How to Build a Complete Web Business on a Shoe String Budget with Article Marketing.

One of the greatest benefits of being a web business owner is that you don't need to have deep pockets to drive your businesses to success. I can show you how to build a complete web business from the ground up with a shoe string budget.


Step 1: Build a revenue generating website.

The first step to take is to build a website that will be able to generate sales for you. Do your market research in advance and find out the products that are selling well. Know everything to there is to know about the niche that you are targeting. What products are selling? What are the price points? Who are the target customers?

If you have the answers to the questions above, half the battle is won. In your mind's eye, you can already see success. Now, you need to put in time and effort to do the work and move yourself towards success.

I highly recommend that you register a keyword based domain name for SEO purposes. The bulk of your traffic will come from your articles. But organic search traffic is free, and it converts really well. So why not receive traffic from both sources?

A domain costs about $10 bucks to register. You may need to pay $120 for a year of web hosting. So far, total cost works out to be $130.


Step 2: Targeted traffic generation with article marketing.

Once your website is up and running, it's time to promote the site and drive targeted traffic to your website. There are many ways you can drive traffic - banner advertising, PPC, SEO, article marketing, etc.

When you consider these methods, you quickly realize that many of these methods are for experienced marketers only. In other words, they are paid advertising, and you get into those methods only if you are already making online, or if you have extra cash to spare. But what about the small business owner? What about the individual with a shoe string budget? How can they drive traffic?

One of the most cost effective ways to generate traffic is by article marketing. Article marketing has been around for ages. Traditionally, marketers publish content to newsletters and Ezines to market their websites.

Today, the focus is less on Ezines, and more on search engines. When you publish content publicly on the Internet, the articles get picked up quickly by the search engines. You then receive page views, which eventually lead to clicks and sales.

Always remember that your goal is to generate targeted traffic. You don't want to attract curious clicks or freebie seekers. These are not buyers and there is no point directing such traffic to your websites. So how to drive targeted traffic with articles?


Tip 1: Write a keyword rich article title.

Use specific keywords to weed out non-targeted visitors. For example, a title that says "Article Writing Guide - 3 Tips On Generating Targeted Traffic" is much better than a vague title like "Article Writing Tips".


Tip 2: Write a good teaser that draws in the reader in.

The summary of the title appears on the article directories, as well as in the search engines. Usually, the summary is made up of just 2 to 3 short sentences. It's not necessary to write a summary that is longer than 50 words because most of the texts will not be displayed. The summary appears right after the title, so we can try to use it as a teaser to draw the reader in. Don't reveal all the information in the summary, or there is no reason for the reader to click and visit the web page for the solution.


Tip 3: Write a brief but interesting article.

The article shouldn't be too lengthy. This is because you want the reader to finish reading the entire article. Why is that important? Well, your links are located at the bottom of each article. If the reader doesn't see your links, there is zero chance of getting clicks. The ideal length is between 300 to 500 words. Anything longer than 500 words should be separated and published as multiple articles.

   
Tip 4: Write a great author box.

Provide a strong incentive and invite the reader to click on your links. Note that you are competing for the reader's attention with other links on the same web page (e.g. ads, banners, other articles, etc). So your author box has to stand out. Don't try to abuse this tiny space by trying to squeeze in your resume. The author box is not for this purpose. It's supposed to help you get clicks. So focus on drawing attention to your links.

Total cost at this stage is still $130. I highly recommend that you invest a small sum of money on a good article writing course to boost your productivity. The more articles you can produce, the more traffic and sales you will receive.

More marketing tips.

1) Drive traffic to a squeeze page to build a list. A list is important if you are looking for long term success. Without a list, you have only 1 chance to make a sale. If the visitor doesn't buy, you have lost the visitor (perhaps forever). With a list, you can follow up and try to sell the prospect over and over again.

2) Always link to a website that you have full control over. Sure, you can always register for a free blog and save $10 on domain registration on hosting. But what if your site gets deleted (it has happened before). Also, affiliate offers sometimes get taken off market. So if you don't have control over your links, the links in your articles will be pointing to dead offers.

3) Focus on back end products. Traffic generation is important. But don't neglect back end sales.

4) Stop trying to chase the latest money making methods. Focus on the fundamentals of building a strong web business.

5) Productivity is important but it's not everything. Learning what works is just as important. Then just do more of what is currently working to boost your web businesses to the next level.

About the Author: Darren Chow is professional article marketer. He has just completed a brand new article writing guide. In the article writing guide, you get to learn the exact system to produce 400+ articles in a single month.