From day one, you need to be capturing leads and then communicating with your sign-ups effectively.

In fact, the list building is almost more important that the website … and you don’t actually have to own a website to start this essential process.

A well-established way of list building is the Joint Venture Giveaway, and you can see one that I’m currently involved with here:

http://www.im-organizer.com/recommends/PTeasterGiveawayJV

Giveaways dominate in the Internet Marketing niche, but also flourish in other popular niches like Health and MLM/Network Marketing.

In this case, the Giveaway is concentrating on video training resources.

The basic process is this:

# A hosts sets up and advertises a JV Giveway event

# Contributors sign up and add their ‘gifts’ to the website … these are usually e-books, software packages, audios or videos

# These gifts are usually offered free of charge, but members have to sign up to the contributor’s email list in order to receive their gift … hence this is a ‘list building exercise’ for contributors

# After a pre-determined period of contributors adding gifts to the site, the doors open, and members can sign up and see what’s on offer

# Usually it’s a downloading frenzy, a trolley dash where you can download e-products for free … and many of them can be resold for profit

# Members are encouraged to promote the JV Giveaway, and incentives are usually given to encourage this

# Credits or commissions are usually awarded for referring people and possibly downgrade penalties if nobody is referred.

Many people sign up to Giveaway events just to help themselves to freebies, and there is nothing wrong with this.

If people didn’t do this, the marketers would not generate any new leads … so a Giveaway thrives on its ‘freebie seekers’.

However, there is no better place to be – if you’re serious about your online business and your list building – than at the front of the queue … and that means being a contributor and taking an active part in a Giveaway.

For first-timers, it’s best to take a free listing … most, if not all Giveaway events, offer a free listing option.

At http://www.im-organizer.com/recommends/PTeasterGiveawayJV there’s even a ‘Newbies Bootcamp’ which shows you exactly how to create a first listing at absolutely no cost to you whatsoever … and challeges you to sign up your first 10 referrals to convince yourself that this process really works.

Once you’re convinced about the process, having ventured nothing but your time, you can start to get really involved and get the additional benefits of taking an upgrade.

When you do this, you get text adverts and One Time Offers, as well as the ability to list more of your products.

Most Giveaways are so reasonably priced, you only have to sell one of your One Time Offers and you’ll have earned your fee back.

So, what are you waiting for?

Whatever niche you’re in, there’s bound to be a benefit in taking part in these Giveaway events.

Sign-up at http://www.im-organizer.com/recommends/PTeasterGiveawayJV right now and convince yourself that Giveaways really are the place to be if you want to build a list fast.

I hope to see your name at the top of the leader board at http://www.im-organizer.com/recommends/PTeasterGiveawayJV

Here are some tips on where to find information about niche markets that might be desirable for you, as well as how to find places to launch your marketing efforts.

If you are starting fresh and looking for your first idea for an effective marketing campaign, the first place to begin is with yourself.

What do you like?  What types of products are important in maintaining your standard of living?  What types of services of goods would make life a lot easier for you, if you had access to them?  How much are you willing to pay for these goods or services?

Spending some time searching your own wants and needs may yield some interesting concepts for niches that you can investigate online, and see just how much attention is given to those sorts of products.

Another method is to simply sit down with a piece of paper and make a list of ten subject that some to mind without going into any really deep thought processes.  The list will probably be somewhat random, although thinking of one subject may immediately draw your mind to a related subject.

Don’t fight the flow or spend any time second-guessing the subjects that come to mind. Write them down and don’t waste time thinking they are silly or inappropriate.  There will be plenty of time to evaluate the subjects later on.

As a third source of inspiration, go out with friends, but take along a small note-book.  As different subjects up in conversation and catch your ear, make a quick note.  A one or two word phrase should do the trick nicely.  The idea here is to get some ideas for markets to explore, based on what types of issues come to mind among people you know.

