When you want to market your products or services, the first thing you need to do is to determine your target market. Once target market is determined, you can then use the four P in marketing to decide how to approach your target market. The Four P referred here is product, price, place (distribution) and promotion.

So, why is target market important? The main reason is that company exists for a reason. It needs to differentiate itself from competition in order to survive. For example, if you have decided to sell bottled water to the general mass in the urban area, then good luck with that. In the US, Pepsi and Coke has widespread distribution of bottled water consumption through its Aquafina and Dasani brand. If you still insist on selling bottled water, then you need to narrow your target market.

For example, instead of selling to the general mass, your target market for the bottled water can be physically active individuals who avoids thirst quenchers such as Gatorade when they exercise. Once you identify this target market, you would then use the four P to differentiate yourself from regular bottled water. For example, in terms of place (distribution), you can avoid places such as fast-food restaurants or lounges. Statistically, people who are exercising, seldom visit these places. You would then concentrate your distribution on places such as the school’s sporting facility.

While choosing your target market seems trivial, it will cost you a lot of marketing dollars if done incorrectly. Let’s assume that you do not decide what your target market is and you are now using the four P in marketing to market your product. You would then distribute your bottled water to places such as convenience stores, gas stations and the shopping mall. Will you capture audiences who are physically more active than the population? Yes, you will. But the percentage of that audience is small compared to if you focus your distribution on that target market. As a result, you spend large amount of money to capture a small portion of the audience. Worse still, big companies such as Pepsi and Coke are now aware that you are invading their turf. The next thing they’ll do is to bombard the mass media with advertisement and price cut to make your products invisible. If they do it long enough, your survival may be in question. Therefore, choosing your target market is really important before marketing your products.

In the online world, you need to choose your target market too. Once you choose your target market, the four P should reflect this decision. For example, if your target market is individuals who are looking for ways to invest their money, you should not advertise in general audience such as CNN. Your marketing budget will be more effective if you spend your money in financial website such as Yahoo! Finance or The Motley Fool.

Same thing with your distribution channel. If you distribute your content to the general article directory, you will get loads of visitors who may not be interested in your products or services. Furthermore, as discussed earlier, it might attract your bigger competitors thinking that you are trying to take away their lunch. If your bigger competitors are not inept, they will then react accordingly and launch offensive campaigns that will render your marketing campaign useless.

Fortunately, nowadays, there are plenty of niche article directories allowing marketers to publish articles of certain field. Thus, smaller publishers can gain more visibility as niche directories generally have less people submitting their contents. Furthermore, larger competitors are reluctant to publish their contents there. The reason is that they have a larger cost overhead. Focusing on small target market will not do them any good. It is their loss. But you, my friend, should not miss this opportunity. It is one of the most efficient ways of using your marketing dollars.

Now that you have decided to take the plunge and set up a business for yourself, you need to insure that you do all of the right things. Affiliate marketing businesses do take the risk away, but you still need to conduct this venture as you would any other business. If it is your sole source of income, you’ll want to give it your all and make it as successful as possible. In this article, we will look at ways to get your business going and make it successful. By following the advice in this article your affiliate marketing business will get off to a great start and stay that way.

The first golden rule of any business is to identify the demand. With affiliate marketing programs you’ll likely be giving a range of products to sell. Check out the demand of these types of things. You should try to stay away from trendy items. They’ll sell like mad one minute, but you’ll be giving them away the next. You want thing that you know people want and need. That way your long-term sales objectives will get met.


Next is don’t limit yourself to just one product. Try to offer a variety of things. Many affiliate marketing programs offer a selection, and it is best to go with these. Basing your business on one product may work in the short term. However, someone will eventually come along with something better or cheaper.

Third, you need to set your business apart from others. You need to establish what makes you and what you offer better from others. What do you offer that sets you apart from other businesses? You should always use tact when talking about your competition. Putting them down or being rude will only backfire on you. Talk up the advantages that you offer and leave it at that.

