So you’ve decided to start your first online venture…  Do you want to good news or the bad news?  The bad news is that you have an immense amount to learn.  The good news is that there is a lot of reliable information on the Internet that you can find for free or for relatively little money.  The bad news is that many of the sites that you will come across are scams (at worst) or not credible.  The good news is that you’ll be able to tell the difference sooner than you think.

One of the best ways to start your exciting education if to locate reputable course with the essentials of starting online.    As long as you are diligent in following the lessons and applying what you learn as you go, that will get you well on your way toward distinguishing between the scams and the legitimate offers, between the metaphorical wheat and the chaff.

You’ll find that you have a lot to do, although some of the unscrupulous marketers will try to trick you into believing that if you follow their plans, you won’t have to work very hard at all, and everyone will magically start to send you money.  You must manage your time with care, and promise yourself and your family that your excitement over your new adventure will not occupy all available time.

Look for free information about some of the topics you learned about in your introductory course at article sites, like A1Articles.com or EzineArticles.com.  Search for trustworthy blogs and site and keep looking until you find several.  Locate sources for information concerning topics such as your business niche selection, search engine optimization, design of business sites and other such related topics.

Don’t rush out to buy anything, yet.  The next step is to sit down with some paper and pencil.  From the list of things that you don’t yet know how to do, determine what interests you and and what sounds so boring that you would rather outsource the tasks.  Don’t worry, you can learn to do anything on that list.  Simply decide whether you want to invest your available funds in learning resources or in labor to actually perform each task.

Now, at last, the time for shopping has arrived.  If you find yourself tempted to buy an instructional product that you find, say a course on affiliate marketing or a set of videos about search engine optimization, hit your pause button.  At this point, you should do two things:  1) Add the web page to your favorites list so that you know you can find your way back to it later.  2) Put on a pair of “critic’s glasses.”  Analyze the structure of the sales page that you found so convincing.  At some point in the not too distant future, you want to become a copywriter as skilled as the one that had you reaching for your wallet.  Now, go off to find some comparable products and go through the same process.

I impose a mandatory three day waiting period before I buy something I’ve just found.  That gives me time to consider it rationally, removing myself from the emotional responses elicited by the well presented offer.  After those three days have elapsed, if I am still convinced by the miracle cure that I discovered, I use my bookmark to find it again, pull out my payment card and buy to my satisfaction.

Beware!  Buying can make you feel good, but your new purchase does you no good unless you use it, and using it means implementing the strategies that you learn about or the procedures for which the software was designed.  In other words, you must act!

If you are in the middle of beginning a web based business, the last thing that you want is someone adding to your list of decisions you need to make. However there is a topic that requires your attention during these early stages of business development.

While the term positioning seems like just another example of marketing jargon, its importance can’t be stressed too much. Positioning is identifying what there is about your business that allows it to stand apart from all of your competitors–and, of course, communicating that to all of your potential customers.

-Service – Nearly all businesses claim they have great service. If you can provide exceptional service compared to your competitors, your customers will remember you. I remember calling a sour plumber to try to get him to my home for a plumbing emergency on a weekend. He acted like he didn’t want my business and then told me it was going to be $200 for him just to show up, no thanks. I called roto-router who gave me amazing service, a guarantee, and the bill was less than the other guy’s service call fee. I now use that company for all my plumbing, whether emergency or not.

-Extraordinary Features and Appealing Benefits – Positioning is not just about what makes you different, it’s also about what you emphasize. Folgers announces to the world that it’s “mountain grown coffee” ( a feature). Guess what? All coffee is mountain grown. Folgers just claimed this feature before anyone else thought to mention it. What is there that none of your competitors are talking about, yet?

-Price Point – This doesn’t necessarily mean you have the lowest price. You may be the most expensive in town, and that’s OK if you convince your customers you’re worth it.

-Negative Features – Is there something you don’t have that annoys customers of your competitors? I’m not saying use negative advertising, but just mention the feature and tie it to a benefit. I’m annoyed when I have to pay for parking to go shopping at Mall. Instead of touting free parking, a mall that wants to speak to me might declare, “you’ll never have to pay for parking”. This drives home the pain of shopping with a competitor without going negative.

-Credibility – Many companies tout how long they’ve been in business. All of these things build trust in the mind of the consumer. What trust-building factors do you have that the competition does not?

-Others – Literally anything that differentiates you from your competitors can be part of your positioning strategy – your clever URL, your hours of live help, the way your site looks. Small business owners need to think creatively here.

You will spend a great deal of time later developing your online business. You may even make adjustments to your positioning as you experiment and discover what is working for you and what isn’t. Immediately, though, you must start working on your marketing positions. They are too integral to your long term success to postpone.