Question:

I’m really interested in getting started with Internet Marketing, but I don’t know where to start.  It’s so frustrating, because I’m on dozens of mailing lists and each ‘expert’ is promoting something that is going to be ‘the’ solution – I don’t know which way to turn and I don’t want to waste my money.  Please help me sort this out a bit.

Answer:

Internet Marketing is a big topic, because there are so many potential ways to make money on the internet – this is a good thing.  However, I can identify with your sense of frustration of knowing where to start.

First, let’s identify some of the core competencies an Internet Marketer is going to need to fully maximize his/her profits.  Knowledge/Command of:

• Autoresponders
• Building Lists
• Writing Copy
• Blogs
• Forums
• Google Adsense/Adwords
• Developing an Affiliate Product
• Marketing an Affiliate Product, like on Clickbank
• Email Marketing – knowing the spam rules
• Podcasting
• Videocasting
• Testing
• Tracking
• Graphics – eBook Covers, Banners, Photoshop
• Etc.

This is very short list, but it shows the breadth of knowledge that is eventually needed.

You are wise to try to hold onto your wallet and spend where it’s going to be the biggest bang for your buck.

I would say the easiest place to start would be with a Blog and impregnating the Blog with Google Adsense.

Why?

Because Blogs are free to start.  You can set up a blogger.com account for FREE and start blogging in 10 minutes.

What should you ‘Blog’ about? 

I would start with something you know – even though you might be bored to tears with the topic (because you know it so well), there is an audience out there who wants to know what you know.  You need to develop your ‘voice’, your style.  If you are not used to sharing your opinions, you are going to need to practice.  It’s really not hard.  I would also read the Blog sites of others, to see what and how they write.  You will be amazed at the garbage that’s out there – so be confident, you can do this.

Make a commitment to post to your Blog religiously, every day if you can – do it for a solid month.  This is going to take some discipline. 

Remember, Internet Marketing is a set of skills that cannot easily be ’short-cutted’ – take the time to learn and master each skill because this will save you precious time in the long run.

Once you’ve got your month of ‘Blogging’ done, then it’s time to start impregnating the site with Google Adsense – this is a big topic and I can’t do it justice here, but there is a lot of material out there on this.  I’ll try to put something together on this myself in the coming weeks.

Then, you need to write four unique articles about your topic and you need to submit them to the most popular article sites.  You’ll put your Blog’s URL in each of the articles and when people read it, they can go to your Blog to find out more information about your niche. 

Article writing is also another topic that I can’t do justice in this post – I’ll try to touch on that a little later.

Here is the Internet Marketing Map (overview) of what I just described – for those who like to see it in picture form.

This will get you started, and for zero cost, except for time.