1. You shall believe.

The first step in accomplishing anything is embracing belief that it is possible.

You must believe in viability of your project and you must believe in yourself. If you don't, stop right now.

You simply cannot succeed without firm expectation that your idea is sound, that you have all resources necessary to succeed, and that you deserve success!

These are self-fulfilling prophesies. If you believe you can succeed, you're right. If you don't believe you can succeed, you're right, too!

2. You shall find your passion!

If your sole motivation for starting an online newsletter is to make money, you'll probably soon tire of topic. Making money seldom gets boring, but profit alone usually is not enough to stir your imagination and creative juices.

A niche market membership website succeeds best when publisher has unbridled enthusiasm for her topic.

Finding your passion may require some introspection. It can be an exhilarating process of self-discovery. It may even require you to change your lifestyle.

That's part of excitement. That's part of what your subscribers are paying you to do. They want to have that same experience vicariously through you.

Find your passion and turn it into your online newsletter. Stake out your niche topic and prepare to dominate and defend it. Establish yourself as authority on your topic and become a subject matter expert.

3. You shall become a marketer!

Don't get into information product development business if your only care about your niche topic and have no enthusiasm for learning how to sell.

You must enthusiastically learn everything you can about marketing and sales promotion copywriting. Because in final analysis, you will realize that, regardless of your newsletter topic, fundamentally you are in direct response marketing business. Study great direct marketers and copywriters. Immerse yourself in their courses. Devour their books. Read and reread their most successful sales letters.

If you're not committed to learning everything that you possibly can about this aspect of business, you'd better marry someone who is!

4. You shall be unique!

One of first rules of marketing: Establish your unique selling proposition (USP).

Define essence of your online publication. What distinguishes your newsletter or membership website from all others?

Define your targeted member or subscriber. Who is he or she in terms of age, income, social status, occupation, etc.?

Define reasons why he or she will join or subscribe. How will you measure these assumptions, prove or disprove them, and refine them?

Try to answer these questions before you develop your information product.

5. You shall create value!

When you develop your marketing message, how will you capture your subscriber's attention and interest?

How will you ignite her desire for your special, proprietary information product? What's in it for her? Does it contain irresistible, mouth-watering benefits for your customer?

Write out your most persuasive "call to action". Does it motivate your prospective members to reach for their credit cards and join immediately?

Make certain your subscription website addresses your member's heartfelt desires. Remember that customers buy what they want, not necessarily what they need.

6. You shall over-deliver!

Make it a bedrock principle of your business to keep and exceed your promises.

When you start your online newsletter or membership website, create at least 20 stories, videos, or other units of content. Then put a few of them in a public section of site for anyone to view, read or download without charge.

You must create value by giving some of your content away before you can reasonably expect subscribers to pay for more. And after you create a customer for members-only, premium content, reward her with unexpected bonuses of additional value.

7. You shall not deceive!

Creating and selling an information product is fundamentally about trust. If your readers don't feel you are treating them fairly, your information products will have no credibility.

From your very first day in business, you must be scrupulously honest with your subscribers. If you're not perceived as being 100 percent trustworthy, ultimately you will have no customers and no business.

Beyond being ethical thing to do, honesty makes good business sense. It decreases returns and cancellations. It promotes happier customers and enhances your reputation.

When times are tough some businesses stop marketing. They reason, 'No one is buying so why should I advertise?' The other time some businesses stop marketing is when they are selling like crazy. Again they figure - 'I can't handle any more business right now so why promote?'

Two key points here. Advertising is only one narrow form of marketing. Marketing is about sending messages. You send messages in a plethora of avenues; advertising, customer service, by association, quality, public relations, sponsorship, awards, etc… And second point; marketing is a long-term investment.

Selling is immediate. When times are slow you need to crank-up selling efforts. How do you escape from a sales crisis? Improve selling skills, search out new markets, offer more value and most importantly be systematic. When there is a fire, put out fire. That's sales.

Preventing fires of tomorrow is marketing. That is why marketing is so difficult to justify or measure. The good marketing you do today will pay off in a few weeks, months or even years. Is it worth it? Only if you want to be in business in a few years.

Invest wisely in your marketing. Many of principles of investing money apply to marketing. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Your message must reach your prospect along several avenues. That conveys more credibility. For example; you might advertise in a magazine, sponsor a community event, send out news releases and offer extras on your website. Your investment portfolio should be diversified, so should your marketing. Warren Buffet's long-term strategy to 'make smart investments and hold' can apply to your marketing. Make a long term marketing commitment to yourself. Stick to it. Be consistent and persistent. That is smart investing and smart marketing.

Consider different forms of currency in your business. Cash is most obvious. A signed order is another. Receivables are currency - you can even use them for collateral - or sell them. But some forms of currency look better than others. If cash is best then you might be tempted never to give credit to customers. But you might lose sales because of that. So you may decide to give credit to approved customers - knowing that you can likely convert receivable to cash. Even signed orders are currency - you can factor them to obtain financing.