This will be a long post with some ramblings but things I think are important. One thing I do is read and study what internet marketers are doing. A LOT. I don’t watch the big time guru’s so much anymore. Not any at all really. I am watching some what I call up and comers.
I guess to use a baseball analogy they are in the minor leagues trying to get into the major leagues. Most are pretty close to being there. Some probably are already there they just don’t have their names plastered all over the internet.
I just returned from my annual trip to Florida for spring training last week. I mean baseball spring training. If you are not familiar with it, that is where Major League Baseball teams go to start their practice before the season starts. Some teams go to Florida and some teams go to Arizona.
Me and a buddy go down to Florida every year for a week and watch one game a day. We try to see different teams play each day if possible. If you love baseball it’s like being in paradise.
To be an all star baseball player you only have to hit .300. I say only. That means getting a hit only 3 out of every 10 times you come up to bat. In most things you would be considered a failure if you only batted .300. But hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports.
If you can hit .300 in internet marketing you are a success. Most people spend 3 or 4 years trying to make it as an internet marketer, spend 1000s of dollars on training and never make much money if any. It’s a tough business. The guru’s tell you all you need is to buy their course to make it to the promised land.
They count on you buying course after course. That’s how they make their money. We buy their products. Most of the guru’s are friends and if you are on their list, they tell you each week that one of their buddies has a new course coming out that can help you. So if you have any money left you buy it hoping it’s the one that will solve your problems.
Most of the time the new course is just rehashed stuff. Every now and then I buy something that is new. I learn from it and try to apply it to my business. I probably bat about .200. Some things work for me and some things don’t.
You have to stick with one person until what he or she preaches works they say.
If this is true why do they try to get you to buy other people’s products? Everyone tells you to follow ONE GURU or method, do what he or she says and you will eventually make it.
Maybe, maybe not.
You know now that I think about it this goes against what they are telling you when they say follow me. Then next week you get an email saying buy Ben’s stuff.
Then two days later you get an email pushing another buddies course. Hmm. I’m just saying. Something ain’t right.
Now before I get the big guys all pissed off at me (not that I care) I do agree you would probably be better off following one method and sticking with it when you are starting out.
What’s The Problem?
The problem is all of us are different. What works for one person may not work for another. You have to find someone to follow that you connect with. Not as easy as it sounds. Some people are better teachers than others. Maybe you are just starting and need someone that is great at breaking down the basics where you can understand it.
Maybe you learn better from videos. Maybe you are a reader and don’t like watching to many videos.
To increase your batting average or chances at success you need to first understand how you prefer to learn. Then do you feel more comfortable learning from a female or a male. Or does it even matter? To some it does.
You might like someone that is loud, or you might prefer a soft spoken teacher.
So What Do You Do?
Most of us read a salespage we like and say this is the guy or watch a video and say yea I want his stuff. But I only have until midnight to get it.
How about this. Go a month or two weeks and study their blog and what they are doing. Listen to some videos.
Who relates to you best? Think about it, make a decision and go with that person.
Try them out. Nothing says you have to stick with this person forever. Maybe you hit a home run the first time.
So don’t make the mistake that so many people make and rush to buy this person’s stuff. It will be here next week. They ain’t going nowhere.
Confusion Is Everywhere
I think a major problem is that there are so many different ways to make money online that people get confused. I know I did.
Do you start out with an affiliate site? Adsense sites? How about an information product site? Do you sell Clickbank products, Commission Junction products or Amazon products? How about a site that drop ships? Ebay?You get what I mean.
Their are experts out there that are specialists in each one of these areas. I know because I bought their stuff over the years.
Most of the guru’s and experts out there that have different types of sites in their inventory. They may or may not not tell you that. They want to sell you their information but they most likely have several if not hundreds of sites.
Nothing wrong with that in my opinion. Through affiliate sites you can learn what works and what does not work…when it comes to driving traffic to the affiliate sites for instance.
I actually started this article to talk about something I am working on that I started at the beginning of the year .
I decided I was going to have one niche affiliate site built each week. January was tough month for me because of my military job. I only had about a week to get anything done. I was working 16 hour days for about 3 weeks.
I hired a girl in the Philippines that is excellent at building niche affiliate sites for me. I come up with niches. She does the keyword research. Then I decide the exact product or products I want sell and she puts it together for me. I am paying her to work 40 hours a month. It’s working out well so far.
I may hire her full time in a few months if it continues to work
We are a little behind because of January but she is on the 5th site now. As of now I am doing all the marketing. I have a marketing plan I am working that is basically has 6 parts to it after the site is built.
The marketing plan is something I put together from several different sources. The main resources I use are Fiverr, Submit Your Article.com and One Hour Backlinks.
Fiverr has changed my life. When you are short on time and money it’s a life saver.
I had one niche site get 500 unique visitors in one day last week. The site had only been up about 2-3 weeks. I am trying to figure out what I did to get that spike in traffic for that one day. It didn’t last by the way. When I get another site or two up I will start doing a weekly up date on how the sites are doing. How the sites moved in google. Sales from products. Adsense sales,etc.
Some sites have adsense and some will not. Some have Clickbank products and some Amazon. One is being built now based on an e-book I wrote a few years ago. Most of the sites are just 3-4 pages max. One niche product or type of product for each site.
I am trying to keep it as simple as possible. I have a few other bigger affiliate sites but I have never tried small niche affiliate sites. We will see how it goes.
There is a method to my madness. I have a plan. A big plan. It goes against what most guru’s teach.
Big Question?
Am I spreading myself to thin. They would say so. Sometimes I wonder how can I get all this done while working a full time job that sometimes requires terrible hours.
I don’t worry about it anymore. I just do what I can do today. Then move on to the next day.
Like I said earlier. Without Fiverr and outsourcing this would not be possible without spending several thousand dollars a month. I am currently spending less than $500 a month now. I spend $30 on each website with Fiverr the first week after they are built.
Submit Your Article.com is a monthly fee and the One Hour Backlinks is a small fee each time you use it. I am experimenting with it. Other people tell me they have had success using them.
If you have no money to spend you can still get rankings and traffic it will just take you a lot longer. But there is no such thing as free traffic. Drives me crazy when people say this. It takes a lot of hours to get “free traffic”, that’s a cost to you. Your time.
Turns your business into a job.
So a couple of things in conclusion. In another week or two I will let you know how my niche affiliate sites are doing. Will probably be to early for much in the way of results but we will see.
Just so you know I also have this site and a sports website that I work on in some way every day. Some of it is offsite social stuff for these two sites.
In addition I am starting out very small in the Offline Consulting world. I said small because their is so little time. Things I can do without actually having to go meet someone face to face is what I am focusing on for now..
I am preparing for when I retire from military service in a year or two. I have said in some other posts that I believe offline consulting will continue to grow and their is no better training for it than growing your own websites and online business.
One last thing the people I promote on this site are quality people and marketers. Not just expert internet marketers. I may not agree with everything they say and do but they are not the guru’s I am referring to in this post.
These guys and gals have a lot of knowledge and they are willing to share a tremendous amount of it for free or at very little cost compared to what most guru’s cost you.
Comments below would be appreciated.
Thanks
Mike












