A lot of people and companies have websites. They also have products and services they want people to know about. Unfortunately, most of these people and companies waste most of their time on things that don't help them to make money. Here are 7 areas to focus on that will help you make more money:

1. Remember that marketing is more important than what your product is. If you have the greatest product ever and no one knows about it you won't make any money.

Direct response marketing online is very similar to direct response marketing offline. 90% of your time should be invested in marketing because nothing else will make you money. Don't waste time figuring out how to do it right. Study the people who have already spent time and money on learning what does and doesn't work. Then you can spend more of your time on collecting cash.

2. You must have a back end product to make good money. The way to make the most money is to first offer FREE information that is valuable. This will begin your relationship with a customer. Then have a product that is under $50 for a front end. Make sure the front end product is somehow connected to the back end product. For example, if you sell a $10 book on shaving points off your golf score, you want to have a back end product like a $300 course on the best proven techniques for the most effective golf swing ever.

3. Your product needs to be valuable to your customers. They need to believe that what they receive is worth a lot more than what they paid for it. That will make them a life-long customer. Sell them something worthless and they will be unhappy and they will be gone forever. Sell products you believe in or don't sell anything.

4. Give your customers FREE bonuses and more than you promised. Under promise and over deliver. Make your customers say "Wow!" when they receive your products. Don't just make them happy, blow their minds with how much value they get from you.

There are thousands of low cost bonus products you can throw in as a thank you. Even better, these low cost bonuses can make your customers a lot of money and they will appreciate you more. Besides, it's more ethical and fun and creative to build in great extras and bonuses for people. The bottom line is the more you give the more you get.

5. Get opt-in e-mail addresses. This is like gold for you. The only real purpose for a consumer website is to capture leads and to sell products. By leads I mean e-mail addresses. You want to build up a customer list and then you want to work it repeatedly. Send out a monthly e-zine that offers FREE valuable information and mentions similar products they may be interested in. They may see something that a friend of theirs will want to buy from you.

The key here is that these people ask to be on your list, you give them FREE information that has value, and they can unsubscribe at any time.

6. Build a relationship. It is much easier to sell someone who has had a good experience with you than someone who has never heard of you. Most companies ignore this fact and spend thousands of dollars each month trying to bring in new customers while they ignore people who already bought from them. Pretty stupid, but that's how most businesses operate.

7. Never stop learning. The best and richest marketers in the business spend the most amount of money buying books, tapes and courses that keep them on the cutting edge. Why? Because no one knows it all and new and better ways to market are discovered every day.

There is a lot of valuable FREE information available online that is easy to find and can make you a lot of money. One good idea can be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars in future sales for you. So invest in yourself and your future.

These 7 simple steps can mean the difference between struggling to stay in business and struggling to keep up with all the orders coming in. Which struggle would you prefer?