Welcome to the very first article that forms part of the training. If you consider the picture above you will see a very long road, but yet the road is straight. Yes, there is quite a long journey ahead of you, although a very exciting journey, as you are about to embark on your new online marketing journey. The road however is straight and this represents the fact that I will aim through step by step training to make your online journey simple and in the process eliminate confusion in a sea of misinformation.
Before you start your online marketing journey there are a couple of things that I would like you to realise and which I would like to be very clear about from the very beginning.
- 1) The Bad News
- 2) The Good News
- 3) Scaling Is Key
- Sales = A Percentage Game
- 4) Can Anyone Make Money Online?
- 5) Do I Need A Lot Of Expensive Online Marketing Tools?
- 6) So What Essential Online Marketing Tools Do I Need?
- 7) Do I Need Video Creation Tools Or Anything Else Or Is This It?
- 8) If This Is All I Need Then Why Do You Recommend Other Software On Your Website?
- 9) But What If I Want It All?
- Related Articles For Your Consideration:
1) The Bad News
The bad news is that there are no real shortcuts in the game of online marketing and if anyone is trying to convince you otherwise then I can tell you now that they are lying to you and they are probably trying to sell you a shiny object with the false promise of you starting to make money overnight if you simply invest in the shiny object that they recommend.
And the matter of fact is that this is exactly how they make their money and loads of it, by selling you quick rich schemes and it is quite sad that they in fact scam financially desperate people out of their money, which put them in a much more desperate financial state than before they got scammed out of their money.
Yes, we have all been there, including myself where it is simply too hard to resist their amazing ability to create very powerful and psychologically convincing promotions. In our desperation for a change in our financial situation, we so much want to believe them, that we end up making that purchase.
2) The Good News
The good news is that although there are no real shortcuts to making money online, it is possible to avoid detours and pitfalls by following the right guidance which can be immensely beneficial in the light of a sea of misinformation in regards to making money online.
More good news is that there is indeed a shed load of money to be made online and that the sky is really your limit, but it is not going to come without putting in a lot of hard work and with this a lot of patience is required as online success does not happen overnight.
The internet provides us with an amazing opportunity to sell to the world and more and more people are now starting to buy online. We are now presented with an amazing opportunity which we were never entitled to before. There are more than 4 billion potential customers out there that you can potentially sell to.
3) Scaling Is Key
I am here to tell you that unfortunately real online marketing results should not be expected before the 3 – 6 month period (depending on your computer skills) since starting out with online marketing. That is of course if you are planning on generating free organic traffic. If you have loads of money to spend on advertising, then it may be a different story.
The reason for this is because when you first start out you have no content as yet that is ranked within Google and it takes time for your website to start gaining trust in the eyes of Google and to start gaining momentum. The greater the trust of your domain (which usually comes through age being one criteria – the so called “aged domains”) the easier it will be for you to rank your content within Google on the condition that you did your keyword research and that you produced quality and of course unique content.
The more content you have and the more keywords you start ranking for within Google, the more traffic your website is going to generate and the more sales it is going to produce, as we all know that it is a percentage game. There will always be a certain percentage of your visitors that will buy from you, so therefore it makes perfect sense that the more traffic you can generate, the more sales you will produce.
As already mentioned, if you have quite a bit of money to spend on advertising then you can obviously speed up the process quite considerably, but if you don’t have any money to spend on advertising, or do not wish to spend any money on advertising, then you will have to rely on free organic traffic only and this will of course take longer for you to start enjoying traffic and sales.
Depending on your choice of strategy, I do recommend you compare “Wealthy Affiliate” and “Legendary Marketer”. They are both fantastic online marketing training platforms, but their recommended strategies are quite different. Wealthy Affiliate’s main focus is on how to generate traffic organically with a lot less emphasis on paying for traffic, whereas Legendary Marketer recommends a hybrid strategy, but with quite a bit of emphasis on the importance of investing in your business on a weekly basis by driving some traffic via paid ads, instead of just relying on organic traffic.
Please note that Wealthy Affiliate and Legendary Marketer are focusing on affiliate marketing and may not be the ideal training platforms when considering an E-commerce business model. If you are interested in E-Commerce, then I highly recommend “The Amazing Selling Machine” or “Six Figure Mentors”.
How do you produce traffic?
Well there are many ways to create traffic, but most importantly is to make sure that long term sustainable traffic is produced and that can only be achieved through quality content creation for which the keywords ranks within the top pages of Google, Bing and Yahoo, of which Google is of course the most important.
Yes, sharing to social media can provide temporary traffic and sales can and will result in you doing so, but this is not long term sustainable traffic and should be viewed as a strategy to add to the sustainable traffic your website is already generating through ranking in the top pages of Google, Yahoo and Bing for specific keywords.
So now you hopefully understand why it is impossible to make money online overnight, because you need time to gain trust in the eyes of Google and you need time to create loads of content in order to get loads of traffic which of course will lead to sales.
When considering how to generate traffic, especially free website traffic and loads of it, then the expert that can show you exactly how to do that is a guy called Russell Brunson. Now he certainly does not need any introduction, but if you are completely new to online marketing or have been sleeping under a rock, Russell Brunson is best known for the creation of ClickFunnels and he has generated millions in the online industry and he is an absolute master in the generation of free online traffic. What is awesome about Russell is that he teaches you evergreen traffic generation strategies that will not be affected by the dreaded Google slap or changes in Meta advertising policies or the changes in the algorithms of any other online or social media platforms.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from Audible qualifying purchases.
