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Suggested ResourcesFor over a decade I've been researching information about business promotion and marketing on the Internet, and later, on the World Wide Web. Information overloadThe biggest problem for the novice, and that may be you, is that there is a practically unlimited amount of information and advice available to you and the more you research, the more confusing it becomes. One author claims one thing and the next guru says that's out-of-date and worthless this year. Another says you can earn a gazillion dollars with no effort by tomorrow morning, yet someone else says that method will never work. How are you supposed to know what to do to succeed? Unsatisfactory results?Have you built a web site that just sits there, with no visitors -- and more importantly -- no sales? What can you do to improve your marketing methods and be more successful? What to do?Unlike others, I'm not going to claim that I know all the answers or that I made bazillions of dollars last year. I'm not going to claim that you can be successful overnight with no effort on your part. Because, if I did, I'd be telling you a big fat lie. If you've never run a business of any kind, it's time to get the stars and dollar signs out of your eyes, take a serious look at yourself and your situation, and decide if you have the personality for building a business. You have to be able to analyze what you want to do, establish goals, milestones, and action steps to get there. You have to be able to realistically evaluate what's working and what isn't, and change what needs changing to get better results. You have to have a plan, and, as they all say, you have to work that plan. I guarantee you that you can't just sit down at your computer, throw together a website, and sit back and rake in the money while you watch movies, play video games, and take it easy. I know that one of the keys for my website building success came when I bought Make Your Site Sell! a few years ago. Recently, Ken Evoy, the author, released the multi-volume, 1500 page set of ebooks as a free download. It is well worth your time to get these ebooks, read them, and put into practice what you will learn. Building a business takes workMake no mistake about it, building a business takes work, effort, creativity, careful analysis, cautious experiments, and a good dose of luck and good timing don't hurt, either. It's a bit easier if you already have a successful offline business that you want to move online. You'll have customers, products or services, and some procedures in place already. You'll have experience in promoting your business, taking orders and delivering. You'll already know something about customer support and the lifetime value of bringing those customers back to you year after year for repeat sales. If you've run a mail order business, you're even further along, because marketing on the web shares many common traits with mail order marketing, while having it's own set of benefits and pitfalls. If you know how to write an ad, build interest, ask for a response, and deliver your product or service consistently, in a timely manner, and to the satisfaction of your clients and customers, you're way ahead of the game. All of those skills are necessary for a web business that will be successful. So, what resources do I suggest?As I find resources of value, I'll add them to the 21st Century Marketing Tools directory. I also recommend good resources on my John Dilbeck And Friends blog.
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