Internet marketing is not just for the gurus out there! The big players and advertisers, the web has grown in to a lot of smaller businesses “SME small to medium enterprises”, that can now afford the technology to design/develop Websites, host and sell products online within the e-commerce business arena. Internet marketing for the smaller business online can be a costly state of affairs! We all know the areas: PPC Pay Per Click, Adwords, search engine submission, SEO Search Engine Optimisation etc, can be a very dark jungle of pitfalls or should I say money loss $$$$.

There are some very simple techniques that a lot of Internet marketing companies would rather keep secret and make you pay for through expensive consultancy services, I do know the struggle some of the smaller online business owners have with Internet Marketing.

A lot is made of PPC Pay Per Click, it really is a solution for short-term campaigns, or a new product or promotion you instantly want your prospects to see, Google Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture can be costly! There are ways to get a natural search listing through organic SEO Search Engine Optimisation.

I would like you to go through the check list below and answer some honest questions about your website, the following steps are all organic SEO techniques.

Search Engine Visibility Check List

1.Are you creating web pages with content your target audience is genuinely interested in reading?
2.Does your content contain highly focused keyword phrases?
3.Are you optimising your web pages for at least three to five keywords at a time?
4.Does each optimised page contain a unique title?
5.Are you using keywords in your title tags?
6.Are your most important keywords above the fold (the top of your web page) and throughout each optimised page?
7.Are you using keywords within hypertext links?
8.Does each optimised page contain a unique meta tag description?
9.Does each optimised page contain a unique meta tag keyword list?
10.Do your graphic images contain descriptive keywords within the alt text?
11.Does your website have a sitemap to assist visitor navigation?
12.Do you have a secondary XML sitemap designed for search engines (see XML sitemap generator http://www.seo4internet.com/seotools.htm)
13.Are your optimised pages placed within the root directory of your website?
14.Do you have a dedicated reciprocal link page set-up? I cant stress enough about a well managed reciprocal link program, back links connecting to your website are key to your websites Internet exposure.
15.If you are an e-commerce retailer are you using “Froogle”, the Google free UK price comparison service, with searches by keyword, which can then be broken down by category and ordered by price?
16.Does your domain name contain keywords? (Domain highlighting) For any future domains you may purchase make sure the URL has the relevant keyword/keywords in relation to what your business is about!

What's In A Niche? When talking of niche websites, the answer to that question is, in my humble opinion, not very much at all in most cases. Certainly much less than should be in a niche. Is it just me - are my expectations too high? I don't think so because I have seen some good niche websites as well as many horrors. A real niche website that has been built with care and passion is a thing of beauty (or, at the very least, interest) and is usually a treasure trove for visitors who share a love of the niche subject.

What I am complaining about are the so-called niche websites people are throwing together for the sole purpose of collecting advertising revenue. These sites have little (if anything) in the way of content. The colourful pictures and plentiful advertisements do not make up for this lack. Advertising is fine, in fact it's usually essential if you want to stay in business. What makes me see red is clicking on misleading advertisements and landing on website after cloned website only to be confronted with a few sentences of poorly written text and dozens of gibbering advertisements. To test the integrity of a niche site, look at what would be left if you removed all the pay per click advertisements.

It is unfortunate for people who are surfing for information that the Internet is being overrun by the awful flimsy looking template produced websites that are being churned out at a crazy rate. If you spend any time on the Internet, you will know the type of thing I mean. These websites consist of a couple of pages with nice enough looking header graphics (that's the pictures at the top, if you are not "in the trade" so to speak), and clumps of advertisements placed so that they are the first thing you see. If you manage to get past the advertisements, you might find a few articles which have been copied from other websites just for the sake of having something on the pages to lend them some credibility. These websites don't exist to provide information or services or to promote anything. Their sole purpose is to carry advertising that will earn the owner money in return for just about zero work on his part.