What is even better is that Russell will teach you 100% free of charge. You can simply click on the image above and you can get your Free “Traffic Secrets” book shipped to you straight away. In fact, “Traffic Secrets” is one of a trilogy of books on website traffic generation of which “Traffic Secrets” is the last book in the trilogy. If you are interested in the other two free books that Russell has to offer, then you can find them here: “Expert Secrets“ and “Dotcom Secrets“.
Not that much into reading and prefer to listen to this trilogy on Audible while stuck in traffic? No problem at all, you can certainly do so, but it will require you to sign up to an Audible subscription and you will miss out on all the value that Russell Brunson has to offer you when moving through his funnel. Russell is known for overdelivering as he knows how valuable overdelivering is for business success.
4) Can Anyone Make Money Online?
Yes, you do not have to be a professor in the English language or the best article writer in the world in order to make money online. All you need to do is to do your research and make sure that the information you put out there is good quality information that people find helpful and which they would like to read. Captivate your reader’s interest and do know your target audience and what it is they are looking for.
The key principle is simple: Content is King, so the more content you create and the more keywords as a result you rank for in the top pages of Google, Yahoo and Bing, the more sales you will generate. For this to happen a lot of hard work and dedication is required, especially in the very beginning.
5) Do I Need A Lot Of Expensive Online Marketing Tools?
The good news is that you do not need a lot of expensive online marketing tools, but there will be some basic essential tools which is going to cost you some money, but is certainly not going to break the bank.
6) So What Essential Online Marketing Tools Do I Need?
This is of course just a quick summary as the idea is not to cover training here comprehensively, but just a quick introduction of what you could expect when embarking on your online journey.
6.1 WordPress
Now WordPress is not necessarily essential as there are many other content management platforms out there which could be utilised and are utilised. However my preference and the preference of the majority (referring to those that are not computer programmers doing website creation through coding) would certainly be WordPress and the reason is because of its flexibility and because it is a free platform to utilise (besides having to pay for hosting, which I will discuss later). Saying this, there is a new competitor called GrooveFunnels that just joined the market and this platform may very well be worth investigating when considering an alternative content management platform. I will discuss my reasons behind this a little bit later on in this article.
Some of the alternatives to WordPress I will briefly mention here.
Free Blogging Platforms:
There are some free blogging platforms out there like for example Blogger, Wix (the free version) and Tumblr. I have seen some people that managed to get quite a bit of traffic from these free platforms and they probably could manage driving some sales via these platforms. However the free version of these sites are not ideal because you are not able to connect your own personal domain (branding). Say for example if I was to create a free Blogger account for my site Product Spotlight then my url will look as follow (https://productspotlight.blogspot.com) instead of https://productspotlight.net which looks much more professional. Besides the fact that Blogger is very limited in its functionality compared to WordPress it also creates a lot more trust to be able to use a personal domain and not a Blogger domain.
The same is true for Wix.com when it comes to their free version and what makes matters worse here is that with the free account, besides being very limited in functionality, it is also riddled with Wix.com adverts and Wix branding (watermarked) that can only be removed if you was to register for a paid Wix account.
With Tumblr it is pretty much the same scenario as explained through my Blogger.com example. There is one platform however that stands out head and shoulders above the rest in terms of what their FREE account has to offer, which includes free hosting of course and that is GrooveFunnels. The big difference here is that you can connect a custom domain name, which is not possible with some of the mentioned platforms on a free account. Not only that, but GrooveFunnels also entitles you to a funnel builder, unlimited e-commerce stores, email marketing automation for up to 5oo contacts etc. and all that on a 100% free account. I will expand a bit later on what it is that GrooveFunnels has on offer in regards to their paid account and how this compares to WordPress.
Please note: It is actually possible to connect a custom domain to Blogger and Tumblr, but you will still be required to buy the domain name and you will still be required to invest in hosting. So this means that Blogger and Tumblr will no longer be a free solution and if you are going to pay for a custom domain name and hosting anyways, then WordPress is a much better option than Tumblr and Blogger, as it has a lot more functionality.
Paid Blogging Platforms besides WordPress:
There is a website platform called SquareSpace which is good (not as good as WordPress in my opinion) and utilised by many, but the problem is that you pay a monthly subscription and your website is hosted on squarespace.com, so what happens to your website once you stop paying? This means that either you are locked in paying your monthly subscription to SquareSpace for life or you pretty much lose all your hard work.
Yes there is an option of transferring your domain to different hosting should you wish, but what happens to all your hard work as you have essentially built your hard work on a template that was provided by SquareSpace and as the template used is specifically built on the SquareSpace platform I cannot see how you could retain your website information should you decide to move host. This makes the transferral of the domain possibility obsolete, because who wants to start all over again from scratch. Perhaps there is a workaround that I am not aware of, but why would you want to complicate matters and why would you want to pay a monthly fee if you could simply utilise WordPress for free.
At this stage though I do need to mention that you will have to pay for the hosting of your WordPress domain, whereas the hosting fee is included with SquareSpace as they are hosting it for you on their platform. With WordPress however the hosting is likely to be much cheaper than the monthly subscriptions of for example SquareSpace and Wix. Further to this WordPress is so much more flexible as there are so many hosting companies which you can choose from.
