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While many entrepreneurs can start a business at the drop of a hat, it seems a mystery to them much of the time in how to promote or market it. They just stop cold at the idea. But really it only takes a bit of planning to start.

If you want to simplify your marketing on the Internet and get going on promoting your business, just do the following:

Marketing analysis:

1. Before anything else, you should do a market analysis to find out who your public is, what products and services they need and what they are looking for to solve problems for themselves.

2. Analyze your most wanted prospects or website visitors.

a. What are the ages, demographics, etc. In other words, who are they?

b. What interests them?

c. Their needs and wants-what are their problems and how can your products and services solve them?

d. Where will you find these people? What publications do they read? What websites do they visit?

Write up a brief thumbnail sketch of what you find.

Your basic business plan:

Next will be to do a business plan to get your goals set and keep you totally focused and moving in the right direction:

1. Set your goals: For 3 months, 6 months and 1 year. 2. Decide on what you are going to do to achieve them.

Educate yourself:

3. Read everything you can about marketing techniques and list out all the ones you can use, like newsletters free to subscribers or ebooks as bonuses, etc.

4. Once you have listed and noted all the marketing techniques see which ones will fit into your budget and can be adapted to your business.

Then using your marketing analysis information and your list of marketing methods, you can make your marketing action plan.

Marketing action plan:

1. Decide which methods apply to your business

2. Decide which ones will fit your business

3. When you know where to reach your public, use the direct marketing method necessary to get them seeing you and your products.

4. Get keywords for your website and optimize your website content for the search engines. For a review of my favorite keyword research, go to: http://www.at-home-business-opportunity.com/keywords

5. There are 3 common categories of marketing: a. When your customer comes to you it is called Passive. b. Direct marketing, when you actually seek out customers and advertise to them. Examples will be Ezines and websites, related to your business. c. There is also forums, discussion boards, and you can also use Myspace, etc. This is social marketing.

When you have decided which you will use, you should put the whole thing into action. Work on 1-2 methods at first, track and test them so you will know what you are getting out of it, like if you are getting visitors, and income. Budget carefully, by starting small and working up. Always try promotions for at least 1-3 months. Track results and then you can avoid the pitfalls and concentrate on the things that win.

With these steps you will be able to make a start on your marketing and put your business on the road to success.

Dan Farrell has a new ebook, "10 Essential Steps To Online Wealth" that is a must read for guaranteed success. He is offering it for only $7.00 Small Business Ideas