If you want to be successful marketing on the Internet with your own website, there are some important steps you should follow. You must have a plan and be organized. The days of throwing up a website and waiting for visitors and money to come rolling in are long gone. The Internet is a very competitive marketplace and you must be prepared if you are going to be profitable in it. Some of the tasks you must accomplish will go hand in hand with each other. Some of the tasks will be a continuous process without an end point. All of them are important. Let's get started.

The 7 things you must do are:

1) Keyword Research. You must do proper keyword research before you decide what you are going to market on your website. A common mistake is to choose your keyword or product first and then try to make it work. If not enough people are searching for what you are trying to sell, you won't make much money. If too many people are searching for your keyword or product, you will be butting heads with big money marketers.

2) Domain Name Registration. The choice of the proper domain name is often overlooked. Your domain name should be relatively short, descriptive and memorable. Try to use your targeted keyword in the domain name if at all possible.

3) Web Hosting. Web hosting can be a stand alone service or be combined with domain name registration or even be coupled with website building software. Shop around and compare prices and features.

4) Website Design and Building. There are several different options to build your website. You could learn how to build your own website from the ground up by yourself using html. You could use a system that combines hosting with website building tools. You could also pay a professional to build your website for you. It all depends on how hands on you want to be, your level of expertise and your budget.

5) Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO, as the name implies, is the art of ranking high in the search results for your chosen keywords. Some things that help your SEO efforts are having keyword rich, relevant and unique content on your website. You also want links to your website from sites that the search engines consider to be relevant authority websites.

6) Website Promotion and Marketing. There are many different ways to market your website. Some of them are free and some are paid. The free methods will obviously require more time and effort. You must get visitors to make sales. More visitors equals more sales.

7) Email Marketing. When someone visits your website, you need to have a system in place for them to give you their email address. We are talking about voluntary opt in subscribers. No spamming allowed. Some incentives you could offer are free downloads or an option to subscribe to your newsletter or blog. You can then follow up with useful informative emails that also provide an opportunity to buy your products or services.

If you master these 7 steps, you will be well on your way to becoming a successful website promoter and marketer. You must also be patient. Getting your website to rank well in search engine results will take time and effort. Remind yourself daily why you want to succeed and keep at it. There are many website building tools available to help you succeed. Use them to your advantage.