I read it all the time in forums. How do I make money on line? Where to advertise? How do I get started on the internet. Here's some tips on getting started. I belong to the forum of an affiliate management program called Paydotco. New members brand new to internet marketing with no background in business whatsoever ask almost the same questions some in desperation and some in frustration of broken promises.

Do I need a website?

How do I get started?

Where do I advertise?

How do I make money?

I really think the best way to answer these questions is by comparing them with something new online marketers may be more familiar with, off line otherwise known as brick and mortar businesses. So let's start a business off line and compare it to it's online relative to gain some understanding of the relationship and hopefully by doing so, some understanding of how to get started ...

Do I Need a Website?

Let's presume we need to build our business from the ground up starting with a building

Okay, hand me a hammer let's get started

I'm sorry we need what? A plan? A design?

Makes perfect sense to you right? Yet everyday I see websites where someone just grabbed a hammer and started nailing boards together.

Do you need a website? Some say no not right away. My daughter spent considerable time selling magazines (selling other people's products is known as affiliate marketing online) door to door before making me a grandfather. The company she worked for mostly stayed at hotels. Did they have a central office however? Yes they did. They probably rented a building (used a template if it were a web page) not built one (learned html code from scratch to build a web page). Your website is your central office.

Even though it's very simple and inexpensive to have your own website and domain name, it still establishes you as a serious businessperson with whom a prospect may wish to conduct business (had to work at not ending that one with a preposition). I personally started with a free website from freeservers and eventually got my own domain from the same company KirkhamsEbooks. If I had to do it over again I would have started with my own domain name.

Steven Weber has a great book with some excellent advise and resources. Don't pick up a hammer till you read his book.

How do I Get Started

Research. Ask questions. Location. The same procedures you'd follow for an off line business.

You can pick up a lot of information in forums and groups (meeting places and breakfast clubs). My Submission Sites Clickable Ebook has a lot of resources for you. If you're considering affiliate marketing, email the owner of the product. See if he/she responds to your email. Join the merchants mailing list to find out more about who you may be representing. If you're going to represent someone's product off line, say open a store and put their canned goods on your shelves, you'd try to find out a little bit about the company right?

The three important things in real estate are location location location. The same thing applies to your website. Make your website visible to those people who need your product or service. Are the people who need your service just online? Where's your business cards?

Ask yourself these questions

What does my prospective customer want?

How can I let them know about me?

How can I help them decide I am their best choice?

Think about everything you'd do to start a business off line and do the equivalent for your online business.

Where do I Advertise

What does every major store ask you for when you walk in? Contact information so they can add you to their mailing list.

Now why would they want the address of an established customer who has purchased or visited the store already? Hmmmmm I'll bet you know. An email list is the equivalent of a snail mail list many stores use who by the way are also now switching to email.

So the first place you advertise is your own website

Major off line businesses target everything from TV ads to newspaper ads by demographics. Where does their target prospective buyers and established clientèle go, do, and what time do they get their? Who watches late night television during the week? Retired people

Who watches the evening news? Middle age working people?

These are generalities but that's demographics.

So research where your prospects go to get their information.

Figure out how you can advertise there.

Make it to your prospective buyer's advantage to allow you to send more information so you can keep your name in front of them. This is the exact same procedures off line businesses do to make more money.

In auto sales, is it more effective to give the prospective buyer brochures and leave him/her alone or is it more effective to get to know your prospective buyer and let your prospective buyer know you're a human being as well? When you advertise on your sales page and in forums etc. introduce yourself. Tell people a little about yourself. Make friends then make sales.

How Do I Make Money

There are lots of ways to make money on line

Google Adsense for pay per click advertising along with many other pay per click programs. Although. Just don't buy anything online that you wouldn't buy off line without investigating and remember - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

My favorite way is, though I am a merchant of my own products, I love affiliate marketing. I don't have to create all the products in order to represent them, just like my daughter didn't have to publish the magazines in order to sell them. I've also learned a lot of do's and don'ts with affiliate marketing by seeing sales pages and getting my merchants' newsletters.

Conclusion

For you new marketers, and perhaps as a reminder to you experienced gurus, remember, people are people. Regardless of the media you're using to advertise, internet, tv, newspaper, a human being, with the same needs and wants as you and me, is reading that advertisement. Treat that prospective buyer as a human being as you would want to be treated, whether online or off line, get that human being what he/she wants, and you'll get what you want, online or off line.

J. Richard Kirkham is a dual certified teacher and martial arts instructor. He has expertise in alternative teaching methods and positive reinforcement methodology. He's written several books in the printable electronic format and has made downloadable videos and DVDs. He currently resides in Honolulu with his wife Jan and son Hunter.