For those just getting into internet marketing, I thought it might be useful to present a “big picture.”

There are many ways to market online. Some will take more money than time; others will take more time than money.  I’d like to give you a very brief overview of just two internet marketing methods: PPC and Web 2.0 marketing.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is probably the most immediate presence you can get on the internet. However it is also probably the most expensive. For the uninitiated, PPC is when you pay one of the search engines (Google being the biggest and most popular one) to place small ads in their search results. So let’s say you “google” something—you get a list of results, and at the top of the page, and on the right you will see in very small letters “Sponsored links.” Those are the paid advertisements. I won’t get into a lot of detail right now—but the advertisers select the keywords (or phrases) they want to get traffic for and pays each time the ad they placed is clicked on. So if you bid to pay $1.00/click, 100 clicks will cost you $100. You can see that that can run into some expense pretty quickly, especially when you are bidding on very popular keywords, because if you bid too low your ads will hardly ever appear, so you need be bid competitively with your competition in order for your ads to show up at all. I go into a little more detail in this YouTube video: Internet Marketing, the Big Picture, Part 1

Below is the second of two videos covering Internet Marketing, the Big Picture:

Web 2.0 marketing is marketing on websites that are interactive (they accept comments or tags or some other input from users). These are websites such as blogs, forums, web applications, social-networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.), video-sharing sites (like YouTube), wikis (like Wikipedia), mashups (like Digg, Flickr), and bookmarking sites (like del.icio.us and Google bookmarks). These websites are free to “advertise” on. What’s the catch? Free sounds good? The catch is that it takes much more time that the paid advertising methods.

Let me paint you a picture of Web 2.0 marketing… you have a Facebook page, you make friends and you can send your friends messages, post things that will appear on their “wall,” invite them to events, etc. (in other words, you can interact with them). You can introduce them to what you are doing to see if they have any interest, and bam—you get a customer (maybe)!

You have a YouTube channel, and you make short videos to post on your channel, people see your videos, become friends, subscribe to your channel, and bam—you get a new customer (maybe).

You create a blog, you post content on your blog, people see your posts, maybe subscribe to your blog or leave comments, and bam—you get a new customer (maybe).

You write an article, you post it on an article directory website, people see your articles and bam—you get a new customer (maybe).

You post comments on other websites—like on forums or blogs, or videos. You say something brilliant, and because you can usually also list a website (like your blog, for example), other people click on that link and come to your blog and bam—you get a new customer (maybe).

OK, you get the idea—you interact with others on the web and they interact with you and you may get customers.

It’s not quite that simple, however, because you have to understand the concepts and you need to have a strategy. Simply putting content out does not get the content found. So you need to learn how to get your content found.

Also, you don’t rely on your “prospects” to just come to you when they are ready to buy something from you—you need to first “capture” their information. You do this by offering them something (it could just be more information) which they can only get to when they enter in their name and email address). You need to have a way of collecting this information—this is called “building your list.” Now you can email your list regularly with updates, news, information, great content, offers, etc. It’s commonly understood in any kind of advertising that people do not generally buy on their exposure—it takes several exposures before they decide to buy. In order to capture this information and send regular emails to your prospects, you sign up for an autoresponder service. This service will collect the data, and you can set up emails to go out to the list automatically. The emails can go out on a schedule, or you can send them an occasional broadcast message at any time.

A large part of getting found on the internet has to do with the keywords you use. Keywords are words (or phrases) that people are looking for when they are searching. For example, somebody who is looking for information on gardening may do a search for “gardening,” but that’s probably too broad and will give too many results, or results that are too general, so a new search might be done on “gardening books,” or “gardening tools,” or “gardening in Maine,” etc. If you want traffic coming to you because you are selling books about gardening, then you want to use the keywords that people will be looking for that will get you found. You use your chosen keywords in your blog posts, in your videos, in your articles, etc. You use the keywords in the titles, the links, descriptions, etc.

When you are doing Web 2.0 marketing you want to set up a “hub.” Think of it this way. You are creating your own web—the center of it is the hub. You then direct traffic to that hub by having the links in our content pointing to whatever you’ve decided will be your hub. The reason for this is that the hub will become more of an “authority”—it will become more important in the eyes of the search engines, and it will be more easily found when people are searching for your keywords.

An example of this is using a blog as a hub, then posting articles, videos, comments on forums, comments on other people’s blogs, bookmarks, etc.—all that have links in them that will point back to your blog. Your blog now becomes more “popular” with the search engines, so like in our example your blog (chock full of information on gardening books), will appear near the top of the search engine results when somebody searches for “gardening books.” And of course, you will do something to capture their information so you can continue to send them information.

I hope this gives you at least a beginning big picture of how all of this internet marketing stuff works.

