by Steve Crawford

Created on: January 09, 2007   Last Updated: April 13, 2007

You've seen it. I know you have. The very ideas we might have considered "stupid" months ago are the same ideas that are making someone rich today. Alex Tew made $1 Million selling pixels on TheMillionDollarHomePage.com. Jeremy Turner and his wife Gabriela hit it big by selling "Antenna Balls" on HappyBalls.com. (One of my favorite inspiring websites by the way and Jeremy and Gabriela appear to be very down to earth people and incredibly kind hearted.)

It's these stories and others like them that provide many other innovative entrepreneurs with the inspiration to pursue their own online endeavors. Unfortunately, too many of these potentially successful Internet business ideas go completely unnoticed. Why? I'm probably not going to tell you anything shocking here but they just can't get their website known to the Internet World.

Jump on the Internet and you will find limitless articles and resources about search engine marketing, email marketing, link exchanges, and an endless variety of additional methods to market your website. So why is it that so many valuable new ideas never reach their full potential? The obvious answer is that these people aren't putting enough "effort" into their marketing. They simply build a website and expect people to flock to it like they just cured cancer or something. But does that answer encompass everyone? I think not.

It seems that even those that pursue their marketing efforts with passion and commitment often still fall short of making the almighty dollar when everything about their idea says "show me the money!" Either they don't have enough money to keep purchasing the "UNKNOWN MARKETING SECRETS NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT" packages (yeah right) that clutter the search engines or they just can't seem to find that one perfect channel to filter their products and services through.

I'm a firm believer that this fact is not only a problem for the founders of these websites, but it's a problem for me as a consumer. I deserve to have a look at these original ideas. I'll decide if it's valuable to me or not. I have yet to see one effective solution to solve this problem.

Now I am not an expert marketing guru but I believe the truth is that there is no solid global answer that will help EVERYONE be successful in promoting their website business. I believe the only way to get the answers you're searching for is to place yourself and your website in a position to gain specific feedback from consumers right from the start. By doing so, you can make continued adjustments to your website, products, and services until YOU GET IT RIGHT! Seems logical, doesn't it?

If you want my vote, it's to join online forums and other communities. Share your website with others you trust, get their feedback, and succeed. May seem too simple but I like it that way. Doesn't cost as much either!

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