Internet Marketing 101

Hello everyone out there I'm Erica E. Jones, 19 year old entrepreneur/internet marketer, if you're on this page you probably don't know much about internet marketing or making money online but there is plenty you'd like to learn. You're in luck I'm here to teach you everything I've learned since starting in this industry. You could be up and running as soon as an hour or two possibly less considering your ability to learn and implement my skills and strategies.
5 Steps to Succeeding

• Joining a Business
• Marketing your business online
• Social Media/Branding Yourself
• Creating Content
• Word of Mouth/Offline Marketing

Each step above is important, but not necessarily needed right away, however to make it in this industry in the long run implementing them all as soon as possible is rather important as far as becoming a leader and not a follower in internet marketing goes.
Step 1 : Joining a Business

• Find the business which interests you and sign up, a lot of the best businesses require either a small or large start up fee (there are some businesses that are free to join but they could require cash sometime in the future) do not let this start up fee scare you it's just the same as if you would be starting an actual business in the outside world it takes money to make money. *Always do your research on anything before joining.

Step 2 : Marketing Your Business Online

• After you have joined the business or businesses (I recommend 1 or 2 for beginners) you must begin to market it in as many unique ways as you can. In the internet marketing industry there are people who scam, people who spam, and people who help others. Because 2 out of 3 different types of internet marketers either scam or spam it makes it difficult for the people who actually want to help others make money online.
• Some popular ways to market are, Posting on your Facebook wall to your friends and family, Ads on Facebook to a targeted audience, Ads on Twitter, YouTube videos, Blogging, Classified Ads, and Banner ads just to name a few.
• The internet marketing business is growing in popularity rapidly every single day it's where all the money seems to be, standing out has a lot to do with how you present yourself to others. A lot of marketers with no experience spam a lot of websites with their referral links to their company websites (I'm guilty of this) and to be honest it has little to no success rate.
• What the people want is a REAL person they can TRUST that is going to be there to help them and not just send them to their affiliate link to make a quick buck leaving them out in the cold.
• The key to being successful is having lots of consistent helpful content in your marketing niche (targeted audience) for example this same blog post you are reading is targeted towards anyone interested in making money from home who need a step by step guide helping them get started.

Step 3 : Social Media/Branding Yourself

• Having any type of shot in the internet marketing industry with it's increasing popularity will have a lot to do with the "face" of what you represent. Some examples of these "faces" or "brands" are Bill Gates being known for computers (and having tons of money!) Oprah being known for talk shows (..and also having tons of money) and lastly, one of the newer "faces" is Mark Zuckerberg creator of Facebook.
• The point being made here is to put yourself out there on as many social media platforms as possible this is one of the best ways to reach your targeted audience a lot of people are searching right now into the Google search bar keywords that could possibly one day bring up your blog, your Facebook account, your Twitter account, your YouTube account, and so on the more you have the better the odds are of having people find your content.
• The more popular you become the more you become a trusted "household name" to your targeted niche, the more popular you become the more people will trust you, the more people trust you the more money you can make, the more money you make the more successful you become, the more successful you become the more people you attract, and so on.
• This step is THE most important step you can make, and in today's society it's crucial. people are not a gullible as they used to be to ads such as "get a free laptop click here!" People have fallen for tricks and schemes like that over and over which has caused a lack of trust on their part. Your job is to convince them that everything on the internet is not a scam your face, your brand, and everything you stand for is important in gaining trust .
• The most frequently asked question in our industry is and probably will always be "Is this a scam?" Get used to being asked this question plenty of times and be prepared to give a detailed answer as to why it's not (some people are hard to convince)
• One last thing I'd like to address with the internet marketing industry is to have personality and be creative, a lot of people post ads on Craigslist, a lot of people make YouTube videos, a lot of people have Facebook accounts, just like in the entertainment business people have unique voices, and styles and no two people are alike however, since this is not the entertainment business a lot of people learn from other people and it seems to be a lot of duplicates in this industry I really want to push that you stand out the best way you can and be as unique as possible
• What works for you may not work for someone else and vice versa so do what works and stick to it!

Step 4 : Create Content

• This can be one of the easiest, or one of the hardest steps. It goes hand in hand with Step 3, and can very well create income streams that work on auto-pilot around the clock if done correctly.
• In step 3 you began to put yourself out there on the World Wide Web after some time and through some consistency you will begin to grow an audience. No matter how big or small your audience is you want to keep their attention and the best way to do that is to be consistent and communicative with them. If your audience continues to grow it makes no sense to start changing the way you go about things, especially if they enjoy what you do and everything you have to say.
• Your content is everything you do to market your business, it's blogging, it's doing videos, it's being active and social with "social" media. But the most important thing i want to stress here is CONSISTENCY!

Step 5 : Word of Mouth/Offline Marketing

• Of all of the steps this will most likely be one of the easiest depending on how you go about it. Please remember to be a person and not a walking advertisement.   Advertisement is evolving and changing for the new generation. People nowadays want proof and they want trust, they also want to feel safe before they make their final decision. The main fear of the people is to  scammed, this is most likely due to money being tight. With money being tight people want to make sure that when they spend it they get their money's worth I like to call this a "happy investment"
• With offline marketing you could begin with your family and friends but don't pitch anything to them right away, be patient, I'd just advise you to tell them that you joined an online business and when you start becoming successful in it and find them struggling to suggest to them what you did to make money online, how it has helped you, and just see if it's something they think they could do.
• I stress the "something they can do" part because a lot of internet marketers make it seem like internet marketing is so easy a 5 year old could do it, this has never been the case there is simplicity to it but simplicity does not mean anyone can do it. Not everyone is computer savvy, there is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes make sure to let people know up front what to expect or they may never trust you again.