Internet Marketer's: Everyone Says Stick with the Fundamentals ... So, What are They?

70 replies
"Master The Fundamentals and The Rest Will Take Care of Itself". -Zso Tsu

If you've been on the W.F for at least 5 minutes you're used to seeing one thing. The constant barrage of questions on what's the ...
  • Best trick
  • Quickest short-cut
  • Easiest technique
- or -
  • Magic words
To online success - and other similar questions.

Some of the best advice many newbies get from veterans of the Warrior forum (IMO) is to master and stick with the fundamentals.

But aside from a few skills. For example, list building or maybe keyword research, most marketers have slight (sometimes major) differences depending on who you ask.

Share "your" top 7 basics of successful internet marketing every newbie or oldie should master.

Here's mine:

1. Niche Marketing
2. List Building
3. Consistency/Focus
4. Copywriting
5. Brainstorming
6. Email Marketing
7. Keyword Research/SEO

Thanks for sharing!
#fundamentals #internet #marketer #stick
  • Profile picture of the author heruma
    Not adding but expanding No. 5 Brainstorming

    It is important that we do brainstroming alone and in groups. With groups, a lot of insights, views, ideas will emerge and hence creating a richer session.

    Hence, it is also very important to be networking. So, I want to add
    No. 8 Networking
    No. 9 Team Work
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Fuentes
    I just have three ...

    1. Sales Basics -- Learn what to sell, who to sell it to, where to sell, when to sell, and how to sell ...

    2. Business Development PPTs -- People. Processes. Technologies ...
    Learn how to build, test and improve backend and frontend systems that can execute your plans through the right manpower resources for implementing your plans, through the right backend and frontend workflow processes for improving the efficiency and work output value of your manpower resources, and through the right technologies for improving the cost-effectiveness, productivity and overall work output value of your manpower resources and processes ...

    3. Six Scientific Principles of Persuasion -- Reciprocity. Authority. Likeability. Exclusivity. Social Proof. Commitment / Consistency ...
    Learn how to integrate these scientific principles into your entire business development, product development, value-added service support, backend and frontend sales, advertising and marketing campaigns ...
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  • Profile picture of the author kk075
    1) Know your audience. Research them inside and out to ensure that every blog, tweet, landing page and product description talks to your ideal customer.

    2) Write awesome page copy. If your writing is average, then your conversions will be below average, so never settle for "okay". Find a great writer and make them a part of your team.

    3) Learn search optimization....which is mostly just a combination of mastering #1 and #2 in this day and age. But you also need to understand backlink strategies, keyword research and hitting the key metrics Google looks for...and you can't do that if you don't know SEO.

    4) Great communication with your leads, customers, strangers and everyone else is also essential. People will have questions....and how you answer them will play a critical role in your early success. If people are not asking questions (or just buying without asking questions) then you failed in steps 1, 2, and 3.

    5) A solid email marketing strategy. Over 90% of all IMers have no idea how to write an email that sells or how often to send it, so they end up burning their own lists before they even have a product to sell. So study email marketing.

    6) Build a revenue plan that just makes sense. The best products and services are the ones where a person will look at it and say, "Hey, I really need that!" Those sales are as smooth as silk. So you shouldn't have to be constantly selling to make ends meet...pick products that your traffic actually wants to buy.

    7) Learn how to use social media to market your brand. This is a lot like tip #5...spamming links and product photos will only produce dismal results. So learn how to engage your audience and create interest with everything you share.

    Note that I didn't list PPC marketing as an essential, even though we all know that it really is. The reason I did that is because if you don't truly know your customer and your copy is not speaking directly to them, then pay per click marketing is virtually useless. You'll end up burning through your entire budget in record time and end up with a site that could never convert in the first place....so work your natural leads through steps 1-7 first and don't even think about PPC until all your channels are producing.

    I hope that helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicolasmd2112
    1. Determine Your Skill Sets

    2. Layout a Business Plan around those skill sets

    3. Build upon those skill sets within the business frame (how will you be making money with your knowledge? )

    4. Begin to build you're business

    5. Reinvest into your success.


    This is a general fundamental way to realize your options/potential. Evaluation, Organization, Execution.
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  • Profile picture of the author Richard Weberg
    Making money online is not that complicated, at first as a newbie its information overload, but there are only two fundamental things if you focus on will make you all the money in the world, you never have to get in to content writing, blogging, website building, product creation...ETC, Seriously I own membership sites, my own products, blah, blah, blah...I have been doing this since 2003 and their is one thing, I am going back to very soon, is just being an affiliate and selling others people stuff..You can make as much money as you want selling other peoples stuff, let them have all the headaches, remain an affiliate if you truly want the dot com lifestyle..

    Simple easy..

    Generate traffic, send it to your squeeze pages (opt-in pages), then have your autoresponder direct that traffic after opt-ing in to the offer. Then follow up with them via email, very easy to make $100,000 a year doing this if you only focus on two things.

    The two things you should be focused on is

    1. Traffic, and using that traffic to build your email list as large and as fast as you can.
    Everyday do some traffic building activity to increase your number of subscribers to your email list a day.

    You should use both free and paid traffic. If you only trade your time for traffic it will be a looooooong haul! Start with a small budget and reinvest your profits, there are many very inexpensive traffic sources. If you do this right, you should be able to add over 300 subscribers to your email list in just your first thirty days. You scale this up as you make money.

    2. Send at least 1 broadcast email message to your personal email list everyday (YES EVERYDAY).
    Encourage them, share whats working for you, tell them about you, ask them to reply to your emails. Connect with them by giving them your email, skype or facebook page. Tell stories to sell your products, services or affiliate programs. Use special offers, or discount. (how you handle this part is all dependent upon your niche and what you are trying to sell, but you still should try to make a connection.) In my retail stores I once owned my best customers were the ones I got to know the best..make sense?

    So if your sending traffic to your own website, blog, or affiliate offer, make sure that your traffic first lands on your relevant opt-in page and then gets redirected to your offer or sales page. Most people never buy the first time they see something, so using a opt-in page to send your traffic to and using an autoresponder, allows you to follow up with the people on your list. The follow up is where I make 95% of my own income. Do the work once and build customers for life.

    If you dont have a process in place like this you are wasting your time and your traffic, this is how you simplify internet marketing.

    There is no tricks, no shortcuts, no secret formulas..........The reason email marketing works is because you can follow up with people, thats it, its that simple do not over complicate it, unless you want a full time job.

    You do not need to own your own products or programs, I know people who make over a million dollars a year, and they are only affiliate marketers who promote only other peoples stuff, the worst thing I ever did, was create my own membership sites, I make great money online and am free, but would be making ten times that amount had I not done so.