Forth, you should definitely insure your home business. Everything can be fine one day, but life can always take a funny turn. Accidents can happen to anyone. Ask yourself what will happen if one of your products hurts someone. Today, people can be sued for just about anything. Make sure you are insured incase the worst happens.

Fifth, you should always do your best to ensure fast and efficient service to your clients. However, there will come a time when there is a glitch. You need to keep your customers informed and aware of what is happening. Things happen that are beyond your control. Most customers are very forgiving if they are made aware of this. Keeping your customers in the dark could result in losing them for good.


Finally, keep your customers happy. The happier they are the more likely they are to come back. Offer your customers incentives such as savings on their next purchase. It may cost you more but only in the short term. Keeping your customers happy will result is them referring you to others.

Affiliate marketing businesses are easier in the fact that they minimize risk. Everything else is like any other business. You need to work very hard to keep your customers happy. You need to set yourself apart from others and protect yourself against the worst. By following the advice in this article, you will be giving your business the best possible chance for success.

I read a quote once:

“It’s not a tragedy not to achieve a goal it’s a tragedy not to have that goal to achieve!”

How many people wonder through life, without any aim or purpose, just passing the days? How many people with the best of intentions set a goal and go about trying to achieve it, and just because of an “issue”, they give up on the goal, then they fall into the aimless category?

How many people are just plain stubborn – like time – just go on and on to achieve their goal but don’t because they didn’t realize all that was hindering their success was a minor issue that could have been resolved if help had been sought!

To succeed in anything, you need to have the right mindset, planning and action are simply not enough. You need a positive attitude, accept that you will make mistakes, accept that it won’t happen by tomorrow and most importantly be willing to listen and learn (ask for help – don’t be afraid).

Whatever your goals are, at some point along the way it will involve money – whether your goal is to be the next Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or simply to help the helpless you still need money (via profit or donation). I’ve come across a straightforward and simple method of helping to achieve that goal, they are profiting from Internet Marketing. How many people use the internet now? It’s not small, is it? – Let’s face it’s only going to grow with increasing use in emerging markets like China and India (I was in India last year there is hardly any internet use – I felt lost without my buddy “the internet”!

These days, companies are looking for better methods they can relay their messages to potential consumers – so as to reduce advertising costs and increase customer acquisition (and later retention).

There are 3 ways that messages can be relayed at minimal or no cost.

1. Face to Face Direct Marketing – visiting potential customers at their place of residence (check local law to see if this allowed where you reside)

2. Internet Marketing – having even a basic website that has some traffic coming to it – is better than having no website – there is more chance of attracting/retaining customers.

3. Word of Mouth/Email – Have you ever told someone about a product or service that you’ve had a good experience with? Whether you do it by telling someone or emailing them, it’s a recommendation from a positive experience.
As advertising budgets decrease and competition increase the use of the above methods of marketing are simply put “the way forward”.

What about me? There are many ways for you to market online, you can market other people’s products (be an affiliate). You could even create your own product or service (maybe you already have one). The first thing to have a basic website; best of all – you don’t need to hire anyone – these techniques can be learnt for little or no cost.

I came across a course that taught me to build my own website – in under a week I learnt what I thought would take at least a year at college. There are various things on this course that interested me; I’m not going to get into the exact content – the BEST thing for me was that everything was SHOWN to me – step by step. I’m sure you’ll agree – that’s the best way for people to learn something new.

If you want to open more doors in terms of potential income and satisfaction, then Internet Marketing might just be your ticket!

In life we all have certain basic human needs. Some of these needs include security, love, leisure and respect. However, whilst we all have the same basic needs, the way we satisfy those needs will vary from person to person.

The 2 main ways that needs can be satisfied are immediately or at a later date. This is often called immediate or delayed gratification.

Immediate Gratification

Immediate gratification is the most common way people fulfill their needs. This means that rather than waiting for something to happen in the future, they prefer not to wait, and to have it now.

However immediate gratification usually comes at the expense of long-term failure in life. This is because when needs are satisfied immediately, they are often done so with little or no regard for future consequences.

