Trap and Tip #1

im only around 3 weeks' old as an affiliate and online marketing newbie, and already i am becoming aware of the first twin traps any affiliate marketing or online marketing newbie inevitably falls into, if one is not careful:

1. information overload
2. the buy, buy, buy impulse

here's a way i've found to deal with these twin challenges and temptations:

1. focus on the basics, and the basics of a successful online business essentially have to do with 4 things-- product, conversion, traffic and backend. any information you get must help you improve and delivery well on any or all of these 4 core items of your business, otherwise, it's not really information you need to know.

this is well-explained in a free 12-minute video (you can download the audio script too if you want to) by Ewen Chia, the no. 1 top affiliate marketer in the world (you can Search for the evidence for that, too). i figured id start my journey by learning from the best in the field. : )

the basics also include the principles of successful online marketing, which i found through AutoPilot Profits. in this book, Ewen Chia basically reveals to you the fundamentals, as well as the fast and long-term strategies for successful online marketing.

as a newbie, it helped me see my way through the foggy forest of information overload, and afforded me with some basic guideposts on what to watch out for, and what to avoid. just learning from the book alone was well worth the investment, although the author also presents to you a proposal for how you can jumpstart your online business career with his products. but that's up to the reader to take or leave.


2. set a cap for your spending. from reading the initial free online marketing resources, most gurus have already said that you can start and run an online marketing business of your own for as little as $100-$200.

so i've set my cap for that-- $100 capital investment (domain and hosting, an autoresponder investment, and a few select ebooks/courses on online marketing principles-- i chose only two, one of which is AutoPilot Profits), and $100 monthly recurring investments (mostly paid subscriptions to select businesses, especially the 6 proven streams of income highly recommended by the PlugIn Profits system).

ive made a pact with my self not to go beyond this cap, until i start earning a steady stream of income from them and the business can start paying for itself.

i've decided early on that what i can't get with money (buying), i will get with more time and ingenuity (research, creativity), which i have a lot of. : )

this is the Net after all, where there are probably more free information than paid-for ones!

until then, your fellow newbie in the journey remains,
dedicated. : )