Newbie Marketers Free Mentality
One self-defeating belief of those new to working online is the insistence that everything be free. The reason often given is “I want to see if it works before I spend anything.” It’s understandable but not realistic. There are fantastic tools and scripts offered free but there are a few tools you need to pay for from the start.
With blogger, you can start and maintain a blog for free. You can apply for the Google Adsense program and earn money. What could be wrong with that? Blogger can remove your blog at any time without warning. Your site may violate a term of use or may appear overly promotional – the reasons seem to vary widely. The problem with using blogger as your main site is that you don’t own it.
Does this make Blogger blogs useless? No. Experienced marketers use blogger blogs as feeder blogs to funnel visitors to their “money site”. In fact, marketers often create a web of free blogs feeding each other with links and all leading back to the money site in the center.
A free autoresponder sounds like a good way to “try” building mailing list. Why pay for one of the major autoresponders with monthly fees when you can send emails for free? Simple answer – emails not received are emails not read. The major autoresponder providers work to make certain ISP’s do not filter email from their service into spam folders.
Domains and hosting are not expensive. You can register a domain for under $10 a year and can obtain quality web hosting for the same amount. You can quickly learn to build a (free) wordpress blog on your own hosting server with your own domain address. Free templates allow you have some freedom in the design and colors and blogging is easy even for beginners.
Invest in your business by purchasing tools such as domain names, hosting, and software that help build your site or blog bigger and better. There is no reason to buy links or to hire an expensive SEO service. Spend wisely and you’ll find starting an online business is the least expensive way to begin self employment.
One of the best tips about purchasing products for your business is to wait 24 hours after reading a sales page to make the purchase. Don’t read the sales page a second time – just go back to the site and see if you still feel the urge to click “buy now”. Chances are, you won’t. Sales pages are designed to make you want to buy so give the emotional high time to wear off before you pay for something you may not need.
Understand that investing in your business is not the same as just spending on anything that makes promises on a sales page. Buy only what you need and only when you are ready to use it. You’ll keep down your costs and be in profit that much sooner.
Learning online marketing with you,
~ Julie
Andrew Vaughan
- Sep 13th, 09
Hey Julie,
I’ve got to agree with eveything you’ve said in this excellent post – great advice for any buddy newbies, unsure about how to proceed.
I’m happy to confirm to any newbie reading this, that you can’t go far wrong, following the advice and tips in Julie’s post.
Good stuff Julie.
Talk soon,
Andrew.
Kelwyn Suite
- Sep 13th, 09
Very appropriate advice. Failure to grasp this results in tons of ebooks and software on your hard drive that ’sit there gathering dust’.
It’s so bad, you even end up purchasing the same thing more than once without realizing it until it’s too late. Keep up the good work.
Paul Lear
- Sep 13th, 09
Hey Julie,
Great advice, I used to think I could do everything on a $0 budget.
The truth of it is what you say in this post, there are some things you just have to pay for.
You should look at these essential purchases/subscriptions as investments which you will make back over time.
Keep up the good work!
Paul.
Julie
- Sep 14th, 09
Hi Andrew,
I just dropped by your blog and found your eBook “How I Decided on My First Ebook.”
Quick easy read with great principles on setting a path for a “Magic Mind!”
Nice eBook,
~ Julie
Julie
- Sep 14th, 09
Hey Kelwyn,
I think we have all done this before we became organized.
For some people organization comes as second nature, for others like myself it had to be drilled into my thick skull!
~ Julie
Julie
- Sep 14th, 09
Hi Paul,
For a newbie starting out it is hard to immediately crossover and start turning off the hype. There is so much targeted marketing looking for attention.
When action is taken it becomes easier to see the trees in the forest.
Learning online marketing with you,
~ Julie
Jose
- Sep 16th, 09
Sound advise, Julie!
It’s OK to be stingy for a while, but once you have a better idea of where you want to go you have to start investing. I was stingy for almost three years and it got me nowhere…
And the best investment one can make is on mentoring. It saves us average people so much time!
Thank for visiting my blog,
Jose
Julie
- Sep 21st, 09
Hey Jose,
So true, there comes a point where you have to make the choice.
It’s like the wild, wild, west show has come into town. There are some that sell to the dream of gold dust falling from the sky!
~ Julie