With the Wix.com paid version it is the exact same scenario than I just explained when it comes to SqaureSpace. Wix might be easier to use than WordPress for complete beginners, but the Wix monthly subscription is quite expensive and as already mentioned you will end up with the exact same situation as just described when it comes to utilising SquareSpace.
I would also like to point out that if you are ever thinking of selling your website, then just another reason why I would highly recommend to build your website utilising WordPress. The reason for this is that to my knowledge you cannot sell websites built on platforms like Wix, SquareSpace, GrooveFunnels etc. on platforms like Flippa, Sedo etc. as how would you do that if a paid subscription is needed for platforms like Wix, SquareSpace GrooveFunnels etc? Perhaps it is possible to sell sites like that if you can sell to existing members or can convince the buyer to sign up to a subscription of these particular platforms, but this will greatly limit the buyer potential, should this even be a possibility.
So now you understand why I recommend WordPress and WordPress is the most used content management system in the world and as a result there are loads of free plugins as well as paid plugins created for WordPress which makes this the most versatile content management system in the world .
So for our training purposes I will mostly focus on using WordPress as a content management system, as WordPress is what I would wholeheartedly recommend you use. Saying this, different strokes for different folks. Should you for any reason decide on a different content management system than WordPress, then I highly recommend GrooveFunnels, as this is the ultimate all-in-one online marketing platform that provides you with all the online marketing tools you need to be successful, all under one roof. For the sake of keeping everything together in one place and for the purpose of optimal integration, GrooveFunnels is my top recommendation should your decision be not to utilise WordPress.
With GrooveFunnels you will never have to worry about installing plugins like you have to do with WordPress and truth be told that these plugins do not always play very well together and can from time to time lead to massive headaches. If you wish to use a different content management system to WordPress then you are of course free to do so. You will still be able to tap into the training that is not WordPress related, but online marketing related, which is of course universal and which would be our main focus.
Considering all of the above, my recommendation is to build websites on Wordpress and to use GrooveFunnels for everything else. The exception to the rule for me is the building of websites via GrooveFunnels that you know you will never sell e.g. Mike Filsaime’s personal branded website is built with GrooveFunnels as can be seen here: Mike Filsaime’s personal website.
6.2 Hosting
Secondly you will have to host your website somewhere, which means the platform (host) where you upload your personal domain and WordPress template in order for your created content to be seen all over the world wide web. There are many hosting companies out there e.g. HostGator, Bluehost, Rackspace, WP Engine, A2 Hosting etc. My recommendation from those hosting companies listed is WP Engine or A2 Hosting. It all depends on your requirements. When it comes to WP Engine, not only is it a very reliable hosting company, but also provides you with 35+ StudioPress Themes free of charge which comes as part of the package. StudioPress is a premium WordPress theme. Premium WordPress themes will be discussed a little bit later on in this article.
When it comes to A2 Hosting you will get super fast hosting at a very affordable price. A YouTuber called, Jack Cao, is an absolute website speed fanatic and below you can view the extensive tests he did comparing hosting companies, to determine the fastest website host. You guessed it, A2 Hosting came out on top and not only was it a shock to me, but to Jack Cao too. I highly recommend you watch the fascinating video results below.
Now you may be quite surprised to hear that I personally am not hosting at A2 Hosting or WP Engine, so why do I recommend it then if I am not personally using it? Well the thing is, it all depends on your specific needs and the reason why I mentioned both WP Engine and A2 Hosting as recommendations, depending on your requirements. Now the same is true with the company where I am hosting, called Wealthy Affiliate (WA). WA will be covered fully in the next section, but in short WA is first and foremost an online marketing training platform and they include loads of incentives with their membership, which includes hosting, a top notch keyword research tool etc. The thing is that WA hosting is not available to the general public, but only those that are WA members.
Do not worry if you are a total newbie and things like hosting etc. does not make sense to you at this point in time. Everything will be covered step by step. The aim of this article is simply to give you a quick overview and awareness of the bare essentials you need before we start the training process and also for you to understand why I will focus on utilising only WordPress as a content management system in the training that is to follow, with the exception of GrooveFunnels of course, which I have mentioned earlier.
Hosting WordPress For Free Via WA (Wealthy Affiliate)
Setting up your hosting account can be quite daunting for newbies and therefore I highly recommend you to have a look at Wealthy Affiliate.
In brief, Wealthy Affiliate is a community of around 2.5 million affiliate marketers and some of the most successful online marketers in the world can be found on this platform. Wealthy Affiliate has any and every kind of training to do with online marketing (with the main focus on affiliate marketing) that you can imagine and if you cannot find the training you require, then you can simply request the community to create the training for you, as there are certainly a lot of online marketing experts that can be found in this community.
Further to this you also have the option to at any time ask the community questions you might have in the Live Chat and there will always be someone there that will be able to help you with your query or that would be able to direct you to the applicable training that you require.
On top of this, Wealthy Affiliate hosts all of your websites for free and they offer 24/7 website support with an average response time of 1 minute. The support team will deal with all of your hosting requirements and therefore it is not needed for you to learn how to manage your own hosting which can be quite daunting for the beginner.
There are a lot more benefits to Wealthy Affiliate for example they also provide you with one of the best keyword research tools, if not the best, and it goes by the name, Jaaxy. As the whole purpose for you is to generate traffic from Google, Bing and Yahoo, keyword research is absolutely vital in the process of determining your keywords that you are trying to rank for when creating content.
