So. You’ve achieved your dream of setting up a website and you’ve generated sales “while you sleep.” But don’t think that people all over the world will visit your website, be impressed by the description and the price, decide this is just what they need, and order it. Don’t think that you will wake up every single day to that happiest of emails: “Notification of payment received.” Well, not without a little work!

Getting that NEXT sale takes focus, dedication, and faith. Focus on what you are selling. Don’t try to immediately start a dozen new projects, because all you’ll get is a dozen disappointments, and no dozen first sales. Dedication means that you must survive the adrenaline rush of seeing your sales, and then the unbelievable disappointment when you realize that sales have dropped off - or stopped. You finally must have faith in YOUR decision to sell THIS product or service. If your next sale is a long time in coming, it’s only because you haven’t found the right way to work with the market, not because you’ve picked the wrong product.

So what are the 3 steps? Here they are, briefly explained:

1. Keep your website interesting. Update and change the text on your website frequently. If you post articles, put up new articles at least every 2 weeks. If you have site with text that is fairly fixed, then link to a blog, where you can easily keep the website topical and current. And avoid throwing too many bells and whistles on your site. I as a consumer, absolutely hate going to a website that takes way too long to load, because it has video and music and flashing gif animated stuff. People visit websites to gain information. If they are visiting a website to be entertained by the graphics, they probably aren’t visiting it to buy something. Keep it simple.

2. Work the FORUMS! You, as novice to internet marketing, will need to establish yourself as an expert in the niche you are selling to. If you have already found forums, groups, chat rooms, and lists that are focused on your market (your “niche”), stay in them! Find related forums, groups, chat rooms, and lists, and start expanding your market. Create a report consisting of the questions that you’ve answered, and use the report to advertise your website. People want to buy from experts. Be the expert. And mention how well your product is selling.

3. Communicate with your list. Make sure that your list has easy and convenient ways to give you feedback. You can periodically send them surveys or questionnaires. You can create a website that has no ads on it - just forums, mail contact forms, polls, and even chat rooms. Ask people who have bought the product what they thought about it - and how it, your website, or your business can be improved. Ask them what products they want to see next. Ask people who leave your website without buying or signing up for your newsletter, why? And then - actually take their advice and work it back into your business.

What’s good about the above 3 steps is that you can reproduce them to get your next 100, or your next 1000 sales. You can also reproduce them for your next 2 or 5 or 10 businesses. You should also be communicating with your list and your visitors (especially the ones who DIDN’T make a purchase or sign up), to find out how you can improve your business. Because ultimately, it’s the NEXT sale that keeps you in business.

ERIK CARTER is the author of “Aggressive Pleadings For The Non-Custodial Father,” “Don’t Just Build A List - Build A COMMUNITY,” and “Six Temptations Of Jesus Christ” offered EXCLUSIVELY on the full-life website START YOUR LIFE NOW! (http://www.startyourlifenow.com), a website focused on helping you achive EXCELLENCE in ALL areas of your life by helping you to achieve excellence in Business - Family - Fitness - Spirituality - Personal.