Internet Marketing… What Do I Need To Know?

A while ago someone asked me what they needed to know, what they should learn, to get started with Internet Marketing.  This is what I told him…

There are several tools and talents that are needed to get started with Internet Marketing.  I would even go so far as to say they are necessary for your success.  You should learn them, even if you are planning to outsource them.

 
Copywriting Basics
Copywriting, or sales copy, is the life blood of an internet marketer’s business.  Even though you may consider yourself a dog trainer with an online presence, you are really in the business of selling.  While you may think you don’t need to know copywriting because you’ll hire someone to write your sales page, that would be a bit shortsighted.  You are actually creating mini sales copy every time you write an email to send to your list, every time you review a product on your blog, every time you are interviewed, and more.  Study anything by copywriter, Michel Fortin.

FTP
FTPing is what you do when you have something on your computer like a PDF ebook file or an html website-page that you need to upload to your website so that it’s visible and accessible to others.  You might create a PDF, but no one can see it until you FTP it and it can be found attached to your website address.  www[dot]mywebsite.com/rockinsecrets.pdf is an example.  FTP is something that sounds very scary to new marketers until someone shows them how.  Then they realize how easy and quick it is. There is no excuse not to know how to FTP.  You will be doing it all the time. 

Ability to Create a Website
Yes, you can outsource the creation of your website, but what happens when you want to add a page?  And believe me, if you’re an active marketer, you’ll want to add pages often. Some pages I am constantly adding are new squeeze pages, affiliate pages, sales pages, more product pages, giveaway pages, etc.  Or what if you want to tweak and test the price or the sales copy?  Do you want to pay someone else to make these small changes and have them done at their convenience?

Domain Names
It’s important to own your own domain names and really easy to do.  They don’t cost much, depending on who you buy them through, and the price varies per extension.  For example, .com names usually cost more than .info names.  Once your business gets rolling, you’ll probably buy more names than you have time to set up sites for!  I use Namecheap to buy my domains.  But first I do an internet search and find a coupon to use.

Webhosting
Leave the free hosting to other beginners and pay for yours. You won’t be sorry as you’ll most likely have better service, less down time, more tools and analytics and more.  Everyone has strong opinions on the best webhosting and you should listen to what they have to say.  Pick one that not only works for you now, but will work for you when your business has grown.  You don’t have to pick the most expensive as there are many reasonably priced hosting companies that can fit your needs. Just remember to think ahead to what your needs will be.  I recommend D9Hosting and Hostgator because you can get unlimited domains for one price.

This is the short list and should get you started.  Of course, you’ll continue to learn new things as they come along. Someday you may be making tons of money and can afford to outsource everything.  You might even eventually have someone working for you who handles it all.  Doing it yourself directly helps you when you don’t, as yet, have the money to outsource, and knowing how to do it will help you know what is involved and what is a fair price to pay when you do outsource.

There are many resources available, free and paid, to help you learn what you need to know.  Start with learning from a marketer you trust and look for what you need.  Some things, such as FTPing, can be learned from YouTube videos if you do a simple search for them.

Go for it!

Related posts:

1. Internet Marketing Profit Machine
2. Opt-In Report – Plan of Attack
3. When Life and Internet Marketing Collide