What is the best starting plan for a newbie in IM?

Instead of a bunch of different niche sites.

Top priority is build a list in a niche to start. Whichever niche you choose, should be something you are knowledgable about and that has good amount of interest by those online. (keyword research)(forum surfing related to your niche)

To start you should have your own blog, yourname.com if possible or a variation. Or something related to your niche of choice. Or both

Start blogging about your journey into online marketing. Then blog about your niche on the other.

Get a product with value to your future subscribers or write it yourself and give it away to your subscribers. No need to be concerned about oto's, or upsells at this point.

You want to build that list asap. Don't put it off. You will regret not concentrating on your list from the get go.

Set up an autoreponder sequence to deliver your freebie.

I suggest Aweber.

Then....

1. push traffic to your squeeze page.
2. provide valuable info to your subscribers about your niche
3. occasionally send a promotional email for a related product in your niche with your affiliate link.
4. send free info emails much more than the affiliated ones.

You don't want to pound your subscribers with affiliate offers constantly or they will drop you like a hot rock or just won't open your emails anymore.

Starting out that is what I suggest you do.


Later, later...
Darren

You know something, I would definitely not go into the weight loss niche if you're just starting out. It's highly competitive and there are an awful lot of scammers & spammers in that market.

That means you will need to prove to your audience and the search engines that you are not one of them every step of the way. Hard work.

My advice would be to choose one subject you really care about and create the go to site for that niche.

You also need to make & promote that site yourself, not outsource it. You can only learn by doing - and if you don't take the time to learn you won't know when someone is ripping you off when you do come to outsource.

Good luck!

Hi Chris,

Apart from strategies, I just want to throw in a bit of encouragement....

You have obviously learned a lot in a short amount of time, and you deserve a pat on the back for that. There are loads of people who are put off by all the technical stuff and terminology in IM.

Hey, you have gotten this far and haven't quit....good for you!

There are definitely positive and negative aspects to niche sites.....but I will say this in general with the whole marketing thing--and IM in particular:

"There are many SELLERS,
but not many HELPERS."

Always treat people with respect, like gold, because there lots of IMers who use people to squeeze them for cash.

Treat your customers and colleagues well, and the cash will follow.

Hope that helps...

All the best,

Jerry K
N Ireland

Hey Chris,

I believe I might be able to help you out so I've just sent you a PM

Do lots of research and lots of reading never stop learning .

Hey there, just to add my 2 cents............ I 100% agree with Darren above, most people in IM put off building a list at the beggining and because its not a fast process they give up! Focus on nothing but building a list for now, one of the best ways to get the ball rolling with this is with a very good wso which is reviewed by me below. (sig)

Once you have this set up then definately building sites is a great way to learn, however micro niche sites will never be a big earner and takes alot of work if you dont outsource, which as stated in a post above, if you outsource things you won't learn, so forget 25 sites, concentrate on building one and doing the seo yourself, and DO NOT get scammers from Fiverr to do it for you, although you have loads of people stating they will do whatever for 5 bucks, you need to remember if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!!!

IM should be seen as a business and businesses need to be built! dont give up, keep learning and stick with it, and eventually it will happen! but definately make building a list your priority!

Hi guys. I am like emailmehere. I started learning about IM alone by reading articles and forums and I have already built my blog and submitted many articles.
If I understand well there are two main ways to go:
- whether to build many micro niche websites
- whether to build one authority site and develop an emailing list.

What I don't know is how to sell and what to sell...
I have the feeling that all the existing sites sell whether Amazon products, whether IM products whether weight loss products...and I am really wondering is it possible to make money by selling other things than products related to the above niche?

I appreciate your answers. You help me a lot.

Start off writing a blog and throwing up some Adsense ads on there.

Easy money!

Less sites, more content on each.
And weight loss isnt a starter niche, so be prepared for a lot of competition.
Even if your particular keywords are low competition now, if they gain any traction, be sure someone else will compete.
You can try looking for possible new trending terms, but thats hard in this niche.

Learn how to:

1. Setup squeeze pages
2. Get traffic to your squeeze pages

This will build a valuable email marketing list.

