Advice for someone who knows nothing

Hi Gixzard,

Welcome to the Warrior Forum and congratulations for deciding to start an online business. You've made the right move by coming to this form and asking questions before getting started.
Do research on what you're interested in and ask a lot of questions.. If you have no idea what you're interested just pick something and start your journey down the rabbit hole. You may start out in one direction then decide you like something else. The truth is you're going to need to have some knowledge of several different skills. You can become an expert at email marketing which means you'll also need to have some knowledge of copywriting even if you hire someone to write copy for you it's good to have an idea of what good copy is. If you start an e-com store knowing copywriting or some SEO and you'll need to know about email marketing too.
Again, you don't have to be an expert at all of these things but it is good to have a little knowledge about them even if you hire some else to do it.
Go on YouTube for research, read a couple of books on what might interest you, and ask questions. You don't have be in a hurry, the internet will still be here when you decide what to do. On the other hand don't get caught up in fear or paralysis of analysis. At some point in time you will have to take the plunge into something that interest you. You can find some free courses to take or courses with free trials at a low cost of entry to help you get started.

Hope this helps.

Enjoy your outcome!

Where to start? You need to find out what kind of business you want to create. There are many and they're all described on this forum. Things are not laid out on a silver platter, though; you have to learn to use the Search function.

There are two elements to any business, online or not: Traffic and Conversion.

You need eyeballs on an offer.

Beware Shiny Object Syndrome, the state in which you believe the marketing hype telling you that you "need" whatever this thing is being shown to you. You do not even need a website to make money online. Let that roll around for a bit.

Look around and start thinking about, "Who can I help? Who do I * want * to help?" Then dig in with the searching for specifics.

The more specific a question you can ask, the better the response you will get.

Hi Gixzard,
I started my online journey of discovery about a year and a half ago. Believe me, it can get very frustrating and confusing at times trying to figure all the pieces of the puzzle. This is where the majority of the people just give up. For the persistent ones, they will eventually start buying courses and different pieces of information to make things happen, to live the dream of making money online and the lifestyle that goes with it.
Gixzard, i tried the same route i.e finding "free" information and resources but the bottom line is this:
If you don't spend money i.e invest in yourself, you will not make money.
Okay, where can you start?
Start looking at Affiliate Marketing.
Learn about sales funnels, autoresponders, landing pages, sales pages, copywriting, list building(crucial to an online marketers success), face book advertising and other areas of advertising.
This would be a good start, good luck with your journey.

Hi Gixzard! First off, congrats that you're brave enough to give it a go.

Second, i'd say ALWAYS be learning. All day, everyday.

There are a TONNE of free stuff, courses for 2-13 dollars on clickbank and jvzoo, that offer bonus courses. I'd say paid courses you should get into, once you're 100% certain what you want to do.

There is a whole lot you can do, CPA offers, clickbank offers, being a jvzoo/warrior plus affiliate, promote clickfunnels, builderall, amazon products... whatever you want.

As for traffic, there is blogs, twitter, instagram, fb groups and fan pages.

If i were you, i'd stick to one thing that you like the most. I can recommend a free course that my mentor allowed me to give away, which i can send you through pm if you wish.

There is also an multilevel marketing system that i'm a part of that is free and has great videos on how to start marketing online, link in my signature.

If you need anything, reach out to any of us. We're here to help out.

Cheers!

You may be brand new to the forum, and new to online marketing...but START with what you do know. For example, do you eat?

Obvious a yes. Where do you buy your food? A) Food for your residence, B) Food already prepared. You can prepare your own food, or buy it ready to eat, in a restaurant or fast food joint. Either way, you have to spend money (or exchange value) to get food to eat.

An exchange of value might look like this in the real world. Local apple orchard will trade me bushels of apples for mowing beneath the trees. Car mechanic might take the apples in exchange for an oil change. See? You know this already:

You either PAY for what you want, or you TRADE (or barter) for what you want.

You NEED food. You may WANT apple pie. Often, with only a couple of bux in pocket, you may opt for the apple pie, thinking it is food, and you're hungry, so why not?

Just like online, people buy both what they want, and what they need.

So you know how buying and selling works. You know Amazon is one of the richest companies ever built because they stand in between BUYERS and SELLERS. You can see this clearly, your supermarket is between you and the orchard. Most offline businesses are actually middleman businesses, except service providers, like our auto mechanic friend.

He has to DO SOMETHING, like a writer, or a graphic artist or a programmer online has to DO something in order to get paid.

Now think about how they all make their money. The orchard owner has to tend to his trees, and he could sell apples directly to customers, or WHOLESALE to the supermarket, and may do both.

The auto mechanic only gets paid for what he can do, UNLESS, he hires help and takes a cut of his helper's work, like they do in barber shops, beauty salons and nail places where they basically lease chairs...online this would be like AFFILIATE marketing, you would sell someone else stuff. You would be like the guy who buys apples directly from the orchard, then sells them on the corner to individuals.

The supermarket (Amazon) gives shelf space to tons of suppliers and mostly charges them for the space. It is convenient to buy all your groceries in one place. But if you are health conscious, you might prefer Whole Foods over Aldi's. So the buyers all need food, but some want a perceived quality and others a preferred price.

