Newbie starting to go nuts!

[sharpturn]

Hi everyone,

I threw myself into internet marketing about 6 months ago. I had had enough of working all the hours god sends for someone else and getting nothing out of it. I was sick of working for bad bosses who thought they knew everything.

I have always been fascinated by computers and knew there was another world where people were making money online so I figured I would give it a try.
So here I am all this time later with a little more knowledge about the industry and the various areas to work in. I started out not knowing what a keyword was and had no idea that blogs existed. I like working with Squidoo, Hubpages, Weebly etc. So, I have come a long way since then but in all my learning and attempts at making money I still haven’t made more than $10. Many of my keywords are in 1st and second page of Google but I still get low traffic!
I haven’t much money to invest in training so I’m pretty much trying to learn whatever I can through the information given out online, including the Warrior Forum. Right now I figure the best and safest way of learning IM is to start with Traditional Internet Marketing. Choose a niche, a product, write articles, blogs, make a tiny linkwheel, promote and then go off to the next one. I have read many techniques on how to do this and now I’m totally confused about which is the best technique! Plus I’m trying to figure out who genuinely knows their stuff.
Before I know it I get information overload and then my brain just shuts down, achieving nothing for the day!
I get confused with keyword research and competition. Some say just pick a product, check Google Keyword Tool for low competition and high searches. Then check on Google and if the PR is 3 or below then you have a good keyword. It can’t be that simple!
Then I watch a Howies Schwartz video and he researches the keyword until he has cut it down to the best it can be…but this takes ages!
Arrrrhhhhhhh!!!!!
This is getting long…I better stop. I guess I’m just looking for some hope that I’m on the right track and that I just got to keep going. I’m at that stage where I wonder whether to give it all up but I really don’t want to. I like this and believe I can do it I just haven’t seen any results. Maybe I need more direction coz I’m getting sidetracked easily probably coz I’m pressurizing myself to make money as my financial situation isn’t exactly Rosey.
Anyway, thanks for reading and letting my vent my thoughts. If anyone has advice I would very much appreciate it.
Andy

[JasonValens]

Where is the sticking point? Are you at the stage where you're confident that you can select a market?

[sharpturn]

Hi JasonValens,

Actually, that's a good question. No, I don't feel confident that I select a good market. Maybe that's my problem. I think of products I would like to sell, maybe through Amazon, and when I start the keyword research I find that I cannot locate a phrase that could put me in a good position in Google. I'm confused.

For example, I want to sell a particular laptop. I decide to use the exact name of the product, (in order to hit buying traffic). I test it through "intitle/inanchor and it comes out below 5 which is good. I check it through Google and there are only say 40,000 other pages. All seems good and then I check the phrase through Google Keyword Tool and it comes out with "not enough data".

I think my sticking point is getting the phrase sorted out because all the other stuff,(article writing, making up a sales blog, promoting), etc I'm ok with.

What do you think I could do?

Andy

[Azzurro]

Hi sharpturn

I was in the same situation about 4 months ago, with my head about to explode with overload, so I took a step back and started to learn the basics of IM, on the advice of fellow Warriors this in due coarse led me to Ed Dale’s 30 day challenge.

Its run by a group of experienced marketers with a real emphasis on the beginner, and the best thing it’s FREE.

There will be many more answers to your posting here and lots of sound and informative advice, the 30 day challenge worked for me and kept me focused.

You will receive lots of encouragement here in Warrior Forum, take a little time to read the replies you get to your post, take a step back, write a plan of action, and go for it !

Good Luck, Stay Focused

[JasonValens]

ok, so you selected a buyers market. That's a good first step. You've also recognised that people making searches for the exact product name are a good target. Excellent.

It seems you're concerned about the keyword volume, the number of searches that google says is made per month. I think that this is a sticking point for a lot of people, so you're definitely not alone.

People are desperate to rank for the big general terms that pull in millions of hits. However, I find that the keyword intention is far more important than volume.

