Lessons For A Newbie

I am sure that if anyone happened along this blog lately, they would have thought it had been abandoned!  Well, it hasn’t - I just took some much needed time to get some other things done - and unfortunately I wasn’t able to keep up with this blog.

I am currently doing a bit of a cleaning house of some of my sites, and I plan on getting this one back on track - offering some information to help you get going if you are stuck.  Again, if you are just starting out and you don’t have a ton of money to get started, find a niche you can enjoy that has a product you can promote.  Set up a free site either through Blogger or Squidoo - and write a pile of articles pointing to your site where you are promoting the product.

Please don’t make it an obvious push for a sale!  Just give a subtle review - just enough to make them want to go through to the site.

This is seriously the easiest and cheapest way to get started.  You may not see a whole whack of traffic right away - but it will come.  Keep building and submitting articles.

My advice would be to kind of start out with a few niches you think might be good.  Follow the basic guidelines of keyword searching (traffic with not much competition) - and set up some free sites for each niche.  Try to find one or two that look like they are winners - then go and set up a larger niche content site - and push that niche more.  Trust me - every niche you promote in isn’t going to be a winner!

But - don’t give up saying that it isn’t working.  It might just be the niche that isn’t working.

Good luck!

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Today I am writing about something a little different.  I have been doing a lot of soul searching and have been watching some dramas unfolding at some of the marketing forums around the internet.

What really got me started thinking was when I launched my new guide that I put together for moms to be able to work from home.  It is a great guide which offers a ton of ideas and resources for any women just getting started searching for work to do from home.

I got the guide finished and set up ready to sell, and I realized that I just had to do what felt comfortable to me.  I have seen some rather unsavoury marketing techniques over the past few years, and have been taken in by my fair share of exaggerated claims.  I have seen some tactics that are “guaranteed to make the sale”, and I know that I am not good at selling.

Pretty sad huh?  Trying to get established in internet marketing, but not being able to sell!

This has been bothering me for awhile - and in fact I was considering selling this site and the guide because I just don’t think I can market it the way someone else could.  But then, I read a post on the WF the other day about a story that Allen Says (the forum administrator and a great online marketer) had written.  It told a story which after reading really had me thinking.

In the story, he talks about a man who shared the secret to being successful - which after reading basically came down to the simple fact of living and marketing your business remembering to live by the premise “doing unto others…..”

I realized that I was trying to follow the plans that other marketers were using which worked fine for them, but didn’t seem as effective for me.  The principles are still the same, as are the basic models of marketing - but some of the little things just were not things I felt comfortable doing.

So, in the end, what it comes down to is treating your site visitors and your customers how you would like to be treated.  I think we are all getting tired of the overhyped sales letters, the ridiculous prices and the hypocrisy of so many others right now.  The “guru’s” who get away with being less than honest, and can treat others however they want without fear of any kind of consequences.

I am hoping to make others who are just getting started that the way you treat people will always be remembered.  Do what you are comfortable doing - even if the “experts’ say that it will never work.  Try to find what works for you, and find ways of marketing that are going to demonstrate who you really are.

Maybe it is time for some changes in online marketing.

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Again - I have been MIA for awhile, and for that I am very sorry!

I have been doing a ton of writing jobs, to help pay for my new product I have been working on.

I am happy to say that the end is in sight!  I have the guide finished, and I wrote every page myself.  The hardest part with creating a product isn’t the research, or the decision of what niche to get into or any of that - it is actually getting started writing it.

Once I got myself to start working on it, I was very surprised how quick it went!  It was the same when I was writing the Lessons For A Newbie guide - once I got going, it went very smoothly.  But, getting those first few pages going can be hard.  You are setting a tone for how the whole book will progress, so you can sometimes get caught up in the analyzing, and take a bit too long before just sitting down and writing.

I know that many people say that you should have a whole outline of chapters before you start writing.  I suggest finding your own method of doing it.  That was always what slowed me down - trying to decide how to set up the chapters.

Now, what I do is write on a notepad beside my computer my very basic outline of what I want to cover.  I don’t set up the order or set anything in stone.  That way - as I go, if I run across more information I want to include, I don’t get myself messed up.  I make sure I include all that is on my outline, and just cross them off as I do them - in no particular order.

The order seems to come better, for me anyway, as I am writing.  I can figure out a logical progression while I write.

If you are having trouble getting a product started, try finding your own way of doing it.  What works for one person won’t work the same for another one.  Don’t get caught up in trying to follow how someone has told you works the best.

Site down, start writing and see how things fall together for you.  Trust me - that is the hardest part!  If you have an idea, and want to create the product - just get doing it.  Don’t worry about the website, domain name, how you will market it - any of that - until you have actually got started.

Good luck!  It feels good when you are finishing it up and you realize that you have created something on your own.

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