Learn more about internet marketing and get invited to free webinars taught by successful marketers: Free Weekly Internet Marketing Webinars.

I was inspired to make my own video by a video that Seb Brantigan posted on his Facebook profile. Seb is a young man doing internet marketing who shows leadership by first following his mentors, and then teaching what he learns. A leader learns to be a good leader by being a good follower first! Shortly after an MLSP “wake-up call” Seb had already recorded and posted his video. He edifies and thanks his leaders, and summarizes what he is learning—like don’t worry about getting it perfect, just do more of it. The way I usually say that is, “Don’t worry about getting it perfect, just get it going!” And Seb says you’ve gotta take action, and he does. He is also learning to provide value by learning new skills and passing on what he is learning.

What I wanted to add is that it’s also very important to believe… have faith and confidence in yourself and your abilities, and get it going. If you are learning internet marketing, or are in a network marketing or mlm company, or in your own business of any kind, learn what you need to learn, believe in yourself and take massive action, expect massive results and you will get massive results.

If you’re a Facebook user, you can see Seb’s Facebook video here.

Learn more about internet marketing and get invited to free webinars taught by successful marketers: Free Weekly Internet Marketing Webinars.

Authentic marketing has to do with being true to yourself, and who you are… that may mean being different from everybody else. Authentic marketing has to do with being genuinely interested in the people whose problems you are trying to solve. You say you’re not solving someone else’s problems? Of course you are—you have a product or a service that you offer because somebody else needs that product or service to solve a problem. You sell shoes, they need shoes. You’re a writer, somebody needs you to write for them. You’re a travel agent, somebody needs help with planning their travel.

Being authentic means not pretending to be something you are not. It means presenting yourself with your strengths, and your weaknesses. It means not needing to pretend to be perfect. When you don’t have to protect yourself or your image, you are much easier to connect with. People are actually attracted to those who are willing and courageous enough to simply be themselves.

Being authentic will help you in your business and in your marketing—any kind of business, any kind of marketing. Online marketing, offline marketing—it doesn’t matter. If you are providing people with the information they need to make an informed decision, if you are genuinely interested in helping them, not in pushing your product or service on them, if you don’t lie, distort, of pump out hype, if you listen to people, and if you are open about yourself and what matters to you and what adds richness to your live—people will connect with you. People do business with those that they know, like and trust. Being authentic, in real life, in business, in marketing, will help you succeed.

I think one of the most important skills in being authentic is LISTENING. Many think that good communication has to do with being able to clearly articulate your thoughts—but what about the other side of that? Communication is a two way street. Somebody speaks, somebody listens, and we hope that they take turns! When one or neither person is listening—guess what!? No communication really takes place—don’t you agree? Marketing may start out with you putting out information, but really effective marketing will ask for and process (listen to) feedback. When you are talking to a prospect or a customer, ask questions. Ask questions about what the problem is that your prospect/client needs to solve. Ask what their goals and aspirations are. Ask what brings them real satisfaction. Then listen. I can guarantee you that when you do that, even if you barely mention your product or service, you will establish a connection with them, and when the time is right, they will be open to listening to the information you have for them—they will actually probably ask for it.

This is why social media is such a great marketing tool. It allows you to establish real, authentic communication with people who may need what you have to offer. Think about how you can be authentic in your social media interaction, in your blogs, in your articles, and when you talk to people. Always keep in mind not what you can get, but what you can offer. Consider letting go of trying to keep up an appearance of perfection or of knowing everything and having all the answers. See what happens when you allow yourself to be you, and connect with others heart to heart. (One of the best things that can happen is that that others can be themselves!) Don’t try to separate who you are from what you do. Keeping these ideas in mind when you market will make marketing much more fun, and much more fruitful.

Find out about Free Internet Marketing Training

Jedi… or But-I?

You always have a choice on how to approach things… so would you like to be a Jedi, or a But-I? First, let’s make sure we’re on the same page and that you know what I’m talking about.

You probably remember what a Jedi is, but maybe you don’t know what a “But-I” is. A But-I is the part of our personality that is obstinate, unwilling, non-cooperative, stuck, cranky, quarrelsome, and that finds fault and finds problems everywhere… especially within ourselves.

A But-I says things like… “But I that’s too difficult. But I can’t do that. But I am at a disadvantage. But I don’t know how. But I am not as smart as so-and-so. But I don’t have enough time. But I don’t have a good teacher.” You’re probably getting the idea now. A But-I has all the buts, and the ifs and ands as well. So, if you find yourself full of ifs, ands, or buts… then YOU are a But-I.

And the Jedi? You remember them… from Start Wars… Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, light sabers, and “may the Force be with you.” The Jedi were remarkable individuals with amazing powers and qualities—and they have something to teach as far as being successful as an internet marketer goes.