You might say but what about the free option of using Google Keyword Planner? It is straight from Google, isn’t it? If you read my Jaaxy article, I point out to you that the Google Keyword Planner is quite limited in many ways, as for example it will not show you how much competition there is for that particular keyword. It will simply tell you whether the competition is high, medium or low, whereas Jaaxy would show you exactly how many pages in Google is trying to compete for that particular keyword and would give you statistics of your percentage chance to rank number one for that particular keyword in Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Should you wish, you can read my full Wealthy Affiliate Review to explore all the benefits that WA has to offer. You can also sign up to Wealthy Affiliate for free and test drive it and see if it is for you before making the decision to become a premium member.
6.3 Jaaxy or similar high quality keyword research tool
I already gave a brief summary about Jaaxy at 6.2 but in summary it is essential to have a top notch keyword research tool in your possession as this is vital for you to identify the keywords you need to rank for in Google, Bing and Yahoo. I personally believe that Jaaxy is one of the most advanced tools for keyword research and for this reason, Jaaxy is what I would wholeheartedly recommend you use. I personally use Jaaxy myself.
You can start using Jaaxy for free. Simply type in any keyword of your choice in the Jaaxy search box below to try it out. To learn more about how to do keyword research effectively, I show you exactly how Jaaxy works and how to use it to dominate your competition in my Jaaxy article. Jaaxy will certainly be one of the most powerful and essential tools that you will need in your online marketing toolbox.
6.4 Autoresponder (Email Marketing)
I was in two minds whether I should put email marketing under the essential tools section, but after reflection it is certainly true that the money is in the list and the quicker you can start building an email list, the better it is. So although the bare essentials you need is your website, hosting and a good quality keyword research tool, I do highly recommend that you consider a good quality autoresponder like, Getresponse , to start building your online marketing email list as soon as possible.
Although a lot of marketers manage to make good money from the SEO strategy as discussed above, it is true that most of the money online marketers manage to generate is usually through their email list (once they managed to grow their list to a considerable size). However, without the SEO strategy you will not be able to build your email list, as of course you will need traffic before you are able to build your email list.
6.5 Are Sales Funnels Optional?
Sales Funnels is a very interesting one as there are different schools of thought whether sales funnels are essential or not. Some will tell you that all you need is a website, where others like Russell Brunson will tell you that websites are not essential and all you need for online success are sales funnels.
I do believe that sales funnels are a lot more targeted which will probably convert better than website articles, but have you ever seen a business without a website? Although sales funnels can make you a lot of money it does not accumulate value like a website that can eventually be sold alongside the business.
Another question that comes to mind is how do you actually drive traffic to your sales funnels? Well, Russell Brunson, the brain child behind ClickFunnels has many interesting ideas about traffic generation, but I think that website articles can be a very good way of driving traffic to your sales funnels. So I personally am a believer that both are essential for online success, but I will certainly not dismiss the value of a website and I do believe that the SEO strategy is very important for generating organic traffic.
7) Do I Need Video Creation Tools Or Anything Else Or Is This It?
This is it. If you are only starting out with online marketing then what I have outlined for you above is the only tools that you need at this point of time as content is King and therefore write, write, write. That is all you have to do. Yes of course video creation can bring you tons of traffic and YouTube videos has the ability to also rank very well in Google. But one step at a time. Video creation again is another skill that needs to be mastered. I will certainly be able to recommend free and paid video creation tools, should this be something you might be interested in.
However, for anyone starting out right now, I would only recommend what I stated above and you do not need to buy anything else.
Perhaps A Premium WordPress Theme?
There is perhaps one more thing that you might want to consider and that is perhaps investing in a premium WordPress theme, like Astra. Again there are different strokes for different folks. Some famous online personalities like for example, Matt Cutts from Google, plus the founder of WordPress – Matt Mullwenweg recommends StudioPress, but I personally prefer to use Astra.
Why am I using a premium WordPress theme you may ask? Well the answer is very simple. A premium WordPress theme provides me with all the plugins that I would ever need to create very professional looking websites with such an array of options that it does not matter whether I want to run an online shop or whether I want to run a membership site or just simply blog away. Astra plugins covers me for whatever it is I would want to create within WordPress without breaking a sweat or having to go search for plugins that will provide me with the functionality I need.
Further to this, as Astra is a customised WordPress theme, it also makes the process so much simpler. It almost becomes drag and drop. So say for example I would like to insert a YouTube video into my article then there will be an icon that says “YouTube” which I can simply drag onto my website and populate it easily with the YouTube video url and can then right there and then select position, width and height of the video etc. Some features e.g. in how to create a flip box might require you to know or understand coding, but with Astra no need for that as I simply insert a flip box by choosing it from my array of functions that I can insert with a simple click of a button.
Another reason for choosing Astra is due to performance. In fact I was using another premium Wordpress theme in the past, which worked great, but unfortunately the speed performance of that theme was terrible and I had no choice but to re-build my entire website on Astra, which took months to do. Today you cannot afford to have a slow loading website as speed performance is a rank criteria within Google. If your content is not going to rank within the search engines, then content creation becomes a pointless exercise. So here is a massive tip for you. Avoid website builders that are slow. That is one of the costliest and biggest mistakes you can make, which will cost you a lot of time and pain to rectify.
8) If This Is All I Need Then Why Do You Recommend Other Software On Your Website?
The above in my opinion is seriously all you need to start off with. However as you become more advanced, your online money making strategies might also start to evolve.