How much time and effort goes into creating one of these monstrosities? Practically none: in most cases it is all done by a software package. The pseudo webmaster doesn't ever need to worry about actual webpage design or building. All these charlatans need to do is decide upon their niche topic, toss a bunch of keywords into the mix and the software will do the rest. These people can create their pseudo niche websites on any subject anyone in the world might think of. It's easy because they don't need to know anything about the subject themselves. Whether it is dog training, bridal dresses, funerals or haemorrhoids, an online search tool will provide a list of keywords and the software will do the rest. Nobody cares that the laughing man clutching a fistful of cash or the sports car pictured in the heading has no relevance to the content and would be frankly inappropriate if you were looking for a funeral director or medication for a painful medical condition. The webmaster has no intention of offering you anything of value. In fact, it is in his interests if you take an immediate dislike to his web page because that makes you more likely to click away from it via one of his advertising links and that's how he makes his money.

After a couple of days of trying to do some semi-serious research on the Internet, I feel like unplugging my pc and dusting off my library tickets. Ok - so you can't judge a book by its cover but the cover doesn't usually set out to deliberately mislead you as to the contents (quite the opposite in fact). When I type a query into a search engine, I want the results to lead me to websites containing the answer to that query. If I am searching for information about a particular subject, I don't appreciate being directed to websites that consist of a few keyword loaded sentences walled in by blocks of advertisements for other similar websites.

Roll on the day when someone invents a search engine that can distinguish between a real niche website and an advertising vehicle built from a cheap kit. Maybe we can get back to the time when searching the Internet was faster than catching a bus to the library and thumbing through books.

Finding an internet market is easy. Finding a niche internet market that is PROFITABLE can be a bit more difficult, but actually quite simple when you understand what you are doing. The world of internet marketing and niche marketing is so vast that over 90% of internet marketers spend weeks and even months on the wrong market, only to find out after great investments of time and money, that there is nothing profitable to be made. So pay close attention as I reveal the secrets to finding a niche internet market to profit from.

There are thousands of ways to find your own niche internet market. Search some popular keywords using popular search engines such as google, yahoo, and msn, get a feel for what other people are doing on the web. You could also always get to a Barnes & Noble or library looking for some common applicable book genres. Personally, I've done both of these methods when I first began developing my own internet marketing campaign, and these were the most time consuming and inefficient appropriation of funds i've ever experienced. People have said to "go for a market you have passion about". Well that will get you just about no where, because if something is popular or personal to you, it still may not sell well at all. And that is the whole point of getting into the internet market, to sell.

I use 2 powerful tools to find wealth building niche internet markets that you may have never seen before.

1) Clickbank.com - The endless supplier of niche internet markets. This e-powered affiliate marketing empire contains over 10,000 information programs you can promote for strong commissions. With so many niches at your fingertips its remarkable. This is the number one place to find hot niches to promote and prosper from.

Its completely free to sign up for an account, and they pay out checks bi-weekly, the 1st and 16th of every month. Go here to sign up for free:

clickbank.com/signup

then browse the infamous clickbank marketplace. You have free reign on these programs, from topics such as home based business opportunities, make money online, sports & recreation, home & family, Society & culture, and many more. With over 10,000 legitimate business opportunities, the only trouble you'll have is deciding how many profitable niche markets to use.

But the greatest reason to go here is this: you are not selling anything as an affiliate, and all goods are information products. What does this mean, well for one you never have to process shipments of actual packages. No hassle of the post office, shipping supplies, and annoying returns, just simple instant access information based products that created a whopping $1 trillion dollar industry last year alone.

2) Ebay.com - The cash auction machine. Ebay is one of the greatest ways to start getting into internet marketing and finding strong niche markets. This is where I personally began my online endeavors, selling all sorts of retail products, to health foods, to agricultural supplies and the money can really start to come in.

Personally, I find the selling of products so much more time consuming and un-cost effective that it would take 10 times longer to develop wealth selling tangible products as apposed to information products. But don't get me wrong, ebay is a great place to get started and learn how to find some hot niche internet markets.

