to accomplish by using Internet marketing? To find new clients? Provide services and info to existing clients? Sell services or products? Educate your target market or your staff about your product or service? Create an online community for your target market? How much money to have to spend each month on this Internet marketing plan? Having a goal and budget in mind will make your marketing more effective.

2. Marketing Funnel: The most successful online business owners have a marketing funnel (think of it as an upside down triangle) through which they "funnel" clients. The process begins from the wide top of the funnel, representing low-cost products or free give-aways, and moving clients down through the funnel to the narrower portions which represent gradually increasing investments from the clients from your higher-priced products and services. What products and services do you currently offer? Are they at varied price points that would create a funnel effect? What plans do you have to increase your product or service line? Will those new offerings plug gaps in your marketing funnel?

3. Your Competition: Knowing and understanding where you stand among your competitors can you help you strengthen your marketing message. Do a keyword search for the terms someone might use to find your business online. Write down the URL's of your top 5 competitors. How popular and relevant are their sites? You can check their traffic ranking with Alexa, http://www.alexa.com/#traffic, as well as see what other sites link to them. Does your competition offer something unique? Where are the gaps in the service or product offerings?

4. Target Market: Instead of trying to marketing to everyone (the shotgun marketing approach), find a clearly definable target market that you can easily describe and locate. Are they male or female? What age group? What industry? What socio-economic group? Where do they hang out on- and off-line? What do they read? To what groups and associations (real and virtual, personal and professional) do they belong? How much money do they make? Can they easily afford your product or service? What keywords are they using to search for businesses like yours online? (Note--you can do keyword research with free downloadable software, http://www.GoodKeywords.com).

5. Solution to a Problem: The reason that someone will buy your product or hire to you to provide a service is to solve a particular problem that they have. What problems and issues plague your target market? How does your product or service solve that problem? How does your solution differ from that of your competitors? What makes you uniquely qualified to provide the solution to their problem?

6. Branding Your Business: Your domain name can either help you be memorable or cast you into a sea of "brandless" solutions. At a minimum, you'll want to buy both your personal name as well as the name of your business in the .com version, if it's available. Then buy the .com versions of your product names and program names. If you use a full-featured domain registrar, you'll be able to point and mask these domains to internal pages of your web site, or use them as stand-alone sales letter pages.

You may also think of problems faced by your target market or solutions that you provide and buy domain names in the .com version of those as well. Internet marketer Dean Jackson brands his ebook on how to stop a divorce by owning the domain name, StopYourDivorce.com, This is a compelling solution to his target market -- men who have been ignoring their wives' complaints of marital dissatisfaction and come home one day to an empty house and a note telling him that she's filing for divorce.

7. Assess your website. Your web site should be visually appealing, with one primary font for the text and a simple primary color scheme, along with an easy-to-navigate layout, and readily identifiable buttons to link to other pages in the site. Your content should focus on and address the problems of your visitors and how your product or service can help solve their problems. Rather than listing the features of your product or service, detail the benefits they'll gain from purchasing your product or service. People rarely buy features -- they buy benefits. Don't depend on your web site designer to write your content -- that is best done by you, as you know your business and your target market better than anyone.

Present a clear call to action that is clearly shown on every page of your site. In an online business, your primary call to action should be getting the visitor's name and primary email address by asking him subscribe to your ezine or by giving him access to a free ecourse, special report, audio recording, or ebook. Lastly, provide an abundace of readily available information to demonstrate your expertise (articles, blog posts, free downloads, giveaways, contests). Your visitor is always asking WIIFM (What's In It For Me) -- make your web site about your visitor, not about you.

8. Online Business Management Technology: Do you have access to the appropriate services and technology that will help you sell your product or service online? At a minimum you'll need a merchant account (permits you to take credit card payments) that includes a virtual gateway (enables you to process transactions online) and a full-featured shopping cart that will permit you to sell both physical and electronic products and create a series of autoresponders to follow up with buyers and non-buyers alike. Depending on your marketing plan, you may also want to investigate email newsletter distribution services, online appointment setting services, stand-alone autoresponders, blogging software, article submission sites, online press release distribution services, website content management services, and links exchange management services and software.