    Internet marketing is foolishly simple..When you have the right process in place!
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    • Profile picture of the author groov
      Originally Posted by Richard Weberg View Post

      Making money online is not that complicated, at first as a newbie its information overload, but there are only two fundamental things if you focus on will make you all the money in the world, you never have to get in to content writing, blogging, website building, product creation...ETC, Seriously I own membership sites, my own products, blah, blah, blah...I have been doing this since 2003 and their is one thing, I am going back to very soon, is just being an affiliate and selling others people stuff..You can make as much money as you want selling other peoples stuff, let them have all the headaches, remain an affiliate if you truly want the dot com lifestyle..

      Simple easy..

      Generate traffic, send it to your squeeze pages (opt-in pages), then have your autoresponder direct that traffic after opt-ing in to the offer. Then follow up with them via email, very easy to make $100,000 a year doing this if you only focus on two things.

      The two things you should be focused on is

      1. Traffic, and using that traffic to build your email list as large and as fast as you can.
      Everyday do some traffic building activity to increase your number of subscribers to your email list a day.

      You should use both free and paid traffic. If you only trade your time for traffic it will be a looooooong haul! Start with a small budget and reinvest your profits, there are many very inexpensive traffic sources. If you do this right, you should be able to add over 300 subscribers to your email list in just your first thirty days. You scale this up as you make money.

      2. Send at least 1 broadcast email message to your personal email list everyday (YES EVERYDAY).
      Encourage them, share whats working for you, tell them about you, ask them to reply to your emails. Connect with them by giving them your email, skype or facebook page. Tell stories to sell your products, services or affiliate programs. Use special offers, or discount. (how you handle this part is all dependent upon your niche and what you are trying to sell, but you still should try to make a connection.) In my retail stores I once owned my best customers were the ones I got to know the best..make sense?

      So if your sending traffic to your own website, blog, or affiliate offer, make sure that your traffic first lands on your relevant opt-in page and then gets redirected to your offer or sales page. Most people never buy the first time they see something, so using a opt-in page to send your traffic to and using an autoresponder, allows you to follow up with the people on your list. The follow up is where I make 95% of my own income. Do the work once and build customers for life.

      If you dont have a process in place like this you are wasting your time and your traffic, this is how you simplify internet marketing.

      There is no tricks, no shortcuts, no secret formulas..........The reason email marketing works is because you can follow up with people, thats it, its that simple do not over complicate it, unless you want a full time job.

      You do not need to own your own products or programs, I know people who make over a million dollars a year, and they are only affiliate marketers who promote only other peoples stuff, the worst thing I ever did, was create my own membership sites, I make great money online and am free, but would be making ten times that amount had I not done so.

      Internet marketing is foolishly simple..When you have the right process in place!
      Hey Richard!

      I was looking into beginning my first niche website and slowly start cranking out content for it over time to somehow maybe gather an audience and eventually blah blah blah but somehow i stumbled onto your post on this fundamentals thread and it really resonated with me. You mention affiliate marketing being a better alternative. As a 24 year old broke college student who was just about to spend his last $20 on a domain and host, I would really love to get your advice on what I should be focusing my time on. I feel like it is just as your described: information overload. I keep reading about SEO, backlinks, affiliate, etc. and I just don't know where to turn. Is linking to clickbank products still a viable way of making money? Should i just focus on building a squeeze page that revolves around whatever niche of products I want to promote? I tried messaging but unfortunately I have no posts so i'm trying my luck here. Hope you see this!

      David
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  • Profile picture of the author Richard Weberg
    I forgot to mention this, there are only three things you really need to have in order to make money online.

    1. An autorespnder
    2. Traffic
    3. A product or service to sell

    Thats it!

    And if you follow the process I outlined in my first response you could sell ice to Eskimos!!
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    • Profile picture of the author Enfusia
      Your post #7 was my answer.

      Really, that's all you need.

      For my methods it's a little different but the exact same thing.

      1. Traffic
      2. Squeeze page
      3. Offers

      Patrick
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    • Profile picture of the author Cleberl1
      I'm 100% sure does not exists a magic way to make money, and this applies for everything in life.

      However if you focus in a effective and smart way to make money and if you work steadily year by year, one day you"ll reach success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Xochitl Shat
    My opinion is Email marketing is a great way to be present and increase visibility. Your website products or service can be effectively targeted by narrowing down to a list of the targeted population who can mailed in time or on regular basis, be it , daily, weekly or monthly.
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    • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
      A variety of good answers so far.

      But something interesting I've noticed in the past and even now, for example ...
      • If someone asked about the fundamentals of baseball most would agree on hitting, catching/throwing, running the bases, etc.
      • If you asked about basketball, most would say shooting, dribbling, rebounding, passing and playing defense.
      • If asked about boxing most would think punching, counter-punching, jabs, blocking/evading punches and footwork/ring movement.
      But it's ironic how everyone has a different answer for Internet marketing fundamentals. Not sure whether that's bad, good or a little bit of both. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts and opinions on that as well.
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      • Profile picture of the author Enfusia
        Originally Posted by The Niche Man View Post

        A variety of good answers so far.

        But something interesting I've noticed in the past and even now, for example ...
        • If someone asked about the fundamentals of baseball most would agree on hitting, catching/throwing, running the bases, etc.
        • If you asked about basketball, most would say shooting, dribbling, rebounding, passing and playing defense.
        • If asked about boxing most would think punching, counter-punching, jabs, blocking/evading punches and footwork/ring movement.
        But it's ironic how everyone has a different answer for Internet marketing fundamentals. Not sure whether that's bad, good or a little bit of both. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts and opinions on that as well.

        To keep it in the sports theme.

        If you put a boxer or a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) artist or a Muay Thai fighter into an MMA (mixed martial arts) fight, they will tell you that the fundamentals to win will be based on their individual sport.

        The boxer will tell you footwork, blocking, punching and jabs etc. The BJJ artist will tell you take downs and submissions are the fundamentals.

        In Internet Marketing (IM) you have people in this mixed marketing art (again MMA) who are affiliate marketing specialists. Others who are product creators and still more that are SEO specialists.

        When asked for the basics they will recount the fundamentals of their marketing art so to speak.

        I hope I made sense with that.

        Patrick
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        • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
          Originally Posted by Enfusia View Post

          To keep it in the sports theme.

          If you put a boxer or a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) artist or a Muay Thai fighter into an MMA (mixed martial arts) fight, they will tell you that the fundamentals to win will be based on their individual sport.

          The boxer will tell you footwork, blocking, punching and jabs etc. The BJJ artist will tell you take downs and submissions are the fundamentals.