If the intention behind the keyword is to make a purchase and / or to take action then that is a good keyword, no matter what the volume. You have that with product names and reviews.

The conversion is what matters and not the volume. Perhaps there are 20 searches per month for your keyword. Also remember that 80% of search terms are unique.

If the people searching are ready to buy, then 20 visits per month for a specific product can give you some conversions. Easily. Not only that, but you'll have conversions each month ongoing.

Take action and write some articles, get the traffic. You will not succeed everytime. You might fail 8 out of 10 times, but those 2 keywords that bring in the money will be worth the effort. Wash, rinse and repeat.

One thing is for sure, if you don't take action then you will fail 10 out of 10 times.

I've left a lot out to keep it simple, things often are.

[Ronald Kang]

try to find a mentor and keep focus on doing your strategy. Don't switch to another method before you get results from previous method. For example, I learn from Ewen that article is a good method to get traffic. Then I try to wrote 1 article a day until it reach 50 articles. Now the traffic keeps going by itself. It hard at the first time, just be patience and don't give up easily.

[sharpturn]

Hi Azzurro,

Thank you for your comment. I will look into this Ed Dale's 30 Day Challenge. More stuff to read! I can't wait to just get on with IM and take lots of action coz I'm falling behind here.

Cheers,

Andy

[turbostar52]

Promote an affiliate program with Market Health using article marketing. A colon cleanse product probably would convert well. If you were to get any repeat customers, you would continue getting commissions from them. Hope this helps.

[sharpturn]

Hi JasonValens,

What you wrote makes a lot of sense. So what your saying is that I should try not to worry too much about the high volume searches as long as I have selected a good keyword?

So, if I use a very specific keyword, (the product name), and there are only say 70 searches a month this can work to my advantage coz those searches are "buying traffic". Meaning that even though there are only a few people searching most of them are in buying mode because they used the exact product name to find what they want. Does that sound right?

What about high competition? Many of my chosen keywords are in Average competition and when I check them on Google I see I will be up against Amazon. Amazon having at least two products at the top of 1st page. Do you think this doesn't mater and that I should carry on anyway?

Sorry about the totally newbie questions but I have to learn all this stuff if I want to get anywhere.

Thank you,

Andy

[turbostar52]

Yet better, go to this link: Affiliate programs with lifetime commissions or residual commissions for life .

You should find many lifetime commission programs there. If I were you, I would start off with article marketing / building a list in promoting any of these programs.

[sharpturn]

To Jusin and Ronald Kang,

I have thought about article writing full time but and will try it out at some point but I have been told that I need to concentrate on one area of IM first and branch out when I have mastered that.

I have chosen to try out the traditional way of IM in order to gain some foundations for the future. I need more practice with Keyword Research and SEO etc...

Thanks guys,


Andy

[sharpturn]

Turbostar52,

Thanks for the link I will take a look. I have heard about this list building thing and how it can be successful for people. I thought list building was for the experienced IMer.
I don't even know what it is or how I would get started in it.
Don't you need contacts for that?

Andy

[JasonValens]

Go for it. You can stack the odds in your favour, but much of this is not an exact science. I have articles that didn't target any keywords that have thousands of views and a one page site that 'shouldn't' bring organic traffic that generates $1000 every month without any work on it. That outperforms some of my larger optimized sites.

What i'm saying is that results are impossible to predict accurately every time. The way to find out is to get started.

[turbostar52]

Write articles, and in your resource box, use a link to your presell page. Make sure you have a good informational copy with about 3 affiliate links in it and an optin form at the end. With your copy laid out like this, you are more likely to get potential customers to optin if they don't buy anything right away. After they optin, send them a 6 week course with one autosponder message each week to educate them on your topic.

[turbostar52]

If choose article marketing, write at least 5 articles a day. When you write, try to put yourself in the mindframe of the person who entered the keyword at the search engine.

[alamest]

What I feel is that your basic is wrong.