9. Internet Marketing Strategies: How will you create traffic to your website? There are countless ways to do this, including: pay-per-click purchases (in which you buy a keyword at a search engine and pay for placement on that search engine for that keyword and pay for each visitor who clicks on that link and is sent to your site); organic search engine listing ranking (in which your site comes up at the top of the non-sponsored listings on a search engine by having keyword rich descriptions in the page title and page desciption meta tags and then optimizing each page for no more than 3 keywords in the first 250 words on a page); well-written email newsletter that is published on a regular basis; submission of articles on topics related to your target market to article submission directories; regularly post entries to a blog aimed at your target market, full of content discussing issues related to that target market; series of podcasts containing interview with experts of interest to your target market; ongoing series of teleconferences containing value-added content for your target market; submission of online press releases with new tips information for your target market; exchange relevant links with others in different industries with the same target market;

10. Building a Team: You'll never be able to do this all alone. The most successful business owners don't even try. You need to add experts to your team who are great at what they do so that you've got the time and energy to go out and do what you do best -- selling your products and services to your target market. Some great experts to add to your team include a virtual assistant or online business manager, an online business coach, a web site designer, a graphic designer, a writing expert (editor, ghost writer, proof reader or copy writer), a bookkeeper, and intellectual property attorney, to name a few.

Are you looking for the most lucrative internet poker affiliate profits? Some of the online poker affiliate programs offer the most generous internet poker affiliate profits in the online poker industry. That means more money for you and the easiest money you have ever made in your life, and the best part of all is that it does not cost you a cent.

But, beyond just looking for the best internet poker affiliate profits, we recommend you to look for an internet poker affiliate program with the best and most professional and helpful affiliate support in the industry. This will assure you will get your own account manager who will work with you to maximize your internet poker affiliate profits.

So, while you are rewarded for your efforts in spreading the word about a site and at the same time getting the best internet poker affiliate profits, you will also be treated with excellence, and with the utmost respect and consideration. Not to mention that more than getting the best internet poker affiliate profits, you should get lifetime residual revenue from each referred real money player, several payment options and all the advertising material that you need custom designed.

So, what are you waiting for? The best internet poker affiliate profits along with prompt payouts, superb customer service and great technical support are out there. To begin you just usually have to fill out a simple registration form, recruit new players using their advertising material such as banners, text links and referral cards and then keep track of your internet poker affiliate profits stats. It’s actually really easy and fast.

Spread the Word
Get others to sign up for your mailing lists with their consent. Spread the word about your mailing list through word of mouth. The beauty in this is that the list of emails will be self-screened and the database will only contain the people who are interested in your offers. Make sure you have their consent beforehand. You don’t want to risk losing reputation or SPAM penalties.

Persistence
Before the internet, they used to say it takes around 7.3 impacts to make an impression with an ad. Today I would guess it to be over twice as high with the internet present. Make sure you are reaching out to your clients at least once a month in emails or other medium. Just because you emailed a list of people and had little or no response does not necessarily mean your audience isn’t interested in your product. Experiment with different emails, get to know which email strategy works best, and keep using it to reach out to your audience.

They Want Useful Information
Emails should contain something that the customer wants. It shouldn’t be just a summary of your company or your resume. Focus on giving more than just what you sell. Specific content, messages, and other targeted information that interests your customers are good to include. For example, if you were selling makeup, you may want to include advice on how to apply the makeup or any makeup in general.

Make Sure Your Audience Reads Your Emails
Graphics, Flash animations, and logos are often blocked by email filters. Although they look impressive on an email, they will often lower your impression statistics. I recommend using flat text with hyperlinks to your site. Once they get to your site, you can show them as many graphics as you want. Although some businesses have both a plain and a rich text edition of their email, for starters, stick to the plain text.

Obviously, when you send emails to those on your email list, you want them to open it and read it. This article provides you with a few important steps you should take when creating your email to ensure that it is both opened and read by your subscribers.

Subject Line

When creating your subject line, you should treat it as you would a headline for an article or any other important piece of information. The subject line should be creative, informative, and attention grabbing. Make sure you take great care in creating the subject line. You want it to tell the reader what the email is about, however, you also want it to generate interest.