I am sure you have watched some webinars before or at least heard about webinars, right? Now I do not know if you have any idea of the insane amount of money some online marketers are making through broadcasting webinars. To give you a bit of an idea. Webinarjam is a hot favourite webinar solution used by thousands of online marketers. I happen to also have Webinarjam in my toolkit and I was lucky as I got on board when Webinarjam just got released and therefore I was able to pick up Webinarjam for only $97 and that for a lifetime membership. I see today Webinarjam is quite pricey, but so worth it if you know how to utilise the power of webinars effectively. However you can test drive it for 14 days for only $1 should you wish.
This offer is not available anymore, but when I used to scroll down in my Webinarjam membership area I used to see an option where you can request a webinar guru to create you a professional and profitable webinar for the insane price of $3995 and that is only for one webinar. Do you really think that Webinarjam would advertise that option if there are not people buying that particular package? You might say but this is insane and exactly what I was thinking when I first saw the price, but after investigation I realised that it is so worth it to some of these online marketers as that $3995 is a drop in the ocean in comparison to the money they put in their pocket through running that webinar.
However, everyone is at different stages so just because I am recommending Webinarjam on my website for example for those that are ready to run their own webinars does not mean that it is applicable and recommended to you that is just starting out with online marketing.
The same is true with for example video creation tools. I can recommend you free video creation tools that will do the trick for now, but if you are really serious about creating awesome creative videos then you might need a much more advanced paid video creation editing software like e.g Adobe Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro X, Camtasia Studio etc. The video creation tools I mentioned here so by the way are all good options but once again different strokes for different folks. The price might also be a deciding factor should professional video creation editing software be something you are interested in now or in the future.
9) But What If I Want It All?
If you want an all-in-one solution that provides you with all the online marketing tools you could ever need, then there is only one option to consider, as there are currently no other competitors in the market place that provides all the functionality that GrooveFunnels has on offer and especially at that particular price point.
#JustGroove
Everything you need to Start Selling Online in 1 Place. Over 550,000+ Users Trust Groove.
The problem many business owners and online marketers face is that complete online marketing solutions do not exist, up until now that is, and for this reason they are forced to sign up to an array of different kind of platforms that provides different types of services. A lot of these software platforms are created by different software developers and for this reason a lot of these software platforms have not been developed to work in conjunction with one another.
Now with the arrival of GrooveFunnels there is no need anymore to try duct tape software platforms together that was never supposed to work together in the first place and you will also save a heck of a lot of money in the process. As a bonus there are no more need to struggle with WordPress plugins that often do not play together nicely and that can often cause headaches after a plugin update, due to plugins not always being compatible.
If you really want it all, also in regards to more than just online marketing tools, say e.g. online marketing training courses or platforms then I highly recommend you check out this online marketing success resource document that I have put together for you.
Summary:
So yes, I was serious that all you need to make money online is what I recommended above under heading number 6 when first starting out with online marketing.
And do not forget what I mentioned in the very beginning. Online marketing success does not come overnight, it is hard work and patience is required, but once the money start rolling in, guess who would be smiling? 🙂
The aim of this article was to give you a general overview of the bare essentials you need to be aware of in order to be successful online. The aim of this article was to now set the scene for your online marketing training to begin, where I will take you step by step by the hand and walk you through the process of how to become successful online.
I would like to leave you with a quote by Richard Branson: “If someone gives you an amazing opportunity, but you do not know how to do it, say Yes, and then learn how to do it later”.
The internet gives us an amazing opportunity to sell to the world and more and more people are now starting to buy online. We are now presented with an amazing opportunity which we were never entitled to before. I recommend you grab this amazing opportunity with both hands, even if you are not sure where to begin, and then learn how to do it along the way.
I wish you the very best as you start to embark on your new journey towards massive online success!
Best Wishes
Schalk Zeeman
I love how you go through each headline step-by-step. Not many break it down as well as you have. As you say affiliate marketing is not as easy as some people make it out to be. Good thing that you are letting others know this because there are still people out there who think that making money online should happen real fast. Rather than being in for the long haul, they try shortcuts, which is pretty sad because they are only shortchanging themselves by spending money, yet gaining nothing back. I like the wealthy affiliate platform, I’m a member there as well.
When I first started affiliate marketing I went with them as a free member. What they offer to free members is pretty significant to what other programs offer.
You absolutely hit the nail on the head. I do believe that people need to know the truth that there is a lot of money to be made online, but not without a lot of hard work and dedication. Like you said, there simply is no shortcuts. I am of the opinion that anyone that is willing to commit themselves and work incredibly hard is able to make it big online, but as you mentioned, too many people want overnight success and is not willing to put in the effort in order to see the results. That is in my opinion the number one reason why people fail online and then come up with the excuse that online marketing does not work, yet there are so many online marketers out there that is super successful.
What I personally find very helpful about Wealthy Affiliate is the strength of being part of a massive community that is not only incredibly supportive, but keeps you accountable, inspired and motivated.
Thanks for the very clear explanation of how to get started correctly in online marketing. I think it’s great that you mention the pitfalls and the need to focus and avoid the shiny objects promising a quick buck. We all know that’s not reality although it is human nature to hope there’s a quicker way than just hard work. You set realistic expectations and yet still inspire, great job!
Joe
Many thanks, Joe! Much appreciated! And you are certainly correct that it is just human nature to hope there is a quick solution without having to put it the hard work. Don’t we all wish it was true! 🙂
Just as many people would love to find a pill to swallow to cure whatever ails them, earning money online is not a “get rich quick” thing, either. You have written a down-to-earth explanation. To own and operate a business, whether brick and mortar or online, takes hard work. Thanks for the reality check.