While none of these methods are particularly scientific, they can yield some interesting topics to research.  Don’t reject any of the ideas out of hand, until you spend some time online and see where the subjects lead you.

Concepts that may seem completely off the wall or worth absolutely nothing may turn out to be gold mines.  If research indicates that the subject is a dead end, then at least you have eliminated one possibility and saved yourself the trouble of pursuing that option at a future date.  On the other hand, you may be surprised with what you find.

Using these lists of words or subjects that you have compiled, take to the Internet and start doing some digging around. The first thing you want to ascertain is how much interest there is associated with that particular word or phrase. One of the easiest ways to get a handle on this sort of thing is to use word tracking search engines online. There are several well-known ones that are very easy to use.

All you basically do is type in your word or phrase and let the program search the entire web for results.  What will happen is that the system will return a list that contains not only incidences of the word or phrase that you entered, but also expanded phrases that include that same word or phrase.  You also get an idea of how many sites around the Internet contain text with that word.

This can be a great way to qualify the subjects and see if there is a large amount of interest in a given subject and related topics or information.  A lot of hits means that you may want to look further into that subject as a possible foundation for a marketing campaign that is related to that word or phrase.

For example, would your product be more attractive to single people or persons in a committed relationship and/or married? Does your product appeal more to persons who are just starting out, perhaps in their twenties?

Maybe your product has more of an appeal to people who are in the middle years of life, or to persons who are retired.  Will people living in metropolitan areas tend to gravitate toward your offering, or will it have more appeal for persons who live in rural areas?

Asking yourself these important questions about what type of people are most likely to be interested in your product, and why they would be interested, will help you in a couple of ways.

First, you can seek out marketing methods that focus on effectively reaching people who fit the profile you developed.  This means you will spend more time getting your product and contact information in front of people who are highly likely to take the time to learn about what you have to offer.

Second, this profile can form the basis for your marketing content.  Why waste time talking about the big city when your services are geared toward people who live in a small town?  Profiling helps to give your campaign focus, because it opens you up to the possibility of talking points that will grab the attention of the right people.

There is one thing that you should remember about advertising online. What worked very well a few years ago has become commonplace and somewhat stale in some instances.  Simply put, there are electronic advertising methods that are not all that effective anymore.

Still, some of these methods may be effective, depending on the customer you are trying to reach.  The key thing to remember about online advertising is to not lock yourself into one particular method to the exclusion of all other methods.  Investigate your options carefully and always have at least three or four strategies taking place at the same time.

If you can’t identify at least three of these methods that will allow you to reach your target audience, something is wrong. Either you are being too narrow with your basic client profile, or you need to do some more research on available marketing options.

As a last tool in your arsenal, make yourself available. Businesses are not built on the basis of your web site and snappy advertising alone.  Sometimes, people will want to talk with your about what you have to offer.  This means you should always make sure you have contact information readily available to customers and prospects.

A branded email, rather than one of those free ones, sends a clear message of being a professional and makes you accessible.  Including a phone number if possible is also a good approach.  However, make sure it is a business line, and not your home phone.  Prospective clients are not likely to appreciate your three year old picking up the line.  Put in a second phone line and make sure it is always answered with the name of your business.

As a third option, set up a message board as part of your web presence.  People can interact with you in that manner as well, plus it allows happy customers to share what they liked about your company, your service, and the products they purchased.  Being accessible and responsive to queries by customers and prospects will do a lot to enhance your professional status with the general public.

A qualified email list will only include email addresses that have opted to be a part of the listing, and want to receive emails that have to do with certain products and services.

Far too often, lists are sold that include nothing more than a bunch of email addresses that were harvested off the World Wide Web. Using an unqualified list results in the creation of what is known as spam, or unsolicited emails. No responsible Internet marketer uses unqualified contact lists.

An unqualified list can hurt you in two ways. First, you have to pay good money for that list. If you purchase a list of ten thousand email addresses, and all but a hundred of them come back as undeliverable, you have effectively wasted resources that could have been used to better advantage.

