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The internet is full of good advice on how to market your website. There are thousands of gurus telling you how to drive huge numbers of highly-targeted buyers to your sites and laying out all manner of techniques for building an internet based business empire. Well, it’s all very well generating huge amounts of traffic but one thing that many people, myself included, often forget is that you must do the proper groundwork before launching your marketing campaign if you are to reap the best rewards for your efforts.

After all, what’s the point of thousands of visitors to your site if you provide them with a poor experience? They are unlikely to come back, and even less likely to trust you enough to buy something from you. The list that follows offers 4 things that I believe you must do before even attempting to spend time (and probably money) on any marketing campaign.

1. Do your market research

It sounds obvious but you wouldn’t try and sell sand to the Arabs or ice to the Eskimos - well not unless you were an addicted marketer who loved a challenge! I can’t stress this enough - do your research. It’s not enough to just pick a buzzword or obvious keyword and spend the next 6 months pummeling it into the ground. You should pick your niche market first and keywords second. There are some simple tips for choosing a profitable niche. Look around you, what are people buying in your neighborhood? Watch some tv, what are the hot products just now? Read newspapers and magazines, or even better just browse the glossies in your local store. In short try and get a feel for what’s going to sell. There are also many websites such as eBay, PriceRunner, Kaboodle and so on that can be utilized successfully in this search.

2. Draw Up A Plan Of Attack

I try and live by the old maxim ‘Fail To Plan And You Plan To Fail’. Try and decide which methods you are going to employ to get maximum return on your investment - remember time is just as valuable a commodity as money in this game. Draw up a shortlist of techniques and prioritize them, for example if you are selling health products you may get better results from posting in relevant forums than from PPC advertising which can be expensive in this niche. Hit your top five methods in order - if you’ve still got time and energy you can always do the less profitable ones next.

3. Create Great Content

There’s nothing like a website filled with great, original content to keep people coming back. I have to say that, probably like most people, the sites that I visit frequently are the ones that are updated with fresh content on a regular basis. Remember, adding content will keep repeat visitors coming back, and of course, the search engines will love you!

4. ‘Get Your Ducks In A Row’

Ok, so you’ve got your product, set up your content filled website, but have you remembered to set up your autoresponder? What’s an Autoresponder you ask? Oh dear - time to revise the plan! Have you set up your contact details, e-mail addresses, are your link all complete… In short, check and check again that your website is complete and functioning before you launch. Its often a good idea to arrange for some friends or relative to sign up just to check that things are working.

Now its time to set forth and spread the word. At least you can be confident that when they crowds start arriving you will be able to cope with them and no-one should have an excuse for not giving you their money!