Connie, so true. There is a reason that the weight loss industry is a trillion dollar industry, yet I have met very few, if any that ever lost sufficient weight swallowing a weight loss pill. Those that actually have successful weight loss stories are those that put in the hard work to alter their diet and spend many hours in the gym. There simply are no shortcuts and easy solutions as you suggest. We all need that reality check from time to time. The great thing however is that when we have finally decided to put in that hard work and effort and we start reaping the benefits of our efforts, then it is surely more sweet than bitter. Nothing tastes better than that sweet success of accomplishment.
What a nice post you wrote! I really enjoyed reading it and I could not be silent about your post so I decided to leave my comment here and say, Thank You! for sharing this quality post with others.
Actually this is exactly the information that I was looking for about online marketing and when I landed to your website and read this post, it answered all my questions in detail.
So I’m happy that you decided to write about this topic and share it with people. It’s very useful and can definitely be used as a great source for introduction to online marketing.
I will come back to your website again for sure and I’m looking forward to read your new posts.)
Thanks!
Many thanks for your kind words, Ali! I am glad that you found the information presented here both helpful and interesting. I am looking forward to hear from you again in future and I wish you the greatest of success in regards to your online marketing endeavours.
Honestly, I can’t comment anything that hasn’t already been said. I found your website very helpful and I can see that you put a lot of time and thought into this. I read a few articles before getting to this one, and I was in “awe.” I am so impressed by your journey and how you overcame it. I will certainly keep coming back to read more of what you have to say. Truly inspiring!
Many thanks for your very kind words, Elise! This is truly a great encouragement to know that you took the time to read several of my articles and that you found it so inspiring. It actually inspired me to hear that what I do write, some find inspiring. It certainly makes it so worth it. Wishing you the very best of success with your online journey!
Hey Schalk,
Great post, makes it really clear how you can get started with online marketing. You’ve also shown how many different paths you can go, which shows how everyone can go with what they feel is right for them…
Thanks again
Many thanks for stopping by, John and thanks for your very kind words of encouragement. I am wishing you the very best of success with your online marketing endeavours!
Hi Schalk,
I think this might be the most thorough article on online marketing I have read yet. Personally, I had no idea that so many different tools existed to choose from for online marketing. Some, like Wix and WordPress, are familiar to me and of course Russel Brunson and ClickFunnels, and a few others. But, most importantly, you mentioned GrooveFunnels and their incredible package. It is amazing that it took this long for a company to design software with everything Online Marketers need in one package. As you have pointed out, there are many options to choose from available, but they weren’t really designed to work together. This software has some great potential!
Many thanks, Chas, for your very kind words of encouragement. I am excited to see where GrooveFunnels will be in a year or two from now. Very exiting developments.
Wow,
You have packed a lot of info into this post. I didn’t read through the comments to see if anyone mentioned this, but there is another draw back to having a subdomain off another website like blogger or any other company that gives you a url that looks like yoursite.oursite.com.
Anyway, that problem is installing google analytics and a Facebook pixel.
Even though you can install the pixels on your website and even check to see if they are firing or working, you will not be able to use them because the owner of the url address has set limits.
Just thought I would throw that in?
Very interesting, Greg. Thank you so much! Very helpful. I will however make a correction to this post in a moment as I just realised that you can actually connect a custom domain to Blogger or Tumblr. However you will still need to of course buy a custom domain and have hosting. You will basically just point your domain to your Tumblr website etc. I do not believe this to be true for Wix or SquareSpace. There you will have to pay a monthly fee in order to add a custom domain to Wix or SquareSpace and can only host on these platforms.
All the basics that you talk about are a good reminder of what we need to do all the time when we create our content. You mention Jaaxy, we use this tool to scale our website to find the best keywords out there. You helped us get our routine back on track to see what we are missing, we always need a reminder.
Your article will keep us on track.
Cheers,
MnD
Matthew and Deloris, many thanks for visiting. I am glad to hear that you found the article useful. Wishing you the very best of success!
Hey schalk,
Yet another informative piece, and one to bookmark for future reference. I have always known that Webinars are a lucrative business but I haven’t considered how huge the sums can be. Now it makes sense when you hear some of these online marketers who in their video ads talk about making 5-6 digits figures on a monthly basis.
I’m nowhere near those type of sums in my online marketing journey but it is encouraging to know what lies ahead as one puts in the work.
Thanks for sharing.
Femi
Femi, I know. It sounds like fantasy at first, until that moment when reality kicks in and you realise that there are some online marketers that really earn shed loads of money through utilising webinars. Saying this, these online marketers deserve the credit as I am sure they have put in the hard grind that allowed them to be in this privileged position. Wishing you the very best of success with your online business!
I’ve been doing this for nearly 3 years now and the money has yet to come in. I guess for some it takes longer. It’s a lot of work and sometimes I struggle to keep it all together, the blogs, videos, and so on. I haven’t made YT videos in a while, because my day job demands a lot from me. Are you using Astra for this website? It looks great. I am using Generate Press – the free version – and I like it but perhaps I should look more into the Premium version. When you have a Premium version you don’t need to install any other plugins, do you?
