how long did it take you to learn?

Hi,

Of course the true if not cliche answer is I'm still learning.

My ahaha moment was when I finally put up a website with a product for sell and a paypal button and made a sale.

Then it hit me, Nike is right.

George Wright

Hello and Welcome!

Great to see new internet marketers really working hard and getting involved in the community!

I too am quite new to this forum, however I have been doing Internet Marketing for several years.

When I first started I really had no idea what I was getting myself into, and didn't really know what to do first or why what I was trying wasn't working.

My eureka moment came when I realized that what I really needed was a mentor. Thankfully I found a great mentor that has literally helped me step by step with my online business.

I highly suggest to not just jump around and "try a little of this, a little of that" but to find yourself one mentor or training course and see it all the way to completion. This way you will be able to really focus and not get lost in the huge mess of information on Internet Marketing.

If you have any more questions feel free to PM me and I will help you as best I can

Kindest,
Sean Alexander

You should find one Guru who you trust and is doing what you want to do and get on his/her mailing list. Then ignore all other gurus and offers and just learn from the one person. This will help you focus and not get distracted and jumping around trying different things.
If you have the desire, you can find enough free tools to make it happen. You just have to be resourceful and patient.
Also keep in mind having a list and your own product(s) is the best way to earn a lot from internet marketing. You should start a mailing list and buiding your product from the beginning.

well in terms of following a guru. i was thinking i should buy a WSO with many buyers and good feedback?

I have small a-ha moments all the time. I think it took me about 4 or 5 months to really start to "get" it. If you are just starting, IMO a good way is to do this:

Do some keyword research and find a keyword you want to target. If you are not sure how to do that, just do search on this forum. Don't take 2 weeks picking one out. Spend a day or two learning and researching, and pick one

Get hosting and a domain. If you can, get a domain for the keyword you chose. If your keyword is 'blue chickens' try to get bluechickens.com, or blue-chickens.com, or bestbluechickens.com, or best-blue-chickens.com, etc... I know you said you were broke, but honestly if you can't even hosting and a domain, I would just wait until you can. You could always use a blogspot blog or other free site, but I huge believer in getting your own domain.

- build a wordpress blog. Make posts about bluechickens, and make sure bluechickens is in the post title and in the article 3 or 4 times. Make other posts with other keywords related to bluechickens.

- Write articles about blue chickens, and submit to top directories. To find them, do search in this forum. Just choose 10 top ones. Submit them to your blog as well.

- Find other blogs and make comments to build backlinks to your site. Despite what anyone tells you, the blog DOES NOT have to be related to blue chickens. The blog could be anything. Make good comments, put your site in the website field, and do as many as you can. This is to get you started with backlinks. Of course if you want traffic from your comments, then you should post in blogs related to your niche. I don't bother trying to get this traffic personally. I post on blogs for backlinks.

- Social bookmark all of the articles you post, and the posts you make on your blog.

That should get you started. Good luck!

It took me two years and thousands of dollars worth of courses and software to begin earning a low day job wage from my online experience. Today things are better and getting much better each month. My advice would be:

1. Study internet marketing for a month. This forum and others are a great place to get the "pulse" of the business.

2. Do not buy any product that makes claims that get you excited. Good copywriting is what a lot of IM is about. Many products are OK but the guru selling you the product rarely made their big bucks by the method your buying to learn.

3. Select one niche to start. Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Offline Marketing, etc. Chose one and stick with it until you're either a success or are SURE it won't work.
4. Expect difficulties, they are inevitable. Learn from them but don't let them beat you down.

If you continue to Take Action until you find something that fits for you and Persevere when times get tough.... you will succeed. You might not get to be a millionaire but you should be able to earn more (often much more) than the typical day job.

I read yesterday the the latest US census shows 4.3% of workers work out of their home today. We have 300 million US citizens. That's men, women and children. Even accounting for some of that 12.9 million being telecommuters, that's a huge number and growing fast.

There's room for you.

The key to success is realizing that you have to think for yourself. People often try to implement some old tactics which worked a long time ago.

A successful internet marketer creates something himself. It took me 2 years to realize that.

trytolearn i am a newbie. with out much info to get started. i cant think for my self just yet, unfortunately i have to go by what people are telling me

First you need to understand that there is no "best way" to make money online. Then you need to just pick something and get to it. Don't bounce around.

