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How best to ease myself into IM

by ryor
12 replies
Hi guys,

I'm new to IM and to this forum but I am loving it so far. I feel very positive about the journey ahead and am keen to start something.

For the next few months at least I have very little free time due to other commitments.. not enough to dedicate time to something big just yet at least. Also I have very little cash right now.

With that in mind, I am trying to decide what I can do to hopefully generate a modest trickle of money, without a *huge* amount of time and commitment.

Please don't misunderstand me - I'm certainly not work-shy or looking for a get rich quick scheme, just don't have enough time over the next 3 or 4 months, but a small income would be awesome.

I have been reading the forums, but I wanted to ask: would the best thing to suit my current needs just to write a blog and try to generate traffic?

Also I keep seeing people talking about articles. Is this similar to making money from a blog, except the article is a one-off static page?

Any advice or help would be very gratefully received.

Thank you.
#ease
  • Profile picture of the author webapex
    Regarding your one specific question, article marketing can directly generate affiliate income for some who insert direct affiliate links, but more commonly they are used to get search engine attention, to improve the search ranking if their money site. Highly ranked article directories provide valuable backlinks, and also distribute articles to other web sites, who hopefully retain the link in the article author credit, further improving the backlink count.
    If you an expertise/passion that enthusiasts spend money on, you can start the long process of creating a niche blog site dedicated to your specialty, best to have your own $10 domain name with cheap hosting, or blogspot which provides free hosting for your custom domain name. A successful blog result from a sustained effort that's easier to maintain when you enjoy writing for it. When you start getting significant traffic, perhaps 50 visitors a day you can start adding affiliate links adsense ads or banner ads.
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    “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field” Niels Bohr

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    • Profile picture of the author AustinDigital
      It honestly depends, do you want to learn or just make money?

      If you would prefer to learn and make money, I would say start a wordpress blog. With this you will learn about copywriting, Image design, blogging, advertising, adsense placement, Search engine optimization, Article marketing, social media marketing and more.

      A good blog should have all articles published on article directories, and you can use the onlywire autosubmitter to submit all articles to the major social networks.

      At this point once you have learned the ropes you can continue improving your blog or branch out into other parts of IM with your new found knowledge!

      Hope this helps!
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      • Profile picture of the author Jondavis2
        Ryor,

        There is so much to learn in the IM world. I personally have spent thousands of dollars chasing "shiny objects". One thing you will find is that there are so many versions of what Internet marketing really is.

        Before you start down the path, perhaps you could "graze" the edges for a while to see what is going on in an area that you like. For example, I love just subscribing to other marketer's email lists just to see what they are offering, how they structure their offers, and how they communicate. You can do this simply by googling Frank Kern, Mike Filsaime, and others.

        Be careful though, it will be tempting to buy in to everything that comes your way.

        On a second note, you can start a blog and write, you can write articles, but what are you going to send them to? Creating your own product makes a lot of sense. You have something unique to offer, so why not start with discovering what your message is and what you want to put out there. Having a knowledge of who you are is a solid start.

        Here are a few questions to get you started:

        What are you "passionate" about. In other words, what keeps you up at night because you are so excited about doing it the next day?

        What do others tell you you are good at?

        What questions do people repeatedly ask you to give them advice on?

        Once you know this, it will be much easier to create a powerful message for yourself.

        In summary, jump in with both feet and overwhelm yourself with information - with this caveat; don't buy everything that comes your way. Start to keep files on cool things you like and see, and over time, you'll start seeing your own path.

        Hope this helps.

        Jon Davis
        The Product Coach
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        • Profile picture of the author ryor
          Thank you for the replies guys, that's really helpful stuff. I just have a couple of follow up questions.

          It was mentioned that "A good blog should have all articles published on article directories" - so a blog can contain articles? I think it would be useful for me to see a good example of a successful blog.

          Could you guys suggest where I should look please - so I can see what I should be aiming for!

