Many people want to set up home internet businesses but do not know how. These people often have some ability with computers and know how to make their way around the internet.  The reason people are setting up home based businesses is because they are not only profitable but come with other benefits, namely the opportunity to work from home. 

One advantage of setting up a home based business is now cheap it is compared to setting one up in the real world. In the “real world” if you are setting up a business you would have to go through the “brick and mortar” method and you can end up spending a lot of money before you even open your doors. Where as in a home based business there is no need to build(or rent) which makes setting up a home based internet marketing business venture a lot cheaper than starting up one in the “real world”. 

Another advantage to setting up an internet marketing business is how easily you can attract clients to you. If you are looking to start up a home based business marketing business you should already know a bit about the field (or market) where you will seek your clients. 

Becoming a quality provider through internet marketing can be very profitable. Many people have been able to make a lot of money out of this business over the past decade. 

It may seem like there are a lot of other internet marketing businesses on the net at the moment but with the growth of the World Wide Web there is always room for one more amongst the other high quality businesses in operation today. 

One way of starting an internet marketing business and making a nice $500-$1000 a week is by contacting businesses and asks them to send emails about special reports, events and other events happening in your business to their customers. It is a very profitable technique. 

When starting your internet marketing business you need to  focus on your plan and work hard to achieve your goals. Remember there are no easy ways to make money so beware of people who say that they can make you “easy money” as there always is a catch involved. Gina Gray can teach you how this can be possible.

The holiday shopping season is upon us, but the current downturn in the economy leaves less room for holiday cheer. Shoppers may be spending less money as a result of the tight economy, but they will definitely be spending money this holiday season.

This means it is more important than ever to know how to market your business more effectively to avoid missing out on sales.

Here are some recession proof holiday marketing tips to help your business not only survive, but thrive during this lean holiday season and beyond:

1. Go Directly To Your Customers:

Generate more sales for your local business by marketing directly to the target market within your surrounding community. These are the potential customers driving by your business on a daily basis who may not be aware of your business, or need an incentive to visit you.

Drive in more profits by creating a direct mail campaign that will give the target market in your surrounding community a compelling reason to visit your business. You can create a sales letter series focused on a special holiday offer, or a postcard series highlighting monthly special offers.

2. Give Them A Gift They Can Actually Use:

Give your customers gift certificates as a way of thanking them for their business. Include a gift certificate for $25 (or any amount) with their bill or receipt during the holidays.

Or give away a product, such as a free pair of earrings or a tie, with the purchase of a dress or suit for the holidays if you are a clothing store owner.

You can also generate referrals by giving customers gift certificates they can give to their friends as a holiday gift. For example, a Massage Therapist can give away gift certificates offering a free 30 minute massage for new visitors to current clients.

The current client would put their name as the giver on the gift certificate, so the Massage Therapist can keep track of the referrals; and give the referrer a Thank You gift.

3. The More The Merrier…And More Profits

Create profitable joint ventures with your business neighbors or complimentary businesses. You can do co-op holiday marketing by exchanging gift certificates to give to each other’s customers as a holiday promotion.

You can create a holiday gift guide that each participating business can donate a gift certificate to; and all participating businesses can distribute the holiday gift guides to their customers.

Finally, add some much needed holiday cheer during these tough times by hosting a holiday party for your local community.

You can create co-op marketing opportunities for your business neighbors and complimentary businesses by allowing them to donate services or products for the party. They can also co-sponsor the party by helping with the funding.

Your holiday party will help your local community learn more about your business, and neighboring businesses while also spreading goodwill that will be remembered well into the next year… and whenever they are in need of your product or service.

When working out a sales and marketing plan for your catering business start-up you first have to understand the market both in terms of the competition and what kinds of events local clients will require catering for. Before writing up your business plan you should look at how your future competitors are running their businesses and doing their marketing. By calling them up on the phone or even having a meeting with them you can get a fair idea about the marketing and sales methods that they are using.

From wedding catering to social events, the various catering market segments that you could target are almost endless. Look for market segments in which you have strengths in which you feel are currently not being serviced sufficiently by your competitors. If you do take on one of the larger segments of the market such as corporate catering you should try to define your unique selling proposition or how you will differentiate your company from your competitors.

Get a branding strategy together and create some promotional materials including business cards, a website and brochures showing off some of your menus and photos from previous events that you have organized.

Work out a sales process right from the point of first contact with the customer through to closing the deal and test various aspects of it until you find the most successful process. Try to relate to your customers by imagining yourself being in the same busy situation that they are in. When you meet with clients don’t forget to take along some samples of your food for them to try. When it has become clear that you have a new client, try to up sell them on more profitable menu items or additional services.

Test a variety of advertising methods, starting with the methods that other caterers in your city are using. It is also important to realize that a large part of your business will come through word of mouth referrals. How successful you are in getting referrals from your existing customers will depend on how good they perceived your catering services to be.

Successful caterers realize that while it is important to focus on the food side of the business it is even more important to focus on the marketing side to have a steady stream of prospective clients coming in all the time. By fine-tuning your marketing and sales for your catering business start-up you will be setting yourself up for a great deal of success.

Affiliate marketing is by far the easiest way for internet marketers to get their feet wet in the business of marketing online. The life of affiliate marketing is totally dependent on how much traffic you can drive to you affiliate site or program. The process of learning how to market will be your only expense if any. You should try to choose a residual income business that pays you with recurring billing. I also suggest you learn some of the free marketing techniques first before venturing into paid resources like PPC (Pay Per Click). I have listed a few free marketing techniques to get you started.

Blogging is similar to your personal diary except that you adventures will include your experiences on the internet. It is important that you generate some readers to your blog to create an audience that you will end up marketing to later. The keys to attracting readers is to write from the heart and don’t jump into promoting products that you are not familiar with or haven’t used. Good places to start a free blog are: Google Blogger, Word Press, Hub Pages and Squidoo.

Social marketing is a great way to meet other marketers who are interested in the same topics as you are. Social networks like Facebook, My Space are perfect arenas to set up a profile and make new friends. Interacting with people in the industry will be a learning experience that you can use to fine tune your marketing skills. You should try to pay close attention to what your peers are concerned about as far as internet marketing, this will help you in choosing the right products to market.

Forums are similar to social networks but they are more informative. A forum is where a group of people with similar interest gather to share ideas or marketing secrets on their techniques. The best way to learn from forums is to be active and ask question that can get everyone involved. You should be careful about taking forum advice in the beginning until you have a better understanding. Many people in forums are new to the business also, but sometimes pretend to be very knowledgeable in order to sell their products. You should leave your blog as you forum signature at first until you have established a website.

Once you have established some considerable knowledge, you want to consider viral marketing. There are several forms of viral marketing, but one of the most effective viral marketing strategies is a viral eBook. You can create an eBook documenting what you have learned on the internet and give it away for free with several of your affiliate links embedded in the eBook.

Article marketing is one my favorite forms of marketing because it incorporates almost every form of marketing on the net and rolls it into one. It is quite simple; you write an article on any topic and submit to the directories with a link back to your website. The article serves several purposes: it brands you as an expert, it creates traffic to your site, it can become viral when other marketers download it, and it can get picked up by the search engines.

If you are able to master these free marketing techniques, you may be well on your way to a successful internet marketing career. The only other tool you will need is residual income business to promote that provides recurring billing. Being able to receive lifetime commissions on the products you promote will make the income from your marketing efforts multiply month after month.