Consider your own email habits

Watch yourself while you are opening emails from lists you subscribe to and pay close attention to what grabs your attention enough to actually open the email. This is how you should go about creating the subject line. Consider what appeals to you, if you read it yourself and think “I would simply delete this without a second thought", it is highly likely that those in your email list would do the same thing. So consider your own email practices when creating an email for your list.

Create a swipe file

A swipe file is a file that you create with attractive subject lines that lured you into opening specific emails. Keep the file updated as you go on and include all subject lines to emails that generated your attention. You can use this file when writing future emails to those in your email list and create the same type of attention grabbing subject lines.

The Message

When creating the body of the email, you need to keep it short and to the point. Do not write long and elaborate emails, because it is likely you will lose the interest of the reader very quickly. Keep your messages short and to the point. If you have new information, products, or sales on your web page, write a short and appealing message about it and provide them with a link that contains more information.

For example, if you have just put a new article of interest onto your web site, just write a quick, to the point, yet interesting email to your list to let them know of the new update. Make sure you provide them with an easy access link directly to the product or information you are writing about.

I here the statement all the time that email marketing is dead and buried.

Is this the case or is there still a heartbeat for email marketing as a promotion and traffic-generating tool?

Look at it this way email marketing in terms of spamming is indeed out. With new spam blocking tools becoming more powerful it makes it harder and harder to even get your message to the reader so don’t waist your time. Besides showing up in some ones inbox with out an invitation can create a negative affect for your business and turn potential customers off.

You want to get customers to come into your website not running away from your site.

Opt-in Email marketing is the way to go.

What is op-in email?

This is the process of a visitor to your website sign up to receive more information about your website through a newsletter to their email. Another words they invite you to send them more information.

How do I get visitors to op-in for a newsletter?

By providing free tools along with subscription sign up is a great way to build your newsletter list. Having subscribers invite your news, articles, etc. into their inbox keeps your business in their mind by reminding them you’re your website still exist.

Studies show that it takes some visitors 5 hits to your website before they will ever by. This is said to be a good amount of visits that build trust for your business and website.

Provide more value to your site with quality newsletters on a targeted subject. Reports show that an average of 2% - 5% of your total visitors will purchase first time. So you need to use a subscription opt-in email marketing to promote to the 95%, again focusing on the 5-visit theory to eventually converting to buyers.

There are a million of different articles, tutorials and e-books out there that want to tell you for just some bucks how to get rich on the internet in a short amount of time, for example by developing some websites full of spam and unoriginal content and slapping advertising on them. Most of those unfortunately do not work at all and most of them fail to realize or teach its readers that to run an internet business, just like for an offline business, some basic and general skills are required to have a chance at success.

In this article I will now showcase three of the probably most important of such basic skills and tell you why you need to have them and how to train and attain them.

1. Experience

This one might probably seem a little too general to you, yet I think it is the most important thing to have. When running a business, online or not, you simply need to know what to do when and how to achieve it best. And this does not mainly include programming or design knowledge for online work (since such are things you can easily outsource) but rather general marketing and promotion skills that will help you to get the word about your product or website out there.

For me attaining enough experience to be successful was mostly a matter of (quite much) time and more or less a trial-and-error approach where every failure was a important lesson for me that helped me to improve in the next approach. In general much practice and training over a quite long time span (depending on the niche your business is operating in of course) is the only way to obtain sufficient experience.

2. Creativity

It is widely know that you have to create something original to have success on the internet. Simply reproducing and copying the service or product of someone else usually gets you nowhere. Thus creativity is vital to get ideas on how to either improve on a competitors product or on how to develop your own original and new one. The unfortunate thing about creativity is that you can't really train or improve it. Either you have good ideas or not.

3. Patience

Now, no matter how creative and or experienced you are, it will still probably take you quite much time until you finally have success with one of your website or products (yes, you should have several and try different approaches) and your hard work pays off. So, the most important thing really is not to give up...ever!

Web developing is becoming a booming industry nowadays. More and more people are attracted to PHP and ASP scripts to simplify or modify their existing websites as well as new development projects. Webmasters now prefer dynamic websites, which can take their own decisions and work out according to the situations, which arises.

