Okay.
You are going to stick your toe into the water. Where do you start?
First, you should get a general idea of what is out there in the internet marketing jungle.
There is an amazing amount of FREE online marketing information on the internet. This is a good place to start.
You should use the free information for two purposes:
- As a way of grasping the breadth, depth and width of different types of markets on the internet.
- To learn how different “gurus” teach. See who speaks in a way that you understand. See who uses aids (such as whiteboards, powerpoints, flow charts, diagrams, etc.) that are effective for you in learning. Almost everyone uses audios, videos, and PDFs; determine for your learning style who uses them effectively. Do you want a step by step process map or do you want to learn a general concept and then be able to get under the hood to tinker?
Some of the information you will find is crap, posted in an attempt to separate you from your money.
Some of the free internet marketing information is great though.
It was Eben Pagan who coined the term “moving the free line”. In general, it means that many of the best teachers of internet marketing give away many of their best ideas.
What these teachers sell, for the most part, is a more in-depth coverage of these ideas, information about related knowledge that is crucial to maximizing your utilization of the free information, and coaching/consulting for growing your business into the revenue monster you want it to be.
Since you can acquire so much information for free, is is really worth the money to pay for the add-on service?
That depends.
Do you want to take a few years learning how to utilize the free information?
Or do you want to be “up and running” in a few weeks or months?
One last thing before I “wrap” for today: don’t get caught up in trying to constantly look at all of the free online marketing stuff there is out there. There is simply too much for anyone to read and watch.
After you have a good idea of the lay of the land, pick you niche and dive in.
If there is one common trait I can note in the lives of all successful persons in this world, it is that they are persons of action. They form a plan, act, learn, and re-act.
So… form a good idea of what is out there, pick a niche, pick someone from whom you think you can learn, invest in their program(s), learn, and act on the learning.
Then wait for results, analyze the results, supplement your learning as necessary, and adjust your attempts. This works in internet markets just as it works in… well, pretty much all areas of life. If you want to be a success… take that first step NOW!
Proper use of this feedback loop is what you will use to become successful.
As a place to start learning, I suggest Jeff Johnson’s youtube channel. He has dozens of great internet marketing videos there.
http://www.youtube.com/jeffjohnsonvideos
To your success!
Tom
