Everybody wants to learn how to make money on the Internet.  I have been doing so for just about ten years and I feel like I am somewhat qualified to reveal a couple of techniques that I have learned along the way.  Actually, I have shelves filled up with all sorts of books and a hard drive loaded with “top secret techniques” (ebooks) that I have read from internet marketing gurus.  So, I have decided to write an entire series on what these folks claim to be top secret techniques in which they have charged mega-bucks to almost everyone under the sun.  Personally I think that if you went to just about any book store you will find pretty much the same content in books which are written in great detail about the subject, but here I am ratting out the gurus so that you don’t have to spend all of that hard earned moola.

The most prominent strategy that you can use in making money over the Internet is the technique called relationship building.  I personally have worked with information and internet marketers and the one thing I was always reminded of was the fact that building a list was important but maintaining and keeping a relationship with the people on your list was gold.   It is not enough that you develop a customer list, you must develop an actual care and relationship with those people if you are to have long term success and credibility with them.

1. The Personal Touch – One of the ways that you can establish credibility and caring with people that you build a business relationship with, is to create personal messages that have valuable content. It seems like many of the big time gurus have forgotten about this principle and it will eventually be to their demise.  If you craft messages that contain short greetings followed by a sales pitch, then you are in grave danger of losing that potential client or customer forever.  Almost any business can benefit from this advice, be it online or offline brick and mortar businesses.  People will actually be refreshed by honest and open communication from a person that does not try to sell them from the word “go”.
2. Credibility - The most potent method of creating this type of trust is by building credibility.  This is the reason why we have the personal touch and develop relationships.  Any marketing analyst can tell you that a person or group is ten times more likely to do business with you if they know you and definitely if they TRUST you.
3. Know Your Audience – It is absolutely imperative that you find out what your audience or subscribers / visitors want.  If you start giving information about gerbil racing to people who race turtles, then you will have a serious problem connecting with your audience.  Not only that, but if you have qualified yourself as an expert in a particular field and delivered valuable information about it, then you will get cooperation from them.  Why do you need cooperation?  Because you want two-way communication with them so that they can tell you exactly what they are looking for.  You will actually want to ask them at some point what it is that they are looking for.  There are several ways of doing this.  If you have a blog and make regular postings about a particular subject, then you will want to encourage them to leave comments on your blog.  You could also have a forum that also has many different categories of subjects and see what your fans are looking for.  I once used an online survey to ask people what they were looking for on my site and it worked out great.  As a matter of fact, you can take a survey right now by clicking this: Internet Marketing Guru Survey. I got this plugin for this WordPress Blog from SurveyGizmo.
4. The First Contact - When you first begin your Internet marketing venture, you will not have a ton of people to write, so you should be able to talk directly with a customer with a personalized email.  Call them by name and make it as personal as you can with out giving out personal details about yourself liked what type of underwear you wear.  Remember, be genuine.  People are made to feel like just a name and number in this world, so if you treat them like a real human instead of an opportunity, then you will be like a breath or fresh air.

Well students, I think I have covered enough for this segment. I will continue on my journey in the next several parts of this series next time.  Here is a video that I think you will find relative to this subject by the famous marketing guru Seth Godin who, by the way, created Squidoo.