Internet Marketing - The Real World Wide Web
Article by Nick Duncan
I don't know what the statistics are, but I'm sure the vast majority of people who are interested in starting a career online fail fairly quickly. I'm also willing to bet that they spend at least a few hundred dollars in the process. If you are interested in starting a career online, or even if you want to learn how to use online channels to boost your existing business, here are a few must knows.
It's Hard Work
If you're just starting out, it won't take long before you get caught up in the shear magnitude of Internet marketing material. In order to come to terms with why this is so, let's step back in time ten years to when all this began.
Step One - A small group of internet marketing gurus wisely identify the Internet as a place that will revolutionize the way we do business in the near future. They then become experts in using the Internet as the most powerful sales medium in the history of man kind and in the process they make a lot of money.
Step Two - The gurus realize that they are living the dream. They have a portable job that makes them boat loads of money. They use their expert marketing skills to sell the promise of their lifestyle to the plethora of unhappy Excel monkeys all around the world, all of whom are willing to pay a pretty penny for the freedom the Internet offers. Most people who begin this training quickly give up after they realize it's not the easy path to riches they first thought. However, some of these people stick with it, and earn the title of Internet marketing guru for themselves.
Step Three - These new Internet marketing gurus are now all too aware of the riches involved in selling information on the Internet. The margins are high and the audience is enormous. After thinking long and hard about what they can sell online, they decide to sell, yes that's right, Internet marketing advice. After all, they are gurus.
Step Four - Process repeats. These new gurus make their own website, invent their own systems, hold their own conferences, etc, etc.
Fast forward 10 years and there are literally THOUSANDS of Internet marketing gurus, all of which claim to have uncovered some sort of secret that other Internet marketers are unaware of.
What Does This Mean For Me?
The first thing to realize is that, for the most part, Internet marketing gurus are not scammers. Quite the opposite, they are gurus. Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of scammers on the Internet, but with the social networking channels that exist these days, scammers don't last for more than a few days before their schemes are tweeted all over the world. If you do your research, you can find plenty of bona fide gurus in the Internet marketing domain. The problem is that there are too many people selling too many products. If you are going to succeed in this market you need to make a plan and stick to it. Here are a few tips to help you take the next step.
One Step at a Time
You need to learn to crawl before you walk. Don't be tempted to sign up for every new master course that comes your way. Think about why you were interested in Internet marketing in the first place and prioritize your learning. For example, if you already have a business or a product to sell, first focus on setting up your website and incorporating a shopping cart and payment processing. After you have that part sorted out, start to learn marketing techniques one at a time. Start with an autoresponder string, then maybe try PPC, then, when you are a little more comfortable, try some article marketing and SEO. Make sure to track your results with everything you do so that you know what works and what doesn't.
Narrow Your Focus
Now that you have decided what you are going to start with, it's important to narrow your focus even further. Within each subcategory of Internet marketing, there is still an unbelievable amount of material to come to terms with. Carefully choose a handful of manageable learning resources and apply the techniques as you learn them. Try to avoid the following:
Cross Promotions - Every Internet marketing course is heavily loaded with cross promotions. Remember that they make money not only from your purchase, but also any affiliate they send you too. Choose a handful of products that work and stick to them until you are more comfortable. You don't need to subscribe to five different keyword analysis websites on day one, especially when, for the most part, they all do the same thing.
Surfing - One of the problems with working online is just that, working online. At any given time, you are only a mouse click away from visiting a new found blog or signing up for the worlds best copywriting newsletter, or responding to the latest tweet. In order to make real progress, you need to set yourself goals and develop weekly action plans to help you achieve those goals. Next time you go to work on your action plan, close your emails and any other web distractions you have open, you will notice an immediate boost in productivity.
There's no doubt that the constant bombardment of new information can cause some serious frustration and wheel spinning, but don't let it persuade you from pursuing a career online. Internet marketing is here to stay, but as these courses continue to produce new gurus, it's more important than ever to develop your own learning structure and focus on moving forward.
About the Author
Nick is a CPA from Boston, Massachusetts. He writes a blog at http://www.escapefromca.com, which documents his journey of escaping the boredom of corporate America.
