How to get started in Internet Marketing

This was a favorite post of mine - I think it is worth repeating here as well as in my main blog at http://www.zedpromarketing.com

I am active in a number of forums. It is a great place to keep up with the latest information, to ask specific questions, and to do some networking.

Just today I came across a post - here I will quote it for you:

Hi,

I have been just reading some threads and it seems like more doom and gloom, then money being made on the internet. Is this a viable way of earning some real money or am i just fooling myself into believing that there is a real shot at making a living.

For instance is making $3,000 - $5,000 a month a realistic goal with the abilitity to take time out for myself or is that a pipe dream?

And here is the part that really caught my attention - his signature at the bottom of the post said this:

Give Me 60 Days and I'll Show You How Simple It Is To Turn Your Passion Into $100,000 A Year Business On The Internet!

And then it had a very ugly affiliate link to some program.

I never even clicked the program - why would I bother?

So this was my reply:

A little ironic, or maybe hypocritical for you to be asking this question when your signature claims that you can show me how to make $100,000 a year, which is over $8000 per month.

An easy answer to your question is 'YES'.

Does everybody do it? 'NO'

A few things I would suggest:

1 - don't ask such general questions - learn things one step at a time, and use forums to ask specific questions.

2 - Go find one of those 'Free' Internet Marketing Guides and read it front to back a couple times - so you know the very basics. This will not get you making any serious money, but will at least stop you from asking the dumb 'newbie' questions. A couple I suggest is 'Dotcomology' or 'Black Belt Marketing'

3 - Then check out a number of business models - from affiliate marketing, to adsense, to products (niches, kinds, etc) and decide what you have an interest in and want to pursue.

4 - Next find an expert (many call them gurus, but I like experts) and sign up for their course and follow it to the letter until you make some regular money. You still won't make big money, but you will begin to understand the basics of how money is made online. Remember - at this stage - FOLLOW THE EXPERT'S ADVICE TO THE LETTER!

5 - Now you are ready to branch out, diversify, improvise, dominate your niche, try something new that will propell you forward to making good money online.

That is all there is to it. In a year or two you should be making a good living depending on the amount of time and effort you put into it.

I think that was a very concise answer, and should help alot of people. I am also sure I will get some replies on that post saying that I gave dumb advice. Oh well - everyone has an opinion.

I think the lesson here is twofold - don't sell or promise what you don't know or don't believe in.

And second - don't think there is any 'secret' or 'magic formula'. It's about learning the basics and applying what you learn.

Jack

Simply GoTryThis

Simply GoTryThis

I have been looking, over the past 6 months, for a good - no scratch that - a great tracking program. One of the key things I have picked up on in learning about Internet Marketing is that testing and tracking is very very important. It can make the average marketer great.

So I wanted to know what was happening on all my sites. Who was visiting, how they go there, what links brought them there, what they did when they got there. All this information.

Well I quickly learned that there are really 2 sides to the tracking issue. The first can be described as Website Analytics. This is looking at your website, and watching who visits. Through log files, or code placed on your site, you can know alot about your visitor including the IP address, their location, which site they came from, etc. You can see what they clicked on, and what page they left your site from.

The other side of tracking is link tracking. This is knowing what is happening with all your links that are out there on the World Wide Web. This also includes email links. This is very important, as usually links represent you marketing efforts - things that you spent time and money on. So very important to know these results.

I never did find a program that could do both sides of the tracking. If you know of one, then I would appreciate you letting me know.

But I have found a few programs that will handle my tracking for me.

For Website Analytics, the best that I have found is Googles Analytics. This is offered free by Google, but comes with the limitation of only 5 projects (projects in my view equals websites). The second best - and it has some features better than Google Analytics - is StatCounter.

Statcounter is a free program that will track your visitors to you website very easily. The best thing is that you can set up as many projects as you like. And see the sumarized results all on one page - great for quickly checking what is happening on your sites.

For link tracking, it was a tougher search. There are programs that you pay monthly for, that offer a great service. There is also programs that you buy, and install on your server.

The best I had found was AdTrackZ. I did say 'had'.

Now I found - or rather it found me - since the creator John Reel did a huge launch - was GoTryThis.

GoTryThis is marketed as an affiliate tool for cloaking links. It does that, but what it also is a supercharged link tracker. The stats are phenomenol. Everything is in real time. Easy as pie to set up. Super to use again and again for all your links. I love it.

I have put the following ad in a few forums, but I have promoted this program even without my affiliate link on many many occasions. Sometimes a piece of software comes around that you simply need to have. GoTryThis is one of those! It not only sets up and controls your redirected links (a must for any serious marketer), but as I said above - it also track those links (an absolute must!).

Here is the ad:

Change this ugly affiliate link --> https://members.gotrythis.com/aff.php?aff=1351

into this:

http://www.topzed.com/tools/gotrythis

and Track you results in real time!

Control all your affiliate links!

Shorten all your affiliate links!

Track all you links! - articles, affiliates, referrals, signatures - anything.

Protect your links!

or maybe some of you like RED and some like BLUE

so:

http://www.topzed.com/tools/gotrythis-red.htm

and

http://www.topzed.com/tools/gotrythis-blue.htm

And I can know how many like each color - all go to the same link and I did these changes on the go - nothing to set up, but both RED and BLUE will be tracked independantly.

EASY set up!

Easy to Manage!

No code on your server to FTP

No Monthly Fees!

Simple to set up on your server - then you own it - control it - run it!

Go Try This NOW!

So if you have any questions or concerns - let me know. This program is a bargain at $47. Many programs that track your links charge that monthly and do not do as good of job.

Pick this up now and start using it. It will save you time, and make you more money!

Jack

P.S. - Update - I now have been using this program for a couple months and it is fantastic. The support has been second to none - John has provided us with video training, calls, etc. I am totally impressed!

Search Big Daddy

Search Big Daddy

The newest PPC on the block - SearchBigDaddy - climbing the Alexa rankings faster than a rocket!

This new search engine has added some very original twists. First of all - it pays you to search!!!!

Did you hear me - it pays you to Search - not in real money, but in PPC dollars - dollars that you can spend on you PPC campaigns. Well if I am spending real money on PPC campaigns, and now someone will give me PPC dollars so that I don't have to use my real money - well then those PPC dollars are damn near as good as REAL Dollars.

Next - it offers you a FREE premier listing - this is a sponsored listing on steriods - that you solely control. You have to keep using the SearchBigDaddy engine on a regular basis to keep the listing, but hey - I search all the time, and SearchBigDaddy works great, so why not use it.

SearchBidDaddy also added a multi-level affiliate program in. A super way to promote explosive growth. And it is set up superb!

Setting up PPC ads is a breeze in the fully functionable admin panel area. The one fault that I could find is they mix the paid search right with the true search so the customer does not know which is which. This could cause some relevancy issues at some time down the road, but they do use a system to approve the PPC ads so hopefully they can control this as they go forward.

Upgraded members get a number of useful features, such as bonus PPC dollars, increased true dollar payments, extra advertising in tower banners, etc. And they have plans for some massive business promotion opportunities that should pay off handsomely for upgraded members.

As a PPC search engine, this one is miles ahead of the pack in features!

A big thumbs up to SearchBigDaddy!

Jack

P.S. - If you are interested in signing up go HERE - SearchBigDaddy Sign Up Page