What Should A Newbie Internet Marketer Do First?

Hi Willie,

That's a pretty big question and thinking about it it's certainly not an easy one to answer!

I suppose the first thing to do is to make sure they have a real idea of what Internet Marketing is - In my experience some Newbies think it can be done overnight with very little work involved.

I'd suggest they read up as much as possible on the subject first - plenty of info online.

Do some research and find a really good, and well recommended Membership Site which caters for Newbies and offers Step by Step Video tutorials.

Follow all the basics until they are confident enough with implementing, both techie and other areas - then begin Ramping things up through JV partners or/and by getting a personal coach if they can afford to do so!

I believe that the first thing a newbie should do is to
look inside and determine their own STRENGTHS.

Only once they've done that, can they then look at
choosing a market and business model that allows
them to play to their strengths and make faster
progress.

It doesn't matter much if they choose the hottest
market with the best product and sales process if
the business doesn't suit their natural aptitude.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

I think your thinking is solid.

The most important skill for any marketer is copywriting.

The most important first action is to find a need. You don't do anything with niche unless it has a need.

The second most important action is to validate that need. Too many beginners skip this step and later on have the painful realization that the need wasn't acute/painful enough that people were willing to pay to get it fixed.

You initial suggestion to newbies is good and would get most on their way to making money soon. I find the copywriting suggestion would go hand-in-hand with your main suggestion and they can learn and adapt as they are doing the first step.

Perhaps also advising them to create a product on the sideline which they will be able to benefit from a few weeks/months down the line.

I think you have touched a great point here. Content is needed for every website and website owners are always in the hunt of good quality contents. If a webmaster have got knowledge about copywriting, it will help them a lot.

I think as any niche Internet Marketing has a soul too. So for a newbie it would be very important to understand who is he in this business. Good if he is the one who brings value to people by not only providing quality information but by giving an advice and help to his people. That is the first thing to always focus on. This thing is getting you to give quality, to have excellent service, to learn as you go, to innovate, to make your people succeed.

Another thing is to gather right information and to see where exactly the newbie could apply his strengths well. Sort of to find his exact place in this business. He must figure out his strengths. When he will find it he can start the whole thing, list building and everything else.

Its all unfolds when you realise what your strengths are, all comes together as a puzzle and suddenly you start getting answers of what exactly to do.

Another thing is to start small. So you can speed up high naturally. Those who are born to fly are not born in the sky. So start from the ground, get strong and take off.

being a newbie, there are lot of things to consider to start in internet marketing. to know more, you can browse different thread in this forum or ask warriors for help.

Ditto!

In my mind and experience, marketing is psychology, pure and simple. It's like the old saying about selling ice cubes to certain aboriginal people.

As far as what to tell newbies, I would go with accepting reality. It's what I see as the biggest stumbling block for a lot of would-be IMers. If it doesn't fit what they want to be true, they flat out refuse to accept it.

It depends on who the newbie is. I'm for example a newbie with a strong technical skills, and I can offer great advice to the newbies how to skip difficult pars easier. However, IM is much, much more than that. It's a complete new way of thinking.
(You can see that when trying to explain to the offline people what is the concept here, they often fail to grasp the point. )
I believe the biggest rarely discussed problem, is that in order to succeed, one needs to master several skills that are in reality separate highly competitive professions. No wander people fall flat on their faces so often. Copyrighting and marketing are among the highest paid careers. PPC experts are in high demand too.
Therefore I would recommend to the newbie first to try to learn what IM consist of, (including different approaches, methods etc). Then to learn what is exact mindset here (and there is one!). After the preliminary research is done, I would recommend to outsource as much as possible. This basically means that marketer needs to learn organizational skills at the first place. Needs to act as an entrepreneur from the day one!
Some people may think it's expensive. Outsourcing nowadays is a bargain in comparison to days and months required for trial and error. Learning curve is very steep here, and it's cheaper imho to delegate work to the specialists!
And last but not least, newbie should by now, be familiar with different strategies of getting traffic (and more importantly - converting traffic!) This applies to all, not just newbies. This is, without doubt the most important part that one should think about from day one! This is the reason why outsourcing is number one method to get you on track fast (you'll need your mind to bend around campaigns, regardless of the niche and content)
In this regard I do agree that copyrighting is of utmost importance. But I doubt that all aspects of copyrighting can be learned in relatively short time.

