What are the essentials?

I understand how you feel, experienced it not so long ago, and I still feel totally new to many things. Internet marketing is really a huge area, there is a million little things you have to learn, and this is a never-ending process.

It's hard to define the essentials. It depends on which route you decide to take in your internet marketing career.
Choose something, and stick to it. The biggest mistake that all newbies make (including myself) is to jump from one thing to another, never actually implementing a method completely, and this is the sure road to failure.

There are two paths you can take - to learn "methods" or to learn the "big picture". Warriors have different opinions on that one, but if I had to start it all over again, from my current experience I would take the "big picture" approach. It get easier when you learn WHY you do things you do, not just manually doing stuff, not knowing the reasons behind it. But.. this is slower, and it takes time before you actually see some money coming in. It took me more then two years!

However, you have to start somewhere... I would suggest some patience and to control your greed. Stop dreaming about getting rich over night, and start dreaming about getting the necessary knowledge first. And of course - take action. You will only learn by doing things. Just reading posts on WF and reading courses is OK, but it will not make you any money.

I am sharing my thoughts about newbie problems on SiteCrypt.com , a blog we've just started...

Hi Jamie,

There's a LOT of information for newbies here at the forum. Maybe you would like to take a look at this thread:

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...2-13-10-a.html

Remember that whatever you choose, it's better if you FOCUS on it and don't go from plan to plan.

Money
Time

Skills:
Adaptation
Communication
Understanding of Marketing

There are none. What is important depends on what your business model is and what your personal preferences and skills are. The essentials are different for everyone.

So with that said - some common essentials include:

Copywriting.

Whatever your business is - making money comes down to finding your target audience, getting access to them and putting a good offer in front of them. The more able you are to get the offer right - the more money you'll make. If you get it wrong you'll struggle.

List Building.

Whatever efforts you do put in to your business you want to be able to always be moving forward and creating value. You can make money by constantly launching new things, but ultimately if you build a list as you go it will ensure your business grows rather than just keeps changing.

Traffic Generation.

As already mentioned above - Once you identify your market you'll struggle unless you can access enough of them to make the sort of sales you need. There are a LOT of ways to get traffic but they come down to 3 things:

1 - Content

You need high quality unique content to draw people to your business and presell them before sending to your sales page to ensure you get the best conversion rates. Factoring in keywords/phrases for SEO purposes helps this.

2 - Brand awareness

You want to use whatever methods suit you (banner ads, PPC, ezine ads, videos, audio etc.) to get your brand in front of as many people as possible. Between places like Youtube, web2.0 properties and high traffic related websites you should be able to get enough awareness to make some money.

3 - Links.

The most significant part of getting search engine rankings and traffic is the links that point to your site and what they say. If you focus on high value links from high traffic websites and blogs then you can really get as many as you need and traffic becomes just a matter of time rather than a problem.


Obviously apart from that - the quality of what your selling is important and affects refund rates but you don't need to create your own products if you don't want so this doesn't need to be an issue.

You will find it's much easier to make money if you work with or partner with others, so learn about Joint Venturing and attracting affiliates if you have your own product. If you don't then your list will be the value you bring to the table when working with partners and you can do Ad swaps with other list owners to keep growing yours and making money.

I hope that's enough to get you thinking.

Andy

>> Read Cialdini's book - Influence

I know it's not 'sexy' to read a book when you
get started and want to see the money flowing but
believe me : This is a life-changing read!

I put my first website online in 1997. If I was starting now I would do 3 things:

1. Spend a few days learning basic html so I could put together a simple web page. Almost everything I have done online has been helped by having taught myself html. Recently I published my first e-book on Amazon's Kindle platform. Without knowing basic html I would never have got the layout of the book right.

2. Learn how to set up a basic website ( I use the free pspad software). Find out how to register a domain name, buy web hosting (I use hostgator), how to put a website on the internet (use the free filezilla software program), how to install a wordpress blog through the web hosting account.

3. Learn everything you can about writing interesting short articles. Everything I have ever done online has involved writing - web pages, blog posts, articles, ebooks.

These three things will lay a foundation for whatever area you decide to specialize in.

Jamie, IM can be bewildering especially for the newbie who doesn't know which direction he wants to take. Have you decided which area of IM you'd like to focus on?

My advice would be to focus on only one method or system at a time. Do not think that you can effectively tackle multiple areas or methods at a time, because you'll most likely fail miserably at all of them if you do so.

Paul

Well buddy first of all be genuine if you dont want be black listed by the masters who give ranks, then keeping yourself in these clothes go around and find what suits your business and the market that is suitable for you...

I thinks it's important to not try and reinvent the wheel. What you want to do has been done. So find a business model you like and run with it.

Creating your own info products is a great idea although could prove time consuming. Depending on how soon you want to generate an income perhaps you could market someone else's product similar to the niche you like and use that as a learning curve.

Eventually you'll need to have some knowledge of how html, article writing etc works however there are some good systems out there you can plug into for a small monthly fee that will also get you up and running.

I'd say the first thing to do is not to become overwhelmed. Find something you like, dig into it and make adjustments as you go.

Hope this helps.

The essentials? Okay here they are:

First understand your own strength, and then... create the following:

1) A Product to sell
2) A message to sell it
3) Means to collect payment
4) Means to deliver your products
5) Give them something else do your customers need (upsell or cross-sell)
6) Ways to leverage your visitors/ partners/ customers
7) Repeat the funnel

Learn things that relate to the above.

That's the basic 7 steps, if you want to make it big online. Otherwise, create a content site to sell affiliate programs is also a sweet and simple way to go.

Hope it helps!