A few questions from a total newcomer

Welcome to the big bad world of internet marketing :-)

I suggest you need one structured place to get all the information you're after otherwise your overload and confusion will just continue to grow - therefore I suggest you check out:
ChrisFarrellMembership.com | How To Make Money Online <<<< not an affiliate link, as per this forums rules.

It's the top rated affiliate training site as rated by user at IMreportCard and I've been a member for years which is why I write about it at my own StartBusinessMentor Training Blog.

It will give you the step by step training you need.

I wish you every success

Warrior Forums or DigitalPoint Forums are good places for newbies.
You could try creating a blog and write good and unique content so that people who are interested in your blog can subscribe to it.
You can generate traffic to your website by using article marketing, promoting your website on Facebook, Twitter etc , blog commenting and including the link to your website in your forum signature.

Jared,

I know the feeling of overwhelm. It kept me quiet and inactive for three years (which was silly in hindsight). The one thing I would do differently if I were to go back to when I first joined the forum, is close my eyes and pick one thing. Whether that's affiliate marketing, product creation, adwords, adsense, CPA, blogging, e-commerce or something else entirely.

It really wouldn't matter. I would put on blinders. Anything I would buy would have to be to help me with what I'd chosen. There are several things I would still probably buy, but I'd have a better idea how to use them because I'd have some context to use them in. And I most definitely would have been able to avoid many of the things I bought that were garbage.

As far as where to start - who do you currently trust based on what you've purchased? Have you reached out to them to ask questions or get any clarifications on things you don't understand? If not, start there.

As far as generating a list, what are you focusing on? Once you know that, then you can begin generating a list for that focus. I'm not the one to give you details on that as I'm just starting a list myself.

The last one about traffic, I'm working on that right now. First I started commenting on blogs. I added a simple signature in the forum. I'm telling people in the real world. I haven't even begun to tap into real traffic generation so again, I can't say with certainty.

And that whole thing about apologizing for not knowing ... cut it out. Lots of people don't know lots of things. The ones who find out, take action and you've started doing that.

I understand and would like to help you. I was going to recommend Chris Farrell and I see that someone has already done so. So that's two votes for Chris...lol.

As AllenJames said ChrisFarrellMembership.com is a great place to start. I bumped into Chris Farrell by accident and decided to check it out. He gives you a trial offer for cheap in the beginning and it goes up after a week. I am not affiliated with this site in any way. As a matter of fact I dropped my membership after about 5 months but I wouldn't have been able to start without this site. It is a very easy to understand step by step approach to everything from building a website to marketing it. Without this site I would have had "paralysis from analysis" and been stuck not able to do anything. With all the information out there it is real easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. This also gives you a structured environment to keep focused and do one task at a time. Good luck. I hope this helps.

Welcome to the forum! You're fortunate to find it. I wish I did 6 years ago when I first got into this stuff, and bought a $200 course!

1. I'd say that as far as just starting out, the fastest way to earn money online is to offer your services. You could choose to write for other marketers, setup websites, or something else that you'd be comfortable with.

BUT, many people choose to go the affiliate marketing route. Since you've read those books, I'm guessing you already know what this is, but I do want to let you know some things about it.

What I learned was that there's a TON of different kinds of products that you can be an affiliate for. I mean, it's not just info products from places like clickbank. You can be an affiliate for places like Amazon and eBay, and earn money by simply referring people to physical products through your link. A lot of people prefer to do this versus selling information based stuff. Also, you wouldn't believe the amount of odd products out there that people are searching for, and it's really going to pay off for you do look into finding those types of things to market. (The name of the game these days is finding more obscure stuff-or at least keywords-with less competition) There's also a lot of single sites dedicated to selling a particular type of item, such as ceiling fans (just using an example, probably already a saturated niche) that you could be an affiliate for, and they'll give you a small percentage of each sale you refer from your site.

I just wanted to emphasize how super-huge the world of affiliate marketing can be. You can find a lot of companies that offer affiliate programs through sites like commission junction. But, you'll need to first have a site before you apply for most programs. Don't be disheartened if you get turned down by some. There'll probably be at least a few sites that offer affiliate programs which are related to whatever your site is about.

Also, a lot of people that do decide to be an affiliate for these types of products do so by having review sites. You can just read up on reviews from places like Amazon, and then sum up the major points. It doesn't need to be super in depth.

2. If you want to generate a list, you set up a niche site/blog, and write about things related to the products you're an affiliate for. This is WAY easier than having your own product. Just be sure to provide some valuable information, and then every now and then, you can talk about a related product. The best thing to do is to find a group of people first, and then find related products to market to them So many people teach that it's the other way around and they've got it backwards.

