The truth is that there is no real formula for an effective Internet marketing strategy. It is fluid and keeps changing. Tactics that worked one year ago change and may no longer be valid. Keep up to date with the latest ideas. All we can say is that there are just 3 words for creating a successful web shop business. Marketing, marketing and more marketing!

Marketing depends on your individual situation and budget. When you realize your strengths and weaknesses, you’ll be able to come up with a great marketing plan. You need to find out what you’re able to accomplish with your resources at the moment. Do your research. Try different ideas. See what works for you. Only then can you create a great web marketing strategy for your online business and finally breakthrough on the Internet.

You don't need to just concentrate on online marketing, offline marketing is just as important (most offline marketing you may be already familiar with). What you need to do is concentrate on marketing your unique selling point (not necessarily price) and promote from there.

Marketing help and advice is free. Please click here to contact us. Two heads are always better than one.

Suggestions for generating Internet traffic
Here is a list of possible tactics you can try to generate traffic to your site. Not all these will be suitable for everyone some will depend on your budget and business plan.

• Pay per click
• Newsletter
• Word of mouth
• Joint ventures / strategic partnerships
• Talks to groups
• Participation in online forums / discussion groups
• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)included in our site builds.
• Free for all link pages?
• Pay per click advertising
• Banner advertising and banner exchange programs
• Reciprocal linking
• Shopping comparison sites
• Bundled products
• Free gift with purchase
• Regular newsletter
• Helpful content on your website
• Companion blog for your website
• Offline advertising and promotion

What is Pay per click?
Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising technique used on websites, advertising networks, and search engines.

Advertisers bid on "keywords" that they believe their target market (people they think would be interested in their offer) would type in the search bar / box when they are looking for their type of product or service. For example, if an advertiser sells red widgets, he/she would bid on the keyword "red widgets", hoping a user would type those words in the search bar, see their ad, click on it and buy. These ads are called "sponsored links" or "sponsored ads" and appear next to and sometimes above the natural or organic results on the page. The advertiser pays only when the user clicks on the ad.

While there are many companies operating this sort of advertising, Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing are the largest network operators as of 2006. MSN has started beta testing with their own PPC services MSN adCenter.

Newsletter marketing
Newsletter marketing is a form of opt-in e-mail marketing. The recipient of the newsletter has consented to receive it, usually by adding their email address to a list. Newsletters like this are a way to let customers know about upcoming events or promotions, or new products. In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive this newsletter.

E-mail has become a very popular mode of communication across the world. It has also become extremely popular to advertise through . Some of the many advantages of advertising through e-mail are the direct contact with the consumer and is inexpensive, flexible, and simple to implement. There are also disadvantages attached to e-mail advertising such as, alienating the consumer because of overload to messages or the advertisement getting deleted without getting read.