I think one of my favorite stories about taking life's lemons and making lemonade has to do with a brick and mortar business that had been around for a very long time. Due to the law of supply and demand this business owner had the proverbial corner on the market for his product and commanded a sizable profit.

As fate would have it a business moved into an empty storefront next to him and, unbelievably, the business sold the exact product he sold. On opening day a sign was posted that read BEST PRICES. The novelty of the business meant some customers left the established business in favor of checking out the ‘best prices'. The storeowner worked to make his prices competitive with his new rival.

It wasn't long before another similar business occupied the empty storefront on the other side of this beleaguered storeowner. A sign was erected which read BEST SELECTION. The storeowner couldn't believe the horrid luck he had and wondered if all his hard work would be for nothing. However, this industrious business owner had weathered hard times before and understood the need to market his business, so he thought about his plight for a few days until a novel idea struck.

The following morning the storeowner erected a large sign in front of his shop, which read MAIN ENTRANCE.

This storeowner's tenacity is the same stuff that every online business owner needs when promoting his or her business. The idea is to find a way to invite people to your site, provide them with quality goods at a quality price and figure out a way to separate yourself from every other online business that is similar to yours.

Internet marketing is about learning new skills that can help you establish yourself as something unique and worth considering among so many choices. This might be accomplished to a degree through the uniqueness of your product offering, but this strategy alone may not be enough.

The use of unique knowledge-based content and clearly defined search engine optimization (SEO) strategies are going to be very important to the long-term separation between your business and every other business online.

When they put up their BEST PRICES or BEST SELECTION signs you need to have a MAIN ENTRANCE sign ready to go (or already in place) so that in the end the lemons that surround you are ready for some incredible lemonade.

Be creative, but pay attention to research. You may just be sipping some of life's lemonade if you do.