I was reading a discussion the other day (on a well known marketers forum) between a couple of internet marketers - well maybe it was really a debate........

Anyway, the topic of the discussion was membership sites. One person felt you could find all the information you need to be successful, right here on the internet for free. You didn't have to join a membership site. He went on to challenge people to give him a topic or system and he could look it up and find all there is to know about the subject without paying a dime.

The other key person in this debate argued that - sure you can find all sorts of stuff IF you know what you are looking for in the first place. Sometimes it takes hours to find the right information. How do you know what's right and whats garbage? Besides how much is your time worth?

Have you figured out how much you are worth per hour? Its easy to do. Take your last job (or present job) and calculate your hourly rate. Thats what YOU are worth per hour.

So the next time you search the internet for something - take note of the amount of time you spend and X that by your hourly rate. Now you know how much that information just cost you!

When you put into dollars and cents - a modest monthly fee for a good membership site is worth it, isn't it?

It's always great when someone else does the searching and weeding out of garbage. So with that note I'm going to tell you about a few places where you can get stuff for free.

The Land Of The Give-A-Ways

I'm sure you have heard about them. Sites where a bunch of people pool their products and then promote the site in hopes that you will join, download their material and join their mailing list. The goal of these sites is always the same. Join and then search for products you might be interested in (for free) and then signup on that owners list so you can get the free product. Of course the site always has a back end upsell. Sometimes the products are good and sometimes it's the same old crap.

Because there have been so many give a way sites lately, I think the quality of the free products has increased.

There is a new site - its only open for a short while. Go check it out. There are a few free products there that are worth giving your email address for.

• Big Thanksgiving Giveaway

As I find more I'll post them here. Sometimes these sites have treasures that are useful. Go check it out.

The Internet is enormous. This is perhaps the most important concept you need to understand as an Internet marketer. No matter how original your idea, you are going to have competition online. The question becomes then: how are you going to stand out from the crowd and attract business?

The good news is there are many things you don't need for online success. These things include:

• A massive advertising budget
• Expensive graphic designers
• Making your company a household name
• An elaborate base of operations
• 80-hour work weeks

What do you need, then? You need to work smarter, not harder.

Running with the giants

There are top competitors in every industry. Microsoft dominates software, Google rules search engine technology, McDonalds is the emperor of fast food. However, the Internet is a level playing field, and your company can appear as big and established as you want it to. You only need a fraction of a percentage of the online pie to enjoy business success.

Search engine placement is still the best way to gain exposure for your Internet business. In the beginning of the Internet, the practice of keyword stuffing—placing irrelevant or excessive keywords on web pages to achieve a higher search engine rank—was prevalent. Today, though, search engine technology is far more sophisticated, and there is no "magic" formula to ascend the ranks.

How can you place high on search engines and compete with the top Internet businesses in your industry? All you really need to do is keep it real. Make your website informative, interesting, and ever-changing, and you will score high with search engines.

Today's "secrets" for top search engine ranking include:

• Strive to provide visitors with real, useful, and interesting information that makes your website not only a great selling tool, but a great place to visit and spend some time.
• Plant hooks on your pages for the search engines that are related to the information on each page.
• Build buzz and word-of-mouth for your business using pay-per-click advertising and other relevant avenues for your target markets.

Using your website goals and your budget, create a timetable or plan for your business. Where do you expect to see yourself in a year? Five years? Ten? What types of advertising will you be willing to expand to? Don't make the mistake of relying solely on Internet methods to advertise your business. You will be able to get started that way, but you probably won't be able to expand without seeking alternative advertising venues.

Keep these statistics in mind:

• As of 2005, 957 million people had Internet access, and more sign on every day.
• 96 percent of those with online access use the Internet as their first and preferred method of researching product information.
• During 2005, search engines were accessed and used nearly 5 billion times in the United States alone, an increase of 27.5 percent from 2004.
• 74 percent of those who use search engines research local information through them.

Simple math dictates that many more potential customers will find your business by virtue of your online presence alone. Combine that with a carefully targeted and well-researched marketing campaign, and it is easy to see why Internet marketing and online businesses succeed!

