If you're new to online working it's often hard to know just how to promote your business successfully. And you certainly don't want to waste time or energy with methods that aren't likely to succeed.

As always, the key to online success is hard work, but by focusing attention on proven strategies, you can streamline your efforts to make them much more effective.

And since it's particularly important to do the right things at an early stage in your business, setting aside a certain amount of time each day for specific tasks makes a lot of sense.

These needn't take up too many working hours, but the key is to remain consistent. So hopefully, our daily agenda of top marketing moves will give you just the start you need.

Spread the word

If your online business is new it's vital thing to let others know it exists, and one of the best ways to do this is by joining forums.

Any that have a particular relevance to your own sector are ideal, but if you can't find anything specific, there are dozens of home working and e-commerce forums you'll want to be a part of.
By joining several, you'll have the opportunity to promote your business through your 'signature', essentially a link to your site or blog.

Any posts you make are likely to be picked up by search engines, link included, and that will kick-start the vital process of search engine inclusion.

But equally, forums are an ideal place to learn and contribute. You'll find plenty of expert knowledge on hand, as well as a chance to discuss your own business.

Sucking up to search engines

Many assume that submitting new sites to search engines is the first step in online marketing, but frankly, there's not much point. Major players such as Google will find you quickly enough once you start forum posting, and smaller ones usually get their info directly from the biggies. (Having said that, if you haven't been indexed after a few weeks, it's worth sending a submission request.)

What you will want to do, however, is give the search engines good reason to pay special attention to your site.
First and foremost, this means providing a steady flow of useful content and updates. What you're offering may be a superb product or service, but a search engine can only judge a site's value in terms of the quality information regularly provided online.

You don't need to make changes daily, but it's worth working on new material for at least a short time each day. That way you'll have plenty of content in hand, and can aim to upload changes at least a couple of times a week.

The write way to do it

Publishing articles is another great way to flag your online business as well as improve its search engine ranking. Just as with forums, you can include links to your business at the base of the article.

It needn't involve a huge amount of extra work, either. The new site materials mentioned previously can often be turned into a short article with just a little tweaking. And even if you're writing completely from scratch, just a few lines a day is all it takes to have a short article ready for weekly publication.

Don't worry, however, if you're one of those people who simply doesn't enjoy writing. There's no point slowing your marketing efforts and you'll probably find a different area you're particularly good at, so focus more attention there instead.

Linking up

Links to your website are clearly important. The more quality links that exist, the more chance you have of being found online, but an added benefit is that they improve your position in search engines, too.

By working daily on the strategies mentioned above, they should rise in number quickly, but additional links from high quality sites are definitely worth chasing.

The type of site really is key. Try to pinpoint successful, well established sites with strong similarities to your own and get in touch. Ultimately, you'll want to encourage the owner to link to you, but be diplomatic and start by simply introducing yourself; if correspondence ensues, bring up the question of linking when it seems appropriate.

It's definitely worth spending a little time each day trying to cultivate this kind of relationship, although remember that high profile sites are likely to receive many such requests. Don't lose heart if results are difficult to come by; just consider it part of a long-term process.

Online opportunities

It may take some time, but your site will eventually start to develop traffic. And with traffic comes customers and the opportunity to improve your earning opportunities. Whatever product or service you're offering, you'll usually find you can supplement it with advertising for products that complement your own.

There are many affiliate programs that specialize in supplying profit-earning advertising to publishers. Google's AdSense is the best known, but check out as many different formats and offerings as possible; some may just suit your site better than others.

Once implemented, you'll want to keep a daily eye on the performance of your ads using data the affiliate program itself should provide.

If, after a reasonable time, your ads don't seem to be giving results, try replacing the provider with another. Or tweak your campaign by changing ad position, altering format or colors - check out further resources for ideas!

Stay tuned

One of the great advantages of running an online business is the fact that information about every conceivable aspect of e-commerce is right at your fingertips.

Just as you've taken the time to read this article, aim to continually increase your knowledge through ongoing research. Stay up to date with market developments through newsletters and specialist sites, and especially look for info that can improve your marketing further. You'll always find something new and useful online, including other techniques you might want to add to your daily routine.

A job well done

Each day spent working on your business is a day of further progress. Make sure you remember this and congratulate yourself constantly on your efforts.

This isn't just obvious 'feel-good' advice. With any online business visible results can take time to achieve and it's easy to get disheartened in the meantime.

But if you're following the steps above you can be sure that you are moving in exactly the right direction. Online competition is intense, but unlike you, not everyone knows what it takes to succeed.

Our marketing resources are designed to help affiliate publishers make the most of their affiliate programs and referral schemes. We strive to provide updated, informative info on a range of topics of interest to both online publishers and advertisers. Check back frequently for new articles and e-marketing tips and tricks.