Go to ebay.com and when you get there click "all categories" or "see all categories". From here you can begin to delve into the ebay internet marketing world, with info on what is selling and how many products are being sold in each specific category. The trick is to find something specific, so you will need to browse some major categories. Instead of sporting goods, as a broad genre, get more specific with something like "men's tennis racquets" or "female sports attire". Within sports, for example, you can find hundreds of niches, so imagine when browsing all categories.

If you own an online business you know very well that a percentage of your inquiries thru your website will be those of competitors. You probably have been concerned with this and perhaps even aggravated somewhat. Is there a way to catch them?

Yes, in fact we use to catch them all the time, sometimes they try to get tricky! Using very common names and free mail accounts too. Often you can catch them and they try again and again. Now that I am retired I do not mind anymore, usually I simply tell them I am aware of it or do not email them back? You might try that approach.

Additionally all business owners have to worry about fake inquiries coming from college students pretending to be buyers in their inquiries. Generally they do not mean any harm as they are most likely doing business projects. I just believe they should tell us upfront, because it takes a lot of time to answer people. We need better ethics in college.

The Internet has created a truly global marketplace. It has become important for companies to further expand their market and their consumer targets. In order to take advantage of the growing demand for online business you need to look at your different internet marketing solution opportunities.

To insure that most of your target consumers will acquire your product you need to consider the best products for your niche that captures the interests and needs of your customer base. This means that you need to identify who these people are, where they are located, and their financial status. It takes marketing knowledge and skill to achieve your goals in the Internet marketing arena.

Presently, you can use a variety of internet Marketing Solutions that are being offered by several different online companies. The important thing is to determine which internet marketing solution is right for you to meet the needs of your customers. This solution maybe email marketing, search engine optimization, or creating web pages or sites. Since your goal is to maximize your return on investment, you need to choose Internet Marketing Solutions that will help you achieve this. These marketing techniques will not cost much since they are very self-explanatory, thus, easily learned. Below is a list of cost-effective internet marketing solutions.

1. Email marketing is a common internet marketing solution. This is a cost effective way of communicating and interacting to your consumers, driving them to visit your website to check out your products.

2. Writing and submitting articles related to your niche is a great way to promote your online business and drive hordes of traffic to your web site.

3. Developing a newsletter or ezine is a classic internet marketing solution that is a proven profit earner. The great thing about a newsletter is that you can develop a huge list of subscribers that is permission based. Therefore, you can market to them on a regular basis.

4. Develop a web site focused around your niche or service. It is vital to create your own web site if you are going to be serious about using the internet to market your business. An online presence is vital to a successful business, just ask Wal-Mart, Bass Pro Shop, Target, and the list goes on. The point is that all the big boys of business utilize web sites and so should you.

5. If you are going to create a web site as an internet marketing solution then you must optimize it for the search engines. The highest quality and cheapest visitors are those that come from free search engine listings. In order to receive a high ranking from the search engines you must have a site that is optimized for the search engines.

6. The use of viral marketing tactics is another great internet marketing solution. Give away a free report or e-book about your niche or service. People love free stuff! Give terrific free information and you will see a dramatic increase in traffic to your web site.

7. A new and often overlooked internet marketing solution is the use of press releases. There are several sites on the internet that will post and distribute press releases for you. This is a terrific way to promote your web site and online business.

Well there you have it, 7 hot and proven internet marketing solutions. By implementing these solutions you are sure to see an increase in traffic to your web site and a higher volume of online sales. If you have an offline business creating an online presence is a great way to cost-effectively increase your sales.

I've been doing business online since 1999. In that time, I've looked at several different options for ways to sell things online, and finally, in 2003, decided that I had wasted too much time in doing things the old-fashioned way (having customers call me with credit card numbers or mailing me a check), and that I was long overdue to finally use an online shopping cart as a way to sell products and services online.