I have been marketing for over 10 years but I took the last 2 years off. I got bored so I wanted to start some projects. I wanted a challenge so I wanted to start with little money and see what I could do. It is much harder now than in 98! I think the reason is I know so much more now and I am getting so many ideas reading all of the how to make money stuff that my head is spinning. It is hard for me to stay focused. It is just the entrepreneur in me seeing money in every direction but I am not going to throw money at this and go in every direction with hired help. Any idiot can do that.

Anyways... I think you should stay away from the "how to make money" market. You will just get too distracted like me. Also stay away from any paid traffic strategies. Prepare yourself to not make money for 3 to 6 months. If you keep telling yourself you NEED to make money by next month then you will spend a month looking for the fastest way to make money. Just bare down and realize that what ever you start will take time to build up and you must be comfortable with that.

Spend ONE week poking around deciding what you will want to do. Give yourself a deadline to make that decision then get to it. If you are not familiar with many marketing strategies then I do recommend some guides but you need to stay focused with them.

What would you like to do? What interests you? SEO? Blogs? List building? Facebook? Which avenue do you want to go down?

This forum is a great place to start. You'll find posts that will be so far over your head since you're new.

Focus on a handful of member who consistently have beginners "how to" posts. Once you get a little bit of knowledge the rest will fill in exponentially.

Good luck

im constantly learning, the best tip i can give to you is to do more insted of rading on here.

ofcourse read on here but stick to one system and keep doing it until it works for you. so many people will try stuff and when it doesnt work they will give up after a couple of weeks and try something else but if you keep going then your going to make money.

and all it takes is a domain and hosting, you can learn the rest.

It's hard to give advice when you have no idea what you want to do. Your user name seems to indicate that you like writing. That may be a good place to start out. Lots of people need article, Press releases, sales copy, and various other content written. You can sell your writing services and don't even need a website. It would be a good way to make money while you are trying to figure out the other stuff. There are tons of ebooks on copywriting, and there is a copywriting specific forum on this site. Plus, good writing skills will benefit you in any other area you go into.

Beyond that, there is a learning curve and you may feel overwhelmed at times. You will be learning for years and will have many ah-h moments. Of course, once you get money coming in, you can always outsource certain work to other people, so you don't need to learn everything.

try to get a basic understanding of all internet marketing concepts first, dont spend heavily..try to get advice from experienced warriors first.....then stick to the area that you like or best reflects your interests or talents

I have been learning for about Two years now and still learning. That is not to say I haven't seen some success with Internet Marketing because I have but It is a never ending journey. Good luck on your adventure and always stick with it. Like anything that is worth doing there are ups and downs. And if internet marketing was simple ever one would be a GURU and then the money would not be as good.

Good Luck

Welcome to the forum! There are many ways to make money in the business. You need to find out where your passion is. If you love what you do no matter online or off line you will make money. There is nothing better than having a job you love and enjoy waking up every morning knowing you are going to do exactly what you love.

I started in IM because I had a lot to say to the world and loved to write. I had a big following and people told me my content was really good and I should charge for it, and also told me that there would be many who'd want to learn from me.

Now, a few years later I find myself making a really good income doing what I enjoy the most and my customers love my stuff. There is nothing more fulfilling than helping people AND getting paid for that as well.

I would first research what it is you'd like to do. If it is IM you are wanting to do.... I would research for a training program that you truly believed in and follow through with it. We went through Liz Tomey's Newbie Survival and are currently in her Quick Cash Work Shop.... so far we've found success and what we paid for for the training programs have been well worth it. Not only do I believe in her teachings but she is one of our best friends and our neighbor. We went from being a nurse and truck driver to IM success!

I'm not sure how much you know about getting started in IM but you will need of course hosting, domain names, products, graphics, themes, FTP program, ect. We did a lot of research and have been open to any new information we can retrieve from the Warriors here..... there the ones who really know what it takes and the methods to go by.

Good Luck in your journey to success!

You first need to find out what you want to do in the IM field. You need to pick a niche and research like crazy on it. Of course you will need hosting, domain names, a product or products, FTP program, and there is TONS and TONS of free marketing material you can read up on and learn.