There was a time when we used to play around with static HTML pages, but now those days are gone. Even a newbie who steps on the internet to become a webmaster or a web developer knows the importance of Server side languages. The main reason of writing this article was to bring in new tips and help the newbies to learn the languages, which are burning the charts right now. The most valuable resource that can be found on the internet is the google itself. And when you want to look for tutorials and tips or are having problems in remembering some particular function then php.net is the place to look at.

You can also find many resources like free scripts, tools and tips on scripts repositories like http://www.hotscripts.com, http://www.firescripts.com and other Web Scripts database which has listings of php scripts, asp scripts, cgi scripts and java scripts too.

To get started download some rebook on your favorite scripting language and install a local server on your PC to save your time. It surely pays off.

Needless to say, having a web site to promote your business or ideas is imperative nowadays. Nearly all households have access to the internet, sometimes even on more than one computer. The great thing about the internet is that it can reach the whole world, and not just your neighbourhood. Thus, if you have anything to sell or anything to say, everyone can get to know about it.

Your web site is your shop window and it is open 24/7. It needs to be eye catching and transmit your message in a few seconds. It needs to have enough content that explains your message and what you do. It needs to load fast, be reliable and look professional. The impression your web site should give is that of a company or professional who knows what they want to sell, or the message they want to send.

Having a web site is not just a commodity for businesses nowadays, but a must. A company or a professional without a web site is like a salesman without his business card. The web site needs to be your profile and what’s good about it is that there is limitless information you can put on it. Another good thing is that static content on your site can be changed very easily. Even better, you can opt to go for a dynamic site which will automatically change your content based on changes to your business, like stock items, prices, articles, services and more.

Promoting your web site is the next step after having designed and developed one. The best way to do this on the web is by using the search engines. After all, the people you want to visit your site have no other choice to find you except from the search engines, unless they already know of your site. This is normally done through a search engine optimization process directly on your site. Other forms of promoting a site are; paid advertising with the search engines and inbound links from other related or non-related sites.

In internet marketing it is so easy to get caught up in what everyone is offering and waste so much of your precious time reading what other people have on offer. This in itself is not a bad thing but if you consider that you probably should have been doing something else and now it is too late and that job will have to wait until tomorrow.

I believe the way to be successful online is to have a set of daily, weekly and monthly goals if you place these goals on a list where you can see them you are more likely to stick to them to achieve them. Everyone wants to achieve their goals so sit down and work out what your goals are. Is one of them to increase traffic to your website, is another to post articles to your blog, is one to make $5,000 in sales in one week. Whatever your goals are you need to write them down and then you need to write down what you need to do to achieve them and start on a daily routine. You must start your days doing what is on your to do list so that you will achieve your goals. If you then have spare time you can do whatever you want but always ensure you are doing what is needed to reach your goal.

Just remember reaching your goal is your priority. Goals will change thru time and when they do just re adjust your to do list to ensure you can achieve your goal. Do not set yourself goals that are unachievable as that is counter productive you need to achieve your goals as you are working so that you feel yourself progressing. It is such a fantastic feeling when you achieve your goals. If you don’t set yourself goals you can often find yourself wasting time and actually not getting anywhere fast and we all want to get somewhere fast don’t we.

So sit down and write yourself a list of goals and then write yourself a list on what you need to do to achieve these goals. It would be a good idea if you could also set yourself a time frame of which to achieve your goal. I have set myself several goals and one is to write and post a minimum of one article a day and to build my opt-in list by the end of the year to 10,000 subscribers.

If you have ever wanted to discover how you can use the BEST online marketing tactic to promote your Web Site for free, now it's your chance to learn the amazing tactic that I'm using on a regular basis to generate tons of instant visitors to my Web Site(s).

FACT: everyone knows that CONTENT is king online. When using articles as the media of your online marketing, you eliminate the need for high cost advertising.

In fact, article publishing is a profitable tactic that you can use it for free. The paid costs are for various article submission services that help you to SAVE time and money and put your article promotion on autopilot.

One thing is for sure - with a well written, content-rich article, you are pretty sure that what you are unleashing is nothing but a surge flow of targeted traffic to your Web Site.

Here's why: once your article is published on various Web Sites, you'll notice a constat stream of new visitors hitting your Web Site. With the proper article promotion this can get spread like wildfire all over the Internet because there's a high chance that your article can be picked by others and published on loads of other Web Sites, for weeks, months and even years to come.