But, there seemed to be so many options out there. Where should I start?

The first thing I had to do was find a merchant card provider. Since I do little face-to-face business, I chose a provider who deals almost exclusively with professional coaches, consultants, and speakers, Practice Pay Solutions., http://www.practicepaysolutions.com. I generally advocate that you need to be processing at least $1000/month in credit card charges to make a merchant account financially viable for you, as you will be charged a setup fee, a percentage per transaction fee, as well as a monthly statement fee. Merchant Warehouse, www.merchantwarehouse.com, is another option for your merchant account.

Practice Pay Solutions also provides a virtual terminal to permit you to go in and manually enter transactions via an online interface, as well as a secure payment gateway, which allows your customer's credit card data to be secure as they place orders. The other aspect I love about Practice Pay Solutions is that fact that I can do a batch upload of transactions. For example, I have a number of clients who pay their fees monthly, outside of the shopping cart system. All I have to do is maintain their information in an Excel spreadsheet, and update it on a monthly basis (changing the invoice description or amount, as applicable, for example), save it as a tab delimited file and upload all of my charges at once. This is a wonderful time-saving feature over manually inputting 10-15 charges each month.

After securing my merchant account, the hunt began for a suitable shopping cart system. Several friends tried to interest me in some open-source shopping carts, like OS Commerce, www.oscommerce.com or ZenCart, www.zencart.com, but I found the learning curve too steep for these carts. I like to be able to go in and tinker with my products and not have to call a programmer every time I make a change. Additionally, these carts lacked some features that I had seen in other shopping carts. Ultimately, I decided to go with Kickstart Shopping Cart, http://www.kickstartcart.com.

Here are the money-making features you'll want in a shopping cart:

1. Calculate shipping and tax. Make sure you have several options for calculating basic shipping, including overnight shipping.

2. Sell hard or electronic goods. If you sell physical items that must be sent to a consumer as well as electronic items (audio files, ebooks), your shopping cart should be able to handle both types of products in the same transaction. In addition, when your cart is delivering an electronic item, it should generate a webpage for the downloadable file that disappears within a certain time-frame so that the purchaser doesn't provide the download link to 100 of his closest friends.

3. Special offer management. A full-fledged shopping cart should be able to offer discounts for multiple purchases, a "free when you buy 3" type of promotion, or other similar special offers.

4. Receipt and confirmation emails. An email confirmation of purchase to the customer as well as a receipt for you as the business owner to place in packages that have to be shipped are a great convenience for both you and your customer.

5. Web-based administration page. An online interface should be provided so that you can log in and add products, change prices, generate special offers, etc. from anywhere in the world.

6. Affiliate program compatible. Instead of buying a separate piece of software to create an affiliate program to help you sell your goods and services, your shopping cart system should have one that is integrated and permit you to manage it from your web-based administration page.

7. Upsell modules. Good shopping carts will have the ability to suggest related products to the shopper based on what they have already purchased, or what's already in their checkout cart.

8. Coupons and discounts. The ability to offer coupons and discounts can mean a tremendous boost in your sales. A good shopping card will enable you to offer percentage and fixed discounts when selling your products.

9. Multiple website capability. Shopping cart systems that can handle products from a variety of websites (various one-page sales websites you might have, for example) will save you tons of money and aggravation.

10. Integrated autoresponders. Sequential autoresponders can be your best online sales tool. Autoresponder systems can send follow-up messages to your customers automatically to ensure they're happy with their purchase and to tell them about special offers and promotions you have for them. Or, you can use the system for those who don't buy your product and offer them an e-course, for example, that will give them a small taste of the product you're selling.

To integrate all of the features that I mention above using stand-alone applications could run into many thousand dollars. I like the one-stop shopping concept, and want my software to be a workhorse and fulfill as many functions as it can. Let the features of your full-fledge shopping cart regularly earn you money in your online business!