We enrolled in our good friend and mentor, Liz Tomey, course ..... Newbie Survival and we are currently enrolled in her Quick Cash Workshop. We have found great success in her teachings so far and was well worth the money we paid for the programs.

Hope this helps you in your journey to success!

I didn't invest a whole lot. I got a free WSO about ghostwriting, wrote some articles, bought a paid WSO from the same author for $37, and built my promotional website.

Wrote some more articles, did a little copywriting because articles took too long and didn't pay enough, then determined that for my temperament and work style I was just better off building my own products.

Scrapped everything, took my income all the way down to zero, and started over. Still not built up to where I want to be, but scraping by and making progress... actually had a $1,000 month in September, and I'm on track for another one this month.

In fact, if this product I'm working on right now turns out like I want, I might add another zero to that figure. But I'm getting ahead of myself, and realistically, it's probably just going to be a $2k month or so.

At this rate, I'll be able to pay back the people I owe before the end of the year, and possibly even join one or two of the coaching programs I've been wishing I could afford lately.

The Aha Moment is when i build my blogs 2 years ago, and selling some ebooks with paydotcom , then i joined this forum that has give a lot for my journey to Internet Marketing.

affilorama is a good place to learn affiliate marketing from scratch.

Affiliate Marketing Lessons | Affilorama

Learn and take action. Reward is in the future

You will never stop learning. For the simple fact something could change very very quick. Google may have changed something in their algorithm which forces you to learn something new. SO to answer your question till the day you quit.

Here is the first problem QUIT SPENDING HOURS A DAY HERE IN THIS FORUM. Apply what you have learned thus far and get started. It takes time but you can get started for free if done correctly. You are in fact setting your self up to fail for not attempting anything. You can read all the information in the world on internet marketing and will never understand why or how it works if you never apply anything you learn.

SO stop reading information and start applying the information you already know. Start with a free blog platform like blogger wor wordpress. It doesnt take any money to get started you just need to start. You will never learn anything entirely by reading the information here. You need to try and see what works for you just because someone says something worked for them doesnt mean it will work for you. The information in this forum and other locations leave things out which is why the information you are reading about may not work.

I started off totally lost, but knowing that I wanted to do something that involved writing. That was my only sense of direction, and it hasn't steered me wrong. Find whatever one area -- be it technical stuff, writing, graphics, or something else -- you want to pursue to make your fortune and narrow your learning down to that field.

I can't pinpoint one eureka moment. When I had my first $300+ month, I was thrilled. Now the idea of only making that much in a whole month is a little silly to me, but I was practically dancing up a storm. That took me several months, though... I started learning in February of '09, and that was June.

I've never invested a penny that I haven't made from IM into my IM business. I've actually made a very firm policy to myself on that. That's the miracle of online business -- you don't have to have startup capital.

Focus on one area. Learn all you can about it and start offering a service related to it to expand your knowledge and give yourself money to work with.

I've been involved with IM for about 4 years and I learn something new every single day. Never stop learning.

Learning is endless and I'm still learning.............

I've spent more than 1, 1/2 years to sell my first own product (eBook) since the first day.

Information overload is the biggest matter I was facing as IM in first two years.

Here is all you really need to learn.

Proper research

If you do the research right the first time you do not need a product of your own to start. You can build a simple review site promoting someone else product and your business is now up and running. However if you do not do the proper research the first time you will fail. Learn how to do the research first and the rest will explain itself to you. You do not need to spend months trying to come up with and create your own product. Use someone else product to start. If you can sell someone else product well guess what now you have some money coming in you can start looking to expand and building your own products.

So proper research is all you should be focusing on at this point. Since you do not have a site. You do not have a product. You have nothing. You cant keep asking questions when you havent applied any of it.

If you want training on how to start you should visit my affiliate marking online link in my sig. It provides complete step by step training. It is in video format and easy to follow. It also provides you with support to any questions or concerns you may have when starting. There is a free version but you will be limited to the first week of training.

My OMG moment came when I realized 3 things.

1. A traffic rank of 400,000 puts you in the 98th percentile of all websites on earth traffic-wise.

2. The 98th percentile is a failing grade - NO ONE knows you exist.

3. I need to inform others of this and help them achieve their own goals.

i wanted to ask how did you start off IM? and how long did it take for you to learn it all?

