There are many differing views regarding what’s true and what isn’t true and what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to Internet marketing. There are several adages you’ve probably heard online with regard to marketing on the web which I believe to be true.
For example: “the money is in the list”, “content drives traffic” and “no matter how fast your computer system runs, you will eventually come to think of it as slow” are all sayings I firmly believe. However there are several assumptions about Internet marketing I do not agree with, and which I believe you should take with a grain of salt when advertising your home based business online including the following:
1. You need to spend money to make money. This is, to my way of thinking, the number one misconception when it comes to promoting your enterprise on the web. If you’re new to the Internet and just starting your home business with not much of a budget to work with then don’t despair. There are many excellent sources of free advertising available online which actually work.
For example, the adage “content drives traffic” couldn’t be more accurate in my opinion because in order to attract the search engines attention you need to add fresh content to your website on a regular basis. One of the most effective ways of accomplishing this is article marketing which costs you nothing. Writing a new editorial on a daily basis or at least four times a week and submitting them to the top article directories on the Internet is a great way to drive free targeted traffic to your home business.
Classified advertising, ad swapping, free link exchanges, advertising on the social networks, submitting comments to forums and chat rooms, creating back links, creating a Squidoo lens, setting up a Google webmaster account, leaving comments on blogs related to your niche, writing product reviews, participating in Yahoo answers and setting up an Onlywire account are all great free traffic generation techniques for your home business to use and there are many more free tactics available on the web.
2. Long advertising copy is more effective than short script. This has been debated ad nauseum online, and I believe long advertising copy only deters people from reading your offer. Time is a precious commodity in today’s society and the same is true on the Internet. People want their information now, they want it fast and they don’t want to spend a long time reading your offer before you get to the point.
A page long diatribe about the benefits and advantages of one product over all the others on the Internet is not what people are looking for in an ad. Tell them what it does, how it will make their lives easier in some way and how much it costs. Then tell them to buy now and how to do it and you should close the deal.
3. You can succeed online by working alone. This is a fallacy because networking in any business venture, whether it’s online or offline, is a very important marketing technique and can determine the ultimate success or failure of your home business venture. The saying “man is not an island” couldn’t be more true when it comes to the world of commerce.
Joint ventures, social networking which is exploding on the web, ad swaps, link exchanges, forums and chat rooms are just several examples of networking techniques online and are excellent tactics for getting both you and your business established and well known on the Internet. If people know you and trust you they are more likely to do business with you and this isn’t possible without becoming a part of the social network on the Internet.
4. You need your own product to be successful online. This is another falsehood perhaps perpetrated by the so called gurus who are trying to sell every information product creation tool known to man on the web. Affiliate marketing, which involves selling other people’s products for a percentage of the sale can be a very lucrative career when employed correctly.
There are many excellent affiliate programs available to join free of charge online offering quality products to promote at very profitable rates of return. The most important aspect of starting any affiliate home business is research. Be very careful and find the best program with a high commission rate and the most suitable products for your website theme and home business plan.
5. You need to be a technical expert to succeed on the Internet. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. There are so many opportunities available which will help you set up your own website free of charge with step by step instructions included that you can be up and running with a fully functional business website in a matter of hours.
With most affiliate programs for example, a website or at the very least a web page is included along with your product to promote and all the marketing tools to advertise your home business and your merchandise are usually available in the marketing area of your account.
If you’re into blogging, wordpress is another excellent free tool to take advantage of because it shows you again, step by step, how to create your blog and how to maintain it on a regular basis. There are also many free html editing tools available along with introductory courses which will teach you the basics of web page creation and design which is all you need to keep your home business home page maintained and updated regularly.
When you’re just starting out on the web with your home based business the first thing you must learn is not to believe everything you hear especially when it comes to internet marketing. Try each strategy one at a time until you find several you enjoy and then use these tactics on a daily basis to drive traffic to your website and to increase your sales and profits.