Still a newbie - shameful!

Have you come up with an information product, or a physical product?

The first step is to try and sell your product, and find out whether people are actually willing to pay for it.

You can get some clues in advance whether it will sell or not, if there are similar products out there being sold.

How about this

Warrior Joint Ventures

Selling a product from scratch needs alot of $$$ and experience. If you don't have both, why don't you start with selling another person's product (affiliate)

You already know what to do... so just do it.

You know you need a place to put the product. So put it on ClickBank or something.

Once it's up start recruiting affiliates! That's all you gotta do.

Helen, you still sound a little confused about which direction you want to take with your internet marketing. Before you run helter skelter in this direction and that, first formulate a clear plan about what exactly it is that you want to do.

It is going to be affiliate marketing or product creation to start? Which niche do you want to start in? Do you want to use paid traffic, free traffic, or a combination of both? Will you use a squeeze page to build your list? It'll be extremely helpful to clarify all these issues first and write them down on paper before you go off starting things you cannot finish.

Paul

If you came up with one product you can come on with many. Stop being scary and just go for it. You said it yourself you been here a year I know you have learned some good stuff at least enough to put your product out. You won't get to the top if you are afraid to fail and if the product is has good as you say it is it will sell itself. Trial and error go go go go go you can do it. Do what you think is best and if that doesn't work change your approach. Put the word out. DO IT NOW!!!

It's very common to feel this way as a newbie. It takes awhile
to make your first $1 sometimes. Like the poster said above you
already know what to do.

Just do it...

Before you spend a crap-load of money on places to advertise.
As a newbie make sure you've looked at effective FREE ways for
boosting traffic or search engine ranking.

If I was in you position, I would make sure my website has proper
Meta tags to get the most out of SEO. I would then make sure my
website is ready to take orders and your sales copy is at least clear
and well formatted for the web. (It doesn't have to be perfect or
written by a skilled copywriter) It will save you money and it will
be a great learning experience to get good at this skill.

I would then write a few articles for website promotion and strong
backlinks with hopes of getting decent traffic start.

Spending money will get you the fastest traffic but it will come at
a higher risk as a newbie. Focus on PPC and advertising on other
HIGH TRAFFIC websites in your niche if you decide to go this route.


Never get discouraged.

You know how to make money online.
You haven't yet, but at least you know how...

Right?

To me that's the most important thing.

Hi guys,

Just wanted to say thanks so much for your replies... they were all very helpful!

I now have my list made and feel confident to move on

I believe I have been putting it off for fear of faliure, so no more!

Going to start checking of the list now.

Thanks again

Hi Helen,

You're not alone Most of us started that way.

Real momentum picked up with my business when I FINALLY started spending more time taking action every day on what I've already learned from many courses.

It finally does come down to focusing on 3 things:

1) Product
2) Sales Page/Squeeze Page
3) Traffic

There are many subjects that go along with these like Copywriting Skills, Tracking, etc... but let's try to keep things simple.

Can we see your Sales Page? That'll give the Warriors better ideas to suggest for your long term results.

Well, this depends on what traffic sources you're going to be building.

Examples of Traffic Sources: Article Marketing, Video Networks, Facebook Pages, Blog Commenting, Forum Posting, Banners, PPC, Joint-Ventures, Ad Swaps.

I'd suggest that you pick 1 or 2 sources you're comfortable with, master them, then add new sources.

Hope this helps.

- Swarup

Helen, I just want to let you know that marketing is part and parcel of setting up an online business. The two are inseparable, and if you just set up a website and do not market it then it'd be analogous to setting up a physical brick and mortar store and not marketing it. You will have a store with things to sell, but nobody will come into it and buy if you don't market it!

Paul

Well, it was a year long mistake that hopefully you've learned:
doing a bunch of "research" get's you no where fast.

It's helpful in taking action, but useless when it's just sitting
there not being used. Therefore, it's pointless.

It's impossible to be a pro at something you've never bitten the
bullet and taken action on. Impossible.

If only it were as simple as "reading" to be a pro at it...life would
be easier. If I could only read about making money and it show
up at the door...

If I could only read about love and understood it's meaning with
out the pain and heartache that come with it.

If only studying and research could solve our problems...

But as you found out on your own, it has not -- and never will.

Atleast it only took you a year to come back and do something
about it. Most people who do what you have done never come
back.

As far as what you should do with your product...

Sell it. And sell it like you've never sold anything before. Test it
in the market. Go to PPC. Do some paid advertising. Let results
do all the "research" for you.

Where should I start so I don't throw away money???

You don't want to look at it that way. Trust me. You ARE going
to spend money that will appear to be "thrown away", but if you
look at it as a lesson learned and a way to correct your mistakes,
you will be 10 steps ahead and you'll be less likely to quit when
you were only seconds away from crossing the invisible finish line.

