Learn how to do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in order to receive numerous back links and FREE organic traffic. SEO could be free or paid the first cost you time and the second cost you money.



Become involve in Web 2.0, social bookmarking, like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Squidoo, etc... These social communities have the added benefits of leverage or of being viral. Using them is not a fad but a must for traffic generation.

Simultaneously, as you are channeling traffic to your site, you also need to build yourself a list through Squeeze pages or Opt-in pages because the Money is really in the list and in its benefits of relationship building and follow-ups. On or offline, your list of customers is your main asset, your products come second.

With a list you can make money even if you do not have any product or service of your own. Having a significant list is the closest you will ever come to printing money, having an ATM, or at least a pushbutton cash machine. List management: the unavoidable tool that you need is an autoresponder. You can either buy the software script and install it on your server or you can do as the professionals do--use the services of companies like Aweber or Getresponse for a nominal monthly fee.

What do you do with your list? You sell them more products and send them occasional free contents. Up to 80% of some Internet marketers income comes from backend sales. The goal of your business should be to create many sales funnels and many products pipelines. You must automate your business and make it generate a passive, residual income. That is one that does not require your presence for you to make money. You could be travelling or somewhere on a beach and still be able to earn money.

Now experience shows that it is easier and cheaper to sell to someone who has bought from you already than to acquire a new customer altogether. This assumes that their first buying experience from you was an easy and pleasant one. Do not feel bad selling to your customers over and over again. Their needs change or evolve and so should your products. It is your duty to do so! In fact, you will be doing your list a disservice if your list needs a product and you do not sell it to them. If you do not have the product, become an affiliate of one and sell it to them through your links.

After you have set up this well-oiled machine in place, your job is not totally over. You need to review your cash flow generation methods and explore future monetization strategies. You need to focus on testing, tweaking, tracking ads, and improving your conversion ratios. You need to learn some other advanced strategies and incorporate them into your sales funnel such as having an OTO page (One Time Offer), optimizing your virtual real estate, an upsell, downsell, cross-sale or promotions, viral and Mark Joyners Integration Marketing, and doing joint ventures with other marketers who have bigger lists than yours.

Manage your business, your time and your money: You should delegate duties if there are other people helping you. If you are doing it by yourself you can outsource some of the work overseas--it is cheaper in India and Romania than it would cost you in the USA. Start with one virtual assistant and as your business grows hire a copywriter, a programmer, a project manager, an affiliates manager, etc. on an as needed basis.

Last but not least, and certainly not in this order, you must have a real or virtual mentor at all of these stages. Pay for a coach if you can afford one. If not, then do not try to reinvent the wheel. Look at the gurus in your field, like Jay Abraham, Mike Filsaime, Frank Kern, Perry Marshall, Eric Schefren etc. and buy their products, legally follow their examples, recommendations and leads. This will not only prevent you from making costly mistakes but also shorten your learning curve. Consequently, as a result of this scrutiny, study, and its implementation you will also make some money.

That is it: everything else is just rinse and repeat... Hopefully, these 15 steps have shed some light on the ambiguous skills and the specialized knowledge required to become a successful online entrepreneur.