A Beginner's Guide to Internet Marketing: Not Having A Plan Will Kill Your Business

by Patrick Griffin

There are many myths surrounding internet marketing and two of the main ones seem to be that it is incredibly easy to do and that there is virtually no work required to set yourself up in business. In fact many products on the market specifically tell you that all you need to do is buy the product in question, press a few buttons, enter a couple of lines of text on a website and then just wait for the money to roll in.

These product offers are generally short on details explaining exactly what you do need to do but long on lists of things you will not need to know about to set up in business. Sadly, most of them just simply do not work and if they form part of, or even all, of your business start-up strategy then you are setting yourself up to fail from the outset.

The simple fact of the matter is that if you are starting out in internet marketing (and so many people are now that global economic conditions make traditional jobs harder to come by) then you simply must have a plan if you are going to succeed. It need not be the best plan in the world but, believe me, you simply have to have some plan to guide you. I know this only too well because I learned the hard way. Like so many others, I jumped straight in buying random products because they either looked good or the sales letters sucked me right in and convinced me I just must have this product.

And guess what? It took me two whole wasted years to realize that I was getting nowhere fast in building a business and my efforts were just eating away at my rapidly dwindling bank balance. It was only when I sat down and took the time to work out that I had to work hard on setting up my business that I saw the error or my ways. I quickly signed up for a training program which set out the basis of building up an internet marketing business and set about putting what I had learned into practice. In short I got myself an action plan and stuck to it.

When I asked other internet marketers how they had started I was amazed when so many told me they first tried the same initial approach as me and set about buying random products in the hope that it would help them make their fortunes online. If you are doing the same right now then please stop because if there really was a magic product capable of running your business on autopilot with no work required from you then everyone would have one. First you must realize that setting up in internet marketing is exactly the same as setting yourself up in any other business and you will have to plan, plan, and plan again for success. You can initially expect to put in long hours for little or no immediate reward but as you get better at it you will begin to earn an income and see your hard work paying off.

Fall for the hype that you don't need to work and can simply sit back while the latest piece of 'magic software' builds your business on autopilot and all you will achieve is a very efficient means of emptying your bank account of cash.

But spend time getting the right offer, the right products and work hard at driving potential customers to your website and you are well on the way to an exciting career in internet marketing.

© Patrick Griffin, All rights reserved.

And now I invite you to download 7 FREE internet marketing ebooks at http://www.PatrickGriffinOnline.com to kick-start your online business. You'll get key information on traffic strategies, SEO, affiliate marketing and much more.

Submitted on January 17, 2011