If you are a newbie, that is, an absolute beginner to internet marketing, there is something very important that you should know now. What I am going to tell you will save you hundreds of dollars and a lot of your precious time.
As a newbie, you don’t need the tons of internet marketing products and courses that you will come across on the net, promising you overnight riches and much more. Also, do not fall for the hyped up sales pitches that you may receive via email if you are subscribed to various lists. It will only result in information overload and confusion.
I am not saying that all such products and courses will not work as many of them may deliver the goods. What I am saying is that as a newbie, you will not be able to understand or be able to use such programs or products due to your non existent or less than basic knowledge of internet marketing at that point in time.
What you need to do first is get an overall knowledge about internet marketing. From where can you get this ? There are a few websites which provide step by step training on internet marketing for newbies. Some are free and the others are paid memberships.
No doubt, paid memberships would be better as useful information costs money and there will be a limit to the extent of information a free site will be able to provide.
Then again, you should choose a membership that provides training from the very basic level, as building a good foundation is very important. Assuming that you have normal computer skills, look for a site that would start with niche topics, keywords, domain names, registration, web hosting, website design and website building, WYSIWYG website builders, search engine optimization, website publishing, FTP programs, HTML editors, affiliate programs, Google adsense, list building, traffic generation, pay-per-click, cost per action, social networking, social bookmarking, auto responders, resell rights, master resell rights, private label rights, blogging, product creation, email marketing, squeeze pages, etc.
Due not be overwhelmed by what you have read above. I have only mentioned some of the relevant topics that would be covered at these membership sites. Always choose a course which provides video training also, not just PowerPoint slides but a moving video with audio of any process that is being taught. Look also for a newbie training program that provides email support to answer your queries.
Before anything else, I am sure that you know that to make money on the internet, you need to first set yourself up with the following:
- A computer with preferably a high speed internet connection.
- Adobe Reader and Winzip programs installed
- A printer
- Patience
- Persistence
- Commitment
The last three are very important if you wish to make money. Once you are past the newbie stage, which will be very soon if your progress is steady, you will be able to look at what are called internet business models.
These are various types of programs through which you would able to make money from the net. Some may need a website and others may not as it would depend on the business model that you would choose.
You will also come across programs known as “Business-in-a box” where on purchase or membership, you would be provided with one or many fully functional websites with affiliate products already installed. All that you may have to do is pick a good domain name, register it, host it and add your affiliate links and start promoting that site. All this will make sense once you have successfully completed your newbie training.
While you are in the process of learning the ropes, it would be a good idea to learn about ways and means of bringing lots of visitors to your website(s). As without visitors, no matter how attractive your site is or how great your products are there will be no buyers.
The best way of attracting visitors to your websites is through search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. This is a topic by itself and it is possible by SEO or search engine optimization which should be part of your course syllabus.
There are other methods also of bringing visitors to your website(s) which will be covered in your course.
In short, it is possible to earn a decent income through internet marketing if you can set aside some time every day and invest a little bit of money. The money would usually be for the newbie training and later for domain registration, web hosting followed by an auto responder for email marketing.
As in any business, you need to invest some money and here, the investment is quite small compared the money that you would otherwise spent in trying to learn how to make money on the internet.
A final word of advice and that is, do not buy up all the products and programs that you come across before completing your basic internet marketing training. Once you are past the newbie stage, you will be able to make your own sensible decisions on what programs you need to make money.
By Eric Alexander
