Many of the questions I receive when giving my weekly free teleseminars about marketing with content is what are the very first activities required to start a business on the internet or to give a business an internet presence. My response to each of them is that what is basic for you may not require the same activity that it will for someone else depending upon your business and what your goals are.

There has been much talk about online success lately. There are even dozens of TV infomercials about starting a business at home on the Internet. Some folks may be looking for the big car or the second home, but most are seeking extra income to get them through these tough economic times. The problem is the way they are going about starting their business on the internet is costing them money.

The point is your goal may be $200 extra a month and the goal for the next person is $5000 a month or $20,000 or enough so that they can quit working two jobs. The amount of the goal is not important in the beginning. What is imported is to get started correctly.

The first step then is to write down your goal of how much money you want to earn each month for the next 6 months, the next year, 2 years and 5 years. Keep in mind is that your goal can change and your internet business can change before you reach your goal. The internet does change and it changes quickly all the time so that no matter how stable you consider yourself, you are going to be making adjustments along the way all the time.

Step two is to find and identify your target market. This is your niche market. You cannot promote your service or product to everyone. You do not have enough time and money to cover that large a possibility and you will be totally unsuccessful. Once you are aware of your ideal client or customer, once you are aware of the problems your product can solve for athletes or for parents, once you know who wants to purchase your service, just about everything else falls in place. The problem that many people have who enter the beginning phases of an internet presence is that they jump from market to market. That will make your business life very confusing. Even if you have a service that appeals to 3 markets. I recommend you still start with one market, saturate it, and become successful with that market and then take on the others one at a time.

Getting started online requires making choices. The fact is there are dozens of choices you have regarding what you can do to promote your business. Some of these strategies are free; some cost a lot of money. And then there are the hundreds, maybe thousands of experts and gurus telling you to do this and another saying no do that. There are also hundreds of videos on Utube explaining how to do the mechanics of what you need to do to promote yourself online.

You can purchase books, you can attend conferences, you can register for online seminars, and you can arrange for getting yourself coached to get started with your online business. The amount of information is overwhelming! In fact, it is often times too much information.

Step three is finding your keywords. Whether you are looking for airline tickets, a coupon for a restaurant, or a critter control company to get rid of the skunks, you most likely go to your computer and search in Google for your handyman or manicurist. The words you type in t find your handyman are the keywords for the handyman business. The words someone uses to find your business on Google are the keywords you want. Those are the keywords you are seeking. Do you know the keywords that people type in searching for your goods and services? The more you understand what problems they have and how you can solve those problems, the better will be your keyword selection.

Your fourth step is to purchase domain names. Your website requires a domain name. If you have products you may want more than one website. Some of the internet marketing experts say you need only one website; others say you need several or many depending up what you are doing. You need one domain name for each URL. They usually cost under $10.

Your fifth step is to find a hosting account because your website lives on a host. You have lots of choices for working with a particular host company but use these two requirements when you make your decision. You want a host company that runs a cpanel which is a type of user interface that has lots of built in tools and free programs. You also want a host service that allows multiple domains on the same account.

Carrying out these five steps will get you started with your online business.