Marketing Your Home Business Online by Garland Choate

When getting the word out about your home business start up the Internet is the key - whether you have a totally online business or not.

There are four key ingredients in successful Internet marketing effort for your home business. The first is a great home business Web site; the second is free content on your site and others; the third is search engine optimization; and the fourth is electronic products such as e-zines or e-newsletters, auto responders, affiliations and email marketing campaigns.

Let's explore first the design of your home business Internet site.

Your business Web site should have five key elements: it should be easy to navigate; it should be attractive; it should offer something free, primarily informative industry-related content; it should offer something that keeps consumers coming back; it should have some registration or opt-in element that allows the home business owner to initiate subsequent contact.

An easy to navigate home business Internet site is one that doesn't require your visitors to travel all over the place in search of the page they saw the last time they visited. It should include a back and forth feature that is simple to use and understand, a site map that is visible from the home page, an About us and Contact us page or pages, clear descriptions of the products or services sold, bios of the key staff members, and contact information complete with phone and physical address (not only the PO box.)

An attractive online business site doesn't have to have all kinds of flash and state of the art bells and whistles, but it should have eye appeal. The text and graphics should not crowd the pages, and the type faces recommended are Verdona, Arial or Garamond. When you're creating a home business Web page stay away from the word processing standard type faces - Times Roman, for example. Avoid overuse of bold or italics and never include more than two type faces or three colors on one Web page. It's better that it look professional than it look elaborate. Resist the urge to show on your home business Web site the many HTML tricks you've learned in HTML 101.

Consumers expect free things on the Internet. If your online business site doesn't give that to them they will go elsewhere. If you don't have written communication skills ask reprint permission of others in the industry who are not competitors but have published relevant material. Hire others to write relevant articles for you or join online article membership clubs that supply these on a regular basis.

There's a very old but very accurate saying that it is eleven times as difficult to find a new customer as it is to keep the old one. Of course, the ideal for your home business is to do both - keep the old and bring in new. The two ways you encourage repeat business is to give them a reason to return time and again to your home business site; and to bring them back to your home business site proactively and regularly with their permission.

Bringing the consumer back is accomplished through frequent change of useful content, and through money-saving or money-generating enticements. Once consumers find out that your industry news, your sales or your limited-time promotions change every week they'll be on your home business site every week. Write an e-zine or newsletter that is free but requires online registration. Ask the subscriber to opt in for notification of important sales, promotions, new product announcements and events. Then stay in touch.

Author Resource: Garland (GR) is a retired Airline Captai> who has been in internet marketing for many years. Now, he is retired in the US Virgin Islands where he writes and does more marketing from home. A good start for a home internet business is his site at http://www.TrafficForLifeOnline.com

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