          In Internet Marketing (IM) you have people in this mixed marketing art (again MMA) who are affiliate marketing specialists. Others who are product creators and still more that are SEO specialists.

          When asked for the basics they will recount the fundamentals of their marketing art so to speak.

          I hope I made sense with that.

          Patrick
          Those are good examples. And just to add onto what you said, the term "internet marketer" is expanding and adding more "basics" and "disciplines" to be considered. The basics of today is different from the basics 20 or even 10 years ago.

          Now things like social media, mobile marketing and video play a bigger role in addition to the different marketing skills you mentioned.

          I think the answers might have been a little more similar in nature if I focused the question on each skillset, i.e. what's the fundamentals of ...

          • Affiliate marketing
          • Social media marketing
          • Search engine, marketing
          • Email marketing
          • Niche marketing
          • Article Marketing
          Etc.

          Instead of the all- encompassing (and growing) "Internet Marketing". Still interesting and educational answers nonetheless.
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          • Profile picture of the author Enfusia
            Originally Posted by The Niche Man View Post

            Those are good examples. And just to add onto what you said, the term "internet marketer" is expanding and adding more "basics" and "disciplines" to be considered. The basics of today is different from the basics 20 or even 10 years ago.

            Now things like social media, mobile marketing and video play a bigger role in addition to the different marketing skills you mentioned.

            I think the answers might have been a little more similar in nature if I focused the question on each skillset, i.e. what's the fundamentals of ...

            • Affiliate marketing
            • Social media marketing
            • Search engine, marketing
            • Email marketing
            • Niche marketing
            • Article Marketing
            Etc.

            Instead of the all- encompassing (and growing) "Internet Marketing". Still interesting and educational answers nonetheless.

            Precisely.

            My list was by no means comprehensive. It was just to make the point.

            There are (as you've listed) any facets of IM. And as you noted if you had asked what are the fundamentals of email marketing as an example you'd have seen the congruency you mentioned.

            Patrick
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve B
        Originally Posted by The Niche Man View Post

        But it's ironic how everyone has a different answer for Internet marketing fundamentals.

        Consider that 95% of the people on this forum have never sold a thing online. Is it surprising that there is no agreement about the fundamentals?

        Many just regurgitate what they have read somewhere. Very few have actually implemented the fundamentals and stayed with it long enough for success.

        Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
    At the risk of sounding trite, I think the most basic fundamental is marketing. That's a broad brush stroke but it's all right. I recall reading something written years ago by Clayton Makepeace, ultra successful copywriter who has since retired as far as I know.

    He made a case that the most important part of any business, especially offline since that was his primary market, was the marketing department. And the most important daily activity for any business was to engage in marketing.

    Of course that activity can be broken down to the specific type(s) of marketing a business engages in, etc.

    So you can imagine a pyramid with marketing at the apex. Underneath are all the components that comprise a particular type or area of marketing. Any fundamental activity has its unique components that must be developed in terms of quality and execution.

    Ken
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    • Profile picture of the author uktrader
      1) Market research and deciding what to do (niche selection). If you do this wrong, everything will be much harder even if you get everything else (building your list, SEO etc.) right.

      2) Analysing and reverse-engineering what other people (your competitors) do - all the details, what they say in their emails/sales pages, why, what they sell, how they make their money, what exactly they do the get traffic etc. Of course you don't want to just copy them, but think about how you can make small improvements to that and beat them.

      3) Discipline, self management, time management, focus... however you call it. To implement what you have learned in 2)
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    • Profile picture of the author SteveSki
      Let's say you are a Internet Marketer who is promoting an online income opportunity.

      Then the basics would simply be to say as little as possible (to peak interest) to as many people as you can as fast as you can without spamming. Focus on capturing their contact details, build your list, give them value and continue to market other products to them.

      Cheers,
      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    Offer something people want. This can be a report, article, software, game, video, affiliate program, etc.


    Be able to answer this question SPECIFICALLY: Where EXACTLY will you find people interested in your offer?


    Networking. One tip is, instead of asking for a free mentor, seek out successful marketers and ask what you can do for them, not what they can do for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Originally Posted by The Niche Man View Post

    "Master The Fundamentals and The Rest Will Take Care of Itself". -Zso Tsu

    If you've been on the W.F for at least 5 minutes you're used to seeing one thing. The constant barrage of questions on what's the ...
    • Best trick
    • Quickest short-cut
    • Easiest technique
    - or -
    • Magic words
    To online success - and other similar questions.

    Some of the best advice many newbies get from veterans of the Warrior forum (IMO) is to master and stick with the fundamentals.

    But aside from a few skills. For example, list building or maybe keyword research, most marketers have slight (sometimes major) differences depending on who you ask.

    Share "your" top 7 basics of successful internet marketing every newbie or oldie should master.

    Here's mine:

    1. Niche Marketing
    2. List Building
    3. Consistency/Focus
    4. Copywriting
    5. Brainstorming
    6. Email Marketing
    7. Keyword Research/SEO

    Thanks for sharing!
    Hey Roy,
    I appreciate the fact that you separate List Building and Email Marketing. As time has gone from my own experience I think there is an important distinguishable difference in the two.

    Just because you build a HUGE List doesn't mean you are going to be successful in email marketing. It is just one ingredient in it.

    next comes..
    strategic email followups/ broadcasts, managing your List, promotions etc..etc..


    - Robert Andrew
    Signature

    Nothing to see here including a Sig so just move on :)

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    • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
      Originally Posted by discrat View Post

      Hey Roy,
      I appreciate the fact that you separate List Building and Email Marketing. As time has gone from my own experience I think there is an important distinguishable difference in the two.

      Just because you build a HUGE List doesn't mean you are going to be successful in email marketing. It is just one ingredient in it.

      - Robert Andrew
      Yea, I've made that expensive (educational) mistake in the past.

      I was always told the "money is in the list". I discovered thousands of wasted dollars and wasted months later ... "the money is in managing the list properly".

      - Robert Andrew[/QUOTE]

      Originally Posted by kilgore View Post

      The key is to make it easy for your customers to get in touch with you and to get them to understand that their feedback is both useful and appreciated.

      Your challenge, of course, is to take this feedback and then do something with it, understanding that not every idea is a good one.
      That was always my problem when first starting out doing serious market research, how to separate the meat from the bones. I got better at it with time and effort, if their was a shorter learning curve, I never discovered it.

      Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

      Consider that 95% of the people on this forum have never sold a thing online. Is it surprising that there is no agreement about the fundamentals?

      Many just regurgitate what they have read somewhere. Very few have actually implemented the fundamentals and stayed with it long enough for success.

      Steve
      Steve B. I noticed you left out your fundamentals list. Was it by accident or on purpose. I'd be interested in hearing your take. You seem like a stick to the fundamentals type of guy based on past post you've made.

      Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

      most of the fundamentals of successful businesses have been discussed in much greater detail in offline publications than they are by the "gurus" of internet marketing.
      I agree with that point. Unfortunately, studying the fundamentals of internet marketing or an internet marketing skill isn't as "sexy" as
      • Push this button
      • Do this technique
      or
      • Use this software and get rich.
      I haven't seen any successful selling ebooks, courses or membership sites that included the Fundamentals of ________________ in their title. I think the word fundamental brings back memories of boring text books we studied in school or something similar.
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  • Profile picture of the author TJoseph
    I've always believed in boiling things down to 4 simple steps, so here goes:

    Learn copywriting, build/foster relationships with other successful internet marketers, keep an eye on what others are doing and learn how to generate traffic.

    My quick 2cents.
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    • Profile picture of the author kilgore
      Great responses here so far, but I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned what I consider to be the most important "fundamental" of all: listening.

      Yes, absolutely do market research. But the thing is no matter how much you do your research, your assumptions are going to prove wrong in key ways. This is true for all entrepreneurs, from venture capital funded startups just as much as it is for solo internet marketers.

      Maybe a group of people you thought would respond to your products aren't responding (but maybe a group of people you thought wouldn't be interested in what you have to offer turn out to be your best customers). Or maybe there's a whole category of products that you had never considered, but that your customers indicate are a real need for them. Maybe it's the way you're branding yourself or the types of content your producing. But if you listen to your customers, you'll quickly figure these sorts of things out which allows you to make adjustments (many of which may well be more mistakes) and listen again and again and again.

      The ability to listen to your customers in realtime is one of the reasons I really like social media (as I'm sure many here can relate, when you have 1,000,000 Facebook followers, they'll tell you when they weren't happy with a product you're promoting!), but it's far from the only way to do so. Contact forms, email, surveys, and blog comments are all great ways to listen to and engage with your customers. And of course you can talk to them offline as well: whenever I meet someone who uses our website, I always ask them a few questions about their experience and what they think could make it better. The key is to make it easy for your customers to get in touch with you and to get them to understand that their feedback is both useful and appreciated.

      Your challenge, of course, is to take this feedback and then do something with it, understanding that not every idea is a good one. Even so, I strongly believe that because success in business depends on your ability to provide value to your customers, understanding your customers -- and therefore listening to your customers -- is about as fundamental as it gets.
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Seven? Easy.

    1. Know what you do
    2. Tell people what you do
    3. Make a list of people who want that done
    4. Offer to do it for money <- That's a business. You don't have this, you got nothin'.
    5. Cultivate a relationship with your customers
    6. Offer to do a bigger better job of it for more money
    7. Teach other people to do what you do for a LOT more money

    There are subtleties, but these are the basics.
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    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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  • Profile picture of the author GregtheWriter
    The biggest fundamental is to always realize no matter what niche or business model you're building is that you are a problem solver.

    Always focused on what the problems are for your niche, and deliver them solutions.

    Everything else is extra to allow you to do this faster for more people in a more helpful way. This fundamental works for affiliate, mlm, your own products, services or whatever it is you want to sell.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    you know, i actually think this thread illustrates exactly why its so hard for most people to actually create a profitable and sustainable business online or offline for that matter.

    the truth is there are a lot of "fundamentals". you dont have to do every single one of them perfectly, but you cant get too many of the wrong or your business just wont work.

    there are a lot of moving parts to a successful business and you gotta get them all working together in just the right way to make it work. and just when you do, someone will through a wrench in your plan with a panda bear from google or just good old fashioned competition.

    i personally think most people should be required to read a couple of offline business books before they ever head online to try to start one of these instant millionaire businesses.

    most of the fundamentals of successful businesses have been discussed in much greater detail in offline publications than they are by the "gurus" of internet marketing.

    very few business fundamentals change when you add the word "online".
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    • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
      Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

      the truth is there are a lot of "fundamentals".
      Not really. Most people confuse "fundamentals of MY business" with "fundamentals of ALL business," because clearly every other business is just a defective version of their own.

      The real fundamental is "ask people for what you want and tell them why."

      If your reason why is good enough, they'll give it to you. It's that easy.
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      • Profile picture of the author David Keith
        i guess its debatable what is considered a fundamental. but if you go to try to get business financing or investors, they want to know about many aspects of your business they consider fundamentals.

        those will include lots of things about your profit plan, products offerings, customer acquisition strategy, methods of retaining customers, reinvestment ideas, you background, your credibility, ...... a really long list.

        almost all of which turn out to be pretty important aspects of our businesses for those of us who have been fortunate enough to put it all together.

        even super small internet businesses have to answer these questions. if you make 1 sale for a $30 profit, but dont know how or where to reinvest that to make more money, then that is a place where not having a fundamental reinvestment plan is going to destroy your "business".

        in fact, that not often discussed fundamental is responsible for destroying countless online businesses.

        Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

        Not really. Most people confuse "fundamentals of MY business" with "fundamentals of ALL business," because clearly every other business is just a defective version of their own.

        The real fundamental is "ask people for what you want and tell them why."

        If your reason why is good enough, they'll give it to you. It's that easy.
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        • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
          Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

          i guess its debatable what is considered a fundamental. but if you go to try to get business financing or investors, they want to know about many aspects of your business they consider fundamentals.
          ...of a business in which they will invest.

          Not of every business on the planet.

          At its heart, every business is just giving people a reason to give you what you want. All of them.
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          • Profile picture of the author David Keith
            Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post


            ...At its heart, every business is just giving people a reason to give you what you want. All of them.
            but thats the difference it what ti takes to make a sale. vs turning a couple of sales into a profitable and sustainable business.

            past that 1 sale, it takes a lot of components and you have to get most of them right to continue to have meaningful success.

            you can say thats all there is to it, but that single statement leads to a whole bunch of other things most business professionals have called "fundamentals" for decades.

            beyond business fundamentals, there are marketing fundamentals.

            i have often heard marketing defined as "solving peoples problems in exchange for money" while i mostly agree, there are lots of other fundamentals of marketing. get those wrong and you will find it difficult to succeed in your purpose of solving people problems in exchange for money

            even down to the simplest of simple marketing fundamentals such as "sell benefits not features" . if you "sell" features, you are going to find it hard sledding to create a profitable business and you probably wont get the opportunity to actually help many people...because your marketing will suck.

            given that, it can almost be argued that if you get that silly little fundamental thing wrong, you are almost certainly doomed in your online business venture. even if you had a little success "selling" features, someone will come along and sell the same features you are selling and call them benefits and pretty much destroy your little piece of the pie.

            your simple statement leads to a lot of what i would call fundamental things that are near fatal business mistakes to get wrong. if you just do what you say but don't build a list of those people you have helped, well you see where i am going.....

            so i see list building as a fundamental that if you fail to do, will severally decrease your chances of success and be a key factor in how far you able to grow your ability to give more and more people what they want...in exchange for money.

            btw....its good to have another person who thinks for themselves around here. this place has been missing the reasonably intelligent marketing discussions.
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            • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
              Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

              but thats the difference it what ti takes to make a sale. vs turning a couple of sales into a profitable and sustainable business.
              Yes... that is in fact the difference between ANY business and the kind of business YOU prefer.

