subject: The First Internet Marketing Step [print this page] The First Internet Marketing Step The First Internet Marketing Step
I talk to a lot of people who are just getting started with Internet marketing and almost always I get asked this one simple question... what is the first thing I should do with my Internet marketing?
It's a relatively simple question but if you think about it, it's pretty big. Where do you start? Of course, everybody will have a different starting point depending on how much past experience you have or how much capital you have to invest in your project.
Somebody who's starting out on a shoestring budget will probably start very differently than somebody who has $200,000 as an advertising budget!
But for the purposes of this article today I'm going to assume you're starting out with very little money or even no money at all because most of the people I talk to find themselves in this very situation.
So what's the first thing you should do if you don't have any money at all to get the ball rolling with your Internet marketing?
In my opinion the first thing you should do is focus on search engine optimization and search engine marketing because this can be done virtually with no money or with very little money.
The first thing you want to do is engage in some massive keyword research. There are tons of tools online that you can purchase to help you with your keyword research but you really don't need to buy anything because Google offers a free keyword tool that gives you a lot of information such as how often a certain keyword gets searched for each month, the advertiser competition for that keyword, and a list of suggestions of other related keywords.
Once you narrow down a list of 40 to 50 keywords that specifically relate to whatever it is you're trying to sell, the next step is to optimize your website for those keywords. I suggest creating a separate web page for each keyword and writing a page of content that is centered around that individual keyword.
For instance, if you have three key words and they are, dog training videos, dog training DVDs, dog training lessons then you would create three pages; one page for dog training videos, another page about dog training DVDs, and finally a third page about dog training lessons. Pretty simple, right?
Once you build up that content... which doesn't cost you anything, you can begin to gain free search engine traffic over time and hopefully you can convert that traffic into income which you can then invest into more traditional marketing methods such as advertising.
So that's what I think is the very first Internet marketing step, especially if you're operating on a shoestring budget or no budget at all. Of course, if you do have money you could ramp up quicker by simply purchasing adwords advertising, but that's a whole other article!
