So you’ve decided to par take in the world of Internet Marketing? Well good for you! There is nothing like entrepreneurship and taking control of your own destiny.

In this short report, my goal is to lay the ground work that you’re going to need, in order to build a good sound foundation, to start building your business on.

There are three things that just about every Newbie (including myself when I started) struggles with. But once you figure them out, you can start making money within the next 30 days and they are;

1. Finding the right niche to market to.
2. Knowing the tools needed to build an Internet Marketing business, both tangible and non-tangible tools.
3. How to drive good quality traffic to an offer quickly.

Once you’re done reading this, you will have a solid foundation in which to start building your business on! So let’s get started!

Finding a Niche

If you’re just starting out, the first thing you need to do, is determine what niche you’re going to market to, if you don’t already have one in mind.

When it comes to choosing a niche, I’ll start by saying this. If you have a particular activity, interest or hobby that you enjoy and know inside out, then I would say that’s probably a good niche for you to start in.

Because it’s something you know well, it should be easier for you to;

• Speak the “language” of those involved in that niche.
• Create content for that niche. (Articles, blog post, etc.)
• Have a better understanding of the demographics of that niche.

Now! If you’re interest is in a niche that has a small audience, you have to understand something…
Those involved in this particular niche, may have a deep passion for it and typically don’t mind spending money on things related to the niche.

But if the niche is too small, you have to ask yourself, will there be room to scale up and grow my business?

If you don’t currently have a niche in mind, I’ll tell you right now, you can waste time, researching different niches until you find one you’re interesting in or you can just pick one in the following categories that have been proven, time and time again to make money;

1. Making Money (Internet marketing, forex, work at home, etc.)
2. Saving Money (Insurance, debt, credit cards, loans, etc.)
3. Weight Loss / Health & Fitness
4. Self Help / Development

Out of these four, I would recommend that newbies start with “Making Money” for the following reasons:

• There are plenty of resources available to educate yourself on the niche.
• There are plenty of affiliate programs and products in the niche for you to market.
• There are plenty of resources available to get traffic.

One of the biggest mistakes I made when I started out was not drilling deeper down into the niche or “vertical” that I had chosen which by the way was and still is “Internet Marketing”.

What I mean is, find a niche within the niche. With Internet Marketing, there are plenty of sub-niches for you to consider:

• Social Media (Deeper niches; Facebook, YouTube, Twitter)
• Driving traffic (PPC Pay Per Click, SEO, Search Engine Optimizations)
• List building
• Blogging
• Affiliate marketing
• Article marketing
• And on and on

Please read this next line very carefully! When you’re just starting out, pick ONE sub-niche and ONLY one to market to!

Learn everything you can about that niche and become an expert in it. Trust me on this. You don’t want to try to master everything when you first start out.

You will go crazy and I can guarantee that you will come down with information overload…

Yes I’m speaking from personal experience!

Once you have learned all you can and have a steady stream of revenue coming in from that niche, then move on to the next.

In conclusion I’ll just like to say, don’t take choosing a niche for granted. Picking the wrong way can easily cost you time and money…

So take your time, research and choose wisely!

Marketers are a buzz over the potential mobile marketing offers. Experts predict that almost half of US mobile phone users will have a smart phone by the end of 2011, so interest in marketing to mobile users has reached a tipping point.

Social media marketing appears to be the “low hanging fruit” in mobile marketing. According to Simon Salt, author of Social Location Marketing, it is defined as marketing based on location sharing applications like Foursquare, GoWalla, Facebook Places, and Yelp. These applications let members of a user’s social network know where they are and what they are doing at that location. The user “checks in” via the application on their smart phone.

What are some social marketing techniques that businesses can use to leverage mobile applications and social networks?

Coupons

Many retail establishments now offer discounts when someone nearby checks in on Foursquare. Think how much more effective a coupon is when it is delivered to prospects near the actual store, vs. left in the Sunday newspaper. Coupons range from a free coffee drink at a fast food establishment to a free appetizer at a restaurant.

Sweepstakes

There are free sweepstakes, such as a “7-Eleven Check-In to Space,” which offered a chance to win tickets to the Super 8 movie, a free zero gravity experience, and a sub-orbital flight. Just like off line contests, social media contests must adhere to sweepstakes rules and regulations.

Mayor Reward

Repeat business is generated when members of social networks to compete for the title of Mayor of a locale, a title Foursquare gives to the person who most frequently checks in to a location. Places provide incentives to the mayor, such free sub sandwich for the mayor.

Trips

The Gowalla application has a trips function which works something like a scavenger hunt. People can pursue a “trip”, which is a series of locations a related to a theme. By using the smart phone to check in at each location, participants complete the trip. Examples of trip applications are as follows:

Education-visitors to a venue can check-in to various places to add interest to their visit, such as the Fort Worth Zoo Safari, which serves as a personal guided tour. The application shares interesting facts about each exhibit, while visitors contribute to the content by sharing pictures of the jaguars, tigers, and elephants.

Sponsor Reward-The Social Media Club of Dallas offered a thank you tour for its sponsors that offered members prizes for completing a trip by checking in to its various sponsor locations. This served to encourage sponsor patronage.

Enhancing Membership-Chamber of Commerce organizations can create new member trips, demonstrating value in the membership by encouraging existing member to patronize their respective businesses through completion of a trip.

In conclusion, there are a variety of promotions and discounts already being used by businesses and organizations to generate trial, build repeat business, enrich the experience, and add value to the membership.

There is much discussion about how effective these new social location marketing activities are. However, history has demonstrated that businesses that enter a new marketing channel can reap disproportionate response rates while the field remains uncrowded.

Ready, set, check in!