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Should I learn Internet Marketing?

Marketing, social media, advertising

Andy Black

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But even if I dedicate a lot of time learning all the basics and applying them, I will never be as good as an expert who already has years of experience... Dedicating all this time to learn ONE skill, even if it's an important one, instead of working on other aspects of my business and hiring someone who can do all the basic SEO and link building and all this kind of stuff doesn't seem like the most effective way to scale my business.

And, correct me if Im wrong, but creating a marketing strategy (which is something I am already competent at it) and applying your marketing strategy on the internet, are two completely different skills to learn, so why not create the marketing strategy and paying someone to do all the internet stuff, which I am not very good at?

By the way I am sorry for the bad english, i hope you understand my point
@Samy Bazizi

It makes perfect sense to hire in an expert, and you probably should if you don't want to bleed at the start, and you want to get out of the gates at pace in the right direction.

And like anything, you want a good grounding to understand WHAT that expert is going to do, and WHY they are going to do it (so you can choose between them).

Sure, you don't need to know the mechanics of HOW they are going to do it. That makes sense.

However, if you go completely hands-off from the campaign management, you LOSE out on what is more important than the buying of the traffic, and that is the data that you get in your account.

For AdWords paid search for instance, you might find that whilst you sell blue widgets, everyone is searching for yellow widgets this year. An agency, freelancer, or even an employee managing your account might not spot this, might not realise it's significance if they do (since they don't know your business as well as you do), and might not care to tell you (since they certainly aren't as passionate about your business as you are).

I had a client years ago. They were a quarry and construction materials business. I bid on "precast concrete" and after a month I told them that 50% of all people coming through that keyword were looking for precast concrete fence posts. This is GOLD to a business, although in this case the client just stared at me and said "but we don't sell that". Sigh...

So learn enough to know WHAT can be done, and WHY it's good for you.

Be aware that much of what you will read will be technical how-to stuff, or written by technical people who do it day-in-day-out, but who DON'T RUN THEIR OWN BUSINESS (I'm thinking agency staff here).

If you're already adept at marketing, then maybe you just need to chat to someone who does it for a living and pick their brains. Maybe find someone local to you and offer them lunch to have a chat?

If you want more control over it and want to "learn" it, then there's no substitute for putting your hand in your pocket and buying traffic. Everything then comes into really sharp focus, and it'll beat any amount of reading and talking to people.

You can read a lot of the stuff I've linked to in my signature, but it will just be "nice posts" theory until you're actually spending your own money.

HTH
 
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randomnumber314

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I feel like there's a disconnect in the reality of people's experience (thus their advice) and the theory of your question--please correct me if I'm wrong.

Your first business or venture should start with you leading the way at every new job, you should get hands on experience doing all the things required to grow the business. Once you have sufficient revenue, then you can hire someone to market it. The question is, how will you train someone, specifically, to market your product if you have no experience doing so yourself? This is important because even someone with an MBA and marketing experience may not know exactly what your product's market and pitfalls are. Do you plan on wasting money training them to learn, when you yourself could have bootstrapped and only risked the advert dollars? With a hire you're paying them to risk your money.

I hope you get my point. In theory you hire experts who know things better than you, and they produce a better ROI than you could. I'd argue that you (or any leader) has to have some actual experience in that thing before you can properly assess an employee's skill in doing that thing. (this applies to small and start up companies. Big companies have grown passes this milestone.)

You asked for a book recommendation: Ready, Fire, Aim may be a good suggestion to get you to see the different phases of a company, and the mentality a leader needs to have in each phase.
 

Samy Bazizi

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Have you been paying ANY attention?
I have, I was just not satisfied with the answers i got and needed a clear explanation instead of just try it and see for yourself (even if its the best way to know)

@Samy Bazizi

It makes perfect sense to hire in an expert, and you probably should if you don't want to bleed at the start, and you want to get out of the gates at pace in the right direction.

And like anything, you want a good grounding to understand WHAT that expert is going to do, and WHY they are going to do it (so you can choose between them).

Sure, you don't need to know the mechanics of HOW they are going to do it. That makes sense.

However, if you go completely hands-off from the campaign management, you LOSE out on what is more important than the buying of the traffic, and that is the data that you get in your account.

For AdWords paid search for instance, you might find that whilst you sell blue widgets, everyone is searching for yellow widgets this year. An agency, freelancer, or even an employee managing your account might not spot this, might not realise it's significance if they do (since they don't know your business as well as you do), and might not care to tell you (since they certainly aren't as passionate about your business as you are).

I had a client years ago. They were a quarry and construction materials business. I bid on "precast concrete" and after a month I told them that 50% of all people coming through that keyword were looking for precast concrete fence posts. This is GOLD to a business, although in this case the client just stared at me and said "but we don't sell that". Sigh...

So learn enough to know WHAT can be done, and WHY it's good for you.

Be aware that much of what you will read will be technical how-to stuff, or written by technical people who do it day-in-day-out, but who DON'T RUN THEIR OWN BUSINESS (I'm thinking agency staff here).

If you're already adept at marketing, then maybe you just need to chat to someone who does it for a living and pick their brains. Maybe find someone local to you and offer them lunch to have a chat?

