Using the internet to market your business

I'm often asked about using the internet to build your business. Lots of folks say "Hey, that's a great idea! I'll never have to leave home!" and others say "There's nothing good on the internet. Bah!"

In reality, for the Shaklee Distributor, it's more of a middle ground kinda thing. Let's be honest - if you build so much traffic to your site that you get thousands of hits a day, you'll be ovewhelmed by people that you have to train, follow up with etc. You will be lucky to get business from and/or retain even 1%. If you NEVER use the internet, you'll miss out on customers and prospects who do use the internet. The best thing I can tell you is to try to find some balance. It's good to direct traffic to your site - that way you can engage with people you'd never meet with "in real life" - off of the internet. I suppose it's a good thing it takes time to learn how to use internet marketing, build links and your page rank and all that...it gives you time to prepare for volume, learn from your mistakes (without blowing anything up) and find all the places you can streamline your efforts.

So, if you're going to use the net, where do you start?

1. Create an online presence. Something that talks about you, your specialty, and why someone should want to work with you. Sell yourself!

2. Sign up for some share accounts. Social Media has a ton of sites that you can join to share information with the great, unwashed masses. :D

3. Set up your auto-responder emails - have those in place before you publish your site.

4. Create some page where you provide useful information...whether it's an article, observations and thoughts on an article posted elsewhere, something you thought up all by yourself...content is key. Creating a page is easier than you think and less expensive - find a free one! You can also do what I'm doing - using one of my PWS pages.

5. Ask EVERY SINGLE PERSON YOU KNOW to share your article page on facebook, twitter, and the myriad of other share sites there are. Ask them to email it to their contact lists so that you get visits to that site. If anyone who visits your site has their own site, visit it - comment, see if it's appropriate for a link exchange.

6. Make sure you always provide a means by which someone can contact you. Email (not associated publicly to your street address - let's be careful, kids) or phone (again, not publicly associated to your street address), if they can't reach you, you can't develop a rapport with them. Have your "interview" questions ready...you need to know what they want before you can help them!

7. Find sites that will do a link exchange or even just link to your site without you linking to theirs. Search engines like that. How do you do it? Search the internet for content that is related to your article/content but not in competition with it. You can read more about link building here.

Note: If there is term in this article you don't understand, google it.

Good luck!