7 Essential First Tasks for A Web Marketing Newbie

photo by Züleyha Sucu


I always give my new customers two options to get started with Internet Marketing.

1. They can pay me to do everything for them. This can get prohibitively expensive for the small business owner.

2. They can perform tasks I think are necessary to obtain online success.

Usually the smaller businesses will decide to do as much grunt work as possible. We might spend three hours or more discussing their needs before I make the final recommendations.

I had a client in the office today. He is anxious to get his non-profit organization rolling. I told him there are things he could be doing even before we launch the website. In order of importance, we came up with these ideas:

1. Establish a presence (Profile) on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

2. Start a blog immediately with Blogger.com . I advised him to start posting on his blog immediately. Keep in mind that we might switch to Wordpress after his site launches.

3. Set up a GMail account with Google. This opens the door to other Google goodies including Blogger, website statistics, and Google Alerts.

4. Set up an account with Flickr.com so he can find good pictures to put on his website. I advised him to find a few good pictures and to contact the photographers who took them. This way he will have a reference for future photo needs.

5. Set up a YouTube account. We are planning to upload videos to his website.

6. Find out where his potential clients hang out. Do a search for "(niche name) blogs" and "(nice name) forums".

7. Sign up at Super Pages, Merchant Circle and social media review sites such as Yelp and iBegin. This will help firm up your presence in the search engines.

I emphasize that this is just the beginning of a hopefully long and profitable journey. He needs to learn to walk before he can run. He can learn the techniques for making money in the first year. He can actually make significant money in the second year. Obviously some people with lots of time can make this happen faster. Remember that this client has a full time job offline.

Greg Cryns
The Mighty Mo Website Design and Promotion