The world of online marketing and business is like no other, especially when it comes to making connections with others and being able to grow a worldwide voice of your own. Think about this for a minute… even if you were to build a successful offline business in your local area, how much reach and success could you ultimately have? You are not only limited by how many people can actually visit your location, but you will also have to deal with the very high overhead costs of retail space, paying your employees and much more.
One of the most important reasons why I love doing business on the internet is that it allows you to connect and meet with people all over the world, even when you may think they are in a league of their own! Just think about the affiliate marketing industry for example… names like myself, John Chow and ShoeMoney are just an email away, and most of us will always reply back to you.
If this were the “real world” of business and we all worked at a high level company, it would likely be very hard to get in touch with us, and may even cost your some money!
The internet is completely different and this is one of the driving reasons why it’s much easier to find success and fame on the internet than in any other industry.
So what does it take to connect with some of the top online marketers, bloggers and sites in the world? Here are a few ideas for you to try out.
Attending Conferences
One of the absolute best ways to get your name out there and start connecting with major players in your niche is to get out there yourself and attend an internet marketing conference. A decade ago there were only a few conferences across the country; now they are all over the place and happening all the time. Whether you are focused on ecommerce, affiliate marketing, blogging or another online business, attending a conference is the best way to physically meet with the people you need to know and get that first introduction.
Commenting on Blogs
If you can’t make it out to a conference, another great way to build a relationship with a well-known person or website is to interact with them and leave comments on their blog. Bloggers always appreciate when people take the time to leave real comments that provide value on their sites. In addition to leaving comments you will also be building out your brand with your avatar, name and link back to your site with each comment.
Sending a Nice Email
Lastly, it’s important not to forget about the value in sending a real email to someone. Sure, the top bloggers and online marketers get thousands of emails and pitches every day, but if you take the time to write something of value and not come off as a leech, there is a good chance you can form a relationship and possibly work with other big names online.
As you can see, you have plenty of options when it comes to expanding your reach online and connecting with some of the biggest names in the industry. I highly recommend that you step out of your comfort zone and attend a networking conference in your area, or at the least send out some emails to your online mentors and just let them know how much of an influence they have been to you. You never know where it might lead to!
I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. Visit http://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business. The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently. Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner’s success. For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa’s small business solutions, follow @VisaSmallBiz and visit http://visa.com/business.










In the end, reputation management is a lot like SEO but on steroids. When you want reputation management done for your brand, name or company it’s a lot more than just ranking positive content higher in the search results… it’s about keeping it there and also monitoring the reputation of your brand and search results over time. Now that anyone has the ability to log into Facebook or Twitter and start writing about anything they want (whether that be positive or negative), a simple tweet or status update can cost huge companies millions of dollars in lost sales and advertising.
Now let’s recap on the business model as well.
Two other 
During the initial business planning process it’s important to remember that we are going to try and spend as little money as possible to get started. There are plenty of areas to improve and spend money later on once your content and core is established.
Google Keyword Tool
Now it’s time for you to take everything that we mentioned in this article and start to build a foundation for your business. You don’t need to rush out and get a domain name and hosting right now. Instead you need to spend time to see what niche market you want to get into and how you can become a valuable resource for those who are searching on your topic.
Pay per click marketing – You will need to have money to spend on search advertising and click costs can range anywhere from .05 to $100 depending on what keywords you will select. This method may also require the use of
I’m not trying to sell you… but here is the process and what you will need. If you have any questions on how to set this up or who I use for hosting and domain names, just 












