Internet Marketing: Making A Living Online

A few months ago I made the decision to work strictly from home so that I could spend more time with my child (who is almost 4 years old now). Since that time, I've been studying up on internet marketing and the various ways that one could make a living online.

Here's the main thing that I discovered: The main trap of working online is not the "scams" (I'm sure that they do exist and have come across a few myself), but rather is the number of actual opportunities that present themselves. A person can spread themselves so thin by investing time and money into too many areas, which takes away the ability to be able to promote their programs/products effectively.

Although I am relatively new to the internet marketing industry, I have successfully worked in offline marketing for years, and have learned a few things that apply to any kind of marketing, across the boards. I also have learned some things about internet marketing in the few months that I've been involved.

Here's are a few "from the heart" tips, that always apply:

Persistence - This may be the most valuable concept in the marketing industry. I believe that no matter what someone is marketing, and how they are marketing it, if one continues the same strategy for a long enough period of time (working on it regularly) more often than not it will pay off. This is what I call the "Golden Rule" of marketing.

Patience - This closely relates to the info above. I think that this is best illustrated with an example: Sally Marketer begins an internet marketing venture, let's say with pay-per-click ads from her own website. She finds a few places to market her site and puts some ads up. Within a week she only has one response from all of the ads combined. She gives up and changes her strategy, removing her ads from the various places, or changing them to something else. This is lost time and lost revenue. Give the advertisements about 6 weeks to be out there, as they are before changing them. If after 6 weeks there is little to no response - then is the time to make some changes. (My experience has been that in about 4-6 weeks the inquiries and sales really start to pick up.)

Quantity/volume - The amount of income is directly proportional to the number of people who view your site/ads. Seriously. Although the quality of the website is important, it takes a back seat to the amount of communications to your audience. Combined - you have a goldmine! Here's an illustration: If you're interested in getting ads onto classified ad sites for example, don't get onto 1, 2 or even 5 - get onto 30! Instead of signing up for 1 traffic exchange site, sign up with 20 and work them daily! 10,000 emails to opt-ins are much better than 50. There are services available out there that can post your ads, sites or send email to many different places/people at once - this type of marketing really works. Think BIG on this! Sometimes it takes 50 people seeing your site to even generate 1 click. This may sound a bit grim, but if you know this information you'll have better control over your income and a much better chance at success!