Be prepared to capitalize on your website. Every visitor who finds your website is a potential customer. It is important to capture as much information as possible whenever someone visits your site. The average consumer must be exposed to your marketing message between three and seven times before they are convinced to buy—so the more often you can put your business in front of them, the better your chances at making sales.

Some tips on capturing and using visitor information:

• Offer opportunities for visitors to add themselves to your list. Ask them to register, sign a guestbook, subscribe to a newsletter, or request to be notified when you have sales or special offers.
• Place a subscription box on every page of your website, not just your homepage. The more often visitors see the box, the more likely they will be to check it out.
• Give away premiums such as free gifts, newsletters, e-books and reports as incentives for signing up for your list. If your product is not an e-book or can't be given away, run a search for free downloadable e-books that relate to your product or service and give those away.
• Get recognition, credibility, and new customers by writing an e-book, how-to book or article series that you allow to be distributed free—with the provision that the material includes your byline, URL and subscription information.
• Add every address you collect (with permission from the subscriber) to your opt-in e-mail list.

Developing and maintaining a list of customers is vital to your Internet business. Whether you use your list to send out regular newsletters, communicate special offers, or simply touch base with new and existing customers from time to time, you must have an ever-growing database of contacts on tap.

Using your website goals and your budget, create a timetable or plan for your business. Where do you expect to see yourself in a year? Five years? Ten? What types of advertising will you be willing to expand to? Don't make the mistake of relying solely on Internet methods to advertise your business. You will be able to get started that way, but you probably won't be able to expand without seeking alternative advertising venues.

Keep these statistics in mind:

• As of 2005, 957 million people had Internet access, and more sign on every day.
• 96 percent of those with online access use the Internet as their first and preferred method of researching product information.
• During 2005, search engines were accessed and used nearly 5 billion times in the United States alone, an increase of 27.5 percent from 2004.
• 74 percent of those who use search engines research local information through them.

Simple math dictates that many more potential customers will find your business by virtue of your online presence alone. Combine that with a carefully targeted and well-researched marketing campaign, and it is easy to see why Internet marketing and online businesses succeed!

Be prepared to capitalize on your website. Every visitor who finds your website is a potential customer. It is important to capture as much information as possible whenever someone visits your site. The average consumer must be exposed to your marketing message between three and seven times before they are convinced to buy—so the more often you can put your business in front of them, the better your chances at making sales.

Some tips on capturing and using visitor information:

• Offer opportunities for visitors to add themselves to your list. Ask them to register, sign a guestbook, subscribe to a newsletter, or request to be notified when you have sales or special offers.
• Place a subscription box on every page of your website, not just your homepage. The more often visitors see the box, the more likely they will be to check it out.
• Give away premiums such as free gifts, newsletters, e-books and reports as incentives for signing up for your list. If your product is not an e-book or can't be given away, run a search for free downloadable e-books that relate to your product or service and give those away.
• Get recognition, credibility, and new customers by writing an e-book, how-to book or article series that you allow to be distributed free—with the provision that the material includes your byline, URL and subscription information.
• Add every address you collect (with permission from the subscriber) to your opt-in e-mail list.

Developing and maintaining a list of customers is vital to your Internet business. Whether you use your list to send out regular newsletters, communicate special offers, or simply touch base with new and existing customers from time to time, you must have an ever-growing database of contacts on tap.

Though it is true that you can start an Internet business with little or no initial investment, you should expect at some point to establish a realistic and firm budget. At the very least, plan to reinvest some of your profits in your company.

Also, having a small initial advertising budget can help get things moving faster. Once you have your website set up to take in profits, you might want to consider advertising in a few low-cost "traditional" ways to start attracting visitors. These traditional advertising methods include:

• Flyers
• Post cards
• Direct response mail
• E-mail blasts
• Fax blasts
• Yellow pages
• Newspaper ads
• Magazine ads
• Billboards
• Radio commercials
• Television commercials

Of course, some of these avenues are more expensive than others. You can also start with low-cost or free online advertisements, and consider placing more traditional ads when you have some profits to roll back into your budget.