I had reason to ask myself this question some time ago. The more I thought about it, the clearer the answers became.

If you are not making the money you want on the net now, read on and you will find some useful ideas based on my experiences. What I have to say applies equally to small business, home based business and network marketers.

The funny thing is that I knew what I had to do to make money. Nevertheless, I was not doing it! I continued to surf around various sites looking for that magic formula that would automatically put money in my bank account without having to do anything.

Why did I keep on avoiding the very steps or actions that would generate money for my business? Did I want my business to fail? No! Did I want to fail on the net? No! I was so easily distracted by the latest and greatest way to make money on the net that I spent my time reviewing these at the expense of building my own business.

I fooled myself into thinking that just because I had links to various products and services on my web page I would make money. The first fundamental principle of making money on the net is NO TRAFFIC equals NO INCOME. Just having a web page does not mean the world will beat a path to your door.

To solve this, I submitted my pages to the search engines. For a short time, when one of my pages enjoyed a listing within the top ten results for a keyword search, I had some extra traffic. Once I lost that position, the traffic dried up. I then tried resubmitting that page to regain my top 10 position but to no avail.

Now was the time for discouragement to set in. I had tried the obvious ways to get people to my web pages without success. I had submitted a few free classified ads but this was a tedious and time-consuming process. The results were far from spectacular also. There seemed to be no way to win on the net!

How do I make progress and what I have I learnt from this experience? With any success gained in life, there are a few of key factors - discipline, persistence and belief. Discipline is doing what needs to be done everyday to achieve the goal you are aiming for. Persistence is continuing the process but making changes where necessary so that the goal is reached. Belief is the confidence that you can do it.

With this in mind, it was time to go back to the basics of business and marketing and to answer some fundamental questions.

Who are people who will buy my product and/or service?

How can I reach them in the most cost-effective manner?

Once you know who will buy your product and/or service, then you can determine the best ways of contacting them. To know who will buy your product and/or service, ask yourself these questions:

What are the benefits to my potential buyers of my product and/or service?

Let us say that you are marketing a business opportunity. An important benefit of your opportunity is the ability of your prospect to make some extra money. Other benefits could include no longer having to work for a boss, financial independence, realization of dreams such as overseas travel, and the list could go on.

What people would gain from these benefits?

It is tempting to answer this question by saying "everyone". However, this is simply not true. The best prospects may be those who are looking for an opportunity to increase their income. They could be people who are looking to start their own business but do not have a product or service to market. They could be people who have a small business and are looking for ways to increase their revenues.

Now we need to consider how we get in contact with these people. Where do they gather on the net? Are there others on the net who are already contacting this group of people?

One of the easiest ways to research how to contact the people who will buy our product and/or service is to review all the ezines published. Today, there are many ezines that cater to various interest groups and there is sure to be a number that will reach the people you need to contact.

Do a Google search to find sites where you can research ezines that may reach your target prospects. Examples include the Directory of Ezines and Zineworld. Once you have found the ezines that your prospects are reading, you have two ways of using this to your advantage. Most ezines accept classified ads for a fee and this can be an effective way to bring to your site a stream of qualified traffic.

However, the most cost-effective way is through writing articles that would interest your prospects and submitting them to the ezines for publication. Many ezines are looking for good quality material they can publish for the benefit of their readers. This provides benefits to you and the ezine publisher. You receive valuable free publicity for your site and the ezine editor receives a valuable contribution to their publication.

The targeted approach to contacting those who want to buy your product or service is usually always more cost effective that any other way. I am following my own advice and benefiting. I suggest you try it. Let us all make money on the web!

Kevin is the publisher and editor of besuccessfulnews.com, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.