Hi Christine. Yes, I must confess that online marketing takes a long time for sure and I would say that the best thing you can do for yourself is to start building an email list if you have not started doing so already. It is certainly true that the money is in the list. Yes, WA can talk about ranking organically by writing quality content and of course this strategy does work, but this strategy however takes a heck of a long time. Like you mentioned, it is difficult with a full-time job to get as many articles submitted as you should in order to make the content creation strategy work. Google is looking for consistency and would like to see regular content creation like clockwork.
I do indeed use Astra. In fact, Christine, I was forced to rebuild this site from scratch on Astra as I was making use of Avada, which certainly has all the bells and the whistles, but unfortunately that theme is just way too taxing and as a result I was struggling with a slow loading website, and you know that this does not sit well with Google when considering website rank.
This said, I still run https://enmbird.co.uk on Avada as this site runs Woocommerce and is quite complex in how it is set up and it does not look like it from the outside, but it is a massive site and there are a lot of private pages created that is not visible from the outside by just looking at it. This site is also making quite good money already, so it would have been way too tricky to try and build this site over from scratch on Astra and would have taken forever. I managed to sort of find a solution in two plugins that drastically sped up things and that is Perfmatters and Autoptimize.
In regards to the Premium version of themes. Yes, I think it does provide you with the majority of plugins you will require. There are of course some plugins like SEO plugins that are always going to have to be third party plugins.
Due to my full-time job and being torn between video creation, blogging, email creation etc. this is no easy task. I myself need to motivate myself to be a lot more focused in order to get the regular content out there on a platform of choice, so I can get Google’s attention.
The thing that does motivate me though is that there is certainly light in the tunnel. This is by no means a regular occurrence, but today was a bit of a special day for me as I made $250 commissions today from 4 different sales and all came from my online marketing money niche and not from my embroidery computerised software niche. The content for my online marketing site is still incredibly thin, as my focus up until this point was a lot more on my embroidery niche than on the online marketing niche. So the good news, although I still have very far to go indeed, there are some indications that I am moving in the right direction.
Wishing you the very best of success with your online marketing business! Keep the faith and positivity! You can do it!
Thank you, Schalk. I’ll keep on going. Giving up is no option! 🙂
Good on you, that is great news! 🙂
That is the spirit! Go for it Christine! We can make it!
Hey Schalk,
Great post and well done for writing such a long detailed and informative post. I kind of feel a bit intimidated to be fair seeing as you have provided so much great information here. I would guess that for anyone looking into getting involved with online marketing you really have explained everything quite well.
It is definitely something you have to take your time with you are right. I have been blogging for over 2 years now and still not really hitting the heights I’d like to. I have not thrown the towel in yet though. I really think for all my work and investment it has to be worth something.
The way I see it the more I write the better I become at writing and the more I publish the more chance I have at generating passive income. It kind of sucks really all the work I done and not actually making money but it’s a learning process I guess. Plus I think it’s about offering value as well – I think maybe this could be something for me to get better at. Although for anyone out there – no reason why you can’t be a success in 1 year – it is just how you apply yourself.
Thank you Alex for your very kind words of encouragement. I feel your pain in thinking about all the hard work put in and not always seeing the fruit of your labour until much later. Glad to hear that giving up is not an option. We will certainly get there in the end and will be laughing about the hard times we have endeared.You are perfectly correct that the more we write, the better we get at it. Wishing you the very best of success with your online business! We can make it!
Hi Schalk
This was as really great and informative post. I like how you broke down all the blogging options to people so they can decide what suits them best. The fact that you have tried and used so many platforms makes you a good and trusted source.
I never thought a website/online business could make the big switch and move away from WordPress and move fully into the Groove Ecosystem. Are you going to do it?
I can see some advantages of it. Samcart is incredibly expensive and I knew when I had my first digital product for sale back in 2017 that the $49/month was going to sting. Really sting. Lifetime deals are great. I got Thrivecart.
You had a wonderful score with WebinarJam.
How does the Kibo Code system figure in your business plans now?
You have an impressive output and content given you work full-time also. Well done!
Dear John, many thanks for your very kind words of encouragement. As you know I have very recently built over this site on Astra. Although Avada had all the bells and the whistles the theme/wesbsite builder was too slow. This took me some months to build over on Astra, so I will not at this stage switch this site once again to GrooveFunnels. The https://embird.co.uk site is way too big and complex to build over and already making good money, so I decided to keep that running on Avada but managed to improve the speed drastically by implementing your recommendation Autoptimize and then also Perfmatters.
What I am going to do from here onwards however is to build my future websites on GrooveFunnels. I don’t mind to continue to have some sites on WordPress as I will be using GrooveFunnels for everything else like for E-commerce sites, membership sites, building funnels, hosting videos etc. and all these tools also compliments WordPress well. For example I already have funnels and videos from GrooveFunnels integrated with this WordPress site.
In regards to Kibo Code…. I invested in it last year when it was known as Kibo Code Quantum but I decided on a refund after 30 days. Although the principles behind it is really great, I did not like that the E-commerce platform still felt quite a bit in beta after spending $3500. A year later however with the release of Kibo Eclipse, it was very tempting, but then I decided it is best not to take on yet another business model. I should stay focused and as a result I decided to stick with affiliate marketing for now and GrooveFunnels seemed to be a much better fit in this regard, with the added benefit that it offers unlimited E-commerce stores, which does overlap to a certain extent with some of the capability that Kibo Code offers in terms of an E-commerce platform.
