I will go over these four steps in more detail shortly. (This is the same information some marketers are charging a lot of money for.)

There is no magic to online marketing. You simply have to master the basics!

Master the basics. That's what works every single time. It's like learning any new skill or a new sport. When you master the basics, you become good at it!

When you master the four steps listed above, you can sell anything online. Keep in mind that all four steps have to be taken seriously to be able to market successfully. If any one of the steps is missing, your marketing strategy will most likely fail.

There is one additional step as I've mentioned before, the "missing link." When this step is merged with the other four steps, your profits immediately skyrocket and your costs are reduced dramatically. I will go over this important step shortly.

First, let's go over each of the 4 steps above in more detail so you can get a better understanding of the basics. Remember, it's the basics that work everytime!

The Big Four

1. Sell a "marketable" product.

   A marketable product falls under one of two categories. It either "solves a problem" or "offers a solution to a problem." Keep this simple rule in mind and you will always have a product that people will "want" to buy.

   It's as simple as that. To create a marketable product, all you have to do is find a "common problem" and solve it, or offer a solution to the problem. A "common problem" is anything that a large number of people are experiencing. This simply gives you leverage by providing you with more customers.

   The best way to find a "common problem" is to look at some of the problems you're having in your field of work. It's always a good idea to work with what you know. Next, find out if other people are also having the same problem. Also find out if they would be willing to pay someone to solve this problem or offer a solution. Then, come up with a product that will fit the bill.

   You should first find out if there is a demand for the product and then create the product. If you find that people are not interested in your product, you don't have to waste your time creating it. Simply move on to the next problem and product.

    

2. Design a "killer" website to sell the product.

   Designing a powerful website that effectively sells your product is not difficult. It just has its own set of "basic steps" that need to be followed. Here are the main ones:

• Headline: Create a headline that grabs the reader. Tell him what you will do for him. Make a promise to solve his problem. Only then will he read the rest of your material.
  
  
• Benefits: List the 'benefits' of the product. Always sell the benefits of the product, not the features. Example: One feature of an automobile can be that it has anti-lock brakes. The benefit that this feature provides is 'safety.' Always sell the benefits.
  
  
• Low Risk & High Comfort: Make the offer as risk-free and as comfortable as you can for the customer. This is very important, especially online, since the customer cannot see you and does not know who he is buying from. Offer a solid moneyback guarantee, provide testimonials from other satisfied customers, provide a physical address and phone number on your site, etc.
  
  
• Call to Action: This is where most marketers lose their prospects. Don't assume that the customer will order without your telling him to. Ask the customer to order now! Ask it firmly and with confidence. If you don't, you will lose a lot of sales.

3. Make the ordering process "convenient."

   Anything that requires too much work or seems complicated will cause you to lose the sale. You want to make the purchase as convenient and painless as you can for the customer. The best way to do this is to accept credit cards online. Getting set up to accept online checks also helps; however, accepting credit cards online is a must. Get set up to authorize and approve credit card orders from your site.
   
   

4. Find people who "want" your product.

   This is probably the trickiest step and can cost you a lot of money if you don't know what you're doing.

   The secret to this step, in a word, is "targeting." You should only sell to those people who are potential buyers. Don't be concerned with the rest of the world. If you don't target, you will waste a lot of time and money on random advertising. Don't sell golf balls to people who are interested in playing tennis. It may seem obvious to you but many marketers are doing the exact same thing every single time they advertise.

   So, if you're placing an ad to sell an automobile, you shouldn't place it in the business section just because the business section happens to attract more readers. You should instead place it in the automobile section. There may be less readers looking at the automobile section; however, they will all be interested in "automobiles."

   The same goes for search engines or for any other advertising media. Your advertising dollars will be better spent if you advertise to 10 "potential" buyers than to 50 individuals "at random." Go for quality, not quantity.

   If you use the four steps above, you will be able to sell anything on the Internet.