For a complete newbie, I'd recommend they start with reading some good blogs and content on what Internet marketing consists of and what the basics are for marketing these days. And also read a book on business organization to get the right habits to stay focused and organized, as disorganization often is the number one time waster and sabateur.

Until they have those basic understandings and overview of the market, there is no point in starting to build a list, as they won't know where to start with that or how to do it and create content for it. Everything starts with an overview first.


Copywriting is very important. What books and resources would you recommend as the best ones to learn good copywriting?

You agree with Terry Dean then

A lot of years ago he mentioned that copy writing was what he concentrated on first. He learned a lot about it and started making money. He considered it his most valuable skill, so he launched a product about it.

It flopped. He concluded it was because of the work involved, so he chalked it up to experience and focused on making his next products the kind that didn't require so much work.

It reminds me of a quote from Jeff Mulligan, also from a lot of years ago.

I believe a Newbie should have a vision for building his success as an Internet Marketer. Find a Good Mentor to coach to him and give him direction. Being associated with someone successful will enhance his chances of being successful. It will not only save him time but money as well.

Many great comments and suggestions...

Here is a link to a free document that may help guide you in defining your goals and identifying your strengths - great food for thought. it definitely helped me get a clearer picture of what I need to do to succeed.

Get The Manifesto

FYI: I do not work for nor am I an affiliate for the company - they just have some great insight into what it takes to become an internet marketer.

I think the first thing a newbie should do is determine which niche market they are interested in. They should start out with a niche that is simple like make money online
niche.Then they should research who there target market will be.....

I always tell people that they first have to take stock of their own interests, skills, talents, experience, and education. I'm a firm believer in what you all usually call "authority sites", but bringing personal expertise with that, and also bringing your own persona.

From that comes niche selection, and how you approach that niche.

I don't get credit for this one, I learned this from Raydal.

At one time, he was a salesman who worked on commission alone. I asked him what made good salesmanship, and his reply was not what I expected.

He said to be genuinely concerned for the prospects, listen to what they say and just be helpful. Those were not his exact words, but you get the idea.

Edit: It just clicked. NOW I know what the term "relationship" means

I refer newbies to the lessons I've learned over the past 14 years:

http://www.warriorforum.com/war-room...t-started.html

Step one being getting absolute clarity on what they want because one cannot map their way to success if they don't know where to go.

RoD

the best way for a newbie to start is -

1- start with forum posting ( it will teach you what is content, )
2 -upgrade to article writing.
3- upgrade to promotional services (yahoo answers/link exchange/backlinks etc etc, it will teach you how promotion works)
4- try to make money from adsense ( you will usually fail, that will teach you what doesnt' work)
5- start reading wso to read and understand where money is being made
6- start investing is small sites - 20-30$ , flip them, keep the good ones.
7- you will know whats making money, and whats not now.

You pretty much sum it up, on what I would say to a new comer entering this business.

First you need to find a profitable market. People will tell you first you need to have an amazing product -- but this is just plain wrong.

Second is you have to build your list. All successful marketers earn around 90% or more of their income from their list.

Third, promote products that are of high quality, and that you have bought yourself.

Focusing on developing and thinking about their long term goals and objectives that they want from internet marketing.

Aswell as analysing their time management/ time adjusting tasks and productivity to work aswell.

They should see where they are now, where they want to be in year’s time, and should focus on building a plan on how to get there. Time management, and planning and productivity are important elements.

Other skills, copywriting, writing, html basics, blogging would also be along the pipeline.

I think that they should start by learning what people want. Only that way will they be able to offer good services and products, without failing from the start and maybe thinking "oh that's not for me, better move on to something else"

You are probably right. I think you hit it on the head with "adult enough."

I'm more than happy to help people all I can, but I won't take anyone by the hand and do it for them. But then I'm kind of a jerk.

