I just got back from Singapore on Monday and on the way back I met up with some great folks on the bus. By chance they were keen on Internet Marketing and asked me for my advice on how to get started in the biz.

I had often thought of what I would tell myself if I could start all over again, so I was ready and happy to share with them what I thought.

I explained to them if I had to do it all over again I would:

Choose one model of Internet Marketing – Internet Marketing is a “Monster” of a thing with so many different aspects (e.g. affiliate marketing vs. product creation, article marketing or blogging or AdWords). All of them work and generates people money, but, to understand it all and become proficient right a way is “nuts”. So initially just focus on one business model and don’t do a shotgun approach.

Make sure the model suits your working personality – To be successful in any business you got to be able to see yourself do well in it and of course enjoy it. In my case for example, one of the things, that I now realize I was terrible at and did NOT enjoy was blogging. I am by nature not a very creative person or great writer, so to have to be creative regularly was very painful (FYI this post has so far taken me more than an hour and half to do and I am not even done yet…sigh). But I did pursue blogging because someone told me it was a free and great way to make easy money (oh the error of my ways!).

Then find a mentor and/or a program specializing in that field, which will lead you in a guided step by step, hold you by the hand, ask all the questions you want kind of way – One of the most ridiculous things I thought I could do was to “FIGURE” it out all by myself. I was thinking “I was a banker for 8 years, housewives can do this, I can do this!”. What happened next? I found out I was WRONG and very quickly grew to respect housewives or anybody that was successful at this. Mentors have years of experience in being successful at their chosen field. And you can purchase all of their knowledge and experience for a fee. Instead of fumbling around researching what works and what doesn’t work. But again, do your research and find someone that you will be happy to work with.

To drive my advice home for them, I just shared some of the mistakes and aimless, time wasting activity I was involved with when I was getting started (these deserve a post of its own, so look out for that soon). We all had a good laugh. But it really did make me think how far I have come and the amount I have learned since I started.

Tags: Begginer Advice, Internet Marketing