Come on even you can make more than $10 from Google Adsense. I got your problem that you stick with one product and one marketing technique.

You have to try all short of marketing technique like article marketing, social medias, SEO, PPC, list building and so on. One of the Guru said that never stop doing it, sometime it takes 1 month to get good result something it take 1 year to achieve but it all depends how quick you pick all that things.

If you fail in selling products online that I suggest you to try Forex at this you will make money if you follow the exact think like gurus does.

Please don't stop doing it just find out the right think.

[sharpturn]

Thanks everyone,

I think one of my problems is I over analise too much.
I'm going to have a go at choosing a high priced product and use the product name in the URL to target the buyer. I guess I'm going to have to improve my SEO also.
I will write articles and blogs etc for this product and see how it goes.
What about backlinks and that kind of stuff? Maybe I shouldn't be worrying about that now...lol


Andy

[SurviveUnemployment]

Are you only working with Squidoo, Hubpages, Weebly, etc.? If so, that's your problem. Spend the ten bucks you've made, get a domain name, then go back and point all the (relevant) hubs and lenses at your own site. Bet you start making some money!

[sharpturn]

Hi SurviveUnemployment,

I have used Blogger too. I use these because they are free.
You wrote this below...can you explain it to me?

Originally Posted by SurviveUnemployment

Spend the ten bucks you've made, get a domain name, then go back and point all the (relevant) hubs and lenses at your own site. Bet you start making some money!

Do you mean get a name that conects to the blogs that I have written?
Can you explain how my own domain can help?

These questions may seem dumb but I genuinely want to know.

Thanks for your help,

Andy

[pbennett]

So, if I use a very specific keyword, (the product name), and there are only say 70 searches a month this can work to my advantage coz those searches are "buying traffic". Meaning that even though there are only a few people searching most of them are in buying mode because they used the exact product name to find what they want. Does that sound right?

I'm finding that this just isn't true. Both my websites are on the first page. My chocolate website is #1 for its keyword phrase and a few others. I'm still getting very few adsense sales. I think the key for adsense is volume. If you have a small volume niche, you have to do something else for money.

[thecashbag]

It sounds like you need some help. If you want some solid advice I'm happy to give it. Shoot me and email at thecashbag @ gmail . com (without the spaces of course) and I'll give you some gudience on your sites and what to do next.

[sharpturn]

Hi pbennett,

In the post above I was refering to making money through linking to a product in Amazon. So the customer would click on my site and then from there if I'm lucky they will click on my link which will send them to Amazon at the product page...Then hopefully they will buy.
I haven't really worked with Adsense.

Andy

[Terro]

OK. Sharpturn you are in the same position I was just a few weeks ago, until I bought a WSO from a guy called Mario Brown, this WSO was for a seven day bootcamp, wich I recomend you go and have a look at. It costs $7 Internet Marketing Fool ? Internet Marketing Tips & Information

You should also have a look at Market Samurai wich is a totaly awesome tool to find those laser targeted keywords.

[pbennett]

yeah, my tubepages site is an Amazon site. I've been super disappointed in it so far, but it's pretty much brand new. Only up like a couple of months at the most. It's ranked like #7 and I've only had about 5 clicks. No clickthroughs.

[sharpturn]

Thanks,

I have just took Azzurro's advise and checked out Ed Dale's 30 Day Challenge. It looks pretty genuine.

Andy

[pbennett]

good, I'll do the same!

[Kay King]

Do you mean get a name that conects to the blogs that I have written?
Can you explain how my own domain can help?

This question amazes me. You need to establish your presence on the web rather than rely on sites like hubs and squidoo to do it for you. They are good to use in promoting your own site but they don't belong to you and can be shut down without warning. The same is true for free blogger blogs.

You can buy a domain for less than $10 a year and hosting can be found for less than $10 a month.

