Newbie looking for help on where to start out

Join Date: Oct 2009! You have been lurking here for a long time but congrats on taking the first step and trying to take some action.

I would advise you to start out with free methods (Article/video marketing) just to learn the ropes and figure out how it all works. Use the search button on this forum to find more information regarding free methods.

Once you have it down pat then you can move onto whatever you wish; a few things I will be pursuing later in the future include: PPC, membership sites and product creation.

Hope I got the ball rolling for you.

Best of Luck!

John, have you learned basic marketing fundamentals? If you haven't, don't spend a dime on promoting your website until you do. Otherwise, you'll just be throwing away your money.

Read the following Internet Marketing blogs. They'll provide you with the best free education you can get online:

1. Brian Clark's CopyBlogger
http://copyblogger.com/

If you want to learn the art and science of copywriting, this is the place to go.

2. Dosh Dosh
http://doshdosh.com/

Maki, the owner of Dosh Dosh is a bit mysterious - but who cares. This entertaining blog is brilliant in its simplicity.

3. Conversation Marketing
http://conversationmarketing.com

Ian Laurie's blog covers all things Internet Marketing, and does so with Ian's own unique style. I love this blog!

4. ProBlogger
http://problogger.com

As its name suggests, this blog is all about blog marketing. If you want to learn how to market your blog, read Problogger!

5.Search Engine Guide
http://www.searchengineguide.com/index.php

When it comes to "on the money information" about search engine marketing, it's hard to top these guys.

6. Seth Godin's Blog
http://sethgodin.typepad.com

In case you haven't heard, Seth Godin is simply brilliant! 'Nuff said.

7. ShoeMoney
http://www.shoemoney.com

Jeremy Schoemaker's blog is simply the best affiliate marketing blog on the Internet - period.

8. TopRank Online Marketing Blog
http://www.toprankblog.com

Lee Odden's blog never fails to deliver the goods. This blog is as good as it gets.

9. Unstuck Digital
http://unstuckdigital.com

Mike Tekula's blog is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Lots of good SEO resources.

10. Yaro Starak's Entrepreneur's Journey
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com

Yaro bills his blog as "Down-To-Earth Advice And Tips For Bloggers And Internet Marketers." And that's exactly what it is - down to earth. Great, great blog!

Obviously, you won't have time to read all the aforementioned blogs. But take a peek at all of them, and pick out a couple of favorites to follow. More importantly, faithfully apply what you learn. I consider Copyblogger an absolute must read.

I also recommend creating your own product and/or service. If you do that, your earning potential is virtually unlimited.

David Jackson

I have to agree....I would take that $800 and bank it for the first 3 months.....maybe spend $100 a month on some articles(getting them written for you) just to help you have more going for you.

I would test out article marketing, blogging, and other free methods. I would learn how to build backlinks and I would learn how to get a website to the first page of google. This will go a long way for you.

I would also spend the $10 a month for a hosting account and I would buy a general domain name for testing purposes.

Once you find a few things that work well for you, then you can outsource things like the article writing, backlinking, graphics, and other tasks to free up more time so that you can test out other things and learn new things.

Once you get some things going you will want to split your time weekly so that you can grow. I like to set aside so many hours a week for writing, so many for certain other tasks, and always a couple hours for studying new methods and learning the ins and outs of something new.

Hope this helps!

Benjamin Ehinger

great stuff everyone, i appreciate it. i noticed that by user SN's, there is something that says thanked x times in x posts. how do you thank someone, is there a button for that?

Free traffic is always a good option for people who are just starting. However, as the orange stated, you have been here for almost a year now, so the only reason why you still are a beginner is because you haven't taken action yet.

So if you want fast results you may want to use paid traffic. I know that most people will say that it's a bad advice, but it's because most people are afraid of making an initial investment and losing some money upfront (they don't seem to feel the same thing about time... I don't know why), and it's what will probably happen if you get your foot wet with PPC or any other type of paid traffic.

However, considering the most successful marketers that I know, 10 out of 10 make the vast majority of their income from paid traffic sources, and most of them started with less than $800 a month. So if you really can spend all that money I recommend you to use PPC.

Do this:

1. Join a few good CPA networks. I recommend Neverblue, Clickbooth, COPEAC, Peerfly, Maxbounty and Tatto Media, but there are many other good ones.

2. Choose a traffic source to get started. Yahoo! can be good with some cheap methods, but, usually, social traffic brings faster results, so Facebook and PoF are 2 interesting options.

3. Contact one of your affiliate managers and ask for some suggestions (ask for lead gen offers, nothing that requires a CC#, specially if you use social traffic). He will tell you what's performing well with your traffic.

4. Research demographics (Alexa, Google Ad Planner, Quantcast, Compete) or keywords (AdWords Keyword Tool, WordZE, Word Butler) depending on your platform.

5. Spy on your competitors and build some landing pages.

6. Start testing campaigns.

7. Track and optimize.

8. Once you find a winner, scale.

I would say that if you follow these steps you can probably find a winner with less than $1K, so it would take about a month for you. Not a big deal, just don't skip one of the steps above, since all of them are very important.

If you go with article marketing, SEO or something similar it may take 6x or even 10x more time for you to start making at least $100 a day, so if you have money to invest, why spend time?


William

Thats an awesome list of goodies David, thanked ya!

I would definitely say to save that $800. I would set up a website and a domain, which is a lot cheaper than the $800 you are going to spend.

And there are a ton of great resources in this forum if you just look around.

(Even in my signature :rolleyes

As someone who started out with way less of a budget than yours (0/month haha) heres my advice:

Yes there are many methods out there, but you need to find what works for you. You need to find what works n conjunction with your skills and abilities. You also need to not think of them as methods and start thinking of them as businesses.

I would suggest using that 800 per month budget to get yourself hosting and an aweber account ($30 per month). After that you need to really think about what your talents are..what you can bring to the table and find a suitable business model that allows you to utilize those talents. Once you find that model..only read about information that directly relates to that model. Only read things that are going to help you get into and grow that model properly.

By doing this you will save yourself alot of time. Most people pick a "method"..realize its not for them after a day or two and them jump to the next..never settling. This is one of the main reasons for the high failure rate in IM. If you pick a business model (notice the term business) and build it around your talents then you will not only enjoy what you are doing but you will also give yourself the ability to compete at the top of your game.

Hope this helps

Gregg

I would recommend finding out what a good domain is and how to buy one, after finding it.

If you don't succeed your first time you will at least have an asset there if it is good.

Some great domains can be picked up for around the $50-100 mark from Sedo...you can also hand register some great ones for $10 but as a newbie you will struggle.

Head over to NamePros and find out what makes a good domain good, and what makes a crap one. Or an expensive one too expensive...No point in developing a great site on a lousy name.

A domain name can be likened to a piece of real estate, if a town is expanding you can do quite well out of it if you plan well, if you build your store in a dead part of town you will more than likely blow through your money.

My lesson here for you is to build your foundations, some people spend all their time learning and not doing, and some people run off half-cocked because they have the mistaken belief that if you don't get on with it that is failure and some people spend some time learning and then put into practice some good idea of what will succeed.

One of them never makes a penny.
One of them makes some and loses some in equal measure, never getting ahead.
One of them starts to pull ahead and has more success than failure.

Which group do you want to be in?

If you have $800 to invest then thats great, most people don't have that when new...but please for the love of God don't be foolish with it lol

get on to google adwords/google trends, search for the most sought keyword, get a domain relating to that, develope a website, build perfect links(put it in ur warrior forum signature ), make it come on to top pages, and then think whats next??????