Advice for a newbie

Well I am not an expert on these issues but so far I know is similar to your thinking like you have described here.

Hi. I am going to give you my take on what you have said and attempt to address everything. First, you say that you have been here for years but call yourself a newbie. Making money online, like computers, is hands on, you can do all the learning in the world, but the real learning starts when you actually take action and implement stuff. Taking action is key. There is, like you stated, a learning curve.

One of the most important aspects of making money online is doing research. In terms of a domain name, purchasing a top-level domain (.com, .org, .net) just looks more professional. It's also important to have your own domain so that you can control the content. Free sites are very picky about the topics and stuff they allow. If they get rid of your content, your back at square one and your money with dry up really quickly.

When it comes to Wordpress, it has become the standard for blogging/niche sites. However, the free version doesn't allow affiliate links, which is why it's important to have your own domain. In terms of article writing, your articles should be between 400 - 450 words. You need to know your niche well enough to answer all the potential questions and customer may have while keeping it short and simple. When your articles are too long, your conversions suffer.

When it comes to affiliate marketing, it can be quite profitable, and I would choose it over adsense or paid advertising. First, it takes just as many visitors to get an adsense click as it does an affiliate sell. Why make .30 a click when you can make $30? This is why you shouldn't use adsense and affiliate marketing on the same page. Adsense directs people away from your site. In terms of PPC, I just don't like spending money. :-) You also stand to lose a lot if you don't know what you're doing.

Affiliate marketing with a niche blog is great because not only is the income residual (once you get everything up and running)--work once and continue to get paid without any extra work, but you can also generate various income streams from the same blog (i.e. e-mail marketing...). It's also great because you can work around your own schedule, which I really like. With the holidays around the corner, now is the perfect time to start up a niche blog -- still time to learn what you need to know and cash in big. All you need is the right training.

For this, I recommend Unstoppable Affiliate by Andrew Hansen and Josh Stanton. It's an internet marketing training program specifically designed to teach the newbie marketer all the ins and outs of niche blogging so you can be up and running and making money as quickly as possible. More importantly, it uses a realistic, straightforward approach--without all the usual lies and stuff. In addition to the basic course, they also offer a coaching program that you can participate in.

Good luck,
Joey

Great posts guys! Very informative for newbies in the business.

one advice is that to take action and do things step by step...if you miss one step then you may find yourself going in circle...do it once...do it good!

Stick to this forum posts and you will learn a lot about internet marketing

As far as I am concerned you have got a good grip on the basics. Just dont fall into the trap of becoming a professional student. Dont be afraid to just do it. Get out there and start getting your feet wet. Become a "do'er" and not just a learner. Always remember "An ant on the move achieves more than a sleeping ox"

You are right about that. I have been reading these forums for months and have learned so much. Knowing that there is still so much more to learn has kept me from actually starting but now I have decided to turn my wishful thinking into wishful doing (my user name).

By the way, Miguelito, I bought Unstoppable Affiliate and thought it was very good but as a novice, I could not implement their niche ideas. I couldn't get approval to a CPA account (no business tax ID or website). I think other newbs would be disappointed by that as well. I do think UA is a very good program, however.

Helpful tips, thanks.

If resale of the site is your main concern (and in one or two other cases, too), this is certainly right. For myself, that isn't a concern and it actually pays me to use .info domains for the reasons explained here.

When I was starting off, those were far too competitive for me. Even three years later, I still don't touch the "wealth" niche at all and wouldn't want to, at the moment, actually for a huge variety of reasons. I do have some "health" ones now, but am glad I didn't start them off until I had plenty of real experience and some success.

Agreed - and the extent to which they're good links for you depends primarily on their relevance to your niche rather than on their page ranks.

Agreed. Very, very few people with any successful article marketing experience are going to argue with that one.

I strongly disagree with all of that, for all the reasons explained in hundreds of "article marketing threads" here. It can't be right routinely to submit "unique content" to an article directory. That's a real "no gain" ploy compared with its alternatives.

Again, I strongly disagree, as do virtually all really successful article marketers earning genuine residual income from their articles, as explained here.

Agreed.

Personally, I don't use it. But most people do, it seems. And I see many of its advantages.

I think this is probably right, myself, though many seem not to agree with it.

For myself, I think this would probably be a very poor use of my time. I don't want to have to persuade people met "socially" to buy what I'm promoting: I prefer to attract people already looking for it.

Agreed.

This is a great over-simplification. It's true their affiliate cookie-tracking isn't 100% reliable, though. They won't "take your money" unless you don't make a single sale for 90 days (and that's only under their "dormant account rules", which can easily be circumvented anyway).

I agree with the rest, or near enough.

The only points where I think you've gone seriously astray with your planning are the ones related to the submission of articles to directories. Just let me know if you'd like a little list of recent threads here which might change your mind about those points.

And good luck!

Sounds like you understand the basics pretty well. My advice would be to join the War Room. There's plenty of free information and WSOs there that can be very useful. Just try not to spend your life in there downloading everything. Lol!

The most important advice for any newbie is "just do it!". Yes, you might fail, but you will have learned something along the way. Thomas Edison supposedly said:

"I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb."

Whether it's true or not, the underlying advice is sound

All the best

Sally

don't try and be original, get in a niche of a top category(i'm going for health or wealth, something in there)

I don't agree with this, but I do agree with most of the rest, especially about avoiding CB.

Good luck,
Owen

Pay attention all the new comers. Someone has taken a lot of effort in putting down this article and it is really helpful as it has stuff from a load of different places. If you think that you have what it takes and want to make it big then you should start paying attention to what has been
written.