While ambition is a good thing, the true key to success with Internet marketing is knowledge.  It’s imperative that you know what works, what doesn’t and how to put it all together to make your venture work.

Here is a short list of some of the most commonly made mistakes by new marketers.

Not having your own domain name – No one will believe you’re a legitimate marketer making legitimate money if you’re using a free site.

As with brick and mortar businesses, image is everything.  If you’re striving for success your image will suffer using a free site.

Using free e-mail addresses such as Yahoo, gmail, or Hotmail – As with the free websites, using free e-mail services don’t lend professionalism to your image.

If you have a legitimate web host that you pay for your domain you can create your own e-mail address on that domain.

Unprofessional look on your website – If your website looks like the strip in Las Vegas with flashing banner ads and cheesy graphics people will assume you’re an amateur.

Your site needs to have quality look and quality content.  You’ll also want to take care in the layout of your site making sure that it’s easy to navigate and makes sense.

Poorly written content – Before you jump to conclusions, don’t assume that I’m going to tell you to hire someone to do your content writing for you.

Unless you truly cannot write (many people think they can’t but haven’t really taken the time to try) then you can write.  Whether you do your own writing or have someone else do the writing for you, be sure that it’s quality content.

You want to offer your visitors information they want that’s easy to read and grammatically correct.

As you can see, many of the mistakes made by new marketers are simple, avoidable mistakes.  You can’t assume that you’re going to get something for nothing when it comes to Internet marketing.

Success as a marketer doesn’t have to cost you a fortune, but it will take some investment on your part, in time and money.

Whether your business is a traditional brick and mortar business or an Internet business being innovative can increase your profit potential in a major way. How is this so?

Let me explain.

While there are certain business rules that should be followed, and certain trends that are worth following, most of the "rules" are more general guidelines than they are rules set in stone. So how do you know when it’s okay to be innovative and when you should stick to the more traditional rules of business or what is really a rule and what’s not? Let’s take a look at some of the rules of business and some of the guidelines.

Rules:

· Customer satisfaction is essential to success – This is absolutely true no matter what type of business you have. Unsatisfied customers will spread the word about your business as fast, if not faster than satisfied customers will. Before you know it your business will be suffering immensely.

· Free websites and e-mail addresses are not professional – Not only do customers find free websites and e-mail addresses to be questionable, but so do other business professionals. To be taken seriously as a business person you need to have a paid domain with a corresponding e-mail address.

· Knowledge of your products or services is essential to success – To be successful in business you must know the products or services you’re selling. This is not to say you must be an expert, though it wouldn’t hurt, but you must have solid knowledge of what you’re selling. This correlates to customer satisfaction.

Guidelines

· Don’t mix niches – While this can be good advice, there’s more than one way I can see that mixing niches can be not only innovative but successful. I’m not going to give my personal input here, but I can tell you that mixing niches has the potential to be very successful if done right.

· Don’t use busy patterns on your website – Now this has, at times, irritated me on some websites. However, if used sparingly and tactfully it can be a very effective means of drawing attention to a particular space on your website that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Without going on and on I’m sure you get the idea. While I wouldn’t suggest going off on a tangent and employing a brand new, never tried marketing method as your only means of marketing, I’d say you should give something new and unheard of a try every now and again.

You may just be pleasantly surprised!

Whatever the case may be, you need to know the basics before you get started.  Let’s take a quick look at what you need to have and what you need to do.

There is very little you actually need in order to build your own website, and just about everything you need is available for free somewhere on the Internet or in your computer.

This probably comes as a surprise to you, but at least it’s a pleasant surprise!  And to top it all off, there are scores of websites and tutorials on building your own website available at the click of your mouse.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1.Basic computer skills (which I’m sure you have already if you’re reading this blog!)

2.Access to a personal computer (there again, you’re reading this blog, so you can check that off, as well)

3.Access to the internet (another check for this requirement!)

4.an HTML editor (FrontPage comes pre-installed in many computers, but if you don’t have it, no worries.  There are plenty of free HTML editors available on the web. Just do a Google search for "free HTML editor" and you’ll quickly find one. )

5.A place on the web to publish your page. (This is where you will want to bypass free and go for a paid service.  If you intend to use this site for business there is no substitute for a paid domain.To be taken seriously and considered a professional you need to have a paid domain with corresponding e-mail address.)

As you can see, there’s not much that you need to build a website.  You will want to take the time to read up on the HTML editor that you choose to use so that you will have a firm understanding of how it works.

With just a little time and effort you will quickly have your own website, built and designed by you.