A fantastic post there with great advices for Newbies...:p
Thank you for the share!
.........................

It's really a matter of perspective and what experience the "mentor" has gone through to give to the newbie. But really there is so much out there that you could do, but generally I like to think that the more money the newbie has to invest the easier it is for him to succeed. There's just so much things you need to do before you make money and thats to spend money.

Great thread Willie!

I think that if you are new to Online marketing and you're in need of earning an income fast, I would suggest the following...

Step 1: Begin by Marketing Quality Affiliate Products

I suggest this because at this time you do not have your own products or the knowledge, time and money to create them.

By promoting a quality affiliate product you can start making money fast. And while making money you get to closely study and learn how the product creator developed a high converting sales funnel!

Another big bonus is you can start to build a relationship with the product creator. The more people you know in this industry the better.

Step 2: Hire a Coach

The fastest way to find success is by modelling people who have already accomplished what it is you hope to accomplish.

So find a reputable coach who can clear all the clutter for you and point you in the right direction. Otherwise you'll find yourself being pointed in a hundred different directions, not knowing which way to turn, and never making any significant progress.

HINT: Coaches can be costly so if you don't have a lot of money right now consider joining a coaching program where the coach works with a number of clients at the same time.

I'm in a excellent affiliate marketing training program with 2 coaches right now and it's helped me tremendously. I've made over $1,000 in just two weeks which is pretty sweet. If anyone wants their names just send me a PM and I can tell you more about the program and introduce you if you like.

Step 3: Create You Own Products

At this point you'll have some experience marketing other peoples products so you'll be in a better position to start creating and marketing your own.

Also, you will have seen first hand what it takes to create a high converting sales funnel. And thanks to your coach, your level of knowledge and experience will have grown massively because you will have spent your time focusing on, and implementing the RIGHT things.

Which means you'll then have knowledge, experience, and money.

Step 4: Create Your Own Affiliate Program

When you have your own product you can come full circle and create your own affiliate program.

This is where you will begin to see your income multiply many times over very fast!

Having affiliates is a great thing. It is absolute leverage. You only pay them when they sell your products. And every time they sell, you get paid too!

Therefore, your affiliate team will be a key to your success. So you need to set up your program correctly and treat your affiliates VERY well. Nobody deserves it more than them.

Anyway, that in a nutshell is what I'd recommend.

If have anyone reading this is a newbie and has more questions feel free to send me a PM. I'd be happy to help you in any way that I can.

- Daniel

I think you're spot on. The who is the most important thing. And in order to sell your product, you need a sales presentation. Then the only other MUST is traffic.

So:

Who
Copy
Traffic

Those are really the key focus for any fledgling information marketing business. But I will admit it's easy to get hung up on the copy. Who you're talking to is infinitely more important.

Tell them to dig deep and find their desire.

Tell them that they have to believe that they can do what they desire.

Tell them to take action. Discover what they are passionate about.

Then teach them what you've been preaching. Find that niche. That sub sub sub niche to start with. Then work their way up the niche using the "secret ingredient" which is motivation.

If I had my time over again, here are my three things.

1) MINDSET - There really is not a better way to make money than to change your thoughts, and through patterns. If you think you are not going to make it online you wont...FULL STOP.

I still do these visualising methods that I Call my "daily rituals" which is not actually a ritual, but a little excersise I do for 5 minutes a day, and close my eyes, and see me meeting the right people. See my logging into gmail and seeing "you made a sale" messages, seeing myself with bigger contracts, and receiving checks. This is very powerful, even I thought this was stupid, but since starting to do this in 2008 the results have been amazing.

What ever your mind can conceive I think it is acheivable, however you have to be about to visualise it first, and then work hard to strive to it. I think the visualising aspect just makes it come to me quicker and a bit easier.

2 - BUILD AN ASSET - Without an asset in todays business you have nothing. I learnt this too late in my online ventures. It was having a list, or someone elses list.

Take for example, having your own list, no matter what happens to your site, your hosting, your computer, if you have a list, you virutally have money sitting in your back pocket you can reach into and pull out wads of cash any day of the week, regardless if you have a website or not.

