If you’re only going to do one thing this year for your Internet marketing, institute a plan that makes it easy for you to get the word out about your products and services.

When you look at the big picture of Internet marketing, it’s pretty daunting. There’s so much to do, that, well, most people end up not doing anything. But if you “divide and conquer,” you’ll be amazed at how much you can get done and – I might as well tell you now you’ll actually have fun doing it.

OK, so technically this might be more than one thing, because first you have to develop the plan, but it’s so easy to do that it won’t take more than 30 minutes to set up your cheat sheets.

Most important, is establishing your weekly marketing goals. Determine how many search engines and directories you can submit to, how many links you can set up, and how many newsgroups and mail lists you can participate in weekly. You might have other strategies, too, such as an ezine (should it be weekly? monthly? occasional?), and you’ll just want to set realistic goals for each.

What’s realistic?

Well, only you will know, but it might be submitting to five search engines, setting up three links, or participating in two newsgroups and mail lists each week. You may want to set aside a certain time of day or a certain day of the week to do specific tasks. Then adjust your goals as necessary.

Before you know it, you’ll be conducting a real online marketing campaign that will increase awareness – and sales! – of your offerings.

Mary Westheimer has shared the Internet’s power with audiences in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, Boston, Phoenix and Los Angeles, among other locales. A former freelance writer, Mary has more than 350 credits in publications including Columbia Journalism Review, USA Today and Publishers Weekly. She has written, edited, contributed to or published more than 20 books, including The Lifetime Encyclopedia of Letters (Prentice-Hall) and The Writers Encyclopedia (Writer’s Digest).