When Internet Marketing Education Varies

Welcome Back Fellow Online Entrepreneurs!

First, I answer several questions received from other folks asking about:

1)  Why is the content supporting beginners?

In order to build a campaign you can manage over many years, it is built on basics:

If I bombard you with search engine optimization, getting a top page rank of organic listing under a specific keyword (and you actually can do this in one step), generating your own leads using free search traffic before you go to paid advertising, working your numbers to increase website traffic, converting new folks into repeat buyers, you will see that Internet marketing is a vast arena of activity, one that mainly involves a starter flow. 

If you do not personally know:

* ad copy
* how your target markets think and buy
* to maintain let alone backup or even restore a well-oiled website
* how to apply for low costs per click (called paid Internet advertising or your cost of acquisition for a converting lead), you can go broke before you've gotten started
* what the pitfalls of Internet marketing are:  like hiring someone to build a website not fully mastered in all of its components, or...hiring someone to write content the article marketing houses will absolutely appreciate ..., let alone support...or how to include links people need in order to find you correctly...and more...;


2)  The content on this blog forms as people interact here.  I am still growing a following...still adding components which allow you to track me.

•   I recommend if you can't read this blog, use Firefox, not Internet Explorer.

Less interaction means you're probably not yet telling me what you specifically want or need...or may not (yet know)...or if you're extremely advanced in your Internet marketing, you are looking for active ways to expand current offerings appearing with repeat purchasers, without going broke.  The key to this solution is --- no matter your industry -- ask them what they want.  This is the only way to identify what they need.



3)  Recommended Resources?

For NOW...,  I recommend a single handful of Internet marketers like Kevin Riley and Wealthy Affiliate...or Terry Duff.  If I recommend a host of others, you're lost "in the rabbit hole" (paying out all sorts of $$ you do not need to spend) when you should be focused on learning the marketing basics. 

If you have the $$ to outsource your work, you can have a website built for $10,000...but it should be connected to a communicator (autoresponder) ..., it should have articles that are developed throughout the Internet (ezine articles is not recommended...but I have resources if you leave specific Q's)...as articles do capture attention and do lead people back to your website(s).

If you say, "I know Internet marketing because I can create a general website".  That is not true.  Even if you're generating steady profits off of various websites, do you precisely know your buyers?  Do you know how they live, what they purchase..., or how much they're willing to spend?


Who Is Successful Online?

1. YOU CAN FOLLOW HTTP://MOODIESCRUISE.COM  (A HIGHLY PROFITABLE CAMPAIGN)
2. YOU CAN FOLLOW ANY WEBSITE THAT IS A MAJOR ONE:  A RETAILER..., A FAMOUS SUPPLIER, OR A MAJOR INFORMATION RESOURCE SUCH AS THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
3. STICK ONLY TO PURE SOURCES THAT ARE PRIME
4. AVOID ONLINE GURUS.  THEY'LL SELL YOU ANYTHING!
5. STOP SPENDING NOW
6. SEEK OUT FREE RESOURCES
7. DON'T PAY FOR A SINGLE THING UNTIL YOU KNOW PRECISELY WHAT DOES WORK
8. YOU CAN USE BLOGGING FOR FREE....AND START THERE
9. WEBSITES REQUIRE CAPITAL, A BRANDED NAME, AND PEOPLE WHO WILL HELP FOR PAY.
10. DON'T SPEND MORE THAN $100/MONTH SUPPORTING YOUR INTERNET MARKETING CAMPAIGNS.  PERIOD.

Phases of Online Business

While it is true that there are phases of marketing which develop your business online, as you build your fan following, as you build interaction, as you build purchasing, you're caring for these individuals in a great way.  When purchasing begins, it is initial Internet marketing but it is not an entire key.  The full key to any successful business incorporating highest ethics, selling only what's needed to consumers means that your Internet marketing will give them what they absolutely want and need, and it will also build repeat buyers along with future generations.

Many people think they can just form a website..., a blog..., or both and start business.  Not true.  You need cash flow..., a support system..., and access to reliable, knowledgeable resources.  That's why I still recommend Wealthy Affiliate as a beginning course.. (but it is an affiliate).  There are others out there that I have yet to reliably discover (other than Mike Young, Internet Marketing Attorney).  Google Mike, and opt into his legal online marketing news letter as a priority!  So, unless you know about some Internet marketing mastered group obtaining profitable results, you really want to keep most of your $$ in your wallet...at least until you have some time to scope matters out carefully online.

MAJOR RULE:  IF YOU HAVE TO BUY ANY MARKETING TOOL/TECHNIQUE/REPORT OR SYSTEM ONLINE, KEEP THE MARKETING PURCHASE UNDER $17 ...OR BELOW $30.  THERE ARE PLENTY OF FREE SYSTEMS YOU CAN TRY FOR A TRIAL PERIOD OF 7 DAYS...BUT BE CAREFUL TO DIRECTLY CANCEL THESE TRY-OUT PERIODS BY DAY 6 ,OR THEY'LL HIT YOU WITH REPEAT, HIGHER BILLING.

THE TRUE REALITY IS -- YOU ARE THE FORCE OF YOUR BUSINESS -- NO ONE ELSE. 