Don't have a list, who cares. What about willie, he has a list of people you can send an email too. If you think he has a good targeted list that is even better. Set up a deal with someone and use leverage to make money. Yes, ok, its a bit of leg work to set it up, but still its the next best thing to setting up your own. Just do a split commision deal with someone with a big list. Make it a win win for them.....and make sure you have something good to offer. LEVERAGE was a big part of my secret when I was learning about list building....I mean you could spend years building your own list, or do a deal with someone who has already spent 10 years building a list!

3 - LEARN TO FAIL PROPERLY - Lets face it, you are going to have a few wins, but then probably FAIL MISERABLY on some things, in some niches or what not. Learn to deal with it. Some of the best and most successful entrepreneurs have failed miserably 7 or 8 times before they hit a winner.

Do not curse at your failures, just admit to them, and think of it as a learning lesson. We all learn from our mistakes, and if you are not into testing as a marketer, then you are going to fail miserably anyway.

My friend JOHN REESE once said something to me that was so simple and so powerfull many years ago. "To succeed in marketing, all you need to do fail failure is to keep doing the things that are working, and do less of the stuff that is not working. "

To me this was priceless cause I was going through a rought period in life and also business, and this set me on the straight and narrow. You can choose to call it failure or failures, but to me, it just means it is stuff you should not spend your time doing. Once you have a winner, go with it, outsource it and you will florish. This is a good way you can go from newbie to advanced status very fast online.

Hi Willie,
Here are the steps you should start with:
There are about 5 steps to the process.
1. Pick a niche
What do you like and what are your hobbies? You are going to be writing about this subject, so, don't pick a niche you don't know anything about. Pick something you are knowledgeable in.
2. Choose a domain name. Make sure it doesn't have any numbers or weird spellings in it.
3. Choose a hosting company - Hostgator is great!
4. Come to my blog and everything is laid out for you. You can ask me questions, too.
Good luck,
Geri Richmond

Thank you for your words of wisdom, Willie!


I would tell a newbie that internet marketing is a complex system that depends on many details. Without having enough knowledge you will never be able to solve all the necessary problems you will have to deal with. The impression that ‘making money online is simple’ is false.

You have to study internet marketing, especially here at the Warrior Forum. Don't be impatient and don't take action before knowing what you are doing and before creating a marketing plan.

But remember that there is a big difference between theory and practice. You have to study and implement into practice the lessons you learn. Don't be an eternal student who never learns how everything works into practice.

I believe you should begin by using free platforms (like Blogger, Squidoo, Zujava, Hub pages) to begin your internet marketing journey without spending money, but of course you cannot depend on them. Use them for learning and testing. Later, when you will create your website, you will use them and as a free traffic generating method.

You should also offer a service online based on your knowledge and skills, without depending only on selling. Do both. Sell your services and your products, or affiliate products.

You should have many different income streams. If something goes wrong with one of them, you have the other ones.

The most honest answer is that any newbie asking what to do first should probably look for a career elsewhere.

This industry is dominated by the self-starting that somehow just know what to do. 100% of long term success stories that I know of begin with doing something online as a hobby and then at some point there's that "you mean I can make money with this?!" moment.

So with that being said, I simply tell newbies to think of a site they would love to own. Then do some research into what it would take to build one like it and just run it as a hobby with zero profit expectations for now.

Wow this is all such helpful information! Thanks for the post!

Thank you so much! Willie Crawford is a legend at copy writing and has sold thousands of copies of his Ebooks! He's a legend in my mind

The #1 way and probably the only way to learn anything is to watch somebody else do it. You have to see another person do it. That way you can see first hand EXACTLY how to do things the right way.

Otherwise, you'll be wasting a lot of time doing trial-and-error and get demoralized and quit eventually. Imagine learning how to play the piano without a teacher. It's possible but not feasible for 99% of the population. You need a teacher, you need demonstrations, examples, references, AND GOOD FEEDBACK. You need to have understand what GOOD is.

Reading a book can help but it's better to watch someone work at something. You see what they do, how they do it, and how they decide on things when new opportunities are thrown at them. You learn 20 times faster this way. And you learn only what you want to learn. For everything else you don't know how to do, you can simply copy.