Do IM niche. Many people are making money in this niche. Proven. Do one thing at one day. Set a timetable. For example, monday (forum), tuesday (article), wednesday (soloads) etc... be discipline, focus one thing at one time

firstly, you have probably heard it already that "the money is in the list" which it is, bit more to it than just that but in nutshell its the list

so you should be building a list but at the same time you dont want to start running before you can walk

starting IM is like starting work for the first time after you have left school, you have work up, learn the trade and constantly apply what you have learned in the real world

im a carpenter by trade and i could of sat in the classroom and watched someone show me how to hang a door a thousand times but that doesnt mean i will be good at it

its only when i went out on my own to do jobs that i "really learned"

same with IM, you need to get your hands dirty and if you make mistakes so be it. the first time i hung a door i shaved the top of the door instead of the bottom lol (not good)

but i knew never to do it again

what ever you decide to do, treat it as a business and accept that you will lose a bit of money and make mistakes, everyone does

the more you learn and the more experience you gain the more knowledge you will have to share further down your IM career which will be priceless to some people

paul

Get some TOP CLASS training

there are a few around and I have and am using several at the same time because I am investing in myself. Search for these people, chat to them, find out what they can do for you and then decide:

Justin Glover- Digital Business Mastery - excellent
Paul Barrs - Maximum Success University - unbelievably good fun, brilliant info
Allen Payne - IMPho University - massive resources
Chris Farrell Online - another huge training programme to build online business

My advice is to join one of these or find something similar but these are superb. I know because I spent months trying to learn by myself and got it all wrong

Invest in your education and get that education from experts - and it is nowhere near as expensive as you might think

I have not read all the comments, but a newbie should start creating a unique product from a PLR or meeting others and doing a bundle, start givingaway and building a list, you mean IM right? thats it, there other ways to make money online

All you need to do is find an authority marketer and mimic or copy what they are doing and just focus on that techniques until you get good results. Don't jump form one technique to another, It won't do you any good. Any market is Ok as long as you can drive traffic to it.

Find out how to master free traffic so you can utilize your money in other ways. You may need some help getting things set up one day. Better to have money for that. Like anything else. When sourcing out work get a few quotes and review the person work and history.

In general your plan is good.

I'd advise NOT paying anyone else to do SEO for you. You will learn MUCH more by doing it yourself. If you'd rather spend money than time, outsource the details, but NOT the overall job, ie. pay someone to make a specific number of backlinks on specific bookmarking sites, using specific text and tags, but NOT pay someone to "do some SEO for my site.

I use oDesk for outsourcing, and data entry workers (such as for posting social bookmarks) can be found for aroun 20cents an hour. Give them very specific instructions, test before you hire, and only use fixed price jobs, so you only pay for correct results. Learn about backlinking, and most importantly don't make too many backlinks on a new site . . . probably best to make most of your initial backlinks to a web2.0 property which in turn points to your site, as much less to lose if you over-backlink that and lose traffic, than if it's your own site!

Other than that, your plan looks good to me! I don't think you need a specific course on setting up micro-niche sites, just buy the domains and hosting, install WordPress and read some info on how to use it (eg. best plugins etc.). You don't need a course for that, just make a start and ask here if you have specific questions.

Make a start, not too big, but maybe a few sites, get them up and running, find out about good WP plugins (I recommend All-in-one-SEO-pack, Google-XML-sitemaps, WP-DB-backup) and see what happens.

Chris
PS. (my 2nd Sig link includes full details of WP installation, plugins etc. plus a 55-page backlink guide!).

Instead I will tell you "buy this ebook" "Read IM books", I will share with you what I did when I got into IM.

1.Join to Amazon affiliate progrem.
2.Open blog in Wordpress.
3.Choose product that you inerested in,write nice review (your own content) about it,put picture and insert referral link to your amazon product .
4.Get some Social Bookmarking,here: SocialMarker.com
5.Buy seo service (Don't spend more 100$).
6.Update your site every week!

If you need more help,PM me..

Good luck..

