The Internet provides a great number of opportunities that allow someone to get into business quickly, but many folks who try, are like that person stumbling about a dark room. A good business plan requires that research is done on whether it will work prior to getting started. Once a product or service is settled on, next major step is to develop a marketing plan.

At risk of oversimplification, a good marketing plan must get information about your product or services to those who are able and willing to buy them. You will be competing with "droves" of others however, who are trying to accomplish same goal, so steps you take here will either make or break your business. Let's see if we can turn on a light or two.

The first part of your marketing plan should be to identify your potential market. Again, this sounds like a simple process. But it is amazing how many people don't. A campaign aimed directly at your target market, will produce results.

Don't believe ads you read about how mass email is road to success. Nothing could be further from truth. If someone receives a lot of junk email (spam) about a particular product or opportunity, it leaves a bad taste in their mouth.

If you are into Network Marketing or represent an Affiliate, what better place to advertise yours, than where they are trying to market theirs? They have already made a decision about this being a viable field, and many are looking to diversify. So here we have identified a potential target market.

Are there ezines or newsletters that go out to these people, or others who might be considering this? If so, this is a must. How about web sites that accept ads which are similarly targeted? You should definitely have representation there.

Online surveys provide a fast, efficient, and flexible way to learn more about your customers and prospects. The speed of response and flexibility of online surveys can provide an organization with critical information quickly. A product concept developed in morning can be tested and results received next day! Strategic decisions can be made in a fraction of time.

Online surveys can take different forms. Below are examples:

·General Website Survey - This survey is placed on a website and is open for all site visitors to take. Because survey is open to all, sampling cannot be controlled or considered a statistically valid poll. However, general website surveys can be significant for two reasons: oWhile not scientific, information collected can provide an organization with valuable information. For example, a professional baseball team asked following question on their website, "What item would you most like to see offered at concession stands next season?" Following this question, several food items were listed. The number one response was, cheese curds(of all things!). Although this cannot be considered definitive answer to proceed with cheese curds next year it does give team reason to test market product next season. Without this information, team would have missed a potential opportunity to provide their fans with food they desire and additional revenue from concession sales. oWebsite surveys can also increase repeat visits to website. A well done, fun survey that changes frequently can provide motivation for site visitors to return to website repeatedly. It is also important to provide respondent with real time results of survey once they have submitted their responses. This provides satisfaction of seeing how their responses stack up with other respondents.