Q: What should a newbie marketer do first?
MY ANSWER: find a successful businessman who you know in person and spend time with him everyday.

You learn more about business this way. Real business, doing real work and offering real value that's actually worthy of monetary reward. Do that first and learn how a business works, and then you can go out and buy whatever IM book you want and implementing it will be easy as hell because you know how a business works.

Learning how to operate a successful business is about learning how to think, how to adapt, how to read and take advantage of situations. It's not about the steps to success. It's about being able to think like a businessman that allows you to succeed in ANY step that you take.

I can guarantee to you right now that every author of an IM product certainly has 20 times more knowledge than what he shares in his ebook/video as the "steps to success".

You definitely want to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses,
but I was trained to leverage your strengths rather than trying to improve
on areas that you are weak in.

I've noticed several people advise starting off by offering a service... on
Fiverr.com for example. That's certainly a good way to make a few quick,
dependable dollars, but the pay is so low that it wouldn't appeal to me.
Most Fiverr gigs also aren't leveragable. You only have so many hours in a
day... which puts a definite cap on your income... unless you find
something that can be systemetized... and perhaps even outsourced
cheaper than you can sell it for on that type of site.

I would think it would be easier to sell affiliate products, especially
affiliate products sold via webinar where selling is as simple as inviting
someone to a free webinar.

Willie

Awesome post Willie,

I would tell a newbie, generally to focus on understanding you have to fill a need.

In order to make money online or off you need to find a hungry market.

Once you have found a hungry market you need to work out a way you can contribute and provide a service to the market.

I would have them write down 30 of the top markets in the world and WHY they are markets or there is a burning need.

I would also explain to not be put off by competition as that shows there is a market.

After that, like you mention Willie, it is all about building the skills that you need to compete in that market i.e copywriting, product creation etc...

Willie,

Interesting point you make in this thread, I absolutely agree with you.

Too many people new to internet marketing chase the next bright shiny object without first focusing on marketing fundamentals. I too, have been guilty of this in the past.

Like you said it comes down to finding a hungry buying audience and providing solutions to their problems, motivations, beliefs, hopes, dreams, desires, pain points etc with the product you're promoting. Essentially, it about knowing your niche and making sure you have properly researched your niche before marketing anything to them.

As you have alluded to, too many people new to internet marketing think about that money first when they should be focusing on their niche (the pockets of people who have interest in the product or service they will be promoting) then the money will follow. Which ties into your point of the importance of building a list. As you know, having a targeted list will increase your reach and responsiveness to your marketing.

They can have all of the above but without knowledge of the basics fundamentals and knowing how to write compelling sales copy to present your offer whether by email, your squeeze pages or salesletter, you will find it much harder still. Its important to know your prospects state of awareness and how to capitalize on this when writing your headlines to excite or gain the attention of your market.

Its imperative to get into your prospects mind, make your readers visualize their problem, establish your credibility, have empathy, walk a mile in their mocassins, appeal to their motivations and emotional needs whilst logically presenting your argument as to why they should buy the product or service. You can do this by telling a story that will hook your prospects in whilst providing an overview of your solution.

Along the way you will need to overcome objections by offering tons of powerful, compelling benefits. Then you need to know the art of the close and build of your readers desire to buy your product, create sense of urgency, and build enough value that your offer seems more reasonable...the fact is when confronted by the actuality of of spending their hard-earned cash, people panic! This can be overcome by offering bonuses, having strong guarantee and its important to ASK for the order.

Of course there's plenty more to marketing fundamentals than can be covered in this post but my point and think the point you're making is the importance of knowing your market and how to present an offer to them before thinking of the money first. One last point, I firmly believe that no matter where your online business is at - whether you're just starting out or you're already successful - you can always be MORE successful with the help of a mentor.

Finally - good luck all! I wish you all the best in your online business-building efforts.

I believe a newbie should be consistent and have a good guide or guidance tools.

WSO's or a good coach.. I began my journey with a mentor and then consistency was the key..