An even more severe consequence of utilization of an unqualified email list is that your emails actually do get through to consumers, who get bent out of shape because they did not want the email in the first place. In a short time, you may find your company name or URL showing up on consumer driven spam reporting web sites, which will provide the type of publicity that you do not want to get.

If you must use email as part of your marketing scheme, then make sure the list is qualified. However, don’t expect grand results. That same qualified email list that you just purchased was probably sold to five other people within three seconds of your purchase.

Direct email campaigns can be costly, and the promise of return is going to be small. Approach this tool with caution, and with an eye to whether or not it will really help your business.

Of course, over time you can build up your own qualified list of email subscribers who want to receive product notices, special offers, and other sorts of marketing information. Adding the ability to opt-in to an email listing that is maintained by you alone is a great way to build up a list that you can rely on.

Make sure people understand that you will not share or sell the list to any third party, and that they have the option of always opting out of the mailing list if they change their minds. This type of courtesy will enhance your reputation as a professional, while also providing you with a targeted direct email audience that wants to see your advertising.

Other online resources are available to market your products and services. Research and find message boards, online yellow pages, business associations, want ads at chamber of commerce web sites, and other locations that will welcome the presence of your contact information and an ad about your business.

Many of these are free, although some may have a modest fee. In some cases, you may be able to find a web site that has to do with an industry type that would benefit from your product or service and arrange for a permanent ad on the site.

While we all like to see our names pop up when we look around the Internet, your focus is on the products you have to market, not on the wonderful name you have chosen for your business. If it seems that creating an easy to remember domain name that calls to attention to your products and services will mean forgoing the use of your company name in the URL, then bite the bullet and go ahead. Keep in mind you can put your company name in all sorts of places on the actual web site.

This helps accomplish two things. First, visitors will associate the URL with the types of products you are marketing. This is always a plus, as it makes it much easier for the consumer to remember and pass on your information to other people.

Second, it helps to make it much easier for your target audience to find your web site during engine searches. The more pointed and focused your domain name happens to be, the more effective this particular marketing tool will become in your quest for success.

Another important aspect is making the best use of your title tag on the front page of your web site. One fatal mistake that is often made is using this space to do a welcome message for the site.

While it may fit in nicely with greeting people as they come into your home, it is completely unnecessary on your web site. The presumption is that anyone who visits the site is welcome, so there is no need to waste space stating the obvious.

Instead, use that space as a means of spelling out in common terms that you have to offer. Keep in mind that we live in a society where people want instant gratification. That means you probably only have five to ten seconds to compel your visitor to stick around and read a little more.

Use that title tag to entice people to your site, and you will probably find that you show up higher on many search engines, as well as make better use of the space on your web pages.

While it is always nice when customers come to you, the fact is you will starve if you take the attitude that your wonderful web site is going to have people lining up to order whatever you are marketing. If the right people don’t know your web site exists, it will take forever for you to build up a steady clientele. Among the tools that will help you be a success is finding out where to market to your potential customer base.

Here are some things to put in place in order to do a great job with your marketing plans.

First, you need to get a web site. Period. No discussions or prevarication allowed. The simple fact of the matter is that people trust entities that they perceive as being “real” businesses. You may be creating your marketing empire from the garage or a spare bedroom, but if you have a real web site that people can visit, bookmark, and share with their friends and family, you will have the look and feel of an established business.

Freelance writers are an excellent example of this sort of thing. While some well paying markets are always looking for new writers, they tend to gravitate toward writers that have a web site, complete with writing samples, contact information, and content that indicates that a true business is working there, not just a sideline or a hobby.

The same is true with marketing. Sure, you can post ads all over the place, but if there is nothing that builds up confidence in the permanency of your business, all those efforts will yield little or no return.

