If you’re even a touch interested in Internet Marketing (IM), today I’ll give you some food for thought. Below I’ve listed some things to keep in mind when you start an IM business.

Notice I said “start an IM business,” not get into IM or try IM or take a shot at IM. This is important for a number of reasons…here are a few:

1. You should only enter the IM arena if you are serious about making money on the Internet
2. You should have a plan for how you are going to make money on the Internet
3. If you decide to start IM, you need to form a legal entity (Sole Proprietorship, LLC, Inc., etc.) and register this entity with your State and the Federal Government
4. You need to think like a business owner during the initial months of your IM efforts

Let’s talk about these items in a little more detail. Is it really important to be SERIOUS about making money? I think this is key, because I’ve found it is VERY easy to get distracted, even discouraged, when you are getting started with IM. Think about it…there are MILLIONS of websites; TONS of text to read; HOURS of online videos to watch - you don’t need to have A.D.D. to veer off course. So you need a map, in other words, a PLAN.

Don’t start without a plan for how to make money. This doesn’t need to be a full-blown Business Plan, but you should determine your niche, your market and your target audience (who are your prospects?). I’ll break this process down in a future article. Of course, in order to figure out what your business will focus on, you need to do some research first. See what’s popular; what people are searching for on Google (http://www.google.com/trends); do you want to sell physical products (a la eBay) or Information Products; what would interest you; etc.

Form a legal entity. When I started, this was one of the first things I did. I decided to form a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in the state of Virginia. At first I was going to choose a Sole Proprietorship, but I found out that LLCs can have only one member, and they are MUCH more attractive regarding taxes and separating your business from your personal assets. In tandem with forming your company, you should open a business checking account, get a business credit card, subscribe to a web hosting service, post your business website(s), order business cards, etc.

The above paragraph illustrates part of my fourth point, think like a business owner. How will you appear like a business to your prospective customers and business partners? When starting out, you need to incur business expenses. Think of these as INVESTMENTS, and when you start to make money, this revenue will be a RETURN on your investments. Obviously, you’ll be able to deduct many of these expenses on your business taxes as well. For me, my largest business investment thus far is my membership in Eben Pagan’s Guru MasterMind program. This is a one-year program, and I’m learning a lot. I’ll provide more details on my experiences in the Guru MasterMind program in future posts.

OK…I know I didn’t cover all of the details, or even all of the things to think about. But I hope you now have at least a general idea of the types of things you need to keep in mind EVEN BEFORE you say to yourself, “I’m going to get into IM.”

Until next time,
Jeff