That's the real beauty of article publishing.

Be aware: a poor written article, with typos and errors will not get published on reputable online web site and article directories.

I suggest you proofedit your article before you submit it on the Internet. More than that, I highly recommend that you include no advertisement within your article.

HINT: articles looking like sales letters won't be published online, trust me on this.

If you're serious about writing a professional article that will get picked by major web sites into your niche field, you'd better take into consideration these 3 quick tips:

TIP # 1 - Create An Eye-Catching Title

A capturing title will always attract attention to your target audience. Make sure you spy on your competitors article titles and come up with better titles.

TIP # 2 - Create Killer Content

A top-notch article will always start with a grabbing introduction and finish with a grabbing conclusion.

Your focus is to keep the article flow from one paragraph to the next. Make it interesting and don't bore the reader.

Use short, concise sentences. Take this article as an example.

TIP # 3 - Create The Ultimate Resource Box

Here comes the most exciting part: if your article is accepted and published by an online web site or publication (e.g. Newsletter/eZine) it's going to bring you FREE traffic

to your Web Site. Here's how - the article bio (resource box) that is attached at the bottom of your content (article) contains a brief overview of you, your web site and/or business.

Here's a resource box example:

John S. is the creator of "Top Marketing Tactics". He publishes a weekly online marketing eZine titled Top Marketing Tricks. Sign-Up FREE Now (A $49 VALUE) at: top-marketing-tactics dot com (here you add your url!)

This is a fake example to show you how a killer resource box should look like. This is how you're going to capture your readers interest about you and your offer.

Just last month I received over 500 unique visitors to one of my niche Web Sites, so this tactic works like crazy. Try it for yourself and you'll be amazed at how easy it is to get published online for free via article marketing and promotion.

If you wish to learn internet marketing, then you have made an excellent decision. The internet is a virtual gateway to the world and, at present, is like the world as it was before the age of travel. Huge areas remain unchartered and because of this, there is huge potential to make large sums of money. To learn internet marketing, you have to be aware of a very positive fact - despite all the hype out there, we are barely scratching the surface of the full potential and reach of internet marketing. As one veteran marketer once put it to me, “I think we’re at the beginning of the beginning.”

If you are a complete newcomer to internet marketing - a “newbie” - then you will be faced with a steep learning curve. However, do not be disheartened or intimidated. This is an inevitable part of the process. It’s like a hazing ritual. If you can climb the steep, then you will have earned your spurs and will no doubt be on the way to collecting a fortune from your online work.

It is important that you accept the significance of this upfront. Don’t buy into the myth that you can become a millionaire overnight. Yes, it is easy to make money online and yes, you can make money fast. But first you have to know HOW to do that, and that’s what the learning curve represents. Once you have ascended the curve though, you will be a fully-qualified human ATM machine.

The first and most important step to learn internet marketing is to put up a force-field between yourself and all the hyperbole that exists out there. Entering the internet marketing arena is a bit like entering Las Vegas - your head is turned constantly, seduced by the glitzy lights and promises coming from all sides. Do not be that individual who purchases every piece of software going. Do not purchase a hundred eBooks. Do not allow yourself to get dazzled. If you wish to learn internet marketing, then you should start with free internet marketing methods.

I could give you a set of golf clubs and three years of golf lessons. In that time, you would most likely become a very good golfer, probably playing off a single figure handicap. At this point, the only way you can improve your game is with tiny refinements and alterations. Maybe that would mean using a training aid to get you to improve your posture. Maybe it would mean experimenting with a new club to get more distance. Perhaps it would mean working on your psychology to strengthen your shaky moments.

No doubt you’re now asking yourself why I am talking about golf. Well, it is an analogy to internet marketing. You see, the bulk of your game is established through basic training. That means listening to advice, practicing, testing and tracking your results. The refinement to your game comes through strongly focused - and often expensive - techniques. However, you cannot refine your game if you have not mastered the basics. If you wish to learn internet marketing, you need to master the basics.