Unless you are a well-known individual who has resources/connections to hire various individuals, you are working your online business using your own efforts.  These efforts require time spent developing your business content, getting a worldwide (or local and/or regional following.  You are building your own Internet age as that age is related to Google.  The longer you're online, the longer you stand a chance of building your complete following.  I hope this makes sense.

When Internet marketing education varies, you get dissolution of efforts.  So if you're new  OR EXPERIENCED online, it's best to start at the beginning by ensuring that your marketing campaign carries with it a full effect.  If you're adept at the technical aspects of building a website or building videos for others...or you can another service/product, it may not mean that you have had extensive exposure to:

* writing effective ad copy (print you read offline/online ads)
* mastering the purchasing mindset of your buying group
* paying for keywords that will result in you appearing effectively online when someone enters the keyword resulting in YOUR appearance ...for less than most of your competitors excessively pay
* converting your first-time buyers into repeat buyers
* maintaining long-standing buyer loyalty.

One of the things major gurus sell online is confusion.  If you have a decade of direct offline business experience at least, you're well equipped to move online.  If you have no direct business ownership experience, Internet marketing can result in steady profits, but there are prospecting/closing skills you must master ...if only to avoid gurus sell you anything (which merely leaves you meandering).  These tools/services/techniques do not give you a comprehensive system because there is, as of today, only an incomplete turnkey system.

I will always recommend some Internet marketing education...that's affordable...that gives you time to interact with others...compare ideas...and find what's going to work for you.  Not one size of online marketing fits all.  If you are MLM, they will use the corporate system to lock you into what they want you to produce.  Many top distributors eventually build their own Internet online systems (but they don't necessarily teach it).

As a business owner, you're best finding out what works using low cost to free starters means until you can at least build some type of following.  Then.., it's building/expanding content, finding out what others actively need and will buy..., then it's finding ways to best satisfy that need (based on what you know you can deliver).

THE CONTENT -- here....,

1)  supports beginners and intermediate marketers ...and as this blog and Internet system develop, the content, resources, and offers will develop.

I won't take shortcuts with you.  I value your time, your effort, and your earned $$.  I will not recommend someone I don't believe in over time.  The sources I share here..., I can recommend.

1A)  The best gains are made by setting up your system...or for starters...a free blog...or for intermediates...a website...with a blog... so that it all works online following a natural rhythm and flow.

1B) EXAMPLE:  BUYING ANTIQUES

If you're marketing antiques online, your blog and social marketing media will supplement your website...but it is best to focus on small marketing element over time.

What I'm saying is that a blog gets traffic.

Social websites get traffic that may not be targeted.

Website get traffic that may also not yet be targeted.

Wherever you start in your online marketing, start with one simple marketing element.  As I visit with you, although I have a Internet marketing website, I am playing mainly with this blog...so as to develop my FREE (organic) traffic.

As you interact with me more extensively, I test your needs to see what you absolutely want.  This is WHY the content is still somewhat basic here.  I am gauging flow of my traffic to find out where people fall.  Most of them are beginners...but some who are extremely advanced do visit this blog.

For the ones who are extremely advanced and highly profitable, their main challenge is communicating effectively with consumers to find out precisely how those consumers think..., as their purchasing fits into consuming needs.

On the antique website --

The Antique website will carry keywords relating to furniture polish, Queen Anne furnishings, antiques, tables, linens, etc....whichever words you conjure that relate to antique viewing and buying.

On the website, there is tabbed consumer information antique lovers want so that they may reliably research what's available online, or they may connect to authentic, certified dealers.  The website will discuss antique purchasing needs when these needs involve decorating a singular room or larger living space ...both adhering to a specific budget.  The website will offer comparisons of antiques so as to educate consumers so that they will want to buy from the website that makes most sense.  The best website will carry helpful consumer tips involving key considerations antique buyers want to know...such as --

*  is this Queen Anne table really worth the asking price?

*  securing a purchase safely online without being ripped off

*  different styles of antiques one might expect to buy for achieving a pleasing aesthetic room decor

*  how one finds a reputable dealer

*  where one goes to investigate additional top-rated dealers, how they're contacted, and how deals are best negotiated

*  particularly..., how one ensures that what is being purchased will represent the quality, model, and make of the expected antique ( it is real or fake)?


BUT..., that's only the beginning.  Once the website is constructed, it is continually maintained...and it is maintained along with other marketing elements such as:

* a means with which to communicate with other interested consumers
* building your customer list
* segmenting that customer list
* creating content your customers want and will actively follow
* sending offers to your customers they'll want for purchase
* ensuring fulfillment
* ensuring repeat purchasing 
* discovering new purchasing needs
* expanding one campaign as it is split into several campaigns over time.

I stop here for now so that new people can read, digest, and see what's involved.  It's not easy to KNOW what's going to make a marketing campaign successful.  It means testing all aspects of that online campaign by the numbers, by traffic, by purchasing (called conversions).

Your business online requires steady effort.

For now, I am developing the purchasing system which includes how the initial Internet marketing must flow in order for that campaign to work...and I am then reliably purchasing as it fits into communications.  You must have traffic of on-lookers appearing at your blog/website before you're ready to convert that audience (as buyers).  It means that you're establishing repeat connections/trust long before they make a first purchase.

Toasting Your Success,

Barbara Brinkmeyer, MBA