For example, comfort is one of our most basic human needs, and everyone seeks a certain degree of comfort in their lives. However, should you choose to fulfill that need immediately, such as by choosing to sit and watch TV or play video games all day, then it is most likely you will not achieve anything significant in life if that is all you do.

Delayed Gratification

This does not mean having comfort is a bad thing. If you choose to delay satisfying the need for comfort and instead focus on other areas of your life, such as financial or romantic, then in the long run you are likely to achieve greater success in life.

However delayed gratification is much harder than it sounds. The fact is, the society we live in tends to promote a greater desire for immediate gratification. By providing us with instant quick fixes and on demand entertainment. As a result, people have got used to expecting things immediately, whereas only 50 years ago, they were more willing to work and wait for the things they wanted.

This has also resulted in a mentality that if results are not seen immediately, then it is best to give up and try something else. Consequently, you often see many people complaining of a lack of success in their life, even though they put minimal effort and time into what they were trying to achieve. If they don’t “make it” within a few months, or worse a few weeks, then they usually just give up.

This is an extremely important characteristic to recognize, because highly successful people are masters of delaying gratification. Rather than trying to fulfill their needs immediately, with instant fixes or get rich quick schemes, they recognize that success takes time and hard work. And this means delaying the natural urge for immediate gratification.

Since successful people are no different from you and I, this means they still dislike doing the same things we dislike. However, they are able to do them anyway, because they understand that is the only way a person can ever become truly successful. So how do they delay the temptation for immediate gratification? With discipline, and lots of it!

Is it possible to make a part time or full time living on the Internet? Can you make enough money to make your time worthwhile?

According to all the “gurus” you can easily make a LOT of money by buying their program and doing EXACTLY what they tell you to do.

Is all of this hype really true? The answer is yes and no. It really is true that a stay-at-home Mom or a student in need of extra income or a full-time worker needing a part-time income can make money on the Internet. It is also true that a lot of people are making a full-time living and even becoming rich on the Internet.

The question is, “Can you do it too”? Again, the answer is maybe yes and maybe no. It depends on how much time you are willing to invest in studying the techniques and learn the methods you need for Internet Marketing (IM) success.

The fastest way to earn extra money online is to sell on Ebay. You can start right now, today, and in 3 days be paid online for items you sell. There are a lot of “get rich quick” tutorials for sale on how to make it on Ebay, but you don’t need one. You can simply register at the Ebay site, read their tutorial and get started selling items you have around the house.

A lot of people make a few extra dollars to a few hundred extra dollars a month on Ebay. Others make a lot more. Ebay or any business you get into online or in a physical business location has the potential to make money. Lots of people succeed in business and a lot fail. Your success or failure will depend on how well you prepare, how much you study and how much energy you put into the project.

The great thing about online businesses compared to brick-and-mortar stores is it usually costs a lot less to get started. For instance, getting started selling on Ebay doesn’t cost anything. You only pay fees when you run an Ebay auction ad.

Once you have some money rolling in on Ebay, you can invest in one of the guru courses that you can find in any search engine by doing a search for, “Internet marketing”.

Do you have to buy a course? No, you can find free information online to help you get started. The advantage of a course is that it is all in one place.

Every course you find will offer you good advice. It is hard to say which is best. Just like some people love Fords and hate Chevy’s, it is the same with IM guru courses. The secret is to do a little online research, pick one and then follow it.

Internet Marketing can be as easy as creating a simple website and putting other company’s ads on the site. You get paid when someone buys a product or even when someone clicks on an ad. You don’t even need a product to sell; you only have other’s ads on your web pages.

Ebay is a make money today proposition. For most people, Internet Marketing is a get rich slow process. Yes, some people make money within days or weeks of starting on online business.

There are no hard and fast rules on how long it will take you to make money online or how much you can make. It all depends on how hard you are willing to work and how much time you are willing to devote to creating a new business

Many people equate being self-employed with being an entrepreneur. We suggest that few of us are entrepreneurs, but all of us are self-employed. To make the distinction, let us explore the requirements of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is generally characterized by some type of innovation, a significant investment, and a strategy that values expansion. The entrepreneur is often quite different in mindset from a manager, who is generally charged with using existing resources to make an existing business run well. The roles of entrepreneur and manager are not necessarily incompatible, but entrepreneurs are seldom patient enough to be good managers.

