Updated 2/29/2008

Dear Fellow Online Entrepreneur,

My name is Lillian Sanchez, like you I started exploring the internet marketing world for ways to start a new business. Initially I started looking for ways to use it in my existing small business. I own a "boutique" recruiting business that focuses on locating hard to find talent. If you don't know this business you should know it is very competitive and the trends in that industry that brought me here crossover into almost every business you could possibly imagine. There was a shift to finding talent online. The traditional pound the phones approach to recruiting transformed into much more automated approaches of finding leads (usually online first) and then following up with them and usually by email. Bottom line, the internet transformed this industry and the more I saw I knew the opportunities online were getting bigger and bigger and are only going to get even bigger in the future.

I started this exploratory journey into internet marketing about 2 years ago. Due to my other business I have had the benefit of more time and money to explore this area than the typical wannabe online entrepreneur has. So the journey has finally led me here where I hope to provide all online entrepreneurs or wannabe online entrepreneurs with the straight scoop on some of the opportunities that get thrown our way and the tools and methods that work and don't work.

Hopefully you will come back to this site on occasion to follow in this investigation with me. I hope to initially provide some basics, like an overview of the internet marketing industry and where certain tools and methods fall in the mix. What follows are some quick summaries of what I hope to explore with you.

1. What are the types of Internet Businesses that are out there. When I first started investigating this industry the terms internet business and internet marketing were being used almost interchangeably. They are not the same thing. The first is the actual business and the second is the main means of getting people to see what your business is offering, to visit your websites and to hopefully buy something (insert fancy "conversion" term here).
2. Another area is just the breakdown of the Internet Marketing Strategies that are being used. If you have bought anything in this market and are on the mailing lists you know that the strategies are perhaps countless! In the year that I have been on this journey I will tell you what I have been exposed to: affiliate marketing, latent semantic indexing, seo (search engine optimization), article marketing, adsense websites, pay per click, cost per click , cost per action, rss, arbitrage, blogs, social bookmarking. These are just the ones that I can remember off the top of my head...no I take that back...audio, video marketing. is adsense dead? , no is internet marketing dead?. The barrage of information has been brutal and probably dissuaded many from exploring this market further. Given the huge potential of internet businesses that would be a shame. Getting past the information overload stage and actually starting something is a choice that we all can make.
3. What should you sell? There is so much discussion about how to sell something online that most of the gurus push off the question about actually picking a product or service that you should sell. Yes, it should be based on your interests. Yes, there should be some financial/business analysis involved...but does anyone have a clearer starting point and framework?
4. How do I put a website together? Do I really need to know HTML, RSS, XML or SSI...? What software do I use? Should I just do a blog? What is a content management system and how does it apply? How should I optimize it? Is keyword optimization out , now the Latent Semantic Indexing is in or is there a happy medium?
5. What Web Host should I get and what makes them all different anyway?
6. Do I have to be a copywriting expert? Do I need a presell page, a sales page or both? What the heck is a squeeze page?
7. Traffic, traffic, traffic...This topic reminds me of the story of the tree that fell down in the woods and no one heard it fall because no one was there. This illustrates the internet business dilemma. You could build the greatest site with the greatest product or service at the best price and if no one knows about it, it will not make you a dime. I initially shied away from this area because the topic of Google Adwords seemed so daunting for me. If you really want to build a serious online business the Pay Per Click services can not and should not be ignored. Many folks, including myself spend a lot of time on SEO for the websites that we build as a long term strategy for ranking higher in the search engines. This is a great long term strategy but there is nothing like putting a pay per click campaign together and watching the results in less than a day. It shows you whether your website is a dud or it actually accomplishes whatever your goals are(selling, allowing your message to be viewed...). The keyword for traffic is "keywords" and there are so many good tools out there for that that just get better and better every day.
8. What are the up and coming areas in the internet business and internet marketing areas? Some that have recently gotten attention and are building steam are the incorporation of audio and video into your websites to not only help your VEO (Visitior Enhanced Optimization) but to also increase the time visitors spend on your site.

As you can see by the above list, I have been exposed to and delved into many areas of Internet Marketing. I do not profess to be a guru nor do I want to be. I do hope to become someone who's opinion you will trust and value as a partner in this exciting journey to becoming an Educated Online Entrepreneur.

This past week I heard someone who would be considered a guru say that "You Should Trust But Verify". This goes hand in hand with this website's domain name, inspired by the X-Files There are good people teaching in this field(some that fall into the guru category and some that don't). Don't let the bad ones deprive you of your chance to work from home(if you choose), make a decent living online and make a difference to your future. Though most of the areas we are going to review and discuss are not rocket science they do require an investment of at the very least time. I see a future full of potential and enough profits for all of us to share.  Join me on this journey!

Sincerely,

Lillian

Update:  The ride has been unreal!  As much have things have changed since I first wrote the above intro the fundamentals have stayed the same.  I have finally gotten to the point where I can spend some time on this website and look forward to updating you on the topics that were identified above and much more on the blog part of this website.

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