Your first step in marketing online is to build your website. This is actually only the first step in building a complete online presence. By having your own website, you will find it much easier to promote your business, and others will see you as more professional.

It's not enough to have a website though. You should consider at least buying a domain name, and if you can afford it, paid web hosting. The reason is that paid hosting is more reliable. Also, if your're not interested in investing in your business, why should I buy from you?

When creating content for your websites, make sure that the content is keyword rich with the keywords that are relevant to your site.

Regardless of what topic you choose, don't make the mistake of optimizing your site for two word keyword phrases on your topic. Choose keyword combinations that have at least three or four keyword phrases as these are more targeted.

Once you've built your website, then it's time to add to your presence so others can find you.

Start by finding forums on your topic. There seem to be forums on everything these days. You can do this by doing a search in your favorite search engine and searching for your topic plus the word forums.

Another variation of this is social networking. Social networks have many of the same elements of forums because they allow you to market on forums. However, not only can you join forums on your favorite topics, you can do it all in one place.

With a site like MySpace or Yahoo, you can also join groups on your topic, as well as build a blog. Facebook also allows you to join groups that are similar to forums, and they offer thousands.

When posting on these various groups and forums, make sure you include a link back to your site. Not only will this allow you to build valuable backlinks to your site, but you can also use it as a way to refer others back to your site.

Try out several social networking sites until you find the ones that work the best for you, then focus your efforts on those sites.

Another way to market your business is to ask your customers and readers for feedback. Although this may not seem like a way to market your business, it really is.

By getting feedback from your customers and readers, in the form of polls, questionnaires, blog posts, forums, and other ways, you can find out more what your readers and customers want and then you can tailor your offerings accordingly. This will definitely increase your sales.

Again, there are many ways to market your business. When you're first getting started, try these. It will help you draw targeted traffic to your site from those who are interested in what you have to offer.