1st, you will never learn it all because "learning it all" does not
create wealth -- anywhere. In fact, I found it's the opposite:

It's learning LESS and focusing on what you want to be the best
at.

I started off...in trading forex currencies. Did very well with that
before I decided it wasn't for me and I chose marketing b/c I
felt it was a bigger challenge.


did you start off confused as i am not knowing what steps to take?

Yep. Everyone does. Marketing requires a mindset that "get's"
marketing, sales, and promotion and more importantly...not
being timid to SELL what you offer and profit from it.

It was confusing to me because I was used to creating money
out of nothing (trading) to having to provide direct value and
dealing with real people. Being a "people person" helps a big
deal.

when was your eureka moment? how long it take u to get there?

Most recent was when I started making $30-$60 a day less than
a week ago with ClickBank. Here is this system that people are
complaining as being "ineffective" or not working as good as it
used to...

when it's really just them all alone.

I make money with clickbank because I discard those people
who have given up on themselves and don't allow them to
effect MY decision.

It took me...hmmm...maybe 3-4 years I suppose. It took longer
I admit because of maturity issues and not being focused. Some
people grow up faster, but I'd say I'm not complaining at 22 Y.O.


how much money did you invest to get going?

Thousands, and thousands. In fact, I took on Direct Mail marketing
as a business model and it's NO joke. It takes about $600-$1000
for one campaign, and if it fails you will not see that money again.

Been through that twice...but I knew I would get a hang of it soon
because now...well, let's just say I'm doing okay for myself


what can i do to get started? (currently i am job searching to raise funds for my IM ventures but what should i learn mean while)

:rolleyes: Whatever YOU want to learn.

Can you believe it's the hardest part to it all? Choosing 1 or 2
areas to focus on and sticking with it until it works (significant
amount of time).

Petevamp has nailed it on the head. I think that you have to be aware that you'll always be learning. When you're learning just make sure that for every one hour of learning you do you put in at least one hour of implementation. Try and increase that to one hour learning, 2 hours implementation and keep increasing it from there and if you keep increasing that you're going to become hyper productive.

I think like everyone else information overload and chasing shiny objects is the biggest hurdle you face in internet marketing. You need to focus on ONE thing and learn how to do it well. It's taken me a long time to realise that and I know that most people will be the same.

It doesn't matter what people say and what advice they give, you'll always think you can do things your own way, but my advice is listen to what people have to say, especially here on warrior forum (but take it with a grain of salt )

It's different for everyone but after a while you'll realise successful people are just saying the same thing all the time:

1. Never give up
2. There is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme
3. Internet Marketing is a lot of hard work but you will get out of it what you put into it
4. Always keep learning but see my points above.
5. Internet marketing is like any other business online or offline so treat it like one.

Really all you need to do to get started is:

Know how to create a website (Wordpress makes this super easy)
Get a product or promote someone elses
Put that product on your website
Learn how to drive traffic (the hardest bit)

Above all else - always try and recover your costs. If you spend some money on for example a website, try and recover that cost from sales before you spend money on the next website. Keep doing that and you'll stay in the game for a much longer period of time and continually learn along the way.

Greg

I learn every second, minute, day... In fact, I learned something from your post right now. However, I have a spam filter in my brain that helps me to avoid information overload.

The truth is you never stop learning. The Internet and the way we market is constantly evolving and there for so must we.
There will be a time when you realise that you have to stop buying and start selling. That is kind of like turning a corner.
Make your way to War room. Everything you need is in there.
If you have any other questions feel free to contact me.

I'm still learning everyday. I don't think the learning ever really stops. I'm assuming you are asking how long before I learned how to make sales and the answer would be about two months. It could have been a lot sooner if I hadn't jumped from method to method. I have put several thousand dollars into internet marketing but most of it was unnecessary.

Don't chase money with money, find a plan that works or that several others are having success with and see it through until you are making a profit. The worst thing you can do is jump from idea to idea, you will get information overload.

You're in the right place! This is one, if not the best forum to learn
what really works in starting your web business.

Realistically, it will take you few weeks or months to learn the basic
skills - web design, copywriting, list building, product creation, outsourcing, etc.

If done wrong - like me when I was starting out, It took me years of
procrastination and learning. Didn't take action immediately or had the
courage to make mistakes then just tweak the plan as I go along.