The good news is that web sites are relatively inexpensive these days, and many vendors will even have online tools that will help you create a nice looking site. They supply the outlines, color schemes, and the basic layout. You supply the content and the images and graphics. It is possible to have your web site up and running over a weekend, making it possible to you to use this as a basic part of your marketing plan.

One of the first issues to address in creating a web site is your domain name. One of the most common mistakes people make is try to be quirky or cute with the name. Forget quirky and cute, unless you can combine those qualities with a domain name that is short and easy to remember. Keep in mind that the longer your domain name happens to be, the harder it will be for people to remember it.

Sure, they can always bookmark your domain name in their Favorites, but what good does that do when they are casually talking with a friend about your site? Whether we like to admit it or not, the golden time for word of mouth to occur is during that personal encounter. If the domain name can be rattled off with ease, chances are much better that a new prospect will be directed to your site.

The simple fact is that many people may promise to send a link to someone later, but it gets lost in the shuffle of daily life. Make things easier for you and for people interested in your site. Employ the old Toastmasters counsel of KISS (keep it simple stupid). Life will be better for everyone involved.

I use Name Cheap for my Website Hosting and recommend them to everyone.  They have great tools build-in to create your website and cheap, low cost for your website hosting.  At the time of this writing, they charge only $3 per month for a basic hosting package.  This package is all anyone needs when you are starting out.

FYI:  When you get to their website, click on “Web Hosting”, then “Shared Hosting”.  Pick the Plan that works for you, but the Basic Plan should work fine.

Learning before you go out and start assembling the tools will help you keep the right attitude for two reasons.  First, you will be able to side step grabbing the first tools you see and holding on to them as if they were the Holy Grail of marketing.  While there are a lot of great support tools and software on the market today, there is also a lot of junk.  Take a deep breath and step back for a moment.

Remind yourself that you are in an investigative mode.  Make note of tools that pique your interest, but don’t leap on them until you have learned more about Internet marketing and how to apply the tools.  Then you will be in a better position to evaluate what value, if any, a particular tool has to your marketing model and plan.

Second, you do not set yourself up to fail before you even begin.  Like the old saying goes, “too many cooks spoil the broth.”  Engulfing yourself with a bunch of tools in a random fashion will only serve to confuse you and scatter your attention from your goals.  Keep focused, keep moving forward.  This will prevent you from getting bogged down in details that are not yet essential for you.

Above all, it is absolutely necessary that you meet every challenge with questions about how to turn the situation around and make it into an opportunity.  Remember every challenge or problem is nothing more than an opportunity in disguise.

There will always be challenges, but an individual who is dedicated to the concept of becoming a top notch Internet marketer will see these situations as stepping stones to success, rather than a brick wall that cannot be climbed.

One thing to realize is that no matter how positive you try to be, there will be days when it seems like nothing you study is making sense.  Recognize that you will have those days, but also remind yourself that every successful person from the beginning of time has also had them.

When you feel the frustration level rising to the point that it threatens to undermine your positive mindset to your marketing studies, it is time to take a short break.  Push back the chair, turn off the computer, and get out of the house.  Go to a movie, take a walk, have coffee with friends.  The point is to change your location, the view around you, and the focus of your attention for a short period of time.

Giving yourself this short break will do wonders for your cognitive abilities.  Chances are very good that when you return to your computer and pull up your study documents, things will make a great deal more sense.

Remember that you can be whatever you want to be.  All you have to do is take the time to equip yourself with the knowledge and skills you need to reach your goals.  This may not happen overnight, but if you keep your chin up, work hard, and assimilate what you need, your confidence in your ability will grow and you will get where you want to go.

As is true with so many things in life, attitude can be the difference between a happy and successful Internet marketer and someone who adds one more example of failure to a long and growing list.

To that end, one of the first things you should do is develop a mindset that is positive.  You will want to apply this approach from the moment you choose to begin learning about the concept of marketing on the Internet.