              Lots of people have unprofitable, unsustainable businesses.
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  • Profile picture of the author margretk
    For me, the most important thing is to not give up. I was active in 1999-2001, received some checks and then I gave up, mostly because my mother passed away and I started working full time.

    Had I known what I know now, I would have persevered and continued with my passion, working online.

    So, I still know the fundementals, but I have to take action to make it work.

    I think a lot of what google says, just be yourself and make a site that helps others, can do the trick.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    i guess from my point of view, having run successful businesses for closing in on 20 years now, i just realize there are a lot of things that make a business work.

    there are in fact, quite a few that i would say if you take that aspect away would quickly make me have to buy lots of red pens instead of black ones.

    to me, your statement is more of a mission statement than a fundamental of business. although i can certainly see where you can argue that it is THE fundamental.

    i just realize how many other fundamentals or sub-fundamentals if you want to call them that are wrapped up in that statement.

    if you tell a newbie just that single statement there is a near 100% chance thats not enough info to help him much. it may help guide their thinking if they plaster that on the front of their notebook,but they are going to have to fill in some of those notebook pages with other "fundamentals" before they have much....if any success.
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    • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
      Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

      i guess from my point of view, having run successful businesses for closing in on 20 years now, i just realize there are a lot of things that make a business work
      And there are a lot of businesses that work without those things. I used to work as a Y2K consultant.

      My business required ABSOLUTELY NOTHING except me, editing code at client sites, and generated just over half a million dollars in 18 months.

      What did I have to do? Ask for what I wanted, and give them a reason.

      That's sufficient. I know; I've done it. And "that's not enough" is why I laid out the seven-step roadmap earlier in the thread.
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      • Profile picture of the author David Keith
        Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

        And there are a lot of businesses that work without those things. I used to work as a Y2K consultant.

        My business required ABSOLUTELY NOTHING except me, editing code at client sites, and generated just over half a million dollars in 18 months.

        What did I have to do? Ask for what I wanted, and give them a reason.

        That's sufficient. I know; I've done it. And "that's not enough" is why I laid out the seven-step roadmap earlier in the thread.
        But there is more to that than absolutely nothing.

        Such as a target market, some way of generating credibilty for yourself that you could do the job, some way of taking payments, some way of keeping records for tax purposes, some time it took you to learn the skills to just edit code, some recognition of a hungry market.... And lots more.

        You can say it took absolutely nothing, but that's just not actually true.

        Take anyone one of those fundamentals I just mentioned above away except for the one about taxes and you wouldn't have had a profitable business. And if you take the one about taxes away we know that won't work long...lol. Maybe that's where cd has been....locked up for tax evasion? Lol... Jk man.

        It took all those things and more coming together in just the right way for you to make that thing work. I get some of those almost seem like common sense. in some business ventures they are indeed more obvious than others, but they are still business fundamentals...and they are still present in profitable businesses....even simple ones.
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  • Profile picture of the author spurge0n
    Dispense what doesn't work and ramp up what does work.

    Never forget that what goes around comes around. Be sure to help others in your online marketing efforts and others will help you.
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    • Profile picture of the author gjabiz
      Internet marketing or offline.

      THE fundamental both must have is

      the ability to generate NET PROFITS at a rate greater than their expenses.

      In the off line world and online world of Network Marketing or MLM (one business model)...there is an estimated 98% failure rate because the profits don't happen soon enough.

      If one invests lots of money, say in a franchise, because of the model and help, one could be profitable from the opening.

      Start-ups require working capital for a guessed period of time, knowing how long they can go not making a profit.

      Many new businesses close in the first five years and one reason is lack of PROFITS.

      If your "work" activity is not producing Net Profits and growing as you need/want it to, you may have a hobby or non-profit, but most certainly you don't have a sustainable BUSINESS...

      the ways and means to that Net Profit, as we see from the many posts, depends on the way a person chooses to go, what may suit them better.

      But if you're looking for a Business FUNDAMENTAL, look no further than NET PROFITS.

      gjabiz
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      • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
        Originally Posted by gjabiz View Post

        But if you're looking for a Business FUNDAMENTAL, look no further than NET PROFITS.

        gjabiz
        That's a good point giabiz, but could you break it down further? I was looking more toward what fundamentals a person has to apply to generate the net profits?
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        • Profile picture of the author gjabiz
          Originally Posted by The Niche Man View Post

          That's a good point giabiz, but could you break it down further? I was looking more toward what fundamentals a person has to apply to generate the net profits?
          Sure.

          What they are depends on the business, but customers/buyers are essential to any business and you can backward chain from the transaction to the INTERSECTION of where a prospect meets your biz.

          Examples: Fast Food, you see McDonald's next to and surrounded by other food joints. They need HUNGRY people, so malls and shopping districts or areas are magnets which attract a lot of drive by traffic.

          Although you can order a pizza online, you still need it delivered.

          Malls were built in the 60s, before that strip shopping plazas were built, and there seems to be a shift back that direction.

          OK, so ONLINE.

          Amazon offers both tangible and virtual (digital) products. They PULL prospects into their sales funnel by dominating the search engines.

          The local vacuum cleaner shop has to pull customers via a combination of means.

          A Special Report Writer can offer a digital product, or a hands on paper and ink copy of their report.

          Each of the above has overhead and expenses, of course Amazon burned through venture capital to get where they are today, their NET Profits come from VOLUME.

          The vacuum guy has MARGINS, he may sell an 800 dollar unit with a gross profit of 500 and his operating expenses take his pre-tax gross down to 250.

          As a writer of Specialty Reports, I can get to a NET Profit on one product sale, usually. So I use a TARGETED marketing approach and PUSH and PULL marketing methods.

          So a new person comes here seeking guidance for his journey to PROFITS, and is bombarded with advice, often conflicting advice coming from two successful people who have done it their way.

          I contend it is better to start with self, spend 30 days looking at the different ways and examine the methods which suit the individual.

          Will the IM model you follow require VOLUME sales? To whom? Where do you find them?

