And language these people use! Online marketers talk about such strange things as hits and ROI (return on investment) as if you will automatically understand what they mean.

If you have ever been discouraged by what seems like a million things to learn, take heart.

The truth is that skills needed to succeed online can be easily learned by anyone ... and that includes you!

Let's look together at top five skills you need to succeed online. Some of them may surprise you.

1. The Ability To Market.

"Marketing" is just a fancy term for selling something. After all, Internet is biggest marketplace known to humankind. If you want your piece of pie, at some point you are going to ask someone to buy your product or service.

INSIDER TIP: You don't have to be a "natural born salesperson" to make lots of sales. You can model selling text (called 'copy') from people who are already successful. Simply modify copy in their sales letters and marketing materials to fit your own product or service. Almost all online marketers use this technique.

To sell effectively remember to tell people what your product or service will do for them. Not just what it does; what it does for them.

2. Provide Excellent Customer Service.

Providing excellent customer service is simply treating others as you would like to be treated.

When you want more information, when do you want it? You want it now and so will *your* customer. The more you can think like your customer easier it will be to provide world-class customer service.

Remember that when a person has bought something from you once they will be much more likely to buy again. When they have questions or concerns follow up with them quickly.

INSIDER TIP: Create a message containing answers to top ten questions about your product or service and deliver it via autoresponder.

This will ensure that people get an immediate, personalized response from you even if it's 2:00 in morning and you are asleep!

3. Have a Vision.

Knowing what you want to accomplish online is perhaps #1 skill necessary. It's not enough to say, "I want to make money".

Ask yourself these questions before you begin. The answers to these questions may just reveal your perfect business idea.

If you have been online for more than a day, you've heard some 'guru' say that you must 'follow up at least five times' with every prospective customer in order to make sale.

Well, it's true.

Following up with those who ask for more information is perhaps most powerful marketing technique on Internet, and one of least used. Think of it this way, if you have a very successful website you will convert 5% of visitors into customers.

That leaves 95% of visitors in a kind of information 'no man's land' unless you follow up with them.

Follow up works because people buy from people they trust and building trust takes time. In addition, when a person first visits your web site they might not be *able* to buy.

How many of us have seen a product or service we want (but needed to wait for payday to get) and then forgotten to return and make purchase?

For these reasons and more, anyone who sells online needs a follow up system containing at least five messages. The good news is that it's very easy to create a powerful follow up system. In fact, you can create your own follow up system by following these five simple steps.

1. Write down three most important benefits of your product or service. Remember that people buy benefits, not features. A feature is what a product does; a benefit is what your product does for me.