16 replies
Hello fellow Warriors,

I am a newbie on this site and relatively new to the IM world. Im here to learn and would be very happy to help others if there is an opprtunity, but to start I dont really have much experience to offer in this area, but always willing to help where I can.
I do have a little theory with regard to the IM nich, but I'm here to learn from those who are making money online. ( I'm pretty clueless really)
I can see that there are a lot of people on this forum who are making a good living from internet marketing, but I feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information, different methods and systems available /being promoted by the gurus. I would like to know:

1. what are the best ways for a newbie to get started in making a real, sustainable online income that can start small and be scaleable.
2. As with Most people I do not have a huge budget to get started. ( Roughly how much would I need to get started, and monthly, I have heard of some people who have got going with less than £100 right up to several £1000)

3. What advice can people give as to the Best low start up ways to begin generating a second income that would ideally grow over time to something that I can treat as a full time business.

I have become quite frustrated by so much hype and confusion in the market place and after looking at this forum on and off over the last few months it looks clear to me that there is a lot of good quality people here who I believe can help.

Thanks in advance for all your help and suggestions. I'm looking forward to getting involved in IM.
#help or advise #newbie
  • Profile picture of the author john12
    There is a lot of different ways to make money online. That can be a distraction and a time waster if you are not careful. Spend time studying the different methods..then just pick one that you are comfortable with, and stick with until you make it profitable. Avoid jumping from one method to another when just starting out. If you can afford it..and know where to look..get a mentor to guide you through that method. That will definitively shorten your learning curve. Best wishes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Romeo90
    Dusty, welcome to WF.

    What are your interests and hobbies? I say start with something you are interested in, something you love. For instance, I love everything to do with eBay, I know my stuff on eBay, so i wrote an eBook on eBay and it has done several thousand dollars in the past couple of years.

    Because I enjoyed doing that so much, I then started a blog writing about the processes for writing that eBook, like creating sales pages, delivering the product etc. That blog has made good money every single month through affiliate marketing, despite it being less than a year old.

    My advice then: start with something you enjoy, something you love or something you are interested in.

    Good luck.
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  • Hello fellow Warriors,

    I do have a little theory with regard to the IM nich, but I'm here to learn from those who are making money online. ( I'm pretty clueless really)

    There are many different ways, and what works for you might fail for someone else. I personally recommend people start out by either offering services (writing, for example) or making niche sites monetized with ads. Just personal opinion though.

    I can see that there are a lot of people on this forum who are making a good living from internet marketing, but I feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information, different methods and systems available /being promoted by the gurus. I would like to know:

    1. what are the best ways for a newbie to get started in making a real, sustainable online income that can start small and be scaleable.

    See my answer above.

    2. As with Most people I do not have a huge budget to get started. ( Roughly how much would I need to get started, and monthly, I have heard of some people who have got going with less than £100 right up to several £1000)

    You don't need any money to get started, though it can make it easier. To get going in a good, yet affordable way, I'd say you need about $30 (more if you need to pay someone to write the content for you).


    3. What advice can people give as to the Best low start up ways to begin generating a second income that would ideally grow over time to something that I can treat as a full time business.

    I'd recommend creating authority niche sites. Focus on QUALITY and LONG TERM success. If someone tells you they can make you full time income overnight (unless it is by offering a service) RUN away from them. They are lying.


    I have become quite frustrated by so much hype and confusion in the market place and after looking at this forum on and off over the last few months it looks clear to me that there is a lot of good quality people here who I believe can help.

    This is a frustration shared by many people here. To many people trying to sell you something, not enough trying to actually help you.


    Thanks in advance for all your help and suggestions. I'm looking forward to getting involved in IM.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
    Clarity is a HUGE part of IM success. I hope this post brings some clarity. It's so simple when you know it -- and darn difficult when you don't! I owe my mentors a world of thanks for bringing this clarity.

    IM is actually pretty simple: you can sell only one of two things:

    1. Products
    2. Services

    That's it!

    And selling products or services online happens in the same basic way for everyone, no matter what they're selling:

    Traffic > Opt-in page > Autoresponder series (or e-zine) > Sales page

    That's it! It's just that simple. (We IMers tend to overcomplicate things.)

    But no matter what your niche is, or whether you're selling a product or a service, do you know what your business model is?

    A business model is the framework or skeleton of your business. Essentially there are three types of online business models:

    1. Membership-based model

    A membership-based business model allows you to build a community of people (your members) who are as passionate about your subject as you are. Your membership fees can be monthly or annual, but either way, you're building recurring, passive income.

