How to Keep Your Head From Swimming in Confusion About Internet Marketing - Part One

If you're looking for the first time into the possibility of becoming an Internet marketer, the amount of information on the net about this subject can often be overwhelming. After reading for a while, it sometimes feels as though your head is swimming in information overload. One person says do this to make money, another person says do that to make money. Everyone, it seems, has their own idea about how to financially capitalize using the internet.There's using Google AdSense ads on your content site to generate advertising revenue. There's PPC (pay-per-click) advertising to drive buying traffic to your site. There's article marketing (or what has become known as "Bum Marketing") for attracting free organic buying traffic to your site or offer. There's the CPA (or cost-per-action) networks where larger amounts of money can be made for enticing people to perform an action, like opting in to a newsletter mailing list or picking up a lead for a real estate firm.And then there are the skills you need to be able to develop as an Internet marketer. Things like basic knowledge of market research, keyword research, copywriting, web design, and understanding marketing terminology. At first glance, the amount of information you need to learn and get up to speed on is enough to turn off any newbie from ever wanting to become involved in the business of Internet marketing.While it is good to do your research and become familiar with what is available in Internet marketing, there comes a point when you just have to stop and take a step back and digest everything you've been reading. That time is usually when you begin to feel your head start to swim out of control due to the information overload.Unless you have the time available to devote to a full-time research of Internet marketing, it is best to just take things slow and easy until you begin to get the hang of everything. It is at this point when narrowing down your research to single topics can pay off big dividends as you look at one strategy and then another, taking the time to carefully examine all aspects of whatever strategy you are focused upon and learning the most you can about it.Learn about Adsense, the pros and the cons. Do some research into AdWords and find out how financially dangerous this avenue can be if you don't really know exactly what you are doing. Maybe play around with article marketing, finding a niche and a product and promoting them through writing articles. Dip your feet into the water and test it out without spending too much money on information products and such.Utilize as many of the free facilities as you are able in order to teach yourself about this animal: the internet. Internet marketing forums are a great place to begin attaining the knowledge you need. You can ask questions, get answers from experienced people, and the information is free.Through article marketing you can find out what its like to have people click on your links and check out your offers. Get a feel for the type of statistics (the click through rate or CTR) you'll have to pay attention to when marketing on the Internet. And watch what these statistics are telling you about the market you are presenting to and the way that you're presenting. How many of your clicks are you converting into sales? How many people who initially see your article are clicking through to your offer or landing page? All of these statistics are important to an Internet marketer.By taking your time and finding out what it is like to market a product or service on the Internet, you'll begin to get an idea about how you may wish to approach Internet marketing in your own way. Don't be surprised if this process takes you six or eight or ten months to complete. You'll be all the more savvy for having done it this way in the end, and you'll learn a lot about the topic of Internet marketing along the way.The Internet is a vast and wide media. And its misinformation can easily swallow up your hopes and dreams if you let it, leaving you high and dry. If you take your time and apply your due diligence toward researching this business of Internet marketing, you'll gain so much more out of the experience than you could ever have imagined. And along the way, you just might figure out what it really means to market on the Internet. Then, when you are prepared and have some of the basic knowledge you were lacking in the beginning, you will know what it is that you really want to do with this activity called Internet marketing.