Internet Marketing - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Part 1

So, you've been thinking about starting your own online business but have no idea where to start.  There are a lot of programs out there available to you.  Some you don't even have to create a product or service from scratch (unless you want to).  It’s all set up and ready to go for you.  However, buyer-be-ware; some of these programs are good, some are bad, and some are ugly and will cost you a lot of time and money and deliver nothing (I speak from painful experience).

The forums on how these programs that are presented to you cover the gambit.  There are conference calls, live web casts, and videos to name a few.  However, a lot of them are in the form of an e-book training manual or manuals.  Some of them get pretty technical and require a good background in business and the internet.  I know.  The ones I got are collecting dust in some forgotten corner of my house.  I’m sure I’ll get some use out of them someday (well…kind of sure…ok, probably not).

Anyway, if you’re the kind of person who can pick up a manual on a topic you know little or nothing about and run with it, then bless you child and kudos to you.  I am not.  Handing me a manual on a topic I have little or no knowledge base in, well…that manual might as well be written in Sanskrit or Egyptian hieroglyphics or something.  I’m much better off being shown what to do until I get some experience.  Then a manual becomes very helpful and useful.

My personal preference is video.  A well done video will show you how to do things not just tell you.  More of your senses are involved so you learn quicker and retain more.  Also with a video, when those inevitable interruptions occur (and you know they will), just hit the pause button, deal with the interruption, then jump back into the video.  I like things simple, don’t you? 

The downside is that videos don’t come with an index.  It’s pretty much a manual process to look up something you’re trying to remember.  That’s were having a well written manual on the topic becomes really helpful (provided it has an index).

If you’re new to this internet business stuff and don't have a degree in information technology or computer science, you don’t want to get sucked into something that is way over your head.  You don’t understand what’s going on; they’re using words you never heard of before; and it drains all your energy, time and money.   Alas, I know it well.  So where do you start your journey to fame and riches on the internet?

There is an internet marketing venue that does not require you to be a techno, computer, internet, cyberspace guru.  I’m certainly not.  If my computer hick-ups, I’m on the phone to the Geek Squad.  I’ll get into what that venue is in part 2 of this article.