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If you haven’t figured me out by now, I have a passion for sports. I love watching as well as playing. This week I had the opportunity to attend my sons first soccer game of the year. It was an exciting game and they almost won. I have to say the plan was penetration, defense and passing. This was the coach’s strategy and they almost won. The other team was clearly better and it came down to the best out of 5 shots at the end of the game. Both coachess had a strategy and it served them well.

Having a strategy in business is just like having a strategy in soccer. Maybe not the exact components but clearly running a business needs a strategy. What’s your strategy for marketing? Do you have one? Do you need one? I believe you do? So here are my 5 tips for having a market strategy in your business.

The first one is to have some kind of social media strategy. Make it part of your daily routine. Currently I’m on Facebook and Twitter. Linkedin is also a great way to connect with people. I also have a website. It is very important that you are using social media for your marketing. This is a way of reaching a huge market for free! It’s also important to have some kind of objectives around these social media sites describing how often you are going to post. Hopefully you are using social media to drive traffic to your website. Maybe it’s the connection piece that ‘s important to you for these sites, the by all means connect. Maybe email campaigns are important, or blogs and ezines. My point is to connect with real people and talk with them and form a strategy around doing this?

The second one is to have some kind of offline strategy! This is the hardest for me. This is where you stop hiding behind your computer and get out there in a big way. Some things that I am doing is attending networking events like Business Networking International. Networking works, do you belong to some kind of networking group? A week ago I was interviewed on local television station about my business. This is a big way to get known for what you do. Radio is another way and it’s not as scary as television. Another offline strategy I use is participating at Trade Shows. Trade shows are fun and you meet a number of potential clients.

Thirdly, have some kind of strategy into building a relationship with potential clients so you gain their confidence! Remember most people will do business with who they know, like and trust. What does this look like? Give them something for free. On my website which is connected to my blog, I offer a free PDF to read on 5 Tip of balancing life and work for success. So give your prospects something for free. This will give the potential client a way of discerning if you are the right fit for them in a non-threatening way! In the long run this should translate into more clients for you!

My fourth one you can do everyday. Have some kind of strategy that creates awareness! What are you doing to create the buzz about you! This can be done both online and offline. I’ll talk about offline right now. What I’ve been doing is telling everyone I know about my business, and it has been stirring up interest. Some examples for me have been on print, such as giving business cards. Another is giving out flyers of your upcoming events.

Lastly, have some kind of strategy to your warm market. When I introduced my new coaching business. I wrote a warm letter telling my friends and family what I was doing. Have you done this yet? Like in soccer, strategy has one purpose to score enough goals to win. And to do this you must have a strategy in place. The same with business, the goal is to have a successful business with revenue so you can live the life that you always wanted. My favorite commercial is the Nike slogan “Just do it!” So what are you waiting for! JUST DO IT!

Can you really make millions of dollars on the internet? Certainly Jeff Paul and Ryan Orrell want you to think so. Of course, in order to find out how, you have to purchase their book for $69.99. But is there really a way to make money off the internet? That much money?

The answer is yes and no.

You can make a living off the internet, even a million bucks if you work hard and long enough at it. But it won’t happen overnight, and if you haven’t been in the business since 1998, you’re already at a big disadvantage. The most lucrative ways to monetize the internet these days are:

1. Get a website. This is sorta like your home base on the internet. Filling up your homepage with keywords-words that people commonly type into search engines when looking for something that has to do with your website-will help you get to the top of search engine results. This is what’s known as SEO-Search Engine Optimization.

2. Get a blog. Blogging is basically blabbing on the internet. People stumble across your blog, find that they share the same sentiments you do, and come back again and again. That’s if your writing is compelling and interesting-chances are if you blog about the moldy mystery meat in your refrigerator, not many people will be interested. The next step to success is finding a way to work links to your website into your blog without being kicked off of free blog sites like blogger and WordPress.

3. Get a social media presence. Social media is the thing that has helped spark the Arab Spring halfway around the world-and here in the U.S. it’s how everyone is trying to make a buck these days. You can’t just show up on Facebook and say, “Check out my great new product!” though-people tend to get kicked off quickly for stuff like that. You’ve gotta be more subtle, instead disseminating information for free about your subject, becoming known as an expert-say, in Civil War ammunition types-and then indirectly sending people to your website, where you conveniently sell all kinds of antique Civil War ammunition.

4. Get a YouTube account. There is no site that even comes close to brand-name recognition when it comes to videos. Everyone knows YouTube. And the phrase “gone viral” was invented to explain what happens when someone watches a great video, sends it to 12 of their friends, who then send it to 12 of their friends, and so on. That’s how Lady Gaga has videos with like 300 million views-she probably hasn’t spent a penny on promoting videos since 2003. Here again, though, you want to avoid out-and-out promotion of your brand or product. The model for Web 2.0 is “Give away information for free, offer consumers the chance to purchase something from you.”

That’s it. Follow these steps, add in a little bit of affiliate marketing with stuff like Google AdSense, and you should have checks rolling in anytime. But just a hint – Don’t give up your day job till you’ve got a regular stream of income.