    There are a lot of resources and information out there to help you build a membership-based business if you're interested in doing this.

    2. Product-based model

    Selling products allows you to maximize your time and effort by selling items over and over again. This can be hard goods or it can be information products. Information marketing is it's own business model under the product-based model. Information marketing allows you to take your brain to the bank by creating a product ONCE based on what you know and selling it over and over again.

    Affiliate marketing falls under both models. You can choose to market either products or services as an affiliate.

    3. Service-based model

    Selling services can be great for 1) generating quick cash (as in the case of article writing or video producing) and 2) establishing your expertise and getting testimonials.

    However, in the long run, your goal should be to offer services at a PREMIUM. The biggest advantage of IM is LEVERAGE. You're able to leverage your time, money and expertise exponentially online. We all have just 24 hours each day. Time to get ruthless about what you expect for those hours you spend in IM each day. Expect more of yourself and more from your business friends, clients, partners, etc.

    What results are you getting for those hours you spend online each day? Ultimately, your services should be at the bottom of your funnel and cost the most since they involve your time and personal attention. (We all have a limited amount of time each day.)

    The fun (and confusion) comes in with all of the endless mix-and-match possibilities of the above models. If you're just starting or still struggling to make money, keep it simple:

    Pick just ONE!

    1. Pick ONE niche. (Something you're interested in and know something about.)

    2. Pick ONE target market for your product or service. (Who will buy what you're offering? The more specific you are, the more you narrow it down, the more successful you'll be.)

    3. Pick ONE business model.

    Now that you're clear about what business you're in, FOCUS! (And stop buying any info not related to your niche and target market, period!)

    F -- Follow
    O -- One
    C -- Course
    U -- Until
    S -- Successful

    And remember: build a list, Build a List, BUILD A LIST!

    In IM, it's easy to put the cart before the horse. Take a deep breath, step back and consider what type of business you REALLY want. Don't worry about getting traffic or buying that expensive traffic product until you know 1) what your business model is, 2) what niche you're in and 3) WHO your target market is!

    Successful business people will tell you that MARKETING is more than half the effort that's needed for success anyway. So pick a niche, target market and business model. Then spend most of your time and effort marketing it.

    If you DON'T have a solid plan or system, THAT'S when it's hard. A good system will shave YEARS (and save you big $$$) off of your learning curve

    That's why I recommend investing in at least one good, comprehensive IM course (or mentor who will give you such a system) instead of jumping from one $37 e-book to the next. A lot of people here complain about not being able to make any money. But neither are they willing to invest in their business. (Buying a random bunch of $37 e-books doesn't count.)

    The best thing I ever did was invest in a comprehensive IM course aimed at REAL business owners, not just other IM wannabes. Yes it was $1500. (It's no longer available.) But it was truly some of the best A-Z IM info I ever bought. Everything else I've learned (from the $37 e-books) since has simply been plugged into this system.

    Get a solid plan or system and then work the plan!

    Hope this helps!

    Michelle
    Signature
    "You can't market here. This is a marketing discussion forum!"
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    • Profile picture of the author AlisonM
      Dusty, a low start up way would be as an affiliate for someone else's product.

      It would help if it was a product/niche you were interested in and knowledgeable about, or prepared to learn about.

      A proven way is to build a list of people interested in your niche, perhaps by giving away a free gift to them, and then continue to build up a relationship through autoesponder emails and offer related products to them.

      The BIG difficulty is getting people to find out about you in the first place, and this is where you will need to invest time and/or money to get traffic to your webpage(s). Paid traffic can include solo ads or banner ads.

      I suggest a product with a recurring income is the best to go for.

      Another method is to create your own product, and organise a product launch with affiliates of your own.

      Kind regards
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    • Profile picture of the author Dusty196
      Hi Michelle,

      Thanks for your very helpful advice and information. One thing that you mentioned was to get a mentor, or invest in a good IM course. Do you have any suggestions or can you point me in the right dircetion as far as a good training course/ mentor is concerned. Im based in the UK if that makes any differnce. Also cost will be a big factor for me, I only have limited funds and need help to get going on a low cost basis. Thanks again.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dusty196
        A big big Thank you to everyone who has posted answers to my questions.

        I appreciate people are busy with their own businesses and there is a limited amount of time we all have. There is some really good information here, I appreciate every bit of help/advice thats been offered.

        Its very early days for me and i have a lot to learn. So forgive me in advance for all questions please be patient with me.

