So the economy has pushed you out of steady employment; what about internet marketing jobs? I’m not talking about marketing online for other companies, necessarily, but starting your own business that grows through internet marketing. Are you game?

If so, take a look at these ideas for small businesses with small startup costs you can run from your home and make enough of a profit to pay your bills and then some – or provide a way to make a gradual exit from your current job.

Providing Online Services

Just about everyone does business on the internet these days but most business owners don’t have the time to take care of everything that needs to be done. Depending on your skill set and knowledge you could offer to revamp website content, write blog posts, create links through blog commenting, make website updates, provide referrals, take photos, and many other services necessary for a successful online business. All of these are technically “internet marketing jobs”.

Getting started: Offer to do some work for free for friends or acquaintances with an online presence. Use the power of referrals and networking to grow your business over time. The better job you can do – and show to others – the quicker your reputation for quality will grow. You can always get a job with an established company as well; here at Media Duck we employ several people to help us with website design, social media marketing and other types of internet marketing jobs.

Affiliate Marketing Website

Not ready to take the plunge and open your own business? Then why not ride on the coattails of someone who has already created a successful online company? Affiliate marketing is big business; there are lots of companies who will pay you for sending referrals their way or even just for getting one of your website visitors to click on a link.

Getting started: Decide on what type of business niche interests you most then start your own website based around this topic. You’ll need to post content that is relevant to the type of products or services you are marketing in order to attract traffic. Then get signed up as an affiliate marketer with a successful company; try a site such as Commission Junction to view the array of companies that offer such a program and how much they pay.

Providing Personal Services

Believe it or not, even in today’s economy personal service companies are thriving. It could be that business owners are stretched so thin by a lack of employees that they’re willing to pay someone else to take care of personal, mundane chores. Personal shopping and housecleaning are always popular but think outside the box and offer other necessary services such as daily pet sitting, car maintenance, home maintenance, meal delivery, etc.

Getting started: Use your list of contacts to find busy business owners who might have need of your services. Spread the word online by reaching out via LinkedIn, ReferralKey, and other places where you can create a provider profile. Of course, creating your own website with testimonials is always a good idea so you have somewhere to send interested potential clientele.

So there you have it – three online businesses that allow for internet marketing jobs you can do from home, on your own terms and at your own pace. Get started today and chances are you’ll be making a nice income within a month!

I’ve found that when it comes to social media, Twitter is the least understood of all the social venues available for local internet marketing. Basically, Twitter is a “micro-blog” giving you the chance to post updates of 140 characters or less that your followers can see. The idea is to post interesting, informative stuff so it catches someone else’s eye – and that someone else will take the time to find out more about you and your company by clicking your links.

It stands to reason that the more followers you have, the better your chance of connecting with a potential customer. Here, then, are a few quick, free ways you can increase the number of followers of your Twitter account.

1. Find Tweeters Who Share an Interest

Let’s say your company sells running shoes. You’d want to find all the Tweeters who jog, right? While you can’t easily find them by searching for the keyword “jog” or “run” on Twitter (you’ll get posts mentioning those words but not necessarily users who are interested in it), you can input those keywords in a free tool called WeFollow, which returns a list of users you can then follow. Add your own site there, too, so others can find you based on keywords.

Want to find users who are in your area? Use an app called Nearby Tweets to show you users who mention a specified location, then follow them. This is a great form of local internet marketing.

2. Follow Those Who Follow You

You can find several apps online that allow you to automatically follow anyone who starts following you. What’s the point? It’s the law of reciprocity combined with the fact that many other Tweeters are using the same type of app! Many times the only way another user is going to find you is by you following them. In addition, if you are following fewer people than follow you, it might indicate to others that you aren’t playing the social game, with its give-and-take, you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours mentality, correctly.

3. Follower Suggestions

Based on the current users you follow, Twitter compiles a new list each time you log in that shows related Tweeters you might be interested in following. Go ahead and follow them all; chances are they will return the favor (see #2 above).

4. Use the Hashtag

You’ve probably heard recently that Twitter is one of the fastest ways to spread news (during the Casey Anthony trial, Tweeters were the first to report, complain, discuss specifics of the case). That’s largely because Twitter allows users across the board, whether or not they are following each other, to discuss a particular topic. This is done via the hashtag in front of a keyword. So for instance, you want to tweet about the reduced price on a iPad you’re offering for sale, you could post something like this, “Price lowered to $100 for all #iPads you order by 5 PM today”. You’ll attract followers who are interested in iPads.

5. Add an App to Other Social Media Accounts

Find your friends from other social networking sites by adding an app that displays your latest tweets. You can do this with your website, blog, LinkedIn account, Facebook page – there’s not really anywhere that you can’t link to your Twitter account. This is just one more way to gain followers from other sites and via other online relationships.

Don’t forget the most important thing about using Twitter for local internet marketing and that’s writing good posts. Don’t make a hard sell, but instead attract people who are interested in what you’ve got to offer. When it comes to local internet marketing, it’s all about making connections with online users who just might become future clientele.

For many small business owners, the decision to use internet marketing companies rather than rely on their own staff is one that is bound to come up sooner or later. Most entrepreneurs know a thing or two about marketing and advertising their business and they might reason, why pay someone else to do it? Let me give you several reasons.

Up-to-Date Knowledge

Keeping up with the latest trends in internet marketing is a full-time job. If you’re just now setting up a blog and a Facebook page, you’re behind the eight ball. There’s much more to internet marketing than writing a blog post now and then or inviting your friends and family to “like” your business. The truth is that internet marketing is constantly changing and evolving.

For instance, have you heard about Google+? This is the newest form of social media to hit the World Wide Web and it presents yet another great opportunity for small business owners to connect with prospective clients. There’s also a new image sharing site owned by Google, text (SMS) messaging, smartphone apps, video posting and a whole host of other ways that internet marketing companies can make your business visible online. Do you personally have the time to keep up with them all?

Time and Trouble

That brings me to my next point. Although you may have the best of intentions, it is rare that a small business owner – or even an employee – has the time to market online. It takes time and effort to set up article directory accounts, write blog posts, exchange links, update social media and all the other various means of marketing your business online. When it comes to internet marketing companies, they have dedicated staff members who do nothing but these types of daily tasks.

Of course, there’s the learning curve, too. It always takes more time, and often a lot more headaches, to learn the various idiosyncrasies and rules of each site where you wish to market your company. What are the dimensions of a Twitter background image? How do you upload a video to your Facebook page? Can you find other sites to exchange links with? Do you know how to syndicate an article? Internet marketing companies know the answers to all these questions and more!

How To

And finally, even after you get all your accounts and social media profiles and blog set up, do you know how to use them to their full advantage? When it comes to engaging customers online and standing out from the billions of other companies available, it requires a certain finesse. Internet marketing is both an art and a science. If done wrong, it can actually have a negative effect on your business.

Sure, it will cost you to use internet marketing companies for your business. But do you really have the continual time and education resources required to make internet marketing profitable yourself? Just contact us and we can present a truly affordable solution to your internet marketing needs, no matter the size of your budget.