At my recent Internet Marketing How To Workshop, several speakers admonished attendees, not to get stuck selling just twenty dollar ebooks. We all reflected upon how it felt first time we checked our email and saw that we had an order and had just earned twenty dollars. We admitted that this use to get us excited. However, we also had to move beyond that point, we had to shift our thinking to greater possibilities if we were going to earn a full-time living from internet.

Study any successful internet marketer and you will see that he offers a range of products at different price points. That's what I do. My least expensive product is $9.97 and my most expensive product is currently $2495. In between I offer audiotapes at $197, videotapes at $297, and consulting at $250 per hour. I offer this range, because different people want information I offer in different formats. Different people learn best according to how their brains are wired.

Some people prefer learning by listening to audiotapes.

Some people prefer learning by watching videotapes.

Some people learn best by actually practicing and doing it. They need to attend workshops or actual classes, although these can be virtual classes too.

Some people understand best when you explain it to them on phone or via email. They need two-way interaction to fully clarify points.

Some people prefer to print something out and read it. I am a reader who will read same book several times if it contains really good information... absorbing something more with each reading. I also have tons of audio and videotapes though.

I spent 17 years flying C-130 cargo aircraft and learned that some things had to be done step-by-step ... by checklist. That's how airplanes avoid landing with wheels up :-) This checklist should provide you with a great start, and keep you from making a "gear up landing."

1. Decide what theme you want to build your business around. Don't just throw up a site filled with links and banners to affiliate products. It will be too unfocused to attract much, if any, traffic. The traffic it does attract generally won't buy anything because site will not give them a clear path to follow. A website should guide a visitor to take action that you desire them to take. It should have only one main action that you want them to take, and that should be what your home page focuses on getting them to do.

I was taught, and now teach people, to look at their hobbies, interests, past training and experiences when looking for a topic to build a website around. If you need some help brainstorming product ideas, I highly recommend Jeff Smith's Ultimate Entrepreneur's Success Package. It's all about coming up with ideas for information products, and then turning those ideas into a stream of information products. Jeff interviewed me several years ago, and we've discussed product creation at length several times since. Jeff can be found at: http://williecrawford.com/jeffsmith/

2. Once you have chosen a product, choose a domain name for website you will be creating. This website will be where you sell your product from, and also how you build your mailing list to follow-up with prospects. The domain name must be easy to remember and also indicate what site is about. This will help it rank better in search engines and help customers remember your url.

I recommend that you use a .com domain extension rather than a .net, .org or, one of lesser used extensions. Most people, and many web browsers automatically "default" to .com extension. The only reason I can think of for a business to use one of other extensions is if .com you really wanted is owned and you can't buy it. That's why you don't want to wait once you've decided upon a name. Register it right away! The best second choice for a domain name extension is .net