Mindset of an entrepreneur

It is often instructive to analyze the experiences that have formed our attitudes toward entrepreneurship. A recent study showed that 70% of business startups were by a person who had an entrepreneurial parent.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has developed a Checklist for Going into Business that leads the prospective entrepreneur through a skills inventory that includes supervisory and/or managerial experience, business education, knowledge about the specific business of interest, and willingness to acquire the missing necessary skills. A commitment to filling any knowledge or experience gap is a very positive indicator of success.

Personal characteristics required, according to the SBA, include leadership, decisiveness, and competitiveness. Important factors in

personal style include will power, and self-discipline, comfort with the

planning process, and with working with others. Can you objectively rate yourself in these dimensions?

Peter F. Drucker, author of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, says that anybody from any organization can learn how to be an entrepreneur, that it is “systematic work.” But there is a difference between learning how to be and succeeding as an entrepreneur. “When a person earns a degree in physics, he becomes a physicist,” says Morton Kamien, a professor of entrepreneurship at Northwestern University.” But if you were to earn a degree in entrepreneurship, that wouldn’t make you an entrepreneur.”

We are all self-employed

The reasons commonly given for people going into business

for themselves are freedom from a work routine; being your own boss; doing what you want when you want; boredom with the current job; financial desires, and a perceived opportunity. Which of these might be sufficient to get you to take the risk?

Several “yardsticks” have been proposed for measuring whether a person is a likely candidate to be a successful entrepreneur, but the real challenge is in accurately applying them to ourselves.

We are all self-employed; even as employees of a firm, we

are still primarily personal career managers. Trends toward downsizing and outsourcing will almost certainly lead to smaller companies utilizing networks of specialists. Fortune magazine suggests that “Almost everyone, up through the highest ranks of professionals, will feel increased pressure to specialize, or at least to package himself or herself as a marketable portfolio of skills.”

How marketable is your portfolio of skills? Many think they have several years’ experience, when what they really have is one year’s experience several times. Are you continuing to learn, and keeping up with developments in your field? The best approach to preparing for an entrepreneurial career is often to find some aspect of your field in which you can become expert.

There are HUGE benefits to promoting affiliate programs with your own homebased Internet business. Let’s look at 15 of the best reasons to join affiliate programs.

No Production Costs: The cost to develop and produce a new product is prohibitive for almost anyone who wants to start a home-based business. With affiliate programs, production costs aren’t an issue. The product has been developed and proven – all on the merchant’s nickel.


Low-Cost Set-up: Compared with building a brick-and-mortar store, starting a home-based Internet business is relatively cheap. You probably already have a desk, Internet-connected computer and word-processing software, which is all the equipment you may need to start making easy money from affiliate programs.

No Fees or Licenses: I often compare doing business as an affiliate, with distributing a line of products in the real world. The biggest difference is that the distributor must often pay for a license to distribute products within a limited geographic region. Affiliate programs, on the other hand, are usually free to join, and geographic market reach is limited only by the affiliate’s ability to promote his website.

Sell Almost Anything: What isn’t sold online? That list must be shorter than the one describing all that IS sold online. There are thousands and thousands of affiliate programs selling every product under the sun. That makes it easy to find products related to your current or planned web site.

No Sales Experience Required: When I started my affiliate business, I had absolutely no sales experience. That wasn’t a problem, however. The companies I affiliated with provided excellent marketing material. Using their sales copy, I was able to get my first affiliate site up in less than a day.


No Employees: Employee salaries are the biggest business expense. Although you may need or want someone to work for you on occasion, you’ll never have to worry about hiring full or part-time employees while working as an affiliate marketer.

When you have a project, you want to hire out, it is easy to find specialists in every computer-related field who can work for you from the comfort of THEIR own homes. You pay only for the project, and never have to worry about ongoing employee related benefits and deductions.

