Internet Marketing Basics for Work at Home Moms & Dads

Part 1 – An Introduction

Whether you have a brick and mortar store or work out of your home, advertising on the internet will allow you to reach millions of people with your ads. Books and courses have been written on how to use the internet effectively for marketing, and each one of the tips below can be the subject of an article or even a book chapter. What I have attempted to do in this article is to provide you with some basics on getting started with internet marketing.

In my own internet advertising, I have used a combination of methods for getting quick results such as paid advertising, as well as internet marketing that takes longer to gain traffic such as creating my own website. Below are some ideas to help get you started in internet marketing.

1. Paid Internet Advertising – Paid internet advertising can take the form of classified ads, text ads, featured ads, and banner and button (square graphic) advertising. Which method you choose will depend on the website that you decide to advertise on, location on the website, and, of course, your budget. The site that you choose to place your ad on should receive good traffic and be preferably on page 1 of Google. The best place for your ad is above the fold i.e. that part of the website that is visible when you first view the website. In general, I like button and banner advertising because graphics easily attract the eye. If you need to create a banner or button, you will find that there are many good banner creators available on the internet. To save money, try a free trial of a banner maker and make the buttons and banners that you need during the free trial period. Some other paid internet advertising methods include advertising on ezines (internet newsletters) and solo mailings.

2. Start a Blog – It’s easy to get started with blogging. Blog articles are usually indexed in Google much quicker than websites. I have found that blog posts can become material and content for future articles and websites. It is just as important to use good search engine optimization (SEO) techniques for your blogs as well as your website. I will discuss SEO below. Both

www.wordpress.com and www.blogger.com provide good blog platforms. Both are favorably ranked by Google. WordPress is known for all of the plug-ins that are available to help your site look its best. On the other hand, I have found the Blogger blogs very easy to set up and have received quick Google ranking for my blog articles.

3. Write Articles – Writing articles establishes you as an expert. Your articles can help you gain exposure for your product or service. Most article submission services allow you to have a resource box where you can place 2 or 3 links to you websites or blogs. This helps you with search engine optimization. The best article directories are

www.ezinearticles.com and www.goarticles.com. Articles submitted to these 2 services do get listed on Google. After receiving approval from Ezine Articles or Go Articles, revise and vary your article, and submit to several additional article directories. Some internet marketers use article spinning software. This can be very effective; however, do be careful when using this automated software. Make sure that your finished (spun) article makes sense and reads easily.

4. Select your Keywords carefully - Be sure to find the keywords and keyword phrases that people actually search by. There are many good tools to use when doing keyword research. Just Google “free keyword research tools” and you will find several that you can use for keyword suggestions. You can also type a keyword or keyword phrase into Google and see how many searches actually come up. If there are over 1 million searches, the keyword might be too competitive for you to rank high in the search engines; however, with fewer than 10,000 searches, not too many people will be able to find you.

5. Create a Good Title – One of the methods that have helped my website and blogs to achieve good ranking in the search engines has been selecting a good title. Be sure to have some of your selected keywords in your title. Remember that title is more than your domain name. When you sign on to a website or blog, you will notice writing in the blue bar at the top of your website. That is your title. Stuff that with keywords. For example, I was able to achieve #1 in Google for my

www.healthplansplus.net website for the keyword: “discount health plans.” Although the main title of my domain name and website is “Health Plans Plus,” notice that the title in the blue bar reads: Health Plans Plus – AmeriPlan Discount Affordable Dental and Health plans.

6. Content is King – Be sure to write quality content in all of your articles, blogs and websites. People will revisit your site if you provide good content and solutions to their problems. Your advertising message should be subtle, and your focus should be on providing a solution to the reader’s problem. Also remember to proofread for grammar and spelling errors as well as readability. If English is your second language, have someone read and edit your finished work.

Part 2 of this internet marketing basics primer will discuss creating your own website and building traffic to your websites and blogs through social networking. For more information on marketing your home based business, visit http://www.workathomemom-dad.com/.