And finally, consultant should explain how they propose to evaluate success of any marketing campaign against your goals and objectives. Marketing is an ongoing process, during which you'll learn a lot about your site and about your visitors. This knowledge should be analyzed and used to tweak your site and refine your business strategies. A good consultant will be able to work with you to achieve this.

What guarantees can you expect?

Let's be very clear - there is a distinction, which often gets blurred, between sales and marketing. The job of a marketing consultant is to bring qualified traffic to your site (or in other words, into your storefront). Completing sale is then a separate challenge.

Marketing is also a very gray area, in which it's difficult to provide cast-iron guarantees of results. This is particularly true in area of search engine optimization, since search engines are so unpredictable. In my opinion, if a consultant promises you "top ten placement" you should be very wary - it's possible that they are using tactics that could be classified as spam - soon if not now.

But obviously you do want to check that consultant has a good track record, and that they can provide references from other clients. I believe that good Web knowledge and proven online marketing tactics are as important as an in-depth familiarity with your industry.

In setting your contract with consultant, it's important to have a mutual comfort level with your goals, expectations and budget. There are many opportunities for free promotion online, but if you're prepared to spend some money, you can potentially build your traffic faster. Since building awareness of a site takes time, perhaps a minimum six-month period would be advisable, but with appropriate get-out clauses for both parties.

Conclusion

Good Web marketing is a team effort! Hire a consultant who you feel very comfortable with, who asks lots of questions to really understand your business and your goals, and who seems genuinely interested in promoting you. But then be prepared to work with them - respect and consider their suggestions, and allow them to be creative in their approach.

1) SERVICE: Consumers, no matter what kind, expect and demand to be pampered and waited on. Pay attention to their wants and needs, and fulfill them to best of your abilities short of effecting your efficiency to serve others or your "Bottom Line".

2) QUALITY: Poor quality is going to get you two things: Complaints and no repeat customers. If you expect to spend any time in business, do yourself a favor; Don't "lie to", "steal from" or "cheat" your customers. Provide them with truthful information, honesty and integrity, and give them best product you can provide for price that you set without effecting your bottom line profit margin.

3) GUARANTEE: In today's world of "fast buck" rip-off artist, especially on Internet, people are hesitant to buy anything without a guarantee. If you want to make sales, make a guarantee, but don't over do it. Don't make such a ridiculous guarantee, that it can't be believed or will cost you so much that your profit margin takes a nose dive.

When deciding what your Niche will be, first decide how it will attract and benefit your customers, and how you will divert them from patronizing your competitor for first time or repeated sales. For example, your Niche may also be providing more information and services in your area than anyone else in market.

In closing, no matter what your Niche, you will always find someone else in same market. Always study your competitors. Approach them (their site) as you would if you were really a prospective customer looking for their product. Would you be more likely to buy from them or from you. Why? Why Not? These are points that you should be constantly examining, researching and striving to make better.