It has taken me two years, thousands of dollars and a lot of frustration to get to a point where I am making a steady income from Internet marketing. In my wake I have left behind a trail of mistakes that stretches so far back that I can barely remember the early ones!
Here are some things that I wish I’d known (or realised) a lot earlier.
1. You’re a salesman
I’m embarrassed to admit that it took me 18 months to have this particular light-bulb moment! When i first got into making HTML sites and then WordPress blogs I thought I was some kind of ‘cyber artist’, spending ages on the design and style of my sites. Once completed I was shocked that the money didn’t start rolling in from these lovingly-built sites!
The bottom line is – If you want to make money online then you need to be selling. Sell your own product or service, be an affiliate for some else’s product or service. If you’re building small niche sites monetized with Amazon or Adsense or similar then you have to sell the click. Create your sites so that once someone arrives they either click a link that gets you paid, or they leave.
Think about it like this; Surfer A comes to your site, likes it and spends 20 minutes browsing but then leaves, whilst Surfer B lands on your page and clicks an Amazon or Adsense link after 45 seconds. Sufer A might have enjoyed the site more but he isn’t paying your bills!
2. The real work begins after the site is built
As James Schramko put it ‘It’s Not About The Website‘! A website is simply a tool. This is how you must think. The website is simply the medium through which you will communicate with your prospects. Building the site is not the point. The point is make sales, or generate clicks on ads, however much time you spend building the site you should spend 10x that on the promotion of it. The clue is in the name – Internet Marketing!
3. Win Forum Friends and Influence People
Would you rather help out a friend whom you like, or a stranger who you’ve never met before? Would you rather buy from a friend or a starnger? You can’t do this on your own, you need to network and build relationships. These relationships can both add to your bottom line and increase your knowledge and education.
Dennis Becker from Earn1KADay offers an excellent free report on the importance of contributing in forums and building relationships. You can access that here.
4. Free doesn’t work – Educate yourself
It has been the case for years and will continue to be so, that “FREE” is the most powerful word in marketing. Eben Pagan started ‘moving the free line’ when he offered affiliates 200% commissions on his dating ebook! These days every major launch is preceded by reams of free material. Every marketing blog (including this one) offers ‘free reports’. So what am I talking about? I’m talking about you and Internet marketing. Free doesn’t work for you!
If you truly want to be successful in this business you need to educate yourself, and to educate yourself you need to access the best and most up-to-date information available. This costs money, sometimes a lot of money! You can learn the very basics in free forums and free courses, but if you want to put yourself ahead of the game you need to invest in the best courses from the best marketers.
Conclusion
1. Be clear from the beginning what you are selling and what you want your visitor to do when they hit your site
2. Don’t just build your site, market it. You need to get that URL in front of as many people as possible.
3. Find a good forum (good = paid) and be active, ask questions, respond to requests, build relationships
4. Invest in your education.
I’ll be covering some more vital basics that are often overlooked in my next post.
All the best,
Rob
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Tags: Adsense, Amazon, Bottom Line, Clue, Cyber Artist, Forum Friends, Frustration, Internet Basics, Internet Marketing, Left Behind, Light Bulb, Marketing Basics, Marketing Forum, Money, Niche, Prospects, Schramko, Steady Income, Stra, Thousands Of Dollars
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