Does Internet Marketing Success Require “Tools”?
By[nonmember] I use a LOT of different tools in my Internet business. I own all sorts of keyword, SEO, submission, video, article and other types of tools including VA’s to help with all the work. Beginning Internet marketers too often think that these tools are what make the success. They want desperately to believe there is some “magic formula” for making money online. They think all they have to do is find the perfect tools and use them.
What are the keys for success?
This may seem an odd post since this site makes most of it’s income from affiliate sales. But I enjoy my success here BECAUSE I tell it like it is and have helped a lot of folks get their online businesses going. The ONLY things a beginner needs to buy are [private_silver] a domain name and a good (inexpensive) hosting package. Nothing else is required…except a lot of work and study time.
The truth is that I had NO MONEY to buy all these tools in the beginning. My wife and I bought a domain name, $3.95 hosting, and ONE case of products to sell ($200). We got our first order because we figured out how to optimize one of our site’s pages for a niche keyword…which Google then ranked on their first page. I got really lucky and picked a tiny niche (I didn’t really know what I was doing) so ranking on the first page was pretty easy.
After that first success, I knew I had the key. I ramped up what was working (more optimized content…more first page rankings for other keywords).
I didn’t use ANY purchased tools for this. Heck, as a beginner, I wouldn’t have known how to use any special tools anyway!
And this is why I fell in love with Internet marketing. ANYONE can learn the basics and enjoy success WITHOUT any investment to speak of.
By the way, we took no money out of the business in the beginning. We let the money grow and reinvested it back into the business. THAT is how you can afford all the cool tools which make things much easier and can help ramp up your business even more.[/private_silver]
i wonder now though, with all the changes that have happened with the search engines, do you believe that a beginner can use the same tactics that you were able to use and get results?
I have made a little money (not enough leave my day J.O.B.) but I know my problem consists of not persisting when I have something that appears to be working. My motivation is in the tank right now. Any suggestions?
I’m glad you brought that up! I am disgusted with some of the “gurus” out there telling people you have to buy their all “new” Google secrets package because all the rules have changed!
What has changed? I wish someone would tell me what they mean by that.
Ok, ok….so you can’t have hidden text like we did 10 years ago….we can’t blast out tons of doorway pages anymore…..we can’t scrape content anymore (spam)….now we should use a much lower keyword density …..BIG DEAL!….NOTHING has changed that matters. It is all about quality content that’s optimized well AND has backlinks to it. What’s new there??
When I make a new niche site today, the ONLY thing I do different than I did in 2004 is to lower the keyword density. It’s just as easy now to rank a small niche site well as it was then.
If the area is in a bigger niche, I’ll need to get more backlinks today from article marketing etc. (but ONLY if the niche is bigger with more competition).
So someone please tell me why things have changed so much today that beginners can’t do it the same as I did then???
Sorry for the rant…. 🙂
Oh, about your motivation….
Well, that’s kinda on you. I do suggest listening to some CD’s of Tony Robinns and Jim Rohn. Their ideas will help and inspire to say the least.
But basically it’s just about discipline. Write down a 30 day plan for what YOU know to be the best for your business….then force yourself to follow it for 30 days in order to form that habit.
Hey Steve,
I think you make some very good points here – as you know there are lots of free tools out there that we can use to grow and learn this online business and it’s good to see that you like me are giving good solid advice which any “newbie” can use – I try to give mt members as much free help and advice as I can.
I will say that I do use and recommend some paid products/services but only ones that give real value to the buyer.
Keep up the good work buddy.
Paul Battrick
I’d have to add an email autoresponder to the beginner’s tool kit. There are some that are free although I like AWeber myself and it’s probably worth the cost if you can swing it.
Getting up a basic opt-in form and learning the basics of it isn’t any harder than learning how to use WordPress. I wish I’d set up a list when I first started instead of waiting for a year or so.
Steve,
I completely agree with you. While I don’t do IM full-time, I do pull in a nice supplemental income of about $1000/mo. with my niche sites.
I can still make small, niche sites that get on the first page of google. I simply optimize a page for a keyword and put high quality content on that page. Most of my sites are about 10 pages or so. But they rank really well and were not the least bit affected by the latest Google update. Heck one of my sites even gained ranking!
I think people have a hard time accepting what really works, because what really works is boring. It isn’t some fancy new tool designed to game the system in the short-run. It’s SEO coupled with high quality content. Simple and straightforward.
To be honest, nothing has changed. The very same “white hat” tactics people used 5 years ago would still work today, optimized content for your niche and promoting your site through various mediums like video, RSS feeds and the such. I think the only real difference is that now there are a lot more ways to promote your website, ie backlinks, forums, web 2.0 pages…etc.
The changes Google made were purely for the benefit of the end user not having to dig through crap to find what they need. But the very same things which worked 5 years ago will work 5 years from now. The hard work put in now is what pays off later on down the track when you can outsource 99% of your business but still reap the benefits.
yeah, I agree. aWeber would be my first choice of tools to buy for sure. I’d stay clear of any free ones though. Their deliverability is not good.
Very well said Lisa!
Amen to all that you said Norman!
Steve,
I do appreciate the fact that you will put up a post like this on your site. I have self studied the IM industry for years and I know the most useful white hat tools from the bad. I also know when tools or courses are over hyped by so called gurus out there. It gets to be so redundant to find another internet marketer online trying to sell some make money online course or tool to other future internet marketers.
It’s even worse when these future so called internet marketers eventually turn around and create another course or product/tool to sell to more future internet marketers. Thus the cycle continues. It’s as if a lot of people in the IM industry have zero creativity to create a real authority website that provides real value to others. They want to continue to prey on people wanting to learn this industry so bad to either quit their job or simply earn a living.
Steve it is so refreshing to see an internet marketer like yourself put up a post urging others to stop wasting their time and money on tools that are really not necessary in the beginning. Just get a domain, hosting, and put up a site with some quality optimized content that others will find very useful. Hopefully, the content others put up will not be related to internet marketing. I rather leave such content producing to an internet marketer like you Steve who is not afraid to put up a post like this.
Please continue to tell it like it is because it is very refreshing
Thanks Terry! I appreciate that…
My philosophy: What comes around goes around
Yeah, and you got that right…beginners had better stay away from anything related to “internet marketing”….only the best of the best succeed there….it’s not place for beginners to learn the ropes.