Sounds like a tall order: Start a legitimate online business without being bankrolled or being an internet marketing genius. But it’s actually not that big a stretch.
Of course, you could do it the hard way by spending literally thousands of dollars to learn all the ins and outs of internet marketing. There are even a few colleges out there that offer degrees in internet marketing now. Going that route could take you a couple of years to get started (and I can’t even imagine what the tuition bill would look like!).
There are also dozens and dozens of “internet business in a box” kind of courses you could buy and take – and some of them are good. Others are created by people who’ve never actually built an online business – their only experience is in trying to teach you how! Their prices range from what you could probably scoop out of your sofa cushions up to tens of thousands of dollars.
But let’s say you’re starting from square one – you know how to right-click, but that’s about it… and you’ve got only a little bit of money to invest in your online business education. How do you get started?
There are three basic ways you can build a legitimate online business – as an affiliate (selling other people’s products), as an advertising site (selling space to advertisers), and by selling your own products (either information or physical products).
Each of these business models has its own advantages and each one has a different learning curve. You could do any of these three easily with some good, solid, step-by-step training – even if you’re just starting out. The important thing is to follow a proven business building system rather than trying a little of this and a little of that.
It’s really easy to get sidetracked and fall into shiny object syndrome where you end up spending a lot of time and money trying every new “foolproof” internet marketing tool. (Check out these case studies where we interviewed some people who’ve had tremendous success by using the Nitro Blueprint System… and notice how many of them got “stuck” when they started chasing shiny objects – and “unstuck” when they focused.) ->> http://www.nitromarketing.com/blog/category/everyday-entrepreneur/
Other than buying an internet marketing course, the next expense most people will have is in buying and hosting a domain, and building a site. There are ways to do that inexpensively and still get great results.
One other expense you’ll need to plan for in the beginning is a list management service – so when people visit your site and want more information you’re able to stay in touch with them. There’s a wide range of pricing for all of these. The one we use and recommend is Aweber.
The first step is educating yourself. Use a proven internet business blueprint you can follow from the start – and commit to taking action on it every day so that you make progress. If you’ll focus on building your online business, and you follow the steps, you’ll start to see money coming in.
Once that happens, you can try fancy new tactics to grow the business, and get more advanced training. It’s not going to happen overnight – but no matter how little you know now, you can build a profitable online business more easily and less expensively than you’d imagine.
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