"Suggestions For The Beginning Marketer"

"Suggestions For The Beginning Marketer" (C)janes-place I want to share with you some of the things that I have learned on the internet. Unfortunately, I am hard-headed. I get an idea and I want to do it MY way. Sometimes that can be good, sometimes it's not so good. When I was trying to get my website on the internet, some well-meaning people suggested that I get a free site and try out some of my ideas before going to the expense of putting up my own website. Well, I signed up for a couple of free sites and tried out the control panel. I found that I was so restricted, that I decided not to do it that way. I went back to my way. If I had it to do all over again, I would have used the free site to find out which direction I really wanted to go in. Use the free site as a "tester". I'm not telling you to stay with a free site. The reason I say use it as a "tester", is because I started janes-place out as one type of site, but found that I changed it as time went on, in order to satisfy my visitors. If you don't satisfy your visitors, they "won't" come back! Use the free site and add different pages. Find out what your visitors are interested in, then you can go to the expense of purchasing a domain name, getting a host and all the other things for your website. You will also learn a lot about marketing and find out what works the best for you and your "audience". My host offers free sites and you can get one at: http://www.linkopp.com/banners/cgi-bin/refer.cgi?JF22091 If you get a free site through my host, I am familiar with the control panel and will help you out, if you need it. Another suggestion that was made to me in the beginning, was to find a "niche". My thinking on this was, if I offered 'Something For Everyone, Even Uncle Elmer', I would be able to attract more people and give my visitors variety. Take it from me. That may work for WalMart, but it doesn't work on the internet. You will do a lot better, if you find your 'niche' market. Let's look at this example: You are interested in a site for women. Ok, women are your 'audience'. What type of women do you want to reach? Narrow it down. Let's say that you decide to go with crafts. Narrow it down even further. Let's say that you have been crocheting for some time and you enjoy crocheting. Ok, let's use that. So far, we have decided that we want to reach women that like to crochet. Let's narrow that down a little more, to women that want to learn how to crochet. Now that we have decided what our 'niche' market is, we need to do some research. What are we going to research? If I enjoyed crocheting, I think it would be interesting to know some history of crocheting. Search libraries on and off line, until you have enough information to write a "good" article on the history of crocheting. Look for facts that are not well known. This is an article for your website. Now we need more content for the website. How about some 'basic' stitches? Sit down and write out the directions for a beginner to learn the 'basic' stitches for crocheting. This will also go on your website. You could write an ebook taking them from the basic stitches to making their first 'project' and on and on and on. Do you see where I'm going here? I have tried marketing on the internet "My" way, now I'm doing it the "right" way! When people go on the internet to search for something, like learning how to crochet, that is the information they are seeking. They aren't looking for twenty other things! Please remember: If you need help, I'm only an email away! Thank you for reading.