On top of this all, I decided that I am more interested in the Amazon FBA model when considering an E-commerce model in future. The two best courses to follow in this regard is “The Amazing Selling Machine” and “Six Figure Mentors”.
By the way, Kibo Code will never ever be released again, so that is no longer an option.
Thanks for the update Schalk,
That makes sense how you will use GrooveFunnels for future sites especially since you were wise to get the WebinarJam on lifetime deal.
Yes when I looked at Kibo Code, it didn’t look good on first glance, though I didn’t do a deep dive into it. I guess I knew I didn’t want to start another business model given I have so so much to do in affiliate marketing.
Good to hear your update and agree we cannot spread ourselves too thin, this is a risk and personally I like to focus efforts to give a better outcome by being an expert in chosen business model first. But again you have a huge output so credit to you and good luck in diversifying into websites on Groove as well as Amazon FBA.
John, I don’t think you missed out with Kibo Code here as I feel it may have been a bit overhyped, especially with its first and second release. I got in on the second release as already mentioned, and it felt very much in beta still, hence the refund. I do feel a year later that Kibo Eclipse just perhaps may have been worth it now that they had another year to iron out issues, but I just don’t know. I struggled to put my finger on it whether they are just slick marketers or whether it is really as good as they say and difficult to judge if you have not actually bought into the product. I just happened to speak to my brother about Kibo Code today as I asked him what I should now do with my articles I wrote about it, as there are alternatives to Kibo Code mentioned in those articles that may still hold value.
My brother just straight up thinks that Kibo Code was overhyped and not something he would have felt comfortable marketing and I should just delete all of that content asap. I was not sure if I was in agreement with him at first, but after considering carefully what he said, I tend to agree with him and will be getting rid of the Kibo Code content, but will repurpose some of the useful alternatives mentioned in those articles in another post I will construct.
For the sake of building trust with your audience it is important to try your utmost best to recommend products you can wholeheartedly recommend, like you would very well know.
The Amazon FBA venture will certainly not be anytime soon. Many thanks for the well wishes, John. Wishing you much success with your online business too!
I loved how you presented this introduction to online marketing. Giving especially newbies the real truth about getting started as an online marketer. It’s certainly not as easy as the warrior plus and jvzoo products makers let it seem to be. They never let people know the fact that time and money investment is needed to make an online business grow and eventually profit. I’ve been doing online business for some time now and from my experience, the only times when I get the best results is when I follow a proven blueprint, focus, and put in the work – along with having patience. Thanks for setting the expectations straight.
Jason, the word focus you mentioned here is what stands out to me for sure. That is one of the big stumbling blocks in the online world as your attention can be so easily divided between various marketing platforms e.g. blogging, video creation, social media, various websites etc. Google wants to see the consistent creation of content like clockwork and that can only really be achieved if you are focused primarily on one platform at a time.
Hi Schalk, thanks for providing such a detailed and easy to read guide on online marketing☺ I’ve certainly fallen foul of the shiny object syndrome in the past, and spent thousands on overhyped programs promising I’d make thousands overnight! There’s no shortcut to making money online as you rightly said.
Hard work and patience is what works best. I’ve certainly heard of Russell Brunson, and have a copy of Traffic Secrets. WordPress has always been my favourite blogging platform as it’s so easy to use. Jaaxy is my favourite keyword tool as well, and as an enterprise member have access to more features.
I took a look at Groove Funnels a while back, and though it has plenty of software in one program I decided to use what I have for now. Thanks for sharing☺
Hi Kathy. Yes I think we all fell foul of the shiny object syndrome in the very beginning and that is why unfortunately there is certainly a market for ripping off newbies like they do with launching crappy products on platforms like JVZoo and Warrior Plus with good copy promising the moon and the starts. GrooveFunnels has evolved a lot over time. It may be worth another look since you last looked into it as GrooveFunnels was not feasible in the beta phase, which is fully understandable. I do believe that GrooveFunnels will be the go to software platform for online businesses and online marketers in the future.
Hi Schalk and thank you for the valuable information on online marketing.
I really appreciate the fact that you start your article with the bad news first, therefore providing the audience with the reality of things and not beautifying it.
It does take time not just until your domain get authority in Google and your content gets ranked. In my case it also took time (and still takes time) to find my way of working: from understanding who my audience is and what they are looking for online, how to find quality keywords, how to plan my time and manage to be productive with my content writing, etc.
The platforms mentioned above are all just a tool to help each one of us be successful online.
However, it is the persistence and motivation at the hearts of each of us that will guarantee success in the end.
Thank you for the article,
Tatiana
You are perfectly correct. Persistence and motivation and determination is key. Not everyone has what it takes to be successful online for those very reasons you have pointed out. Another one is patience. Figuring out your target audience is also essential.
Thanks for your article. I found it really informative, helpful but also honest. You are right that people will market options promising quick money etc. It took me 3 months (as you say) to earn my first commission following a step by step training package and with the right platform, tools (like Jaaxy) and support. My time and effort paid off and continues to. I’ll definitely revisit your site for further tips and information.
Martine
It’s so true that making money online has no shortcut or a secret loophole, and I can understand when you said you got scammed in the past. I love the vast, valuable information you share in this post, which helps online marketing beginners avoid scammy products and walk on the right path. It’s unbelievable that GrooveFunnels includes so many tools inside one pack, which is indeed overdelivering for me. I will look at all their services and make a better decision. Thanks a lot for sharing. 🙂
Matt