I would say work on building your list and use safelists and traffic exchange to market they are fast and cheap and you have the option to invest money and get your site more exposure

I started out the same as yourself, not knowing which route to go down, did some research for a while and came to the conclusion that starting an affiliate marketing course. The reason i chose the afiliate route is that you learn so many skill along the way, not only did i learn what i neended to do i also learnt how and why i was doing it, which is now paying off in the long run as im able to replicate these skills and apply them to different niche ideas.

So i would really recommend an affiliate programme that helps you through step by step and has community support to guide you through.

Good luck researching and finding what you need

Focus on putting something together that will save people a lot of time, and that hasn't been done before.

Look for "gaps" in markets more than focusing on which niches are competitive/noncompetitive.

I really believe the most successful people know how to find those "gaps" and capitalize on them. Both competitive and noncompetitive niches have these gaps, it just takes a certain eye to find them imo.

But if you could do that (like the guy who started "30mins or less - or your pizza is free) you could make a killing. Think about how many people were tired of waiting all day long for a cold pizza, some brilliant person comes into the market, builds his business around this one guarantee, and revolutionizes the entire industry.

There are SO MANY examples of people doing this to succeed. Like that guy who made a stupid plastic locking cap for paintbrushes. Allows painters to slip the caps right over their paint brushes when they are done, brushes stay good for months w/out ever drying out. Look how high tech our society is, but how long it takes us to figure out some of the stupidest things.

Jay Abraham talked more about this than anyone I know. Like how icecream was founded something like 2000 years ago, but it took that much time for someone to come up with the icecream cone. Once it was invented, it was the most OBVIOUS THING IN THE WORLD. THATS the type of stuff I'm aiming for, something that could potentially revolutionize the world. Whether its small or large, if people need it, it will make you a ton of money.

You need to seek out opportunites like this imo. Thats what the smartest people do imo.

gluck! - Red

I like you are new to IM and was thinking of going down the same route 'MNS' after reading most of the post i may need to have a rethink and look at making a list. Any way all the best and good luck

Yes,

List building is a solid and powerful to get started online. Building a site in conjunction with it is also a good way to learn as you go. You'll most likely need skills of being able to create pages, edit tiny pieces of code/html, and do all sorts of little things that you can't even imagine.

When I started in IM, I had no idea the amount of knowledge and learning I was in for. Starting from scratch and now 3 years later and fulltime in IM, I can build websites, edit and write some code, work with graphics, drive traffic to pages/sites I want, and ton more. Not that I've learned it all. I haven't. But the point is that there is a lot to do and to learn and to consistently implement in order to be successful and product results.

With list building, creating your own product or getting quality PLR product to give away and build a list will help immensely. Setting up a converting funnel that you test repeatedly on the front and backend is key as well. I would encourage you to do all of the set up for your pages your self to get comfortable and learn as you go.

If you have a budget of something like $300 per month, you could easily use this to first learn what you need (buy a few wsos on list building and authority site building) and then setting it up (hosting, domains, templates, marketplace membership for product delivery, aweber, etc.). Then the next month you could use that $300 on solo ads to drive traffic to your landing/squeeze page or other forms of paid traffic. Additionally you could outsource work that drove 'free' traffic like youtube videos - paying people to create and post videos that drove people to your site.

In conjunction with the list building and landing page to get subscribers, I would encourage you to brand yourself or your biz on your own blog/site and to build that out with quality TARGETED content - say 3 articles/posts per week targeted at longtail keywords with low search volume. With this, you'll drive organic traffic with little to now SEO and you'll also be learning and operating a site from the ground up.

Success with one or both of these steps can lead to you repeating the process and scaling up. Remember that experience leads to knowledge which can produce success. Experience comes from repeated focus and consistent efforts - whether they fail or succeed.

Best of luck

FOCUS!! Or more specific ... Focus on ONE method and master it. Before firing up your computer each morning make sure you have a list of what you plan to complete for the day, prioritize it and at the top write ... Tunnel Vision because that is what you will need to become successful online or off.

You have a lot of Great advice on here so take it, organize it and put it to use.

You will do terrific!

Take Care!
Todd

A newbie just starting out in IM should focus on one site in a niche that he/she knows and is passionate about. Stay away from "systems" and "methods" that claim to make millions.

