It continues to amaze and sadden me, just how frequently home based business efforts of people fail for various reasons. In fact, not many weeks go by that I don't receive emails requesting advice and help from home business marketers trying to salvage their investment into their online marketing business.

Just as common and frequent are the "typical" themes about "what went wrong". It doesn't really take many questions through inquiry to uncover what I feel is the root cause for their demise. Truth is many are guilty of multiple "violations" of what I call the "core basics" of establishing, maintaining, and ensuring your online based business stays healthy and thriving. This article seeks to identify those areas of focus, with the hope you will not repeat them for your home business.

No matter how wonderful or magnificent your website ? the bottom-line is that unless someone can find the site - it might as well not exist! Truth is, unless you advertise and promote your website through some means, you will never receive traffic, period. There are a lot of options, some cost money ? others your time. Pay-per-Click (PPC) possibilities include the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. Writing articles for publication, participation in forums, etc. are all examples of activities to generate web traffic that do not cost money that can be even more effective that the PPC methods. The point is: you have to advertise in some fashion to get traffic to your website. Otherwise, your home business activity will not last long.

It might seem obvious to you or I, but it is shocking how many failed home business activities happen where the owners rarely (if ever) correspond with their clients/customers. Whether it be new prospects, and especially from anyone that has ever purchased from you -- YOU MUST make efforts to promptly respond to their email inquiries, and keep in contact with them in the future. Many internet marketers are successful for follow up, subsequent sales later on ? not just focused on the 1-time sale and done philosophy. And to the point of not responding to emails ? the Number 1 complaint of customer support activities is long delays or non-responsiveness in responding to inquiries made by customers. For you to be successful, this simply is not acceptable!

Online users today are always in hurry and always "speeding" through the internet looking for "stuff". Likewise, they have keen eyes and memories when it comes to being aware of information and content on any given website. Unless home based business marketers frequently update our content (even if it is just to rearranging the landscape) they quickly perceive that it is an unattended site or otherwise not a place worthy of a bookmark to visit with regularity "to get the latest". We need fresh, exciting current information, events, and activities to keep the site "fresh". Otherwise, they will quickly find some other place that does.

Like the popular saying, "keeping up with Jones'" --in most cases - it is not a good thing. However, in the world of home based business and internet marketing ? it is a must! For small and home business owners, it is a great advantage to be able to continually look at "what the big boys are doing" in our respective industry niche markets. This allows us to be able to use the information as a benchmark or barometer for keeping prices, product line, content, etc., up to date and in line with the market. The classification for these efforts should be in the category of "market research", with the intended purpose of helping us stay current on the market and what is available, from whom, and at what price. This should be the primary method for idea generation for possible enhancements to our own product and service offerings.

The final area of focus is as much ethical as it is legal and prudent. No matter how tempting it might be, no matter who else does it---the answer is: DO NOT SPAM, PERIOD! Sending unwanted and unsolicited email to anyone else is not legal and is one of the easiest ways to get your business blacklisted and "out of business". Sure we all continue to get that junky unwanted stuff ourselves. But they will be caught, soon or later. Internet users have become so keenly aware of SPAM mail that they rarely are compelled to buy anything and more times than not delete SPAM mail without even opening it or reading through the message content. You must avoid this practice completely! It is clearly not worth taking such a risk. Develop and maintain a strict and compliant policy when it comes to SPAM mail and sending business emails. Learn the rules and practices about proper techniques such as Opt-In and Double Opt-In emailing. It will save your business someday, literally!

This information is not a comprehensive or all-inclusive list, but at least you now have a few of the "basics" of the mistakes "many" others have made. Learn from their bad experiences, so that one of theirs does not become your nightmare!

Copyright (c) 2006 Stephen Wright