The truth is, running two or three web sites that each target a specific niche market is EASIEST WAY TO MAKE MONEY on Internet. Everyone is looking for "big money" makers so, all too often, niche markets are ignored. Yet this is how I have made most of my money online!

I find a targeted niche market, figure out what they want, develop product, and then offer it to them. Easy, right? Well, it gets even better because I then automate entire business from beginning to end, thereby freeing myself to start this process all over again.

Find a niche market. Figure out what they want. Develop product. Offer it to them. Automate business. Start another and diversify. That's it. Sounds too easy to be worth millions, right? Wrong! There is a LOT of money to be made this way.

RULE #2: Develop a strong Unique Selling Proposition

If you have a lot of competitors in your specific industry, then you need to develop your own unique selling proposition (USP). You need to emphasize what makes you better than your competition. Explain to your customers exactly how and why they'll benefit from doing business with you as opposed to someone else. For example…

- Your product/service might cost less than others. - You may have a higher quality product or service. - You offer a better guarantee than anyone else. - You might target a specific age group, industry, or type of person. - You provide special knowledge or advice that is not available anywhere else! - You offer special incentives that no one else does. - Your customer service is better than your competition's.

Whatever your angle, bottom line when promoting your product or service is to EMPHASIZE WHAT MAKES YOU SPECIAL OR UNIQUE. Find an obvious void in marketplace and fill it! Adjust your company or product to meet a specific need and then specialize, specialize, specialize!

RULE #3: Spend your advertising dollars wisely.

Once you have defined your market and developed your unique selling proposition, figuring out who you're advertising to and where they hang out online suddenly becomes way easier. And this means that you can strategically place your ads where they'll PULL THE MOST TARGETED POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS.

As e-business owners get tired of spending their limited advertising dollars on high priced CPM (cost per thousand ad impressions) that pull pitiful results, demand for more performance-based advertising continues to increase. PAY FOR CUSTOMERS... NOT OVERPRICED, UNPROVEN ADVERTISING.

RULE #4: Model success.

Obviously there are a lot of steps involved in building a profitable e-business. You need a strategically designed web site, you need a quality product or service, you need killer sales copy, you need a flawless sales process... you need a cutting-edge marketing campaign designed to blow your competitors right out of water!

That's why you'll be far better off – and way ahead of your competition -- if you TAKE THE TIME TO EDUCATE YOURSELF. Why reinvent wheel when you can learn from someone who has been there, spent cash, researched techniques, and made mistakes for you?

RULE #5: Have a well-developed business plan that includes a clear definition of how you plan to profit.

Plan to profit. That probably seems obvious. Unfortunately, too many people get caught up in some plan or scheme and don't take time to research, test, and plan exactly how they're going to make their money.

An *idea* is NOT a business plan. It's just that... an idea. It becomes a plan when you've researched it, defined your market, figured out exactly how you're going to market yourself, and planned to PROFIT WITHIN A SET PERIOD OF TIME.

SO WHAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE?

Is there still money to be made on Internet? Definitely! With online shopping having increased by an incredible 580% over past two years and Internet becoming an everyday part of consumer lifestyle, now is an excellent time to be starting or promoting your e-business.

Think about it... The economy is correcting itself after a huge spurt of uncontrolled growth, giving you THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY to learn from other's mistakes and strengthen your own business plan.

Take advantage of your competitor's hesitation at this dramatic turning point and scoop up your share of market by going after a well-defined niche market with a strong unique selling proposition. Be smart with your advertising dollars, educate yourself, model success, and plan to profit.

Once you've dominated one niche market with this strategy, you can start to expand your focus... or go after a completely different niche. Whatever you decide, as long as you follow a well-researched plan and test everything along way, this is a fantastic opportunity to profit from consumers' increased acceptance of e-commerce.

Corey Rudl is the owner of four highly successful online businesses that attract more than 6,000,000 visitors and generate over $5.2 million each year. If you're looking for unconventional tips, tricks, and techniques with examples that will show you the fastest, most efficient way to make money on the Internet, then I'd highly recommend visiting Corey's site. http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/5068

3. Domain name - Use your domain name as your brand. Put it on all of your stationary (letter heads, business cards, post cards, statements, etc.).

4. Signature file - Implement your USP into your signature file, so with every email you send visitors will be further exposed to your brand. Check out help file of your email software for more on setting up sig files.

5. Thank you pages - If you have online forms (for visitors to contact you, request more information, subscribe to your newsletter etc.), you most likely have a "thank you" page where you thank visitors for using your form. This is an excellent place to position your logo and slogan. Don't clutter with lots of banners and marketing material. Keep it plain and simple.

6. Ebooks - Create free books on subjects of interest to your visitors and allow them to re-distribute to their own visitors. Brand your ebook with your logo, domain name and slogan on every page of ebook (also consider including your own name).

7. Publish free articles - With thousands of new Web sites and ezines popping up in Web land every month, demand for high quality content is immense. You can provide articles for other webmasters/editors to publish on their Web sites/ezines. At end of your article put your name and a link to your Web site, with short teaser copy to get people to click on your link (offer a free book, subscription to your ezine or some other enticing offer - see my resource box at end for an example). This is free publicity at its best - not only will you get traffic back to your Web site; you'll also add status and credibility to your name (provided your article is of high quality). Visit following sites to submit your articles:

- http://www.e-zinez.com/articles/index.html - http://www.ideamarketers.com/ - http://www.ezinearticles.com/

8. Autoresponders - These are emails that are sent automatically to anyone who requests them (triggered by sending them an email). Autoresponders are great as they work 24 hours a day without any intervention on your part. Use them to send visitors free reports, articles, list of links, etc. And add your branding copy (logo, name, slogan, USP etc.) at top and bottom of autoresponder message, with a link back to your Web site. Nowadays all good Web hosts provide their customers with free autoresponders.

If you don't brand, you'll have a hard time surviving on Web. If you do brand - properly - you'll have a hard time not laughing all way to bank. And as shown by above tips, online branding is not hard to do. Just implement tips and you'll be well on your way.