If you want more control over it and want to "learn" it, then there's no substitute for putting your hand in your pocket and buying traffic. Everything then comes into really sharp focus, and it'll beat any amount of reading and talking to people.

You can read a lot of the stuff I've linked to in my signature, but it will just be "nice posts" theory until you're actually spending your own money.

HTH

Thank you Andy that was very helpful.
 

Andy Black

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You asked for a book recommendation: Ready, Fire, Aim may be a good suggestion to get you to see the different phases of a company, and the mentality a leader needs to have in each phase.

+1... great book and likely a great recommendation for OP.

OP... I summarised the first phase noted in that book here: www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/getting-started-ready-fire-aim-stage-1-0-1m.59444
 
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Dwight Schrute

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I've never managed to make perfect spareribs.
But I tried, and learned the basics in the process.
Now, when I go to a restaurant and pay the cook to grill them for me,
I can tell if he's worth the money.
 
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Samy Bazizi

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I've never managed to make perfect spareribs.
But I tried, and learned the basics in the process.
Now, when I go to a restaurant and pay the cook to grill them for me,
I can tell if he's worth the money.
Not sure if I agree with this comparison... You can tell if he's worth the money by tasting these spareribs without knowing how to cook them. Same as hiring an IM expert, you can tell if he is good by the money you are making
 

Dwight Schrute

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Not sure if I agree with this comparison... You can tell if he's worth the money by tasting these spareribs without knowing how to cook them. Same as hiring an IM expert, you can tell if he is good by the money you are making
Nah man...I know how to cook them, and the result is quite tasty.
They weren't as good when I first tried, but I did it over and over and got better in the process.
They are not as perfect as those in that mexican restaurant I like to go to, but still delicious.

BUT: If I eat spareribs for the first time in my life, at said restaurant, I would have no comparison.
I maybe would like them, but I would not know if they are the real deal, how ribs are supposed to taste.

There are many cooks out there, and many IM "experts". They may offer the same service, but with different results.

This thread is now one day old. And we are talking bout barbeque:D
Point is: If you already have a product or service, then jump into it.
If you face a challenge you can't conquer(unlikely, where there's a will, there's a way) , you may hire someone.
 

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Not sure if I agree with this comparison... You can tell if he's worth the money by tasting these spareribs without knowing how to cook them. Same as hiring an IM expert, you can tell if he is good by the money you are making

Have you made any money with your new business yet or do you have a sizable customer base? If the answer is no then you should stop saying what you agree and don't agree with. Instead, start listening more and really dig into some of these answers.

I know I'm going to sound like an a-hole but please know I"m saying this to help you. There are some SUPER smart people who have replied to you. People who have 6, 7, and 8 figure businesses.

Saying you're not satisfied with the answers and you don't agree with what people are saying is counterproductive on your part. Just listen and learn. It's important that you do that at your very early stage. Think about what we are saying since 99% of the people who've responded to this post are further along the business journey than you are this point.

Based off the tone of some of your other responses you'll probably unnecessarily get offended by this post. That's ok though..everybody needs some tough love from time to time.

Everything is said with love. Now, go build a great business!
 
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Samy Bazizi

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Have you made any money with your new business yet or do you have a sizable customer base? If the answer is no then you should stop saying what you agree and don't agree with. Instead, start listening more and really dig into some of these answers.

I know I'm going to sound like an a-hole but please know I"m saying this to help you. There are some SUPER smart people who have replied to you. People who have 6, 7, and 8 figure businesses.

Saying you're not satisfied with the answers and you don't agree with what people are saying is counterproductive on your part. Just listen and learn. It's important that you do that at your very early stage. Think about what we are saying since 99% of the people who've responded to this post are further along the business journey than you are this point.

Based off the tone of some of your other responses you'll probably unnecessarily get offended by this post. That's ok though..everybody needs some tough love from time to time.

Everything is said with love. Now, go build a great business!
Hey, I am in no way offended and appreciate every answer given here, even if I don't agree with some of them and seem a bit stubborn, I just like argumenting because that is who I am. I don't think there is one good answer or one way to do something though, so no matter how much money they made with their business doesnt mean they have THE answer.
Anyway, since the first answer i've already made up my mind that I should start learning IM. I just don't know where to start, I need a book like IM for dummies or a mentor to teach me the basics...
 

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@Samy Bazizi you may have read it already but Limitup's thread on AM/IM has a lot of value.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/ive-made-millions-online-ask-me-anything.46506/

I read it and had a hard time understanding some of the acronyms bc I knew nothing about IM. I started searching the web to get some more fundamentals and came across clickbank affiliate marketing training video 1-4 with Vick on youtube. He seems to teach some good methods. I figured he was giving good, free, front end content with a back end product for sale which is a HTA membership.

I've read reviews of people calling him a scam artist because of some legal issues he had. I didn't want to think negatively after reading that. He seems to be a family oriented spiritual guy. His legal troubles also seem to have nothing to do with his IM business. From my perspective, some issues from the past crept up on him in the midst of his HTA venture and he was side tracked with legal issues.

I feel like I got a better understanding after the 3 videos except I noticed the google keyword tool is different now. You have to sign up for google adwords. It appears as if you have to pay but to bypass that, I created a campaign at the minimal cost and then quickly turned it off. You can then use the google keyword tool.
 
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