          OR MARGINS, will products that have higher margins find a significant buyer pool and where do they come from? Can a lower number of sales units per time period offset the need for selling many? Will two vacuum cleaners a day make you the NET profit you want, and the expenses of customer acquisition be there too?

          OR, can a newb get off to a faster start with affiliate offers, and to WHOM? Plenty of things to sell, getting customers, NOT so easy in any business.
          Which makes the fundamentals, the basic step by step guide, dependent on what path is chosen.

          Within the last few days people here have inquired about PRIVATE LABELING of supplements, which will be sold online. Getting product is easy.

          Others have asked about HOW to get started with affiliate, or WordPress or service provider types of business...

          Then it boils down to customers buying at a rate which increases NET profits...and may, or may not be dependent on some of the things which have been listed.

          Ask yourself, HOW do I get my customer's money into my pocket?
          HOW do they become a customer and not a prospect or suspect?
          WHERE do they find what I'm offering? WHY? What are they looking for?

          The best shortcut to IM success is to find a busy track and let the freight train run you over.

          The first fundamental I would teach is the fundamental of desire, that is, what do you want and why?

          THEN a customized plan of action can be created which will get you on the plane and off the ground.

          So, DESIRE comes first, then a PLAN, then a system modeled on success which insure you NET PROFITS.

          gjabiz
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          • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
            Originally Posted by gjabiz View Post

            The first fundamental I would teach is the fundamental of desire, that is, what do you want and why?

            THEN a customized plan of action can be created which will get you on the plane and off the ground.

            So, DESIRE comes first, then a PLAN, then a system modeled on success which insure you NET PROFITS.

            gjabiz
            Good explanation, you gave a little something for everyone to consider whatever their market. But what resonated with me, because of my current situation is the above statement.

            I'm in the process of formulating ... what do I want -and- why? It's in regards to a Healthy Soul Food blog I'm in the process of creating with friends.

            I've been working on just that part for the last 2 weeks, my friends are helping me dig deep and far beyond the surface for answers. We've been tough on each other, but I think we'll come up with something special when finished.

            So, you're spot on with your assessment about desire being an important fundamental.

            It reminds me of the classic book "Think and Grow Rick" and how Napolean Hill spoke on the very point you eluded to about desire. Good share.

            Originally Posted by David Keith View Post


            i guess a big part of being an entrepreneur is to be able to actually decide which are the fundamentally important things to the success of your business.
            That's a good point, a Job One necessity to find out quick and master. I'm working on a new project now and getting the fundamentals is my first priority.

            Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

            if we were to list all the fundamentals of all the online business models a person could start it would be a pretty long list.
            I agree or maybe even a long book.

            That's a point I've learned in this thread. Maybe when online marketing first started back in the 1980's certain fundamentals existed concerning the term.

            But now with the growth, expansion and sub-markets springing up, new fundamentals are being established as we speak - under the umbrella of internet marketing.

            For video marketing and it's offshoots, mobile marketing and it's offshoots, social media and it's off shoots, and a laundry list of others.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I have to go with:

    1) Creating a basic website
    2) Setting up a lead capture form on your blog/site
    3) Copywriting
    4) Where to search for paid advertising opportunities
    5) Learning how to make money without money
    6) Knowing how to work an autoresponder
    7) Free traffic generation
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  • Profile picture of the author Eagle07
    My fundamental for achieving success in making money online would be summarized into one no matter what method of delivery you use:

    Help other people get what they want in life.

    I have seen this to stand the test of time. You may use free or paid methods of delivering help to other people. It is just that when you use multiple tools or strategies, the faster and the more people you would be able to help and the bigger the returns.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    like me and CD were talking about last night in this thread, there are actually somewhat different fundamentals for many different types of business.

    if you run an eCommerce site your fundamental things that are required to bring in a profit are going to be somewhat different than if you run a fiverr gig business. and if you run a solo ad business, your fundamentals are different still.

    i guess a big part of being an entrepreneur is to be able to actually decide which are the fundamentally important things to the success of your business.

    if we were to list all the fundamentals of all the online business models a person could start it would be a pretty long list.
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  • Profile picture of the author angry cowboy
    i only have one do
    do what is best for me..thats all..
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    • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
      Originally Posted by angry cowboy View Post

      i only have one do
      do what is best for me..thats all..
      Wow, that's an interesting philosophy to have in a service oriented industry? How's it working out for ya? Any engaging success stories you'd like to share?
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    Here's a couple of fundamentals that are rarely brought up:


    Ethics
    Basic business law
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    • Profile picture of the author discrat
      Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

      Here's a couple of fundamentals that are rarely brought up:


      Ethics
      A word that is rarely ever used or focused upon very little in places like here.

      It really should be the very first thing you have on your Mind when playing this game.

      Just from my own experience, when you concentrate on doing what is right then usually the other part (as far as being successful ) takes care of itself


      - Robert Andrew
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      Nothing to see here including a Sig so just move on :)

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    • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
      Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

      Here's a couple of fundamentals that are rarely brought up:


      Ethics
      Basic business law
      You can't get much more fundamental than that. In fact, if you're ever caught ignoring that fundamental you could be out of business, out of luck or in jail.

      Originally Posted by eugenedm View Post

      Finally someone's talking about #3 consistency... This seems to be a problem in the modern world.
      It's a lot about discipline... like in the army.....
      Just waking up every morning at 7am and keep getting effective things done...
      You'll have to find what's "effective" at what you do. But pick one thing and kill it... Do it till you are very good at it.
      Exactly, that's often all it takes to see results (providing you're consistent in the right ways). Because most people give up, get distracted (bored) or get scatter-brained (easy to do in the Internet Marketing "candy store").

      Originally Posted by discrat View Post

      A word that is rarely ever used or focused upon very little in places like here.

      It really should be the very first thing you have on your Mind when playing this game.

      - Robert Andrew
      True, ethics should be a given. Especially in a place where you're asking a stranger who doesn't know you to give you their email address, money or credit card number. And do it without them seeing, touching or testing your product. Kind of "ballsy" when you think about it. Every marketer should be trying to raise the bar on demonstrating ethics in some way. For example, like one-upsmanship or an arms race of "ethical behaviors" in my opinion - and see who can keep up.
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  • Profile picture of the author eugenedm
    Finally someone's talking about #3 consistency... This seems to be a problem in the modern world.
    It's a lot about discipline... like in the army.....
    Just waking up every morning at 7am and keep getting effective things done...
    You'll have to find what's "effective" at what you do. But pick one thing and kill it... Do it till you are very good at it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Med Man
    1 delayed gratification, i.e. patience
    2 creating offers that convert on frontend to be able to reinvest into traffic
    3 follow up, i.e. email marketing
    4 copywriting
    5 creating jvs
    6 ability to focus
    7 stop buying, start selling

    My 2c
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  • Profile picture of the author nickstoicof
    In my opinion - 100% list-building as #1.

