Unfortunately most people don’t really talk about this aspect.  They just say to build a list, as if that’s enough.  You have to make sure to nurture the relationships.  One slip, and those people will probably stop listening to you.  Warren Buffet said that it takes twenty or so years to build a reputation, and five minutes to completely ruin it.  When “building your list”, this quote applies to that as well.  You have to treat the people on your list, the exact same way you would want to be treated.  I’m sure you know how frustrating it is when some Guru is pitching products to you every day, hoping something will stick.  Does this work? Most likely, but these guys have such a huge list, that they’re ok with poorer conversions.  If you’re the little guy with a smaller list, then you have to take extra care.

One of the fastest ways to build a list is to do pay per click.  Create a squeeze page (usually they have sample templates on places like the warrior forum for free), and start driving traffic to it.  Of course, there’s a lot more details left out here, but the goal is to test as quickly as possible, and see what works.  You do want to do some initial research ahead of time to choose the right keywords to ensure you get the most qualified traffic.  Once you do the keyword research, and optimize your site for those keywords (i.e for quality score in Adwords), and some other on-page elements like privacy policies, contact information etc., then you can launch your campaign.  You don’t necessarily need to use Adwords, but it’s definitely a good place to start if you’re looking to test quickly.  It’s usually a good idea to use the content network first, and see what converts best by split testing landing pages, and ads.

Another way to build your list is to do SEO.  Most people are familiar with SEO to an extent, but usually think it takes too much time and effort and would rather find something with quicker results.  Actually SEO doesn’t have to be painfully slow if you do it correctly.  You can also do quick tests by optimizing for extremely long tail keywords, and drive them to the first page within the first week or two.  You should be able to get some traffic, and test.  It’s obviously not going to be as quick and effective of a test as PPC, but at least you’ll get some data and won’t cost you a lot of time or money.  If you find whatever offer your promoting works relatively well, then you can launch a full SEO campaign using more competitive but higher traffic keywords.

And of course, once you have people on your list, then as we discussed before, you want to make sure you take care of them by providing value.  Send them valuable but free information in the form of audios, videos, articles, ebooks, just like you would a paying customer.  They will come to know you and like you after a while, and will feel comfortable purchasing your products, or buying through your affiliate links for affiliate products.

So these are some quick list building tips, that can hopefully get you started.  If you’d like a more in depth list building tutorial, then well..sign up to my list!

One effective internet marketing strategy for a small business, is Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.  SEO is a great way to put your business website in front of customers that are looking for you.  Did you know that 80% of searchers look online for a business before they even consider going offline and doing business with you?  So it’s important for small businesses to establish a web presence online so that when their customers search for them, they can find them, preferably on the first page of the search engines, and in the top 3 positions.  The higher your rankings, the more traffic and sales you will get.  And in addition to that it’s also important to have reviews about your business on several sites such as Yelp, Homestars, Google Places, etc.  This can give you an advantage over your competitors as well as a boost in rankings.

Other top internet marketing strategies for a small business include using social media.  Social media sites such as Facebook, and Twitter are a great medium for branding your business, and developing a relationship as well as two way communication with your potential or current customers.  When using social media it’s important to realize that you don’t just use it to pitch your products and services without adding real value.  Offer your potential prospects promotions and discounts, freebies, tips and advice, and other incentives.  You can also create videos and upload them directly to your Youtube account, and then tweet about it, or promote it on your Facebook page, provided it will be of interest to your followers, and commercial free.  Remember, social media is all about building trust and relationships.  The more people trust you, the more likely they are to buy from you.

Article publishing is another great internet marketing strategy for small businesses.  It’s usually free to submit your articles to article directories such as Ezinearticles.com and Goarticles.com.  Writing articles is a great way to pre-sell your products and services without looking overly promotional.  If the article you write is relevant and useful for your user, they will most likely click through to your site and see what you have to offer.  When writing articles, you’re allowed to use a resource box which can include a couple of links to your site.  This is a great place to offer them additional free information if they visit your site.  It’s also a great way to get back links to your site with keyword rich anchor text, to help you with your SEO rankings.  However, just make sure you don’t stuff  your resource box with too many keywords and make it look clean and to the point.  Once they land on your site, you only have a few seconds to capture their attention, so it’s probably best to have an opt-in list with additional free information that they can sign up to.