   When I say "sell anything" I am referring to "marketable" products. After all, why would you want to sell a product that nobody wants. Fortunately, if you follow each of the four steps just as outlined above, you will always start with a marketable product. That alone is worth it's weight in gold!

   There is one more step to the online marketing system. This is what some marketers will not tell you about. It's a secret they'd rather keep to themselves. Or they simply don't know about it.

   Yes, I'm referring to the elusive Step 5 - the "missing link" to online marketing success.

   Master the first four steps and you will be able to sell anything online. Master step 5 as well and you will be able to dramatically increase your profits while drastically reducing your costs.

   I'll discuss step 5 now...

   Step 5: The "Missing Link" of Online Marketing

   Step 5 is simple yet a lot of marketers overlook it and suffer the consequences - a lot of wasted marketing dollars and efforts.

   Let me explain...

   There are two main ways by which most marketers flush most of their marketing dollars and efforts down the hole:

1. Out of every 100 prospects that visit a website, only a handful will usually buy the product on their first visit. The only problem is that in most cases, it is their first and last visit. You see, there is so much marketing material being bombarded at online surfers that most of them will never get a chance to come back to a previously visited site. Hence, these prospects are gone forever, never to return again. Most of the seller's marketing investment is also gone forever.
   
   
2. Most marketers only sell to their customers once! These marketers are making the biggest mistakes of their lives!
   
   Here's why: It is much easier and cheaper to sell to your "existing customers" again and again because it costs you time and money to acquire each new customer. If you only sell to this customer once, you are in trouble. It's just like buying an expensive mink coat, wearing it once, and throwing it away! Seriously, that's how silly this is. These marketers are just throwing money away!

Step 5, then, is simply about finding ways to market to these two groups of people by Creating the 'Golden List.' This is where most of your profits are hidden! And it's the easiest profits you will ever take!

To create this list, you need to:

1. Find a way to contact those one-time, non-buying visitors to your site with their permission and reminding them about your offer. Listen, how many times have you seen a great offer, put it aside for later, and then forgotten about it? We all do it. Your prospects do this too. That's why you need to not lose contact with these "targeted" visitors.
   
   
2. Contact your previous customers and offer them other related products. Selling just one product will usually not make you wealthy...unless you're selling it for $500 each or more. To increase your profits dramatically and lower costs, you need to sell to your existing customers more than just once.

Creating the 'golden list' is the most important step if you want to succeed in online marketing. It is the goose that lays the 'golden eggs!' The only way to create this powerful list is by using responsible and ethical email marketing.

Sending unwanted email (spam) to others is definitely out! It is also illegal. Responsible and ethical email marketing, on the other hand, is in and it works like a charm! In fact, it can make the difference between the success and failure of your business, online or offline.

Creating your 'golden list' using responsible and ethical email marketing can dramatically increase your profits and lower your costs immediately.

Almost every marketer on the Internet covers steps 1 through 4. Very few discuss step 5 even though it is the most important step of them all.

Granted, there is a lot involved in getting step 5 just right so that it can create huge profits for you. And that is probably why most people don't discuss it and don't try to explain it. Simply because they don't know enough about it!

It will definitely be to your advantage to learn how to incorporate the 'responsible & ethical email marketing' strategy to your business. This one move alone will magnify the results of all your marketing efforts!

There is no way I can explain the entire process to you in one small article. However, just by being aware of the basics of Step 5, you now have an unfair advantage over most other marketers!

If you are interested in learning more about Step 5, I have written an entire manual on it which explains the process in detail. This manual could very well be the one reason your business would succeed while most others won't. You can find out more about this manual right now by going here: The "Missing Link" of Marketing!

The other 4 steps are also covered in more detail in the accompanying free newsletter at the above site.

When you use all 5 steps above, you will be able to sell anything on the Internet and make a killing at it!

I wish you the best with all your marketing adventures!

Kind regards,