As for keywords, you can use several tools for keyword searches and get different results from each because keyword search are estimates only. You learn with practice to make your best judgment of search numbers compared to competing sites. If the competing sites are all large authority sites, it will be harder to rank - if you don't have your own website it may be impossible to rank for those keywords.

In the end you are finding keywords that have a good chance - IF you are able to promote them effectively. There are no guarantees and some niches will exceed your expectations while others might fall flat.

In my opinion, you are working with one hand tied behind your back if you are not building sites and blogs on your own domains. You are totally ignoring the most basic part of working online - establishing your own "real estate".

kay

[masterbis]

Hi guys, I donno whether or not I am off topic for saying this. But this discussion remind me of what i just watched last nite in BBC Knowledge: The Apprentice (UK version).

Those 2 team compete in "TV selling channel" and the team who won was the one who manage to sell "not so popular" product: some kind of coat made from wolf, this sleeping mattress, and few other "unique" products.

It was striking episode for me. I see the importance to "seek" for the product not in "seller" eyes, but in "buyer" eyes. What do they need? How much they desperately need it to buy it?

The 1st team had camera, a very easy to sell piece, but there are too many people selling camera already, and too many people using it already, so the chance of selling new cam dropped.

While piece of coat made from wolf is unique, not too many people wanted it, and not so many competitor produce it, but, if there is one or two who interest to have it, they will definitely buy it! And that's what happened.

The same thing goes to sleeping mattress. A very hard piece to sell. Even "Sir Alan" the millionaire doubted it will sell. But one of the apprentice from 2nd team (the winning team) saying this: "imagine how much people will buy to have a good night sleep"

Yep, though it seems ridiculous to sell that item, they will eventually sell it if they targeted the right market, the one who really need it, the one who desperately seeking for help. In that mattress case: the one who believe they can finally solved their insomnia with it.

And yes, it became sold out.

So, if now I'm going to search for the right product to promote I'm going to after:
1. the one that could fill the need
2. small numbers of interest people but high desire to buy
3. less competitor

Those product I am going to choose, and the rest is keywords research.

[JasonValens]

I'm finding that this just isn't true. Both my websites are on the first page. My chocolate website is #1 for its keyword phrase and a few others. I'm still getting very few adsense sales. I think the key for adsense is volume. If you have a small volume niche, you have to do something else for money.

Yes, because adsense is based on number of clicks (or high value keywords) rather than conversions. I was talking about people ready to make a purchase, using buying keyword phrases. It depends on the market.

If you use adsense for these type of keyword phrases, you're just sending buyers somewhere else.

[sharpturn]

Masterbis,

Thanks for that post...it actually gets me thinking about what type of product I should be looking at to sell. Sell what everyone else is selling and fight for the top spot or sell something unique that maybe only a few people want but are more ready to buy.

Cool.

[Norliza]

Hi sharpturn,

Hang in there. After a year, I am still in your shoes right now.

[c4rves]

At the start of your marketing courier I am not surprised that you have info over load it’s the same for every one,
How ever all the pieces of the puzzle will soon fit into place, you will have a light at the end of the tunnel moment,
Soon as you get this, focus on the project that makes you money and run with it.

[sharpturn]

Norliza,

Thanks for your comment. I'm not sure I would hang on for a year if I'm still in the position I am in now. I hope you find success soon.

I'm not learn at a fast rate but I am learning and I have the free time now to push forward and start making some sales. I have read stories of total newbies making sales in just a few months and so if they can do it so can I.
I just need a plan or a system that I can stick to and just keep at it until I succeed. It would be nice to have a mentor to speed things up but I haven't the money for that.

Thanks all for your feedback..this has helped me a lot. Please keep posting in as I'm sure this will help other newbies such as myself.


Andy

[sharpturn]

business space 39,

That sounds great to be able to look forward to doing what you do everyday. That's my plan and that's why I'm working so many stupid hours to get there. The work I put into this now will hopefully benefit me in the future where I will be working less hours and getting more money.

That's the plan anyway...lol

Andy