Telling yourself that there is nothing that you can’t learn to do and do well is the first step in creating the right approach.  You will find this level of confidence to be tested from the very start of the process, so the sooner you develop this sort of “can-do” attitude, the better off you will be.

Unless you already have a marketing background, chances are that as you begin your studies, you will come across terminology that you are unfamiliar with.

For people who already doubt their basic ability to learn new things, this can be the obstacle that derails them before they ever get started.  However, if you simply remind yourself that there is nothing you can’t learn, this will be nothing more than a small speed bump on your way to success.

Instead of despairing because you don’t understand a word, stop for a moment and use your access to the Internet to look up the meaning.  Many search engines allow you to enter a command of “define” followed by a keyword or key phrase.  This will allow you to find quick definitions for the word, and also provide you with links that go into more detail about the concepts and applications that are connected to that word.

Remember that you are not engaged in a competitive race.  If you need to spend an hour or so researching marketing terms, then take the time and do it.

Getting comfortable with the lingo will only make it that much easier for you to read and assimilate the information that you use as part of your self-training process.  You will thank yourself as you resume your studies and find that technical terms are no longer slowing you down.

Over the next two weeks I will be writing about Internet Marketing and giving you great information.

Marketing has always been an exciting profession.  There is the challenge of coming up with new and creative ways to catch the attention of the public, hold that attention long enough to build up enthusiasm for a product line, and then motivate consumers to take that final step and purchase the good or service.

There is a lot of time and effort that goes into developing a solid marketing plan, and then even more resources required to actually get the plan rolling and producing results.

Like most professions, marketing follows some basic guidelines, based on what has worked in the past.  Unlike some professions, marketing is a fluid type of career.

As technologies change and the tastes of a fickle public shift, there is an ever increasing need to be alert to new and exciting ways to get the point across to people who are looking for just what you have to sell them.

Over the last couple of decades, the concept of Internet marketing as taken on a new prominence in the scheme of promoting goods and services.  Originally seen as more or less an adjunct to traditional marketing methods, Internet marketing is now perceived as a legitimate and powerful form of marketing all its own.  In many ways, Internet marketing has taken the old rules and rewritten them for a new age.

One great thing about Internet marketing is that you do not have to study the concepts of marketing for a number of years or obtain a degree in the subject before being ready to step out and begin a marketing career. In fact, it is possible to learn the basics in your home and during your spare hours.

Tomorrow I will tell you some things you should known about Internet marketing, what you need in order to get started, and some tips on how to find the right types of places in the cyber-world to look for important clues as to what you can effectively market.

 Learn how easy it is to Mike Filsaime’s PowerLink Generator. With this program you can make your Internet Marketing Affiliate LInks look great and you can track how many users click on each link. 

This YouTube Video shows you step by step how to easy it is to use this great software. This software is one I use everyday and it is one of the most useful programs I have.

The tracking part is so cool, as you are able to see how many people click on a link each day, yesterday, last week, last month, and even last year.

I love to make a link for twitter and then send it out to my Twitter Followers, which I have about 3,500 total.  I can then refresh the page and see that within one minute, I get 15 to 20 visits to though my link.  Pretty Cool.

Powerlink Generator also makes your affiliate links look nice.

You can take an affiliate link like this: 

https://paydotcom.com/r/72/tomshay/21375150/

and make it look like this: 

http://www.im-organizer.com/recommends/powerllinkgenerator

As this is only my second Screen Cast Video, I did have a few issues.  The mic isn’t the greatest, and of some reason, the sound doesn’t match the video by the end of the recording.  Not sure why that happened, but I will be correcting that in the future.  I used Cam Studio, a free screen capture video software.

I know video is the future and I plan on learning a lot more about how to use this in my marketing efforts.

Check out this great software and get your copy today.  Its well worth the low cost of $97 dollars.  I recommend this as one of the most needed programs an Internet Marketer needs in his Internet Marketing ToolKit.  I use it everyday and love it. 

http://www.im-organizer.com/recommends/powerllinkgenerator