Every piece of software you see for sale, every pricey course you see promoted…they are pretty much aimed at the internet marketer who has completed basic training. If you ever look at a piece of software and find yourself questioning what certain terms mean, then you know you’re not ready. A grizzled internet marketer will know exactly what impact the software will have on their business efficiency and bottom line. So please, ignore it.

Of course, just like golf, the best part of your game is established through basic training. In the case of internet marketing, basic training means developing an understanding of general income stream methods and technical jargon, and then learning to make money through free methods. If you can make money online without spending any money, then you have the Midas’ Touch. The fact is, you can replace your full-time job income just by using free methods. I didn’t spend a dime, but earned enough to quit my job and work from home. That is what mastery is all about. Once you have nailed that, then you can look at refining your game and moving on to the next wealth level. Learn internet marketing from the bottom upwards.

There are really two methods of free internet marketing you should research and master. The first is blogging. Blogging has a ridiculous amount of potential. You can create free websites with blogs, learn to attract visitors to it, and stick up affiliate links and Adsense banners to make cash. There is no better basic training in the world than learning to make cash with blogs. The second method is to make money from internet forums. Simply pick affiliate products to promote, go to relevant forums, put a link to your affiliate product in your signature, and make sales whenever somebody buys from your link. These sound easy in principle, and they are. But despite a simple concept, you will find it takes a lot of tracking, testing and tweaking in order to get maximum profits.

Ultimately you are looking to get to the day when you can wake up, set up a free profit stream, and check back the next day to see that you have made money. If you can make a measly $1 a day from a free method, then all you have to do is repeat it 200 times to earn $200 a day. Do you see the potential of all this? So do not get suckered in by expensive courses. You don’t need them at all. If you wish to learn internet marketing, learn from the bottom up. Free internet marketing will provide your bread and butter in the years to come, and if you haven’t mastered that, then you’ll never stand a chance. If you have mastered it however, you can set up many profitable streams of income each and every day.

If you are a website owner, whether or not your website is used to sell goods or services, you may be concerned with the amount of traffic that you are receiving. If you rely on your website for income, the traffic your website receives can have a positive or negative effect on your finances. If you are interested in getting the most out of your website, you are encouraged to learn more about website marketing.

The main purpose of website marketing is to bring traffic to your site. There are an unlimited number of websites currently operating over the internet. While some of these websites may be unique, most contain similar information or products. To make your website stand above the rest you will need to market it the proper way.

While marketing your website may sound easy, to some it isn’t. Website marketing simply doesn’t entail letting a few people know that your site exists. Instead, you will want to target the whole world of internet users. Unfortunately, this can be a long and difficult task. If you are unable to find the time to market your own website you can easily obtain the services of a professional website marketing specialist.

Whether you decide to handle the marketing of your own website or you obtain the services of a professional, there are some important things you need to know. To start a successful marketing campaign, you will need to familiarize yourself with website marketing and everything that it includes. Even if you plan on using the services of a professional marketer, you still need to familiarize yourself with website marketing. This will give you an idea as to what you should expect from a professional.

Perhaps the easiest way to market your website is to make sure that your website is picked up by the most popular search engines.

It is ideal that your website appears on the first or second pages of search results. To increase your search engine ranking, you may want to create informational articles or have a professional create them for you. Basing your articles around a particular keyword is the best way to increase your website’s search engine ranking.

Link integration is another effective way that you or a professional website marketing specialist could help to increase the page views that your website see. This is most often done by trading links with another individual who has a website with information or products that is somehow related to yours. If are implementing your own website marketing strategy, you will want to contact other website owners. By offering to display a link to their website, if they provide one to yours, you may see a dramatic increase in traffic.

Search engine optimization and link exchanges are just a few of the many ways that you or a professional website marketing specialist can market your website. Additional website marketing methods may include email marketing, pay per click advertising, and much more. Even if you do not use these website marketing methods, you are encouraged to at least examine them. You may be surprised just how easy it is to increase your website’s traffic.

People in network marketing and internet marketing are always looking for the tip-over point.

The tip-over point is hard to pinpoint, but its effect can be awesome and hard to miss.

Let's say you have signed up with a new internet business opportunity. You have your website, and you have done all the promotional stuff...search engine optimization, built an opt-in mailing list, post on forums, write articles...the whole nine yards. Then you wait. Maybe an order or two trickles in, but after a while, that dries up, if it ever happens at all.