See, you KNOW all this stuff. You live in the real world, right.

ONLINE, you have similar dynamics. People with wants and needs. They shop. Some for price, some for perceived quality. Some want quantity. Some want it now. Some will wait.

MARKETING online or off is all about an EXCHANGE OF VALUE, mostly using money as the vehicle of exchange.

You want to make money online? You know nothing about it? Right? Well now you know that you need to have something to exchange.

It could be your time and expertise, as with the auto mechanic.
It could be your apples, or knowledge as to how to grow them.
It could be your "middleman" position in the marketplace, between buyer and seller (affiliate marketing).

So, knowing NOW what you know already,

Which way might suit you the best? What do you bring to the table as far as knowledge? Skills? Experience?

YOU start there, with YOU. And you generate a self knowledge worksheet, about your habits, your work ethic, your wants and needs. If it is a financial goal, then how much? WHO in online marketing is making that much (make using Google a top priority, spend a day, learning how to do deep searches)...then you make a list to compare what you want...
vs
what you can do, what you are willing to learn, how much time you are willing to spend to learn it.

So, you already KNOW a lot more than you think you do. You understand how to buy stuff. And in some shape or form, you will need stuff to sell.

What will that be? To whom? Where will you find them online?

START where you are at, with what you already know, research, look at maps to see where you want to go, then choose a route which best suits you, make a plan, execute your plan and adjust your actions and solve your problems in the direction of your goals.

Now GO.
DO.

and good luck (which really has nothing to do with it, but good luck anyhow)

GordonJ

@GordonJ.. I just have to say WOW Good stuff!

Welcome to online marketing.

I've been at this full time for almost 10 years now. If I was starting over from scratch, this is what I would do.

1. Pick a Niche - Not a product

Pick a niche with MONEY who have a problem that needs to be solved. It would help if you were passionate about this niche, but it's not a requirement.

2. Start Building Your List

Set up your capture page and autoresponder quickly. I use Aweber, but you can use whoever you want.

3. Communicate with Your List Daily

Communicate daily with your email list, Monday through Friday. Provide value. Educate and entertain them, rather than try to sell them. This will help build up your like, know and trust factor with them.

4. Find 2-4 Products That Will Help Them

Find or create 2-4 products or services that will benefit people in your niche and focus on promoting those products or services exclusively.

5. Study, Implement and Master Traffic Generation

The # 1 skill in my opinion of online marketers is their ability to generate targeted traffic. This is the skill you want to constantly improve.

Final Thoughts

There is no need to buy any courses. YouTube has a wealth of knowledge. Start there. Also, make a MINIMUM five year commitment before you decide this is or isn't for you. Stay focused and avoid shiny objects at all costs.

All of this is really helpful I've already read all of the comments and will reread multiple times, to make sure I get the most use out of it. I'm actually surprised at how nice and helpful you all are- most forums out there for anything aren't. So thank you. You guys obviously have a lot of experience and I'll work hard to match what I see out there

Like I said really good information- now time to read again and implement

I'd also add you should pick a niche in an area you're passionate about and can generate a lot of new content. It's also essential to avoid popular areas (e.g. weight loss).


I spent a month writing a TEFL blog in January... it didn't even rank.


I started a forum in February in a low competition niche... traffic is building solidly, and I'm getting a tonne of Google traffic. Guess what? It's also in a shopping niche.

1. READ!

Launch by Jeff Walker
DotComSecrets by Russel Brunson
4-hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.

2. Understand that Alliliate/online marketing really requires some specific skills like the art of selling and understanding what people need and holding the solution to their problem aka solving a pain point. Understand what people need and you'll be good to go!

3. FIND A MENTOR that you can trust and get advice from. Someone you feel comfortable with.

4. There are a TON of free online courses. Go on youtube and research your niche and LOOK FOR BEGINNERS LIKE YOU. They usually offer a TON of value for free and a lot of them offer free courses. This is because they understand that growing their audience requires them to position themselves as an authority and giving away their BEST content.

Good Luck!

There are many free resources online that you can start reading or watching. Just focus on what you are passionate about first and don't get overwhelmed

Take your time and welcome to the warrior forum. My advise is read more and spend less at the moment. Understand what you are going into. Do a lot of research on what you decide to do. Go to google and youtube. Then go down the path that is best for you. The reason I say spend less and do more research is because I was in the same boat as you and started to spend but had no path to follow so lost a lot of money making purchasing things I did not need. So when you are ready find out what you want to do then go down that path. It is going to be a long road but in the end you will make it. You have a hard learning curve One bit of advise read more spend less Glad to have you aboard.

I would start by figuring out what you want to do. There are many ways to make money - affiliate marketing, drop shipping, etc.

Figure that out first, then research more on that.

Focus in one thing and not jump from thing to other like if you wanna dropship so just learn about it until know well about and dont expect the big succes from begining or you will get down and bord..work hard and take action



I dont advice you take paid courses from begining because even some paid courses sell big dream without proof
You can learn basic first with free videos and ebooks



Wish you best luck

I would research different ways to make money online. There are 100's, and within those there are many. Pick one (i.e. freelancing, affiliate marketing, social media marketing) and than start asking people and doing research just on that strategy.