        Success to all,

        Dusty196
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  • Profile picture of the author kayfrank
    Everyone else has given you some really good advice. I'll just add a couple of things
    If you are looking to build a real business - a full time business - then creating your own information products is a must.
    You will find many people promoting affiliate products and saying they are able to generate a full time income doing so but in most cases they have produced some training teaching others how to generate income being an affiliate. Therefore their income is not just from affiliate commissions but also from selling their own product!
    The worst thing you can do is go from one method to another - you'll waste money, time and motivation!
    Choose one 'method' and give it at least 3 months before you decide it isn't working for you. But be honest - did you actually put the effort in. A business won't magically appear overnight - you have to work at it - consistently.
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  • Profile picture of the author IMDESTROYER
    Banned
    All you need is a website and you don't have to really invest anything in it. Their are 3 types of website that are easy to get started with. However i am going to suggest what is called AD sense empire sites. These are simple and can quickly be done. One thing you should note however is that just because internet marketing is about havign a website doesnt mean that you in general have to do anything. With ad sense sites all you have to do is manage a staff and advertise manually if you choose too or you can outsource that as well.

    First thing you need to do is how to do keyword research, this way you can find what market you would like to get into. The idea of ad sense sites are, you basically choose a sub market or micro market topic. Example: primary market = sports, sub market = football, micro market = running faster. Then you want to look at examples of whatever market you choose and look at the type of content they have on their site, next you want to come up with ideas as to what you would like on your site, the approach you want to take in expressing the content and visualize the kind of people you want to visit yoru site, next you want to go to a place like elance or the warrior for hires section here at this forum and hire someone to write the content for all the topic you chose. Thats really it, anything after that you would need to buy a domain name, some hosting, maybe a wordpress template, strategize how much content you want to post on the site daily so that the engines pick it up as "always being updated", then you would go to a place like buy sell ads and buy ad space in your market, maybe market on facebook and do a little ad words marketing and that really it.

    The goal is to get people to your site and to get your site on the first 10 in search engines so that you dont have to pay for advertising. Once that happens you just have to maintain that spot and things become automatic. Once this idea down, making these sites and getting everythign prepared gets done in only a few hours to a day ir 2. However focus on 1 project, and rank that because depending on what you choose, it will take you about 3/5 MONTHS most of the time to start seeing automatic revenue. After the first one, that is when you can just start launching alot.
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  • Profile picture of the author IMDESTROYER
    Banned
    also note that you dont have to do a majority of this. You can just go to flippa dot com and find a site that is already profiting. Choose one you like (i suggest you take a course in buying from flippa, this way you know what question) Ryan moran has a great course called e-tycoon and lump sum profits. I suggest you spend an hour researching each course so that you know what they are goign to teach you.
    http://www.warriorforum.com/internet...5-etycoon.html
    eTycoon | Building Virtual Real Estate | Website Flipping


    after you choose the website you like, all you really have to do from their is hire someone to write content for the site. However you still need to know what keywords and topics to choose from, note however you can hire someone to do this as well. Be sure you find somone who write and researches for SEO purposes. Because SEO is really everything free advertising i.e. getting ranked and liked highly in search engines.
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  • Profile picture of the author AndrewStark
    If you can afford it then $100 is more than enough to spend each month.

    Key things to get started, a domain name, hosting, autoresponder.

    I would suggest you start a blog and focus in the areas of IM that you find the most interesting. It's better to be passionate and become an expert in a sub niche rather than trying to claim to be a super affiliate overnight.

    You should also learn about the churn and burn brigade who just hit you with as many hard sells as possible, and only care about commissions. You want to be picky about who you trust, and try to build up relationships and community.

    Lastly remember to treat this like a business, if this time next year you're breaking even / making regular sales then you've done more than many of the lurkers here will have done.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tatianna
    If you're new to IM, check out Chris Farrals Membership program. it a bit costly per month but even if you join for one month and cancel thereafter at least it will give your some knowledge. Kim Roach is very knowledgeable on traffic methods. good luck
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  • Profile picture of the author Geri Richmond
    Hi Dusty and welcome to the WF

    Getting a mentor is a must, especially, if you don't know a whole lot. You will receive a lot of great info on this forum, but, knowing where to start and how to start is key.

    Good luck
    Geri Richmond
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  • Profile picture of the author justaskismall
    Welcome Dusty196;

    what ever you want a do in Internet Marketing is FOCUS...

    F.O.C.U.S = Follow One Course Until Successful
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