    With it opens up MANY options for you.

    Sell traffic, product launches, self-promotions, you name it...

    Plus your list becomes your biggest asset - you have on-demand marketing potential and you can change the lives of the ones on your list. It's up to you how you market, I'm sure people want to hear what you have to say, and others will love some of your promotions.

    Build a relationship and you'll have a healthy, active community of people who read what you have to say!

    So here's my list:

    1. List-building
    2. Copywriting
    3. Email marketing
    4. Networking
    5. Follow/learn from product launches (not necessarily join them)
    6. Social media
    7. PPC/Paid traffic sources
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  • Profile picture of the author David Hooper
    1. Work from a list.
    2. Use a Pomodoro timer.
    3. Don't break your streak.

    I've got a podcast full of fundamentals at RED - Real Entrepreneur Development | Make More Money. Work Less. Live a Life of Freedom. you might like.
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  • Profile picture of the author spurge0n
    At the end of the day: You're a marketer.

    Give the people what they want.
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    • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
      Originally Posted by spurge0n View Post

      At the end of the day: You're a marketer.

      Give the people what they want.
      What's your top 3 ways to finding out what people want?

      Originally Posted by Mvalerie79 View Post

      Building a system for actions that can be automatic.
      Hmm. Sounds interesting, could you give an example.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mvalerie79
    Building a system for actions that can be automatic.
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  • Profile picture of the author GratefulDad
    To have a successful online business these are the two main skills you need to master:

    1.) Traffic Generation (a.k.a. Getting Website Visitors)
    2.) Converting Website Visitors into Buyers


    There are many other related skills required to get these two fundamental skills right. Skills such as writing ad copy, ad design, purchasing ad units, ad targeting, split-testing, etc. are all related skills that branch off of these two main fundamental skills. All of the skills required to run a profitable online business come back to mastering traffic generation and conversions.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slade556
    I think the reason why everyone has a different opinion on fundamentals is the fact that there is no one size fits all recipe that you can apply and obtain success! It's the beauty of IM, it's so diverse!
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  • Profile picture of the author camohit
    For me among other things the major one to highlight is

    Help other people as much as you can, with best of your intentions. Always jusdge yourself whether you are providing any quality, any value addition in your services to your team/customers or not.

    Funda is, do good to others and you will be rewarded.
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  • Profile picture of the author aizaku
    who are you targeting

    how can you help them
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  • There are only 3 basics:

    Targeted traffic -> converting front end offer -> back end monetization venues.

    You master those 3 (in order) and you WILL make money online. All the rest is noise.
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  • Profile picture of the author ThatOneGuy
    It seems that everyone has a different idea of what the fundamentals are. Here are mine:

    1. Create a blog and/or vlog and provide value. Do not hide all of your value behind a price tag, be generous, for you want people to invest in you, not just buy a product once, opt out of the email list they tentatively subscribed to, and never return. Get yourself a rabid fanbase and community going!

    2. You need a list. A list can be people who are subscribed to your blog, YouTube channel, follow your Facebook page, or opt into your email list. All of these things are lists, but don't just spam them or you'll see the number of subscribers you have drop like leaves in the fall.

    3. If you're into MLM, then you'd better have a way to train your recruits. Unless your team is compromised exclusively of heavy-hitters, you need some way to teach those beneath you in your downline how to be successful. If they don't make money, you don't make money and have to do twice the work. Sure, they may stick around just because they love the company's product, but then they still aren't recruiting for you.

    Well, that's it for me.
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    I Haz Website! ThatOneGuy is now up, running, and ready to dispense advice and log its journey to Internet success.

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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    In my 15 plus years online I've learned to make my life easier by keeping things simple, my take on the fundamentals in terms of doing business online is as follows:

    • You must know your outcome.
    • You must absolutely take total control of your own thoughts
    • You must absolutely make a real decision (burn your boats off the shore so to speak).
    • Find a problem
    • Get inside the mind of those that have that problem(s)
    • Find several solutions to that problem based on market research
    • Find someone or a group that having success solving that particular problem
    • Find a mentor OR a coach
    • Be teachable, be a student (never lose the student paradigm).
    • Learn the basics of copywriting
    • Learn the basics of selling and expose yourself to different philosophies
    • Learn how to obtain traffic (free and paid)
    • Learn how to convert that traffic.
    • Test, tweak, and test some more, always try to beat your control group
    • Build your own network (i.e. list buiding, registered members, social media followers, etc.)
    • Understand what positioning is and how to use it to increase your perceived (and real) value
    • Master customer service before and after the sale and many of your customers can and will become your BEST affiliates.
    • Do not limit yourself to one distribution channel
    • Find out what you're passionate about and pursue it IF market research shows that it can be profitable.
    • When life becomes too comfortable, find a way to push yourself outside your comfort zone - that's when new personal and professional growth will come your way.
    • Build relationships with other people.
    • Once a relationship is built with a person in XYZ, don't be afraid to ask them to introduce you to one or two other people.
    • Be a person of your word and have integrity, you'll get MORE longterm profits that way.
    • Explore meditation if you haven't yet, it's already been scientifically proven to help you heal faster, think better, improve health, and many other benefits.
    • Be very careful who you habitually spend time with, they are affecting you in ways you might not be aware of. Make it point to surround yourself with people that are like-minded, action-minded, and will PUSH you outside your comfort zone.
    • Realize that you're going to have many failures along the way, it's part of life and part of doing business. The only way to not fail is to get back up and keep on going.
    • Once you've obtained success, pay it forward.
    There are many other fundamentals, but these are at the heart of what I've learned at being in business, not just online but offline as well.


