After months if struggling to make it as an online marketer, I have finally turned the corner. I'm not rich yet. But I'm about to quit my day job and go fulltime in this business, working from home and on my own time.
For me, the turning point came with a realization that this was not a hobby or passtime or some magical get-rich-quick scheme that would automatically make me a millionare. It was the slow understanding that Internet marketing was something I needed to approach as a job.
Along with that, came some hard learned lessons. But if you are just starting out in this business, here are my five top suggestions:
1) Get educated about the Internet, marketing, html, css and programming. Read all the posts on Internet marketing forums. Watch all the videos. Soak every word in. Have a pad of paper next to you as you read. Jot down ideas, questions, brainstorms.
2) Do it right. The first time. DO it honorably. Don't take short cuts. Build your sites with the reader in mind, not your revenue. If they don't come, you won't earn. Make sure you understand about duplicate content. It's not good. Keep your sites fresh, clean and relevant and constantly refreshed and updated with original and relevant content.
3)Don't believe everything you hear and from the e-mail pitch pages you get. There is no guaranteed system. Be careful what you invest in. Stay away from AdWords and advertising, at least initially. Do not pay anyone for SEO work. I dug myself into a $15 K hole with advertising my first few months and for SEO work that I am easily able to do myself. Now, I am getting my advertising toes wet again with just a bit after first concentrating on my sites. If I don't make at least 20% more per day than I spend, I suspend the campaign.
4)Diversify. You don't have to read much to learn that Adsense alone, while not dead, is only a shadow of itself. Grab onto affiliate programs. Build mailing lists. If one site starts making money, duplicate the techniques on another. And another. And another. And so on.
5)Pace yourself. Manage your time wisely. Build in family time. Unplugged time. Plan you week and then your day. And, back to #1, learn something new everyday.
These are my observances after really getting deeply involved in Internet marketing about a year ago. It's taken me that long to show a profit. I am absolutely conviced that I will double my current success in another year. And and then on and on.
But don't let all my enthusiasm talk you into this. You want to make this work not because you're desperate for money but because you really enjoy this and are committed for the long haul.
Like I said... it's a job. It takes work.
But believe me... it works.
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