What Was Your Internet Marketing Light Bulb Moment?

Well, I'm hoping to have more than one 'aha' moment - but for me this moment currently sticks out:

After reading and reading and reading and reading the warrior forum, I took action and then after taking some action I went back to reading and thought "A-HA!" I get it - threads now made a ton of sense or I thought "I know that..."

Now just waiting for my next moment..

p.s. I'm also interested in what tweaks you made to your article marketing as I am currently in the middle of a big article campaign.

Mine was deciding to cut out everything that I was not passionate about.

The turning point for me was learning that even at the top of this IM market, everyone is just making stuff up as they go. They have an idea, they try it, they test it, then they report the result in an attempt to sell the method.

Those guys don't have any magic, and there's no "right" way to do any of this stuff. If you understand the basics of marketing, it's just a matter of applying that to technologies on the internet and connecting the people to the offers.

That's what helped me be essentially a ghost writer on some of the biggest launches ever (as an employee). That's how I was able to pretend to be guys who were "smarter" than me in marketing.

My second breakthrough was that if I can pretend to be smarter and authoritative when I was being some other "guru" - why can't I pretend that I am smarter and more authoritative. It should work the same way.

So that's what I'm doing now. Is it working?

Realizing that I'm not the only one who doesn't know everything.

My moment was when I realized it's far easier to sell physical products that I don't have to pre-sell.

nadavs

After reading "The 4 Hour Work Week" I felt strongly inspired and I decided to get into Internet Marketing because I know it makes it possible to achieve the life style I want.

I'm still waiting for that moment. however I'm doing pretty well with BH. but in reality it afraid me a lot that it is not a long term deal.. so I wanna do something whitehat.

After reading Dan Kennedy's stuff...

Mine was when I realised I had a knack for selling shovels to the miners.

Started my membership sites offering excellent content etc and the rest as they say is history

Kim

When I attended a Social Media and Internet Marketing Seminar last year and realized I could have taught the course better than the instructors. It gave me confidence, changed my mindset and then started attracting more leads and clients for my offline marketing.

Mine was in early 2000... One day in January, I had noticed in an ezine I loved reading that they were willing to take articles from the public...

I wrote an article that afternoon and submitted it... I waited and waited and waited... nothing...

I waited on pins and needles for two weeks... Then promptly forgot about it...

8 weeks later, I got a note from the editor that my article was scheduled for the next morning...

At first, the real excitement was the ego boost...

After publication of the article in the now-defunct Internet Day newsletter (150,000 readers), the real excitement started... I got more sales in three days, than I had in the previous three years... And I had people asking me to consult with them to market their online business...

Of course, I had to turn down the consulting gigs, because I was still a rank amateur at Internet Marketing, but I had just received my first two and most important lessons in the game of making money online...

I learned that ezine advertising had the potential to be really effective, and I learned that writing articles for newsletters was cheaper than buying advertising in the same newsletter...

What was the lightbulb that went off in my head and
the turning point in my career?

Getting the hell away from trying to market on the
internet and use Direct Mail to tap into MILLIONS of
people for products OUTSIDE the IM niche.

I know how to make money strictly online, but I hate
it with a passion.

Too many moving parts with the internet because
you always have to do something...make something
new...be the first to market...get in and get out be4
it's too late.

It's a nightmare that goes on and on, even when you
ARE making decent money online (me)

Not the case with Direct Mail. The biggest, constant
and most consistent way to make money that I know
of (next to real estate as a close 2nd) when done rite.

I used to get gray hairs from dealing with constant
online market changes. I hated learning how to do
one thing for it to be obsolete in 3 - 6 months are
winding down in effectiveness.

No google/facebook/myspace/twitter slaps. No quick
changes in the marketplace. No fads (apple Iphone).

There is none of it. No drama. Few frustrations.

THAT...is what changed my life.

I realize this might upset most of you, but keep in
mind that I have (and can still be) successful making
money online alone...but I choose not to for reasons
above.

I don't get any "thrill" or excitement knowing that I
have to scrape what I spent the last 3 months learn-
ing to pick up on the latest video, article, or twitter
marketing technique. The easier the money to make,
the better.

(I know, totally different from most answers...but
I can't think of any other life changing event as
big as that one)

I don't know if it was a light bulb moment - or a failure story for me...

But I was playing a stupid Facebook game (Zynga's FarmVille... yeah, don't judge me) and remember reading an article of how much Zynga was worth; and that 1/10 players actually *give money* to Zynga to purchase "farm dollars" ...

so I set up a blog and posted sweet tips on the stupid game.

ended up being ranked #1 on yahoo, #1 (or #2, depending on Big G's mood) on Google...

after a couple months, I made a few affiliate sales!

Was it worth the time I put into it? No. But it made me realize people will pay money for any solution; even ones involving lame Facebook games.

I'm still waiting for an Ah-Ha moment. The closest thing to one was the realization of the necessity to build a list. Being less than the sharpest knife in the drawer in regards to computer skills it feels like the second grade all over again!

Well, honestly, my light bulb is still kinda flickering. I think here REAL SOON it will be on at full brightness. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel :-)

For me the light bulb moment was realizing that whatever I wanted, I had to give.

By promoting others I promoted myself. By offering value I received value.

Whatever you want, give it. Forget the competitive, silly tactics that many newbies or poor veterans teach and keep this idea in mind at all time.

Ryan

When I actually discovered what affiliate marketing was.
The concept was so simple and knocked me off my feet. Also when I made my first sale using Adwords. Wow, that was a great feeling!