Because it is so easy to set up an online business nowadays, many people take the first step without having a clue as to what to do next, and then adopt one of two misguided approaches.

1. The Squander-Bug

The Squander-Bug surfs the Internet in search of instant online marketing success solutions. The squander-bug swiftly falls prey to the sales patter of one or other of the lurking Spider-Gurus who offers hugely inflated packages with promises of large profits for little effort.

The Squander-Bug is lured into the Spider-Guru's web, gets stung, hung out to dry and then eaten for breakfast.

2. The Tight-Wad

On the other hand there are those special products of human evolution who are nature's Tight-Wads. Their approach to making money online is to spend nothing at all, and expect everybody else to buy their products or services...

In a way, the Tight-Wad approach to Internet marketing is an improvement on the Squander-Bug's, although the Squander-Bug is a more attractive character.

Both the Squander-Bug and the Tight-Wad are equally assured of failure. Nevertheless, the Tight-Wad at least has the virtue of following an Internet marketing "strategy" of sorts, and when it fails it "fails better" (as Samuel Beckett would have put it) simply because although time has been wasted, money has not been squandered!

Successful Internet Marketing Strategies

Successful Internet marketing strategies account for the fact that no business can be run free of charge and they seek a happy medium between the financial incontinence of the Squander-Bug and the constipated approach of the Tight-Wad.

1. Set a budget: For the home based business on a limited budget, the first thing to do is actually to set a budget, taking into account both the regular expenses that will be incurred and the one off expenses that are likely to be necessary as the business develops.

Thus, simply by sitting down with a pen and paper to think about expenses, the Internet marketer is forced to devote some time to thinking about Internet marketing strategy, because different strategies require differing amounts of investment.

At the minimum your budget should account for webhosting expenses, the use of an autoresponder (a vital component of any serious Internet marketing business), and your marketing expenses.

2. Define Your Niche Market: A common mistake a lot of Internet marketing start-ups make is to give no deep thought to defining their market. If you aim for a broad segment of the market you will be up against a lot of big and experienced competition. Your business will be little more than road-kill if you do not sharply define your market. It is much easier to be a big fish in a small pond, than a minnow in the ocean.

3. Track Down Your Customers With Keywords: Once you have defined your niche you can begin to hunt them down by writing articles and blog posts laced with keywords. Include in your copy words and phrases that your potential customers are likely to use when searching on the Internet for the goods you offer. You can do some basic free research on http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/.

The articles you write should be posted on your website, and then reworked and posted on article directories such as http://ezinearticles.com/. Set yourself a target number of articles and blog posts to write per month.

4. Build Backlinks To Improve Your Site's Search Engine Ranking: Each article you publish on an article directory will include a link back to your site. This is called a backlink. Backlinks are a vital part of any viable Internet marketing strategy because a well linked-in website will rise up the rankings and feature prominently in the top 10 sites on numerous search engines when certain keywords are searched for.

There is not room to go into details here, but the link between keywords, backlinks and search engine rankings is a vital concept that Internet marketers need to grasp if they are to succeed online.

There are many other ways to build backlinks. Posting useful content on relevant forums, leaving useful blog comments on other people's blogs and registering your website on website directories are just a few more ways to build backlinks for your site.

The four points here are just a bare sketch of what an Internet marketing strategy might include. Whatever its limitations, it represents a far better approach for a home based business than the addle-pated blunderings of the Squander-Bug and the Tight-Wad!!