There are several internet marketing strategies for a small business that you can use, including both free and paid strategies.  I’ve included only the free internet marketing strategies, so this is usually a good place to start.  One important thing to keep in mind prior to implementing any internet marketing strategy is to perform proper market and keyword research.  If you can understand exactly which keywords will be the most relevant for your business, that aren’t too competitive you’ll be able to convert your prospects into buyers much easier, and won’t much additional traffic.  Your overall bounce rate will also be very low, because visitors won’t be clicking off of your site as soon as they land on it.  So do the necessary research ahead of time by using keyword tools such as Market Samurai, and Google Insights to see what’s working right now for your competitors.  Once you know the intent of your potential customers, it will really reduce the amount of effort you need to spend on SEO, and other internet marketing strategies for a small business.

Unfortunately most people do not know truly why they want to do internet marketing. At the most superficial level, people will say that they just want to make more money. They want to focus on making more money so that perhaps they could do more “stuff” in life. Essentially they just want to upgrade what they already have because it’s simply not enough to fulfill they’re desires, and they just want more of it. So they just to focus on the desire to make more money for the sake of it.

On another level, some people are a little bit more clear about their reasons to do internet marketing online. Perhaps they are having facing challenging issues, and would like to be able to resolve them. They understand that the job they have may not be sufficient to support their family, and are looking for other means to provide that support. Others may be frustrated with their co-workers, or boss, and it has been a recurring theme despite many job changes. So they truly are looking to overcome these barriers of taking things to another level, and they just want to do whatever it takes so that they can eliminate their suffering.

At another level, some people have realized that they want to truly be able to reach out to others and contribute to society in big ways. They have something deep within them that is just yearning to be expressed so that they can make a difference, with their knowledge and experience. They understand that the internet is probably the best means to do this by leveraging marketing channels such as social media and blogging. They are not looking to make money but rather to create exceptional value, and their goals are to help others get what they want because that is what gives their life true purpose, and meaning.

Now you may find you fall into one of these categories in terms of where you are in life, and what your intentions are for doing internet marketing. Not one level is better than the other since at one point we have all probably gone through each of these stages. But of course, the latter one is most likely to be the most effective because you will be creating real value for other people in ways that can change people lives forever. And usually this level of creation is not just what leads to the most money, but it leads to greatest fulfillment and happiness.

See, what a lot of people who are chasing money superficially believe is that somehow it will make them happy, and that all they need to do is “get more of it”. But the reality is, that when you do get more of it, you just want even more. We’re never actually satisfied or fulfilled and are always chasing a long tail that never seems to end. And it’s also important to note, that money doesn’t actually have any intrinsic value to it. It’s not gold, or silver, or anything that is backed up. It’s just paper, and numbers on a screen which somehow we think is a magical thing. But the fact is that money is created as a by product of creating great value to others in the form of exchange. If someone values your “stuff” they will buy it from you. But the degree to which you can create lots of money is the degree to which you can actually create value. So the more value you create, the more money you will get, as a by-product.  But in order to create great value, you  have to be very clear about your intentions, purpose, and vision, so that you will be able to serve as many people as possible.

So if you’re truly interested in doing internet marketing effectively and cultivating the mindset to succeed, then it will probably be best to know the why, before the how, and the what.  A lot of people have the best strategies in the world but are unable to be successful at all, because they haven’t thought things through enough.  And if you’re looking to just make money online, or overcome some challenges you may be facing, then you may make money if you have a good strategy, but unfortunately most of these are short lived ventures because they are not really addressing the needs of prospects.  And you cannot address the needs of your prospects unless you have a desire to do whatever it takes to fulfill those needs which comes from your intention and purpose to do so.