No Merchant Accounts: Setting up a merchant account is time-consuming and costly. However, affiliate marketers don’t need merchant account. Merchants bear all the costs for payment processing. As an affiliate, you’ll never lose sleep over chargebacks, fraud or losing your merchant account.

No Inventory: As an affiliate marketer, you can sell large items without storage concerns, even if you live in a small one-bedroom apartment.


No Order-Processing: Forget the problems associated with collecting and storing names, addresses, credit card numbers, etc. The merchant does all that!

No Shipping: The cost and hassle to prepare and ship products to customers worldwide could be staggering. Affiliates never have to worry about packaging supplies or postal rates.

No Customer Service: Do you hate the prospect of dealing with nasty people or customer complaints? Don’t worry about it! The merchant handles the snivelers.

Make Money While You Sleep: What other business allows you as a sole proprietor to keep your doors open and keep making money even when you take breaks or after you go home for the night?

Worldwide Marketplace: The Internet is the world’s largest marketplace. You can drive more visitors to your online store in a day, than a small-town merchant will see in his or her brick-and-mortar business in a year.

Minimal Risk: The product you chose isn’t making money? Dump it. Take down your links and promote another! It’s that easy. There are no long-term contracts binding you to products that don’t sell.

High Income Potential: If you have a job, your salary or hourly wage is probably pre-determined. Maybe there’s not much, other than working overtime, that you can do to increase your income. With your own affiliate business on the Internet your income potential is limited only by your desire, effort and imagination.

No other business is so inexpensive to start yet offers such high profit potential without investing years of labor.

Affiliate programs enable you to work from Almost Anywhere in the World!

Depending on whom you talk to, today’s economy is either on a roller coaster, on the verge of a recession, or in a full-fledged recession. Whichever is the case, there’s little doubt that people are anxious about their economic well-being. Some are in danger of losing their homes, some are in danger of losing their jobs, and some are just plain scared about the future. That’s why an increasing number of people are looking for new ways to make money; even if they don’t get rich, they won’t get deeper in debt. Instead of going out and getting another job, more people are opting to start a money making business online.

A home business has many advantages over looking for a second job. For one thing, there’s no commute, which means you don’t have to get gouged at the gas pump. For another, you can set your own hours and work when it’s convenient. Finally a home working opportunity can give you peace of mind, since there’s no chance that you’re going to be laid off.

When it comes to an online business opportunity, however, it’s often hard to choose among the many offerings out there. Here are five things to watch for when reviewing a potential money making business.

1. How Internet savvy do you need to be? One of the big mistakes people make is signing up for an online home working opportunity, and then finding out that they need to design web pages or continually update product offerings. That’s simply beyond the ability level of most people. Instead, seek out a business offering that doesn’t require you to buy a domain name, find a web host, upload HTML code, and so forth. In other words, you want a system that is as fully automated as possible.

2. How much of a back office is required? Many online business opportunities require you to maintain a complicated back office where you track sales, contact customers, provide support, and so on. In most cases, you even have to set up your own merchant account in order to accept payments and credit cards. That’s a major headache, to say the least. Instead, look for an opportunity that doesn’t require a back office set up, and that only requires that you have a PayPal account. Remember the more fully automated it is, the less time you have to spend in order to make money.

3. Avoid affiliates and MLMs. Multi-level marketing (MLM) and many affiliate programs are great get rich quick schemes – if you get in on the ground floor. If you don’t, your hard work benefits those above you, but doesn’t add much to your bottom line. Select a business where you receive 100 percent of the payments made to you.

4. Find products that sell. In today’s environment, the best bet for products are those that are downloadable. For example, there is a huge market for software, e-books, graphics, and website content. If you become a reseller of these kinds of electronic informational products, you will be well on your way to having a successful business.

5. Keep it simple. Many home business opportunities require you to jump through hoops in order to launch your own enterprise. Before you know it, you’re signed up for trainings, paying out membership fees, participating in conference calls or web-based seminars, and so on. Instead, find an opportunity that offers a valuable product and that makes it simple to create your own income stream.