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It's easy to be overwhelmed by the prospect of beginning a social marketing campaign. After all, the best of the best internet marketers appear to have achieved their status overnight with little to no effort. But the truth is that it does take time and effort, time and effort that will pay off in the end with

' Increased link popularly from social media sites
' More natural links from sites who are genuinely interested in your product or service
' Higher search engine rankings on keywords
' Increased blog activity, including visitors and commenters
' Increase in unique visitors each month
' More subscribers and more sales.

So how do you go about starting your social marketing campaign without becoming completely overwhelmed? Do something each day that will get you one more link or at least lead to one more quality conversation with someone in your niche. After awhile you will find that you're established yourself on major sites. You will also have created a master schedule for yourself that allows you to run your business while also keeping up with everything you need to do to maintain your social marketing campaign. Here are ten steps to get you started:

1. Get out your planner or organizer and schedule a block of time each day to take a new step toward starting your social marketing campaign. Then follow through.

2. Start your blog. Immediately.

3. Once you've started blogging, join blogging communities that will help you create authority and generate visitors.

4. Use these blogging communities to make friends and join groups. Be primarily on the lookout for those who are in your niche and who would be most likely to naturally link to your site.

5. Create profiles on the big social news sites, but be sure not to submit anything until your profile is complete. There's no bigger turnoff than trying to learn more about a business and finding that the information is incomplete. Also, if you submit your own stuff without first submitting news from elsewhere, you'll be labeled a spammer.

Even better, make sure that you're not pushing your content. Just be real and be natural. The rest will flow from there.

6. Once you've established yourself in these generalized networks, start looking around for networks that are related to your particular niche. Many 'vertical' social sites focus on narrower markets. Their membership will be interested in getting to know you and reading what you have to say.

7. Create a second blog for content that is good but not necessarily suited for your own site. That way to get to use good content that you find while surfing around, and you can link back to your main site to increase popularity.

8. Make sure you track your progress. If your social networking strategy isn't working, you need to know sooner rather than later so that you can try something new. Make sure you know where your incoming traffic is coming from and focus only on the sites that are getting you that traffic.

9. Get tips from other social marketers by joining a group focused solely on the business of social marketing. They'll also help you find new places to go so that you can increase your social authority.

10. Stay calm. Yes, it's overwhelming if you look at if from the perspective of a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet, but it's perfectly manageable if you break it down into small steps. Do a little bit each day. And if you still find yourself overwhelmed, try consulting with an internet marketing expert to help you figure out your next steps.

After some time you will probably feel comfortable dropping your pay-per-click accounts since most of your links will be natural. Until that time, though, just do a little bit each day.