Starting a successful online small business begins with finding the right niche. Then, it’s all about marketing.

If you have a budget of minimum $300 per month, start with Pay Per Click. I recommend that you initially learn PPC yourself instead of hiring an expert. PPC experts are quite often expensive and won’t have as good an understanding as you of the specifics that will make a difference to your niche. If you really don’t want to learn Pay Per Click, and you have a budget over $1000 per month, hire someone local to you so that you can have physical meetings.

Other than Pay per Click, the obvious way to kick start you small business with internet marketing is social media. Again, outsourcing social media is hazardous. Social media does not cost per click, it takes in time what it does not take in money, and the results aren’t immediate not guaranteed. Its rules change constantly and defining a strategy on a moving map is a challenge.

However, as a small business looking for a marketing plan, your ability to adapt is an asset that can gain you market share off the bigger players. A small business can use marketing tools unknown by and unadapted to the bigger companies, and it’s definitely an opportunity.

I don’t recommend you outsource your social media, but look for a coach instead. Someone who can teach you the technical platforms in just a few hours and help you understand how they interconnect and will keep you up to date with the most recent trends, tools and strategies. Someone who will help you identify what you can leave to automation, what you can let an assistant do for you, and what you definitely will have to do yourself.

Social media marks a noticeable change in the online landscape. Websites, as we know them, won’t last for much longer. We’re transitioning from a web of pages to a web of streams, yet this transition does not have a clear shape yet. Which social media will end up dominating and what will come up next? We don’t have answers to these questions, and in the mean time, we can look at making the best of the web of pages.

The web of pages works with keyword research and quality content. It integrates with social media, and does so in the best way by form of blogging. If you’re setting up your small business marketing strategy, consider using a blog as a focal point of traffic. Then, start writing articles that relate to your niche and submit them to multiple online article directories, also called Ezines. Online directories rank very well with Google and attract a lot of traffic.

Articles are quite the opposite to social media. Social Media is short and instant. Articles have to be 500 words or more and are published a few days after submission. The great thing with articles is that you are allowed a resource box at the bottom where you can put in your details, and include a couple of links. These links are once again recognised by Google as back-linking to your site.

The same applies again to video. When publishing a video to YouTube, you can have a link in the description, and that will, once again, point to your nerve centre. Use Article and Video together with a submission service and you’ll see your content spread little by little. Do it consistently, and within 2 to 3 months, you’ll dominate your niche on the web of pages.