3. Traffic. That's another area where I totally know where you're coming from. There's actually a ton a ways to get traffic.

You can create simple YouTube videos that talk about the niche your marketing in (you can also upload these to Vimeo, and a bunch of other free video sharing sites). Don't be intimidated about the video making process either. It can be as simple as using Windows Movie Maker, and typing in a few captions to go along with several pictures and a little background music. You can put your link in the video itself, and in the description. (Note: Always be sure to use the keywords your targeting as the first words in your video's title)

There's also social sites (Facebook pages, Tumblr, Twitter, hubpages, squidoo, etc) Basically, you can use these places to comment on other related pages and if what you have to say is useful enough, you can get people interested enough to click on your name and end up on your site. Also, for that matter, there's posting in related forums with a signature that leads back to your site (you can use the site big-boards to find forums on specific topics).

You can also comment on related blogs as well.

You can also write articles and submit them to places such as Ezine Articles, etc, though these places don't send as much traffic as they used to since the Google algorithm change. Just be sure that if you do this, your article gets put on your site first, and indexed by Google, and the other search engines.

You can of course also work on getting ranked in Google and the other search engines, but this will require some work as you'll need to use specific keywords and build backlinks to your site. Getting on page one is the name of the game, and there's ways to assess your competition to see if it would be worth using a certain set of keywords before you even set up a site. The main point I want to make about search engine traffic is that you'll need to concentrate on using keywords that don't have much competition, and these will usually be "longtail keywords". For example, instead of using "Dog training" as a website name, you'll need to dig down and get way more specific, like "dog training electronic collar". A fantasic way to find these types of keywords is to use Google's free keyword research tool.

There's so much more, but of course I've rambled on alot already

I also want to add that one thing that stopped me for so long was going from one thing to the next. There's a whole lot of stuff out there, so definitely do your research, but remember that sticking to one thing makes all the difference. What I've mentioned is, as you probably know, just a little slice of what's out there.

Welcome to the WF, Jared

Understand that newbies get overwhelmed by all the information available & don't know where to get started. I've been there myself.

IMO the easiest way to get started is affiliate marketing, where you promote other people's products w/o creating your own products. 'Proven Income Method' by Jan Roos is a great course you can consider purchasing. It's not too expensive for you to get started. You can google about it. Another great course is 'Unstoppable Affiliate' by Andrew Hansen.

After you get familiarized about how the whole thing works & start earning money, then branch out into other areas such as product creation.

Hope this helps.

my 1st suggestion is that you should Google about how to build a SEO friendly website and generate back links , contents, images etc.
don't think about earning at first. try to generate visitors. improve your SERP 1st then think about earning. you don't need to have your own product. you can use amazon or CJ/CB in your website. so your 1st job is to establish a high quality website.

How to start a list is really pretty easy once you know how. I was just like you.

So much information, got distracted by the "shiny object", those headlines that promise the moon.

Once I started concentrating on building list in niches I am interested in that also are profitable, it all changed and that was only in Sept. 2011.

I decided that if I ever found step by step ways I would share them with others and that is what I did.

That is where I recommend you start. I build lists and sell affiliate products. I add value to my list by giving them answers to their questions by way of emails even before they ask the questions. I found out what most people needed in those niches by being on forums related to each niche and seeing what questions got asked repeatedly and then I answer them in the emails and offer programs that I am an affiliate of. However, I never sell something unless I have used it myself. Not everyone does this. That is just my choice.

As for generating traffic, I've written about this before. I generate almost all free traffic.

I've just recently am testing some very low cost paid methods and if they work and stay very low cost, I will share them. Just look at my previous posts to find all the traffic methods.

You can do this. Good luck.

I would advise against spending any money until you learn a lot of stuff for free.

There is so much for free on this forum, search for it and get the free stuff first. That can keep you busy a long time getting started.

Have a plan and a method and focus on just that for a while. If you jump from method to method you won't get any where.

If you must try something, look for things that give you a good long trial period for free or real cheap, but even then, only after you've done the free stuff.

You should pick up a few Ewen Chia products and start there. You can find it on Clickbank, or by simply entering his name in Google. One course you will want to get for sure is "Opt-in Profits".

I think this happened to most of us, the dared INFORMATION OVERLOAD!!!
don't worry unchained, my best advice is to get a Mentor that will help you to find your path in this business. This will save you a lot of time and that means you will start making money online earlier