Total newbie.. not sure where to start

First off you need to get a domain name from godaddy (there are also other places but I like godaddy). Then you need to get hosting (I recommend hostgator but again there are others). Once you get hosting you then need to redirect your domain name to your hosting plan. Once that is done you can then install wordpress on your website. If you are interested in learning to market affiliate products then I would suggest Ed Dale's 30 Day Challenge; it is free.

Tish

Don't exactly know about your data feed but I'd definitely recommend Wordpress. It can do videos fine. It has so many themes and plugins, the amount of customization with Wordpress is simply unbelievable. Also, so many of the plugins make webmastering a lot easier for newcomers like yourself.

Spend some time browsing the forum and develop a solid business plan, then stick to it! Good luck

Well first, I would say, Welcome to the Warrior Forum, second, is before you put down money on a domain name and do all that work with wordpress and affiliate marketing.

I would get focused in your head, and form a plan. Affiliate marketing is a great place to start for someone that is new, because you have all the benefits, without any of the disadvantages.

After, you have created a focused plan, then learn as much as you can about every step in your plan as you can. Remember, knowledge is power, then only then, put your plan in to action. This is because Experience is the best teacher, and it will teach you far better, then anyone on this forum.

id say go open a domain name at godaddy, and host your site with hostgator, their the top in the business. Keep reading and learning, never rush into something

I have to agree with the fact that you need a business plan before you buy anything. You also need to have a budget in place for this. You must know in advance how much you will be able to put down for this. It will not be zero (every business has some costs involved).

When you are done with the plan and the budget, look at all the steps and write them down, estimate to cost and the time frame and make sure you agree with it.

THEN you can start but not before or you will feel overwhelmed, you will feel it costs too much and you will give up before you even seriously start.

tkster95 welcome aboard! im new just like you and the first thing i do with any new thing is research. i've spent hours on this forum trying to learn the in's and outs of affiliate marketing. I've also thrown up a test blog so im putting some of it to practice. and what i've already learned will save me problems when i start up.

Thank goodness i found this site before i bought another domain. i learned the importance of your domain name matching your niche and title tags etc. today im testing diffrent things to get targeted traffic and start wordpress so that when i start for real i'll be ready to go. Good luck

Hello, I would start off by getting a domain name with either keywords in the domain or your brand name. Then I would get a quality host for example HostGator and find a CMS software like WordPress or Droopal for ease of SEO and maintaining your Website. You then need to point web hosting DNS from domain registrar to your host and the journey begins.

Below is a great SEO primer course that is easy to read and understand and should point you in the right direction. Happy reading and learning, I hope this helps in your venture...

http://www.seoinpractice.com/

Mark

I just started in this wild world of online marketing in the last year so I soooo know what feeling overwhelmed is like. Here's what I can share: since you have an idea of a product you'd like to sell, focus on doing your own thing with that first. There are basically only two ways of making money online: selling your product or other peoples products. The best scenario is both, but get yours going first, then you could get affiliates working for you to help promote and sell your product. If you get into affiliate marketing first, you might never get around to doing your own thing.
I have spent more than my share of time these last six months digging deep online...and I am going to hand you some gems. The first is do not just go out and grab a domain name before you have done extensive keyword research for your product...it's everything...trust me. Find the absolute best keyword for what you are selling, then use THAT for your domain name. If you aren't sure how to do that, or why, let me know and I will send you more info to get you started. The second gem is a program called Google Sniper. Don't even think twice about it...get it and learn and work it. It uses WordPress, and what you will learn will save you bigtime and put you out in front faster than you could imagine. And do this before you build your site...definitely WordPress...I have two sites using WordPress and I love it. I source out all the real techy stuff, but you will have a dashboard where you can easily build the site yourself and manage it all later easily yourself.
You want the knowledge of Google Sniper so you will build your site correctly in the first place, and it will help you solve some of the biggest headaches that come after you have a site....like how to get traffic and make sales.
Hope this helps!

Before you start to do anything make a good RESEARCH on the niche and study your competitors. Don't spend a dime without doing these things first.

Thanks again everyone.

I completely agree with everyone's advice on research. And the more I think about it the "Chess" market seems like its going to be a tough one to crack. Most of the keywords I've looked into make the market seem saturated. However, I'm pretty passionate about the subject and do feel like I have alot to bring to the table for this particular market. For example I live within walking distance to a chess museum of sorts. Was planning on contacting them to see If i could come in take pictures and what not to include on my site. And also from that (if they allow me) I figured I may be able to come up with some untapped keywords and maybe even open up the market a bit.

But still, as far as the chess market goes I may be in way over my head. What would be a good stepping stone for a complete beginner like me? I like the idea of coupon sites.. lead generation programs spark an interest and both seem to be somewhat profitable. Are those directions I should head and leave the chess till i'm a bit more knowlegable with this whole thing? Where do most newbies start?

One of the reasons i'm feeling overwhelmed is because all the research i've done over the past few weeks seems to be so general. For example SEO seems to be the corner stone of getting a good affiliate marketing site up and running (assuming you have no budget like me lol) But all the research i've done on SEO seems to suggest build a functional site with keyword density in a readable manner, include multiple pages, links, blogs, relevant info, meta tags; title, description, and keyword. Submit it to search engines and cross your fingers. It all seems like guess work, cross your fingers and hope you get lucky?! Am I wrong? Just before posting this site I saw someone post a SEO link that I plan on reading, thanks. Hopefully that will help out a little more!

