The Cheap Internet Marketer

Here is my long answer to the first big question that most newcomers to Internet Marketing ask. 

You can get started using all free resources and spend zero dollars, but to be honest, it’s tough to do.  Let me explain how to spend zero dollars, and also explain why it’s not really a great idea.

First, you will want to get started selling affiliate products.  You can sign up at ClickBank and Commission Junction and other sites to sell affiliate products for no charge.  Most Marketers start with affiliate products and then add their own products later.  And just about all Marketers, even the big guys, continue to sell affiliate products along with their own products.  Affiliate selling is great. 

How do you sell your affiliate products?  Well, you can set up a blog at one of the free blog sites like Blogger.com, MyBlogSite.com, Wordpress.com and several others.   You can also set up simple free web sites on Hubpages or Squidoo and a few other sites.

Here’s why spending zero dollars to get started is not such a great idea — in order to use one of these sites, you are required to agree to their Terms of Service — and this puts the free sites are in control of your site and your content.  They are allowing you to use their web space, but only if you agree to play by their rules.  And they can change their rules at any time with no advance notice.  

Lots of people use these free sites and you can put up some very good looking blogs and websites, but you must be very careful to read and to comply with their Terms of Service, and keep up-to-date backups of all your content.  The free sites can (and will) lock your blog/website and/or delete your content if they decide it’s too commercial or objectionable in some way.   And if you don’t have current backups when this happens, it’s too bad. 

The free sites are in control of your content, and they can decide to shut you down with no notice.  And writing your content and designing your web site takes a lot of time and effort.  You don’t want some unknown person at one of these sites to dump all your work — and believe me, it definitely does happen.

Given the problems just mentioned, your best bet is to buy web hosting and your own URL, and host your own web site and blog.   There are a lot of really excellent web hosting services available, way too many to even begin to list.  I personally use BlueHost and love them, and I buy my domains through them, but you can use any hosting service you want, and buy domains through any company you want.

Moving on — to be successful long term in Internet Marketing, you’ll need to build your list.  The “Can SPAM Act” that was passed several years ago changed list building for everyone.  At one time you could get list-managing software and host your list on your own site, but it’s no longer a good option.  So you need an AutoResponder service that will keep you in compliance with Can SPAM, which requires double-optins, among other things. 

There are quite a few autoresponder services out there, the two biggest and best are AWeber and GetResponse.  It’s possible to use free autoresponder services, but they’re typically not great, and most people eventually change to one of the paid services. 

This is where you run into problems, because you can’t transfer your list from one service to another.  If you change your autoresponder service, you are not allowed to just move your list of subscribers from the old service to the new one.  Instead, everyone on your list is required to go through the opt-in process again.  And a whole lot of people will not bother to do this, so you lose a lot of your subscribers.  Getting subscribers takes a lot of work, you don’t want to have to start over.

Okay, we’ve discussed the pros and cons — so if you decide to buy services, how much does all of this cost? 

It depends on the company, of course, but estimate $9 or $10 per month for web hosting.  URLs cost anywhere from $4 to $10 per year, depending on the ending — .com is the most expensive, .net and .org and others cost less.  So you can get a year’s web hosting and one domain (URL) for less than $150 per year.  An autoresponder service is more expensive and their charges change depending on how many subscribers you have, but you should probably budget about $200 per year. 

If you have the money, plan on spending at least $350 per year on your business tools.   You don’t have to spend it all at one time, you can start with web hosting for a couple months and one URL, then add the autoresponder once you get up and running.   If you can possibly afford it, purchasing your own web hosting, URL and autoresponder service is the best thing you can do to safeguard your business.

What will you write about in your articles?  That is the biggest questions most people who want to break into article writing have when they begin.  The field is wide open when it comes to what information you offer on the Internet.

The first thing to consider is — what do you like to write about?  All of us have hobbies and likes as well as dislikes — write about them from your perspective.  Write enough articles on a topic and you might qualify as an expert in your area within online communities.

The Reason for the Articles –  Why are you writing the articles? If you are starting a blog and want to draw attention to your site, you’ll want to choose topics that will be interesting to fellow readers on the Internet.  Surf the Web and research what topics are hot right now.  Some topics that are always popular: fashion, celebrity news, new products and services and health issues.  These categories will help you to generate a list of possible article topics.

When writing to draw traffic and attention to you, it is important to write articles about a topic that people are talking about.  If you are researching and see that there are not be a lot of articles on the Internet about pygmy animals, don’t get all excited until you do a bit more research – find out if people are searching for information on this subject.  You can write the most wonderful articles in the world on pygmy animals, but if there is not an interest in the subject, your articles will go unread.

Are You Creative? – There is very little that is new under the sun and there’s an almost unlimited amount of information available on the internet.  Chances are you will have to write about topics that have been written about before.  This is fine, but put a new spin on the subject, write about it from your unique perspective.  By using your unique voice and adding basic examples, you can recycle a topic to your advantage.

Brainstorm your topics.  Start by looking at your personal interests.  Then, move on to your job for ideas.  Finally, what is your family up to?  All of these people and interests make a good base for your article writing.

What are you curious about? — Maybe you want to know why the sky is blue.  Take some time and look up information about the sky and its color on the Internet or at your local library.  Now, you can write an article that people will want to read.  Whatever fascinates you can turn into a new avenue to find article topics.

Use Your Experiences – All of us have a story to tell, and your stories may be interesting to others.  Use both positive and negative situations as a tool – create how-to articles and give advice on a variety of topics. 

What are you going to write about in your articles?  The possibilities are infinite if you keep an open mind and use all of the resources at your disposal.

If you’d like a good ebook on writing articles and article marketing, I recommend “Article Marketing SuperHero” (see the link to the right, or Click Here.)  It covers a lot of topics, including how to get ideas, how to actually write the artices, how to use PLR for your articles, posting to article directories, outsourcing articlles, and more.   I’ll be covering most of this in upcoming messages, but if you want to get started NOW, this book will get you going.