I, nor anyone here, can tell YOU where to start. Again, if ONLY it
were that simple.

The beautiful thing about entrepreneurship is that you DO have
the freedom to choose which direction you want to go...you can
read any number of free threads or go to the WSO section and
pick something you believe you will stick to --

Good Luck and Have Fun with this...no matter how hard it might
get...it IS worth it -- I swear it to you -- it IS worth it.

Do you have a market for that product?

Tyrus

If you haven't made a dollar in a year you are either suffering from information overload or ignoring the basics. Don't overcomplicate the process. Remember all marketing really is at it's roots is identifying a demand and then filling it with an appropriate product. I don't know what your business plan has been up to this point but if you set up a simple website promoting an IN DEMAND product, write 5 articles a day for two weeks and if you don't make a sale I would be shocked.

Remember, the emphasis lies on 'in demand'. Do a keyword search to determine this or simply look at metrics like gravity on Clickbank. Once you see a sale or two you can start to build some momentum. THEN starting worrying about list building, link wheels, one time offers, etc. etc. Start with the basics, everything else is just noise right now that interrupts the process.

Come up with a clear marketing strategy for how you want to promote it.
Start off with free traffic i.e articles. You can re-use articles and turn them into audios or videos and submit them to podcasting sites and video sharing websites.

Break it down, make your strategy as clear as you possibly can, so that when you start doing it, you don't get distracted or start wandering aimlessly thinkin about what you should do.



If you want some good SEO basics try this free 7 part video series by fellow warrior Brad Callen. Its free, and should give you a good idea of how to do SEO to help your product get up the rankings.
SEO Indianapolis + Free Google Ranking Guide => How To Increase Google Ranking Tips

Also, if you want your sales copy checked out, to see how it could be improved, just post it in the copywriting forum. Lotsa pro copywriters out there, you should get some valuable advice.

I think most of us have been there, I've been 'researching' far too much but I've finally taken action just last week. Go for it and best of luck.

Oh and its not shameful, its really not surprising when there is so much information.

Start building a list by doing Google adwords if you're in a non-competitive niche.

If you're in a big niche like IM, buy some solo ads. Solo ads & renting a list as you say is pretty much the same thing.

Hope this helps

You sound like me .I dont know how to proceed either and am hoping browseing this site will kickstart my rise to success.:0)

Instead of thinking and thinking and thinking, just do something for goodness' sakes.

You may fail with some promotion efforts, but if you don't try them for yourself you'll be left to just listening to others on the forum and you can easily find negativity about any promotion method and I bet that dissaudes you and then you don't know what to do.

I know, because I've been there. You just have to try it for yourself and see if it works! Quit thinking and just DO SOMETHING!

Hey Helen,

Since you pretty much have no clue of marketing online I advise you NOT to spend your money on Google Adwords, because it has become really competitive and expensive.

Instead focus your efforts and time on building your LIST with FREE advertising, such as:

• Forum marketing - if your niche is "internet marketing" then here at the Warrior Forum is where you should be 24/7, 365 days a year! Just be active, positive, and provide value in all your responses and questions. Oddly enough this will get people clicking your signature link, singing up to your opt-in page, and eventually purchasing your affiliate product.

• Article marketing - Just focus on submitting ONE article a day to Ezinearticles.com FIRST, wait for it to be approved, and then submit that same article (with a little rephrasing to avoid having Google think it's duplicate content, which will bring your search engine rankings lower) to goarticles and articlesbase.

• Blog commenting - Go on the TOP blogs in your niche and be the FIRST to comment on a blog post, making sure your comment is valuable and contributes to the post.

Just focus on these three for now and master them. Be consistent and persistent. And DON'T GIVE UP!

Within a couple weeks you should have a decent number of subscribers on your list to market your product to and you may even produce some sales.

Hope this helps.

Sonam

P.S. there are many amazing threads in the forum that go deep into why and how the "money is in the list"! Check em out...here's one: Why List Building Is The New Affiliate Marketing Cash Cow

Please note that one area my company covers is product development. We also have specialists in software design and development, web design, motion graphics, video production, digital advertising services, online marketing training, and more. We would be happy to help you with the all aspects of your project. I am certain you will be impressed with the services my company offers. No matter what, I send you best wishes as you continue on your journey to leave "newbie" status behind.

I'd say lay off for the moment in List Rental Services! Not to discourage you here but just to be in a safe side. Facebook fans seems to be a good idea! You should try it! Best part is that its free! Earning money over the internet may seem a bit hard sometimes but hope is the mother of all success!

Good luck...