Consumers are spending less and less time watching TV and more time surfing the Web. Meanwhile, it occurs to me that people come to the Internet for 5 things: To Learn, To Buy, Find People, Find Opportunity, and Find Hope. Why wouldn’t I market here? The natural follow on question is how do I market here? Let me help you and take you on a simple course.
Getting Started
Before you get started you need to lead with a couple of questions:
- Why are you marketing on the Internet?
- What are you marketing?
- What are your goals with your marketing campaign(s)?
Too many Web dreams are started with the only objective being–too get rich!
That may be a fine objective, but you need to think about how to logically get there. This is why many surefire “Internet Business Opportunities” sputter into tears and wasted money.
We’re going to make sure these are not your results.
Why Are You Marketing on the Internet?
The why question is important. It may seem intuitive, but understanding why you are here is critical. You need to be comfortable that your target audience is on the Internet and willing to use it to find you product or service. You also need to be comfortable working in this environment as well. This is your retail store. You need to understand how to engage you customers. Lay out the merchandise in a compelling way. And answer questions we they get confused or want advise. If you are still wrestling with email this may not be your kinda opportunity.
What Are You Marketing?
This is the fun part. If you have a business or work for a business your product is pretty much preselected. However, if you are thinking about becoming an affiliate marketer your imagination is the only limit to what you might market. In all cases, it is wise to pick a small niche and begin to understand and dominant that niche first and then scale into the big time.
What are Your Goals?
This is probably the most second most critical step in making it. I will save #1 for the end.
Your goals should be be small at first and ramp. They should be measurable and they should proceed in a logical path to your bigger goals. For instance, I want to get to 500 unique views and make $5 per week in two months.
Like I said, start small. If you blow away a goal then accelerate, but don’t set unreasonable expectations and snuff your dream before it starts.
Do a Little Research
You know why you are here and what you want to do–time to develop a plan. I always recommend doing a fair about of listening before you jump in with both feet. There are tons of great resources. I like to start hanging around with the guys and gals making money. Here are a few spots I recommend:
Blogs/Websites:
seobook.com
quityourdayjob.com
affiliatetip.com
shoemoney.com
revenews.com
Forums:
associateprograms.com
affiliate-marketing-forums.5staraffiliateprograms.com
wickedfire.com
geekvillage.com
forums.digitalpoint.com
abestweb.com
Listening is always the best place to start a new adventure–more to follow…
Thanks again to Lee Gientke, Affiliate Manager at LeadPoint for his knowledge in helping me create this affiliate marketing series.
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