So, you try a couple of new tactics, redesign the page, join a couple more forums, try some free classified advertising and sit back again. Same thing.

Now, at this point, 99.99999% of new internet marketers or network marketers are going to throw in the towel and start telling anybody they meet that internet marketing and/or network marketing is a scam...a rip-off!

Here's a fact for you. It is going to take time to make your home or internet business successful. Even if you are doing all the right things, success will probably not come to you overnight. Even if you DO the right things, you are more likely to be successful if you KEEP doing them!

It's sort of like pushing a rock up a hill. You pushed it, you moved it, and the place you are trying to get to with the rock is closer, but you aren't there yet. As you continue to push, you may hit rough spots or slick spots, and even slide back down the hill from time to time, but if you keep on pushing, you will eventually reach a spot where things change.

With pushing a rock up a hill, it's the crest of the hill. You just keep doing what you've been doing, and the rock will reach the crest of the hill. Depending on the slope of the downhill side, and the speed with which you were pushing when you hit the top, and the snags that might get in the way, you will find pushing the rock just got easier, and you might not even be able to catch up with it at all.

There's a spot in internet and network marketing that is similar. You've been placing the advertisements, writing the articles, visiting the forums with little or no signs of success. Then, one day, you find that you've made a sale. The next one might be a day or a week away, but you keep doing what you've been doing and they get closer together...maybe even several in the same day.

You have finally reached the tip-over point. That's the point in which all that you have done has pushed your home or internet business onto a plane where it almost seems like it has a life of its own. However, if you quit doing what you've been doing, things might slow down or come back to a stop.

People in multi-level marketing (MLM) sometimes get to really see the tip-over in a way that non-MLM people seldom do. I've had friends in multi-level marketing who spent all their time trying to sell product and just recruited the occasional new down line member. As commonly happens, most of these people fall by the wayside and never really produce anything. However, if enough people have been added to the down line, it is likely that some quality producers will emerge. When enough of these people have been added and they have gotten their collective feet on the ground, they can make a network marketing, or internet marketing, business grow by leaps and bounds.

I often mention my two friends who became millionaires in two different network marketing programs. Neither made tons of money from their own sales. Both took between three and four years to hit their tip-over point. When it arrived however; when they had enough people in their down lines that were producing income and building THEIR down lines, that's when my friends saw their checks skyrocket. One month, one was showing me a check for over $25,000.00. Two months later, he got one for over $50,000.00. A few months after that, he was making over $100,000.00 a month!

If you wish to learn internet marketing, then you have made an excellent decision. The internet is a virtual gateway to the world and, at present, is like the world as it was before the age of travel. Huge areas remain unchartered and because of this, there is huge potential to make large sums of money. To learn internet marketing, you have to be aware of a very positive fact - despite all the hype out there, we are barely scratching the surface of the full potential and reach of internet marketing. As one veteran marketer once put it to me, “I think we’re at the beginning of the beginning.”

If you are a complete newcomer to internet marketing - a “newbie” - then you will be faced with a steep learning curve. However, do not be disheartened or intimidated. This is an inevitable part of the process. It’s like a hazing ritual. If you can climb the steep, then you will have earned your spurs and will no doubt be on the way to collecting a fortune from your online work.

It is important that you accept the significance of this upfront. Don’t buy into the myth that you can become a millionaire overnight. Yes, it is easy to make money online and yes, you can make money fast. But first you have to know HOW to do that, and that’s what the learning curve represents. Once you have ascended the curve though, you will be a fully-qualified human ATM machine.

The first and most important step to learn internet marketing is to put up a force-field between yourself and all the hyperbole that exists out there. Entering the internet marketing arena is a bit like entering Las Vegas - your head is turned constantly, seduced by the glitzy lights and promises coming from all sides. Do not be that individual who purchases every piece of software going. Do not purchase a hundred eBooks. Do not allow yourself to get dazzled. If you wish to learn internet marketing, then you should start with free internet marketing methods.