I would second the opnion that you join the 30 Day Challenge by Ed Dale.
It is free, really good and you will get the hang of how things work in the IM world.

I agree with the 30 Day Challenge suggestion. This will help you get your feet on solid ground the fastest.

Good luck

Hey there!

Looks like you have gotten a lot of great technical advice so far. My best advice for you would come more on the social side. Their are a few thoughts that I always keep in the back of my head that has got me through the tough days in the beginning.

Internet marketing can be an intimidating industry when you're first getting started, but also very rewarding when you stick with it.

First of all, don't get frustrated: There is much to learn so allow yourself a few months to get the hang of it. Secondly, Research all the latest trends: The "next big thing" could be right around the corner. Thirdly, Build good relationships: Trust and close relationships are vital to success in this industry so always put your publishers first and always be honest with them. Lastly, stay focused: Think of all the possibilities and keep at it!

Good Luck with everything!!!

My advice for a newbie would be to pick a method that you will feel comfortable doing and work a lot at the promotional side.

There are a lot of guides promising instant riches. It does not happen like that.

Things you could choose:
- article marketing (if you like writing and have some strong hobbies)
- video marketing (if you love doing video)
- SEO + wordpress blogs (if you want to get into the SEO game)
- PPC + affiliate marketing (if you have some money to test things out)

Whatever choice you make, stick with it till you make enough money to scale up your efforts.

I'd start with finding out what your area of interest is - very simple but often disregarded! See if you can relate it to a popular niche...for example, I love web and graphic design and once I designed some websites and squeeze pages with list building for my marketer friends - I had a product in the internet marketing niche!

Plus it's easier to stay interested if you have a passion for what you're doing and you can use your experience and skills to your advantage by helping others in the area they get stuck in and you excel.

On top of that, it's much easier helping out your competitors - although I don't like to call them competitors, but partners! Which can help you leverage your exposure!

Find out if people are interested in your skills by seeing if similar products are being sold in the market - you need a BUYERS market! Take a look at clickbank and ebay and see what results come up in google - see if the top ten sites are selling anything!

Check on related blogs and forums, see if people have problems and questions that need solving which can present a "need" for your skills.

Then I would get a domain name, some hosting and get a blog set-up. Start posting regulary with some really awesome content!

Next, get an autoresponder set-up (it's best to pay for this service - we use aweber) and add some great content in your follow up sequence.

Then I would put together some of your top secret information into a .pdf report to give away (make sure this is some really kick-a** information)

Put an opt-in form (from your autoresponder) at the top right of your blog for your newsletter and bonus free report...why?

To build your list!!

The core of online businesses is to BUILD YOUR LIST! This will help you start building your list - a list that gives subscribers some awesome great free content and sells even more great products to - your own products and/or affiliate products without having to pay for it!

Next is to start driving TARGETED traffic! Visitors that regularly see your blog posts and join your list. You can also sell affiliate products and other stuff from your blog.

There are lots of methods to drive traffic, free and paid but too many to be all covered in a post. A good way to start driving targeted traffic for free is to comment on blogs and forums in your niche, leaving a link back to your site or preferably your squeeze page BUT DO NOT SPAM them, provide valuable information. The good thing about doing this is that the traffic will be targeted to your niche.

There are lots of ways to get started but personally, this way can help you establish yourself more and more over time as long as you keep building your list!...Just remember, if someone takes away your blog, your source of traffic, your adwords campaign, your sales page etc...you'll be fine because you STILL have the security of your loyal buyers in your own list! It's the core of any successful internet marketer...

This is just a really quick action plan but it gives an idea to get started.

Hope this helps.

Thanks to the person who recommended Thirtydaychallenge.. This is great for newbies like me.. If there's another site that's cool let me know..

well just pick a niche and start doing something. you will no got anywhere if you don't start doing anything.

Trust me I've been there and I am sure brunch of people in this forum have been in your case before. It is called information overload. The best to get rid of this is to start doing something and do a little step a day. (build a website, upload to your host, buy a domain, whatever.)

You will only know what you need until you do something...

Welcome to the forum. Here's how I suggest you use it:

Take a week just to read and learn. Don't buy anything, don't launch anything, don't plan anything! Get a new notebook and write down everything you read here that appeals to you and everything that intrigues you. Make your own glossary of the jargon. Ask lots of questions just to find out what the terms mean.

Also during this week, write out your vision of your perfect working day. Would you have your own office? Work from home? Talk with people on the phone? Visit clients in person? Take your laptop on a round the world trip where nobody can reach you? What do you really enjoy and like to do? As you discover those things about yourself, post a few summaries here.

Take the second week to pick your strategy. Not every strategy will apply to you. If you're an introvert, maybe offline marketing through public speaking isn't for you. If you have a good eye design, maybe video will be good for you. Narrow down your top five areas that might fit in with your lifestyle and income goals. Then pick only two areas to start with. Have two so that when you take a break from one, you can still be doing work.

Ask for recommendations of the best programs in this area in a low budget range. Buy them and try them out, step by step exactly according to directions, for a month. If you have no success, either the program's not for you or you're doing it wrong. Decide whether to try again or try something else.

Chris