But it was a rewarding journey, I believe anyone with entrepreneurial spirit
and traits can start now and succeed with an online business even with
little or no budget at all (but it will take take longer if you'll not spend money)

If I'll do it all over again:

- I will pick a proven business model (there are more than 2-3 dozens)
- I will pick a mentor to follow (read and buy his stuff)
- Apply quickly what I learn
- Evaluate my results, correct mistakes
- Focus, don't get distracted
- From your initial profits, invest, build assets, pay for traffic, expand thru outsourcing
- Then when you've done that first phase, you can pick another mentor who can
take your business to the next level.

Another version (not-new knowledge, but proven):

- pick a proven/profitable market
- build list
- promote other people products (this is while your learning)
- create your own product/customize PLR
- recruit army of affiliates
- create more products
- start a membership site/or promote one
- start high-priced coaching program/or promote one

That's my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

-Edwin Ryan

It’s true, even if there are already lots of expert marketers today, everyone is still in the process of learning. As you can see, the internet industry changes all the time so everyone would need to learn like new SEO techniques, new social media sites, list building and a lot more. Just like regular education, learning is a continuous process.

1st, you're not alone. EVERYONE starts off confused (unless you've
had a successful background in marketing).

2nd, my eureka moments never stop, and I like it that way. When
you start seeing success you'll learn to appreciate and look forward
to "more of them" as opposed to "less".

3rd, maybe several thousands...definitely more 9k-11k+, not more
than 15k in marketing and education costs.

(no indicator you should look forward to spending anywhere near
what I have, but you certainly WILL spend money and time to get
to where you want to go)

4th, what should you start? Take your pick. Personally, I found I'm
at peace and enjoy the challenge of Direct Mail (offline marketing).

The sky's the limit if you want to stick online. I don't much care for
online marketing because things change so quick, it goes beyond
"adapting to the environment" (direct mail is MUCH slower), but I do
make great money using Clickbank as my choice...how you do it is
up to you.

I think a lot of beginners are paralyzed just reading all the wealth of information out there on "how to make money online". There is a LOT of information out there and truth be told most of it is good, useful information (albeit conflicting at times :confused

After a while the information overload becomes such a distraction that you simply can't focus in any coherent direction. Everybody is doing something slightly different, and it seems they are all making tens of thousands of dollars per month. Where do you start??

My simple advice is pick something. Anything, really. Just pick something and start working on it.

The interesting thing with this "strategy" (if you can call it that) is that as you develop your project you will quickly discover what is working and what needs to be tweaked. You may even find that something completely different comes along that would be a better direction to go in. The key is that if you sit there researching and information overload, you aren't gaining any momentum.

These are my observations on the subject. I welcome any comments on my philosophy.

Just take it easy. Everything takes time. Take this for example, a human being is carried in the mother's womb for nine months. If a mother took that long to carry her child, why should a person be desperate to earn money in just a short time?

Learn first. Don't count the eggs before it is hatched. Money will soon follow if you are already equipped with all the things needed by a qualified IM.

Goodluck to you and have a nice day.

Welcome. I made a few cents my first 6 months of IM. It took me a long time to get started.

Once I found something that I made money with, I just duplicated it over and over again. Other than my internet connection, I spent almost nothing more to get started. It took me a little more than a year to replace my income.

My two cents -- first, expect EVERYTHING to be hard when you do it the first time. Building a web site, using WordPress, setting up Aweber, doing FTP - it's all hard because you have to figure it out for yourself. We all had to go through it, and if we can do it, you can do it.

Second - the biggest problem everyone starting out has is information overload and focus. You absolutely have to pick a system and follow it through, or you will never get anywhere. That's the biggest mistake I made, jumping from one interesting thing to another several times and not sticking with anything long enought to get it to work. I finally started seeing success when I decided that I was not buying one more product, none, no matter how interesting or good it looked. I wouldn't call that an AHA moment, but it was definitely a turning point.

One more thing - as someone else said - stop spending hours on this or any forum, and start doing something. There's a huge learning curve ahead, and the best thing you can do is jump in and get started. Start a web site, start a Squidoo lens, start a free Blogger blog, try to sell an affiliate product - just start.

The reality is some people are fast learner and some also are not. Good for you if you are a fast learner person and is teachable.