What qualities do the Jedi have that might apply to internet marketing success?

1. They serve.
2. They are courageous.
3. They do what’s ethically right.
4. They act quickly and decisively.
5. They lead (they don’t command).
6. They are calm and at peace, in control of their emotions.
7. They know that complete concentration and patience are essential.
8. They seek to improve themselves through knowledge and training.
9. They balance the use of their strengths with the control of their weaknesses.
10. They work with the light side of the Force, not the dark side.

“Oh, goodness,” you say, “I’ve been operating like a But-I! I’ll never make it!”

Fortunately, once you understand how a Jedi operates, you can begin to take steps to change your mindset and your approach. Everybody has both Jedi qualities and But-I qualities. We can use the Jedi as models and choose the qualities we want to emulate, and allow our less But-I qualities to fall away. To become an internet marketing success, you will need to expand your Jedi qualities. Read on to see how you can develop yourself into an internet marketing Jedi.

Serve

Serve by giving information and value, by answering questions, and by directing people to where they can find answers (not always them all the answers yourself). A saying comes to mind, which is “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” It’s essential to let other people do what they need to do and learn what they need to learn, instead of attempting to do too much for them. We take away the opportunity for growth that happens when people have to stretch and learn if we do too much for them.

Be Courageous

Starting a new endeavor and having to learn a lot of new things can bring up fear. Courage does not mean being without fear… it means pushing through the fear and taking action anyway. A hero is just an ordinary person who acts in spite of fear. Successful people make a choice to “do it anyway,” and put aside their fears temporarily.

Do What Is Ethically Right

Basically, don’t lie, cheat, or steal. Be honest and authentic in your relationships. This means being real, not being perfect. You’ll connect better with people when they sense that you are genuine, rather than sensing you are trying to appear to be perfect.

Act Quickly and Decisively

You want to avoid the “paralysis of analysis” and of always second guessing your decisions. When you need decision assistance, get a piece of paper, jot down the pros and cons, release any emotions attached to them, and make your decision. Then move forward with your decision. Could you be wrong? Sure you could… but everybody makes mistakes, and mistakes are probably the best way to learn. Don’t keep yourself from expanding and learning because of indecision.

Be Calm and At Peace and in Control of Your Emotions

When I am not calm, I am unclear. When I am unclear I am baffled, and when I am baffled I am not effective. It’s important that I give myself time and space to foster a peaceful and clear mind, and not allow my emotions to run amuck. Developing good organizational skills and meditation are a great help with this.

Know That Complete Concentration and Patience Are Essential

It’s often a challenge to focus just on the task at hand, but this is an essential skill to develop. Multitasking is way overrated—studies have shown that it does not work very well, at least with human beings! I constantly work on improving my focus and concentration and practice putting other things aside when I am working on an important task. I usually work in spurts of one or two hours, then take some time to do smaller things, and this helps me to stay focused, while giving me a little break now and then. Patience, of course, is important in all aspects of life. Patience allows things to develop, to grow, to improve, and to expand. Impatience does not allow anything.

Lead (Do Not Command)

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. As a leader, provide encouragement, information, and support, but you don’t make the decisions or do the work for somebody else. Make a call to action (always a great practice) but know that the other person may or may not take that action, and it’s not up to you to force it.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more
and become more, you are a leader. –  John Quincy Adams

Improve Yourself Through Training and Knowledge

We can always learn something new. As I learn more, I have more of value to offer others, as well as myself. Learning new things helps me, it helps them, and it helps me to help them. I don’t just have things to learn in the area of marketing, but I can learn more about better mindset, good work habits, great health, and better relationships. As I learn, I expand as a person.

Balance the Use Of Your Strengths with the Control of Your Weaknesses

Everybody has both strengths and weaknesses. Often they are just two sides of the same coin, and what is strength may also be a weakness, and vice versa. Most important is to begin to recognize our strengths and weaknesses—and from there we can see where to concentrate our efforts. Controlling my weaknesses means becoming aware of them and allowing them to drop away as I develop my strengths, instead of trying to force out my weaknesses.

Work with the Light Side of the Force, Not the Dark Side

Focus on the positive, not on the negative. What you focus on expands. What you think about, will come about. If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right (Henry Ford). We’ve all heard clichés that relate to this… but it makes common sense that if I put my thoughts and energy into something, I will get more of the same, don’t you think? Put your thoughts and energy into what you want, what you’d like to create, what will benefit all involved—this is way more constructive than focusing on the negative aspects of things.

This all has to do with mindset and choosing your perspective, doesn’t it? And taking action. Proper mindset will lead to proper action.

May the Force be with you!

Find out about Free Internet Marketing Training