    RoD
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    • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
      Originally Posted by Rod Cortez View Post

      In my 15 plus years online I've learned to make my life easier by keeping things simple, my take on the fundamentals in terms of doing business online is as follows:

      • You must know your outcome.
      • You must absolutely take total control of your own thoughts
      • You must absolutely make a real decision (burn your boats off the shore so to speak).
      • Find a problem
      • Get inside the mind of those that have that problem(s)
      • Find several solutions to that problem based on market research
      • Find someone or a group that having success solving that particular problem
      • Find a mentor OR a coach
      • Be teachable, be a student (never lose the student paradigm).
      • Learn the basics of copywriting
      • Learn the basics of selling and expose yourself to different philosophies
      • Learn how to obtain traffic (free or paid)
      • Learn how to convert that traffic.
      • Test, tweak, and test some more, always try to beat your control group
      • Build your own network (i.e. list buiding, registered members, social media followers, etc.)
      • Under what positioning is and how to use it to increase your perceived (and real) value
      • Master customer service before and after the sale and many of your customers can and will become your BEST affiliates.
      • Do not limit yourself to one distribution channel
      • Find out what you're passionate about and pursue it IF market research shows that it can be profitable.
      • When life becomes too comfortable, find a way to push yourself outside your comfort zone - that's when new personal and professional growth will come your way.
      • Build relationships with other people.
      • Once a relationship is built with a person in XYZ, don't be afraid to ask them to introduce you to one or two other people.
      • Be a person of your word and have integrity, you'll get MORE longterm profits that way.
      • Explore meditation if you haven't yet, it's already been scientifically proven to help you heal faster, think better, improve health, and many other benefits.
      • Be very careful who you habitually spend time with, they are affecting you in ways you might not be aware of. Make it point to surround yourself with people that are like-minded, action-minded, and will PUSH you outside your comfort zone.
      • Realize that you're going to have many failures along the way, it's part of life and part of doing business. The only way to not fail is to get back up and keep on going.
      • Once you've obtained success, pay it forward.
      There are many other fundamentals, but these are at the heart of what I've learned at being in business, not just online but offline as well.
      RoD
      Wow, that list is the 'Breakfast of Champions'! You could charge money for that bro and you would've still over-delivered. It would make a killer infographic as well, especially for newbies or even as a good reminder for oldies! Lots of good tips.

      But what caught my attention was your mention of ‘positioning’.

      Positioning is a word you don’t hear much or at all in Internet Marketing circles. You don’t even hear most Internet Marketing Guru’s talk about it. So, it’s like someone flashing a ‘seasoned marketer’ badge at me when they mention it.

      Ironically, with all the experienced marketers in this forum you’re one of the first I’ve heard to ever bring it up, much less to create a thread about it or discuss it.

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  • Profile picture of the author Robert999
    Originally Posted by The Niche Man View Post

    "Master The Fundamentals and The Rest Will Take Care of Itself". -Zso Tsu

    If you've been on the W.F for at least 5 minutes you're used to seeing one thing. The constant barrage of questions on what's the ...
    • Best trick
    • Quickest short-cut
    • Easiest technique
    - or -
    • Magic words
    To online success - and other similar questions.

    Some of the best advice many newbies get from veterans of the Warrior forum (IMO) is to master and stick with the fundamentals.

    But aside from a few skills. For example, list building or maybe keyword research, most marketers have slight (sometimes major) differences depending on who you ask.

    Share "your" top 7 basics of successful internet marketing every newbie or oldie should master.

    Here's mine:

    1. Niche Marketing
    2. List Building
    3. Consistency/Focus
    4. Copywriting
    5. Brainstorming
    6. Email Marketing
    7. Keyword Research/SEO

    Thanks for sharing!
    Good post. I think internet marketing can be divided into following steps:

    1) Select mode - affiliate marketing/selling your own products

    2) Build Content

    3) Build List

    4) Learn how to communicate with your reader and subscribers

    5) Learn the ways to drive targeted traffic
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Well NicheMan,

    People have brought up positioning before in the Main Forum, but it's not something that's usually brought up. When Jeremy Kelsall used to post here, he used to bring up frequently. Many of the old timers that used to post here (John Reese, Mike Filsaime, Marlon Sanders, etc.) have brought up before (yeah, I know I'm dating myself).

    Positioning goes hand-in-hand with your USP (unique selling proposition). It spells the difference on charging $15 per hour for your time and $500 per hour for your time (as one example).

    I know many authors that are part of my sphere of influence, one them makes a pretty good living at it and he charges about 2 to 5 cent per word for things that he writes for others.

    The second author does charge per word, she charges people an hourly rate or per project and she has positioned herself in such a way where she outearned the other guy by more than four times over.

    Both are solid writers with impressive backgrounds, but the second author is a better marketer. She has invested the time and money to promote herself and her work in such way that she has positioned herself to being the go-to person for the type of writing that she does.

    Positioning is huge and is very much intertwined with the rest of the fundamentals.

    This will probably never change, but I still see a lot of newbies come to this forum, asking for which niche is the most profitable or what's the "easiest" and "fastest" way to make money online. The problem with that question is that it neglects the most obvious answer......

    If you want to make a lot of money online (or offline), you've got to learn the fundamentals. That increases your chances of making a lot of money by at least tenfold.

    If I had to start all over again, I would have stopped focusing on the "easiest" and the "fastest" and would have made more of an effort to learn the fundamentals that I listed in my bullet points above.

    RoD
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    • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
      Originally Posted by Rod Cortez View Post

      Well NicheMan,

      When Jeremy Kelsall used to post here, he used to bring up frequently. Many of the old timers that used to post here (John Reese, Mike Filsaime, Marlon Sanders, etc.) have brought up before (yeah, I know I'm dating myself).
      Hmm! I didn't realize those many pioneers were former posters here. It would be nice if the W.F owners could talk (or bribe) them into apperaring in the W.A.M.A section for a live streaming Q and A session. The W.F could always pull the "We Helped Make You" card, maybe that would convince some.


      Originally Posted by Rod Cortez View Post

      If you want to make a lot of money online (or offline), you've got to learn the fundamentals. That increases your chances of making a lot of money by at least tenfold.
      I agree, and just to add to your point, mastering the fundamentals will not only increase your chance of making money tenfold. Mastering the fundamentals will increase the chances you'll continue making money. I'm sure you've seen one-hit-wonders who luck up and make quick money, but they could never keep the process going .. and eventually lost their gains.

      Originally Posted by Rod Cortez View Post

      If I had to start all over again, I would have stopped focusing on the "easiest" and the "fastest" and would have made more of an effort to learn the fundamentals that I listed in my bullet points above.
      RoD
      That's my story as well. For some reason learing the fundamentals is not as sexy as "easiest" and "fastest". Hopefully this thread and those like it will help to narrow the gap a little, especially when you consider the multitude of benefits mastering the fundamentals offers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Big Al
    Short one but I'm going to throw in project management...

    You don't have to do everything (you can outsource copy for example) but you do have to make sure everything gets done (and in a timely fashion).
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    • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
      Originally Posted by Big Al View Post

      Short one but I'm going to throw in project management...

      You don't have to do everything (you can outsource copy for example) but you do have to make sure everything gets done (and in a timely fashion).
      Project management is someting I have to focus more on myself. Other than a few people I outsource to, I've been pretty much a hands-on person.

      I never felt anyone could handle my customers ... or their needs better than I could (very old school, I admit). But I'm finding this can be draining as your business grows. I'm sure as I take action on this, the boogey-man will shrink and disappear .. I hope.
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