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.

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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:

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What do you want your website to accomplish? You may want visitors to buy products or services directly from your website, or you may only want to provide more information about your brick-and-mortar company and give your customers a place to learn about sales, special offers, business hours, and other information. Your first step is to determine your goals for your website, and plan to design it accordingly.

Research: Plan to spend a lot of time researching information, both for your company and about your competitors. The more you know about the competition, the better equipped you will be to offer something unique. Internet users typically make Internet purchases for one of the following reasons:

• They recognize the name (branding)
• The process is convenient and the deal is better than other companies offering the same product or service
• They can't get the particular product or service elsewhere

If you can offer something unique and original, even a new spin on an old product or service, you can succeed online. With good advertising practices, you can also be successful with not-so-unusual products by increasing your visibility and offering better deals than your competitors.