First Steps to Online Marketing

The first steps to work yourself through when you have decided to take the step towards online marketing there are a few things you need to think about.

-Why do I want to market online?

-What do I want to market online?

-What do I know about marketing online?

If the answer is "I don't know", today is your lucky day. I will share some of the steps that I have learnt about online marketing through endless testing and tweaking.

YOUR WHY

Why do you want to market online?

Is it to enhance your offline business?

Being able to make money without leaving your home?

or...

Online marketing is easier than marketing offline, because online marketing takes care of itself and makes you money on autopilot?

If it's the last answer you're in for a big surprise. There is no such thing as EASY or AUTOPILOT in online marketing. Well, sure it is but not in the way many think. Online marketing is simple but not easy. Which means, it takes a lot of work to set it up and you need to be constantly tweaking and testing to maximize your efficiency and profits. I hope I didn't scare you off now. Online marketing is lots of fun and you could make friends all over the world.

YOUR MARKET/NICHE

So where do one start when you figured out why?

A specific market. Your Niche. Simple as that.

So, what is a niche and where do I find my market?

Well, there are a lot of places to find that. First of all. You'll want to target a niche that is actually profitable. What you don't want is to market a niche where no one is ever buying anything or a niche that pays very low. You want a niche that is in trend so to speak. It is what everyone is talking about and what people are interested in learning, using and purchasing.

For example.

Learning online marketing is a big niche with loads of people who are looking for information about it everyday. To find a monetizable niche you will need to look at the trends.

Ever seen the basket ball through the water hose?

Anyway, the trends is what people are interested in and what people are buying.

What are people looking for?

What are their main concerns?

When it comes to online marketing these are the most important questions to find an answer to. So you'll need to do some research. Did I say some. I mean a lot. You could basically say that online MARKETing is all about MARKET research. If you know what you're market desires you know what to MARKET to them. If you want to stay ahead in the online marketing game. Keep a journal on your daily activities.

1 year from now, you will have loads and loads of information that you could use. By then your online marketing business will be a lot different and you will have a different view on this. By then you will probably have forgotten what is was like when you wanted to learn online marketing. Why not keep a journal on you questions and utilize it when you decide you need to teach a spouse, friend or a new team member about online marketing.

What was the questions you had back then?

Well, it's easy for you now. They are what you ask today. So keep them written down as research for a later project and take notes on your struggles, issues and short comings when learning online marketing. Now, this is just to get you started so you could use it in the future.

What about now? Now is when you have your problems. How do you solve them and get going with your online marketing business?

Here it is...

YOUR SKILLS

You have a set of certain skills, I'm sure.

Are these skills relevant to marketing and business?

If not, you might want to consider acquiring a set of those skills before throwing yourself into doing business. Whether online or offline. The first thing you should do is to assess your skill tree. A simple mind map could do the trick or just a list with what you know. Rank them on how experienced and good you are at a skill.

Circle the top 3 skills you are most proficient in. Are that very good? Great!

Are they at all profitable or monetizable. Meaning could they make you money (with a little fantasy and imagination) If not, pick the next skill. That's your main focus to begin with. Now, underline the 3 bottom skills that you're not very or, at all proficient in but still is in context with your top skills. Those are the skills that you should focus on learning. 1 should be online marketing.

Apply the same rule as with your top skills but with the little tweak, Are they useful and do they enhance your top 3?

NEXT STEP!

Now, you have some skills that you are good at and some that you are going to focus on learning. With time you will have 6 skills that you are very good at.

Go through this article again and apply the steps.

At this point, we're not sure you have all the information in this topic you need to understand it fully.

Now, we realize that this article can not fit a whole instruction to online marketing so I recorded a video series to get you started.

Click here for the first video

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Sven_Wolf/722942

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The 4 M’s For Your Book

4 M's

Today’s authors can just write about anything under the sun � the opportunities are endless, the ideas are bountiful, and online tools like Google and Grammarly are free and easy to use (unless they want to access advanced features, they will have to sign up for premium accounts). Potential readership for every genre or niche continues to expand, and it has become easy for both aspiring and veteran writers to self-publish and market their own material � all thanks to technology.

But still, when it comes to attaining commercial and critical acclaim under the increasingly digitally connected literary atmosphere, authors will have to work harder and smarter or else they will not get their share of success and readership. So when writing or marketing their book, authors should mind their M’s:

Market

Every author, whether new or old, should know the difference between their target market and their niche (or genre, depending on term used by authors). They are not synonymous as there is an important distinction between the two: target market is the group of readers the author serves (or aims to serve), and niche (or genre) is the service the author offers to their target market.

To have a market is to serve. When choosing what market to write for, an author should:

Determine where to find readers who are looking for what they are writing about.
Let the readers in that target market know they are offering them something brand new and that they are dedicating their work to them.

Message

Every author ought to have something new or unique to share with their target readers or else they would just saturate the bookshelves or Amazon with boring books and ordinary stories. Authors need not to have a fancy cover � it’s the message that matters. Authors need to ponder:

What is the message or lesson they want to impart?Do they offer a new interpretation, discovery or angle of common storylines or subjects? Do they create something new or just rehash old stuff?
What makes their book � autobiography, memoir, thriller, sci-fi, romance, children’s, young adult, spirituality, etc. � different from the rest?
What makes them think readers should or will buy their book?



Authors should mind what they offer to their readers. It is their obligation to get or help their readers understand and experience the message and not just buy the book.

Media

Not only the Internet has made it possible for millions of people all over the world to self-publish and market their book, but it has also made the competition intense. But authors should not feel overwhelmed by the competition. By using the right tools in the right way, they can position themselves better in the marketplace.

There are different forms of media that authors could utilize to their advantage according to their expertise, time and budget. Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, are free and easy to use, but to maximize their marketing potential or unlock their advertising features, they will need to sign up for a business account or pay for a premium account.

Authors should also make use of book trailers, which they could upload to YouTube or share on their social accounts. They should also consider creating their own website or blog where they can create articles on topics related to their book. They could either create their own trailer and website or else hire an expert to do it for them.

Measurement

What does an author want to accomplish with their book in terms of commercial and critical aspects? It depends if media outlets like The New York Times and Time magazine feature the book in their lists of bestsellers or tops books. That seems to be an ambitious goal for most authors, but digital tools and social media provide metrics authors could track for themselves.

Maximizing the features of Facebook Insights, authors could track how many page views they get or how many people have seen their ads. With Twitter Analytics, they could track the number of times people saw their tweets and how many people have engaged with it. Whatever the author wants to measure, their desired digital tool or social media could provide them the appropriate metric.

It is amazing technology has provided authors opportunities to market their own book and measure their chance of success.

Article Source: http://www.eArticlesOnline.com

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