          Thank you :-)
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          • Profile picture of the author NikkiBanks
            This would be of some help.

            1. FLIPPA - Just Sold section preferably

            2. Warrior forum - complete websites for sale section

            Good Luck
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      • Profile picture of the author Beatrice
        It honestly depends, do you want to learn or just make money?
        "You need to learn to earn".

        I am also relatively new to IM (I started in August 2010), so my humble opinion is that without understanding how internet marketing works and acquiring basic skills (like how to upload a website + understanding the IM lingo, etc,) you will definitely have a "bumpy ride".

        Give yourself a helping hand! There are tons of courses/tutorials available online (some are even free like the challenge). The course I did was excellent!

        Once you understand what you are doing, choose a method and work at it.

        That's the best advice I picked up from Warrior Forum. I am following it to the letter and I've slowly started earning!

        Best of luck!
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        http://www. createmyownwebpage.net

        This Step-by-Step video guide will show you how to buil your website from scratch!(For FREE)
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          The site in your signature-file is absolutely fascinating. It's a stunning business concept, absolutely replete with potential - one of the most interesting I've ever seen here, and I wish you very well with it.
          Ditto. I'll be watching this one...

          If you want to dabble, and promote this site as well, you might consider starting a blog about being a restaurateur.

          Given the popularity of TV shows like Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, you could end up grabbing the tiger by the tail.

          As for monetizing the blog, you could supplement by reviewing/spotlighting any number of related items via Amazon or similar...
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  • Profile picture of the author ryor
    Okay, so I have an idea for a blog that I could write.

    So my first step should be doing keyword research before buying a suitable domain?
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    • Profile picture of the author AustinDigital
      Originally Posted by ryor View Post

      Okay, so I have an idea for a blog that I could write.

      So my first step should be doing keyword research before buying a suitable domain?
      Correct, also check to make sure what the top page guys have as far as backlinks & PR when coparing keywords.
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      • Profile picture of the author morninjoi
        This is how i began in IM.
        I got a blogger blog and started writing articles in a certain niche.
        Those articles were also submitted in ezine articles to bring in some traffic to my blog.
        I then put on some clickbank affiliate links and adsense.
        That gave me my first insight into this whole thing.
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        Get Articles!
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by ryor View Post

    So my first step should be doing keyword research before buying a suitable domain?
    Yes, this will definitely help, to some extent.

    Originally Posted by ryor View Post

    so a blog can contain articles?
    What is a "blog"?

    What are "articles"?

    I suggest these questions not as a way of being pedantic, but because consideration of them can in itself be very worthwhile and productive.

    There's no significant difference between a "blog" and a "non-blog website", these days. Blogging software is simply a "website content management system" which can be used to make any style, any presentation, and any purpose of website which may or may not look anything like one's instinctive perception of a "blog" at all.

    An "article" can be whatever you want it to be. If you're creating them, you get to define what they are.

    Originally Posted by ryor View Post

    I have very little free time
    Originally Posted by ryor View Post

    I have very little cash right now.
    Setting up any online business which can derive income necessarily involves a combination, in some proportions, almost all the way from 0%/100% to 100%/0%, of spending time or money. Just being realistic, here: you'll need to invest probably some of each, or at least a lot of time.

    The site in your signature-file is absolutely fascinating. It's a stunning business concept, absolutely replete with potential - one of the most interesting I've ever seen here, and I wish you very well with it.
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    • Profile picture of the author genietoast
      Even though I'm not the biggest fan of SEO, it's very important for getting visibility.

      I would definitely do some market research by using a good keyword tool like Wordtracker. It's pricy but worth it. There's a 7-day free trial.

      Before you sign up, look at their Academy of video tutorials and read their free articles so that you can get an idea of how to target your ideal visitors. Really good information.

      So if you're trying to target restaurant owners, then you can find out which keywords restaurant owners are actually typing in. Then build your site around that data.
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