I could give you a set of golf clubs and three years of golf lessons. In that time, you would most likely become a very good golfer, probably playing off a single figure handicap. At this point, the only way you can improve your game is with tiny refinements and alterations. Maybe that would mean using a training aid to get you to improve your posture. Maybe it would mean experimenting with a new club to get more distance. Perhaps it would mean working on your psychology to strengthen your shaky moments.

No doubt you’re now asking yourself why I am talking about golf. Well, it is an analogy to internet marketing. You see, the bulk of your game is established through basic training. That means listening to advice, practicing, testing and tracking your results. The refinement to your game comes through strongly focused - and often expensive - techniques. However, you cannot refine your game if you have not mastered the basics. If you wish to learn internet marketing, you need to master the basics.

Every piece of software you see for sale, every pricey course you see promoted…they are pretty much aimed at the internet marketer who has completed basic training. If you ever look at a piece of software and find yourself questioning what certain terms mean, then you know you’re not ready. A grizzled internet marketer will know exactly what impact the software will have on their business efficiency and bottom line. So please, ignore it.

Of course, just like golf, the best part of your game is established through basic training. In the case of internet marketing, basic training means developing an understanding of general income stream methods and technical jargon, and then learning to make money through free methods. If you can make money online without spending any money, then you have the Midas’ Touch. The fact is, you can replace your full-time job income just by using free methods. I didn’t spend a dime, but earned enough to quit my job and work from home. That is what mastery is all about. Once you have nailed that, then you can look at refining your game and moving on to the next wealth level. Learn internet marketing from the bottom upwards.

There are really two methods of free internet marketing you should research and master. The first is blogging. Blogging has a ridiculous amount of potential. You can create free websites with blogs, learn to attract visitors to it, and stick up affiliate links and Adsense banners to make cash. There is no better basic training in the world than learning to make cash with blogs. The second method is to make money from internet forums. Simply pick affiliate products to promote, go to relevant forums, put a link to your affiliate product in your signature, and make sales whenever somebody buys from your link. These sound easy in principle, and they are. But despite a simple concept, you will find it takes a lot of tracking, testing and tweaking in order to get maximum profits.

Ultimately you are looking to get to the day when you can wake up, set up a free profit stream, and check back the next day to see that you have made money. If you can make a measly $1 a day from a free method, then all you have to do is repeat it 200 times to earn $200 a day. Do you see the potential of all this? So do not get suckered in by expensive courses. You don’t need them at all. If you wish to learn internet marketing, learn from the bottom up. Free internet marketing will provide your bread and butter in the years to come, and if you haven’t mastered that, then you’ll never stand a chance. If you have mastered it however, you can set up many profitable streams of income each and every day.

Once during an interview, I was asked why I think so many online businesses fail. Why is it that online businesses with good product, services and infrastructures fail, while the 18 year old kid in his parents' basement goes from zero to tens of thousands of dollars seemingly overnight?

My answer:

There are so many failed Internet marketing businesses because everybody copies everyone; they don't have the courage to be original or to try new things because it’s like the blind leading the blind.

They just think if someone else is doing it that it must be working -- so there's very few people out there really playing the game and trying to be original.

And that's a shame.

I think this attitude hurts not only the people who have it, but society as well.

Why?

Because the fact is everyone has great ideas. They are just afraid to pursue them. They are afraid to fail. They want to play it safe. They discount their ideas -- especially the really good ones -- when their little voice inside them says, "nah, that’s not going to work", or they hear their mom or spouse or brother in law saying that’s a stupid idea and they bury it and they never go through.

I think the entire Internet marketing world would explode even faster than it is now if people took the same piece of advice I got from someone who was helping me out a while back.

And that advice is when you get an idea that pops in your head -- no matter how crazy, silly or outrageous it seems -- capture it. Write it down. And put it into a little database so won’t lose it.

Then, let it sit. Let all those ideas sit for a while and every once in a while look at them. Think about them. True, most of the ideas will not be any good, or realistic. But you will have some you can run with. And all it takes is one good idea to make things happen.

But you'll never know what that's like, what it's like to have a monster Internet marketing business, if you stifle your ideas and creativity and keep following the herd.

Instead treat those ideas like plants. Let them grow. Give them time to break out of their seeds. If they don't grow then leave them alone. But when you find one or two or three ideas that do grow, take immediate action on them and watch your Internet marketing business take off fast.