- Search engine optimization. Optimizing your website for high search engine results on google, yahoo and msn, is a powerful way of getting large volumes of traffic at low cost. However, you have to put in a lot of effort for a long period of time, as top rankings do not appear overnight. There are two factors for search engine optimization: On-page or Off-page optimization. On-page optimization involves tweaking page title, header and meta tags to include website keywords. It also involves scattering keywords throughout page to improve site relevancy. Off-page optimization, on other hand, is much more important than on-page. It involves soliciting links from relevant websites. The more websites that link to your site, and higher importance/relevance of website linking to yours, higher your website will be ranked on search engines. Google places a very strong emphasis on this.

- Pay-per-click (PPC) Search Engines. This requires you to pay a sum of money for every visitor that clicks through search engine to your website. The higher amount you pay, higher your website will be ranked on PPC search engine. The basis for profiting with this marketing tool is by bidding less than amount that each visitor to your website is worth. Overture is definitely market leader for pay-per-click search engines.

4) Competitive Analysis. In this section, you have to analyze strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, and factors that will differentiate your products or services from your competitors. You have to analyze your competitors and record what makes them so successful, and also weaknesses you can capitalize on to get an edge in market. For example, competitors may not be using email marketing effectively to promote products to customers. You can capitalize on this by using newsletters more intensively, establishing your credibility as an industry expert. To differentiate an online Drop Ship business, it is more viable to provide a reliable service from your website. This usually means providing a wealth of tips, articles and information for your visitors. This will attract them to continuously return to your website for latest tips and resources that will benefit them. Fast response to their email queries and also fast shipping are also good services you can provide.

5) The financial projection section. In this section you can project profit-loss statements and cash flow statements for your business. The profit-loss statement records monthly profit/loss realized over months, while cash flow statement records difference between revenue and expenditure over months. The costs for an online Drop Ship business will include:

- One-time costs for software like shopping cart software, email marketing software, and also search engine optimization software.

- Recurring costs for wholesale price of products, web hosting fees, a proportion of revenue paid to your third party credit card merchant to process your payments, and also internet marketing costs.

This section will be useful for you to gauge how your Drop Ship business performs according to your expectations.

In conclusion, business plans do not only apply to real-world businesses, but are equally critical to online businesses as well. They serve as blueprints of companies and also as strong calls to action for aspiring internet entrepreneurs to achieve their success in ecommerce.

*You are welcome to reprint this article as long as you include Author’s resource box with article and entire article remains unchanged.

How many times have you changed TV channel to avoid listening to a screaming car salesperson? No one likes ascreaming salesperson...and no one likes a "screaming" email message, either. Odds are, when someone has over-amped volume of their message by using too many capital letters(not to mention too many exclamation points and other punctuation) - you`re going to be turned off.

On Internet, email messages written in all caps are considered yelling. It`s okay to write some sentences and some words in all caps, but don`t go overboard. (As you can see in this message, I`ve tried to use capital letters to help break up sections of content from time to time).

Remember that consumers buy from a source they trust. Emails in all caps are perceived as "shady" or uneducated, and have an appearance that damages credibility of an offer.

RULE #3 - WATCH YOUR Ps & Qs (Spelling and Grammar)

Would you be influenced by an email selling you something that had noticeable spelling and grammar mistakes? Sure you would...and influence would be negative, not positive! When a consumer reads a sales message that`s filled with errors, they think to themselves, "Good grief, this person doesn`t even take time to get his emails right. His product is probably same quality as his emails."

When you`re in business, your image is your reputation and your reputation is reason people buy from you or guy down block. It`s essential that you create an image of integrity, credibility, and honesty in mind of your prospects. Sending emails filled with errors doesn`t hurt your professional image...it destroys it.

Follow these basic email marketing rules and you will dramatically improve your chances of being a successful email marketer.