In your OP, you mentioned 25 sites and outsourcing content. How can you do either of those effectively before you've done any of it on your own?

Do yourself a favor and stick with one site, one strategy that you are comfortable with, and one niche that you know. Grow from there.

Start out by choosing a profitable niche and building your list in that niche. You are going to hear that the money is in the list. This is 100% true.

LOTS of helpful replies here! Anybody else have any suggestion?

I also agree with Darren. I think if you want to build a sustainable online businesses, the list building is very important customer.
You said that there is money to invest each month. Very good. Consider hire someone to do because our goal is to become a marketing expert, not an expert to do everything ... : D

For a newbie, I would only say, "DON'T GET WITH INFORMATION OVERLOAD AND LOOK FOR THE NEXT SHINY OBJECT" Select a best course or method (we have lots of them), stick to it. Don't deviate. Just have belief in that and stick to that one best thing and take ACTION. You will save a lot of time, efforts & frustration. Believe me.

I would instead focus on building an authority site for a more stable long term income

There are many ways to begin. it doesn't matter if you are building niche sites or authority sites, traffic is traffic and if you can get it then don't lose the momentum of that traffic. Ensure you have the ability to build a list from that traffic (doesn't matter if it's paid or free traffic). A list can continue to pay you dollar after dollar if worked right.

Although the weight loss niche for your first target... really? It's one of the hardest ones out there... unless of course you are experienced in this niche and have a great deal of material inside your head which you are going to be able to bash out like crazy.

One thing to do is have a plan on how you are going to make your money... from Amazone, clickbank, adsense, etc. learn how it all work and ensure you are not going to break any of their rules then build out your sites.

Have a long term plan and don't make them too hard to achieve otherwise your motivation could be destroyed due to failure to achieve them.

What is the best starting plan for a newbie in IM?
Learning from warriorforum, PM some old member here, and continous learning

1) Pick one of those keywords that has low to medium competition and over 9000 searches per month and up

2) Build a simple website/blog using wordpress

3) Start adding content to the site (value, useful content). Don't get caught up too much with SEO. As long as your keyword is in the URL, title, meta description, meta keywords, two or three times in your article it is fine. Make sure you include related keyword or keyphrases in your articles and pages (some related keywords for weight loss could be diet, obesity, nutrition, etc)

4) Submit some articles to Ezinearticles.com. You can still submit the same article you have in your blog (change the title a bit). Do not use the same keyword as anchor text all the time in your resource box.

Note: it takes up to 7 days to have your article approved in Ezinearticles.com. Once you get 10 articles published in ezine, it may take up to 1 day.

5) Do guest blogging. "Content Facilitator" is an excellent place where you can get fresh and unique content for your site. You earn credits by publishing content in your site, then you can use the same credits to have your articles/post published in somebody else website within the same niche. You can use the coupon code below if decide to join. it's $50 worth of free advertising credits (for new account only)

Coupon Code: DistributeMe

6) TAKE ACTION!!!

Hope it helps

Hey,

Check out my post in YouTube. Hope it helps

YouTube link: youtube.com/watch?v=DBEvNGJhowc (don't forget to add www)

I´m pretty sure that you´ll find a lot of great Ebooks on that topic. But don´t forget that taking action on your knowledge is at least as important as having the information.

Your ambitious question tells me that you´re hungry for success, and that you care about your action plan (what most newbies don´t do).

Just get going with setting strong goals, and creating an action plan. Then it´s time to get some training through reading Ebooks, research, or coaching.

You definitely want to study multiple products to see which one is best suited for your needs.

Take action!

There are more than enough helpful replies in this thread. I have read in the forum a lot and still reading (as I'm new). I have found the best method is choose by yourself. Every method is good and there are kings in every sector. So the main thing is to shine from your own point...
What ever you choose, you should devote yourself in it.

You would be better off working for someone who does what you want to do, so you can learn the business from the inside.

Then go do what you want to do.

Hopefully some of the input that you have received here is of some value to you.....be encouraged!!!

Jerry K

JerryKuzma . com