Heard about people making money on the internet by marketing? Wondering if it’s real or possible for you? Want to learn about it without breaking the bank?
Alright folks, today I will be discussing how to learn about internet marketing for FREE. That’s right, you don’t have pay a dime to learn the basics about internet marketing. Just keep reading on.
First thing I would like to point out is that any site or plan promising instant results with little or no work is a scam. Every single successful internet marketing business has taken quite a lot of work. I’m telling you this upfront, because getting in to this business you will be bombarded with scams promising you the heavens, for a fee of course. But let’s get on with our topic.
First we’ll take a look at what internet marketing is and if it’s possible to make a living with it today. I will also show you the basic process most internet marketing businesses use to make money. Lastly we’ll look at the best free resources for learning internet marketing.
Internet marketing IS real and people ARE making money on it
To be perfectly clear, internet marketing is a very general term. It can include anything from graphic design to content creation to search engine optimization. It might involve a blog or a YouTube channel or something completely different. But one thing most internet marketers or marketing companies aim to do, is to provide a solution to problem.
There are over 4 billion people using the internet today. And there are millions of people earning an income online. Some part-time, some full time and some are multi millionaires that have made fortunes.
There are many ways people are making money online. Just in the United States retailers spent $4.7 billion on affiliate marketing in 2016 and by 2020 U.S. affiliate marketing spend is expected to rise to $6.8 billion.
The fact is that you CAN make money online, it’s just a matter of finding the right market or niche. When you think about it mathematically it don’t require much to realize the potential that an over 4 billion user base offers. In case you are mathematically challenged, one per cent of that would still be 40 million potential customers. That’s more than the whole country of Canada!
So it’s just a numbers game. If you can tap even into the tiniest fraction of that market, you can make a very good living on the internet.
Marketing is one of the easiest ways to earn an income online. It doesn’t require substantial investment to get started since all you need is a computer and an internet connection.
There’s no need for expensive storage to hold an inventory and no need to hire labor to run the shipping etc. like when running an online store. There’s also no need to have years of education and experience like when creating new software or running an IT firm.
The basic process behind internet marketing
The internet is full of people looking for solutions to problems. Think about it. Besides checking your social media, the weather or your email, what is the biggest reason you go online with your phone or computer? I bet it is to look for information.
Whether it’s looking for reviews on a new phone, booking a hotel or finding cooking recipes, we use the internet almost every day to solve problems.
This is where the marketing comes in to picture. Marketers main goal is to be the middle man between the problem and the solution. If somebody is looking for a new phone, you offer the reviews and best prices. If someone is looking to book a hotel, you point the to the best one in their destination. If someone is looking for cooking recipes you offer them the best ones.
When you can present the solution to someone having a problem you have the chance to make money. The two most common ways are affiliate marketing and pay per click ads.
In affiliate marketing you direct the reader to an affiliate site through an affiliate link. If they decide to purchase a product there, you will receive an affiliate fee. So if someone is looking for a new phone, you review a popular model and add a link to Amazon. If the reader decides to buy the phone on Amazon, you get few percents of the purchase.
Here are some of the most common ways of internet marketing:
Niche blogging
In niche blogging you create a blog centered around a specific niche. You build your content around keywords related to that niche to rank your content in search engines like Google with the objective to gain organic traffic.
Once you have organic traffic it’s simply a matter of monetizing the site. You can do this with affiliate marketing or ads like I showed you before.
Using our previous example, you could create a blog that reviews smart phones and then add affiliate links to Amazon for each reviewed phone.
The great thing about niche sites/blogs is that once set up they require little work and every piece of content can produce you income for years to come. This is called passive income or residual income.
YouTube
This one is obvious to anyone who’s been online for the past ten years. YouTube has exploded and it’s actually the second biggest search engine after Google. Yes, that’s right, people look for information with YouTube all the time and not just funny animal videos.
YouTube has made it possible to create an income with things like playing online games, asmr, animal videos on some very weird stuff I’m sure you have come across. The way these channels are monetized is through marketing. They either get paid by Google through ads or by sponsors and affiliates that they promote in their content.
Social media
This is another popular one these days. People are making money with social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter all the time. It’s all about building a relevant following by producing interesting content. When you have millions followers it’s easy to monetize your channel. Like YouTube you could offer sponsored content or affiliate links.
Building an email list
This is usually done through a blog or niche site by offering a newsletter but there are other ways. There is this old saying in internet marketing: “The money is in the list“. If you have an email follower list of 10 000 or 100 000 people that have willingly given you their email address and are interested in your content, you can bet it’s easy to make money marketing offers to that list. Once again, affiliate marketing is the most common way to make money here. Of course, it’s possible to sell your own products as well.
Places to learn about internet marketing for free
Wealthy Affiliate
If you are new to internet marketing and want to learn a proven model for making money online, there’s no better place than Wealthy Affiliate. I wrote an extensive review of their service here. The unfortunate thing about internet marketing is that the business is full of scam artists and hoaxes. Wealthy Affiliate is one of the few places where you can trust the creators and the community to not try and skin you alive.
To learn the basic process behind internet marketing, all you have to do is to sign up for free membership. You get to go through the first course of the online entrepreneur certification for free.
Just the first course is free and after that you have to pay the memebership free to learn more, I want you to be completely aware of that. How ever even the first course is packed with so much information, that it would take you a lot more time to learn that by doing your own research.
If you feel like you want to continue the training at Wealthy Affiliate after the free course, you can get the first month for only $19. If you use your time wisely you can go through the whole education program in that time. I do however recommend just becoming a long time member, as the true power of Wealthy Affiliate lies in the community and all the tools you get with your membership.
Warrior Forum
The Warrior Forum is a forum geared towards affiliate marketing and making money online. They’ve been online for a very long time. The forum is full of useful reading but you have to pick the useful nuggets yourself. There are also helpful people in Warrior Forum, but I must warn you about the “gurus” looking to make a quick buck on newbies. Don’t buy anything there until you know what you are doing.
Some of the offers there will seem very tempting. That’s because the people selling them are marketing professionals who know exactly how to push the right buttons to make you interested in their product. Do not fall for this. Also don’t fall for the War Room (their premium VIP service) trap or buying the Warrior Special deals. They are just a way for the forum owners and members to make money in expense of newbies.
I used to hang around on Warrior Forum and learned a lot about marketing for free, but I don’t like the way they push useless “Make money online instantly” offers on unsuspecting newbies to make a quick buck. And the creators allow this to happen.
I like places like Wealthy Affiliate where the creators and the community actually care about new comers.
Conclusion
There you have, the best free resources to learn about internet marketing. If you want to learn about internet marketing for free you will learn a lot going through the resources I pointed out here.
If you want to consider investing in an education I can recommend Wealthy Affiliate from the bottom of my heart. You will progress much faster when you have a step-by-step learn as you go education program at your use.
That’s it for now! If you have any questions please leave a comment below and I will get back to you asap.
8 replies on “How to learn about internet marketing for free”
Very informative post and helpful for people who wants to earn online or want to try an online business.
I thin social media is a powerful platform for internet marketing especially if you have many followers.
I tried several online courses but they are not effective. The courses are good but something is missing.
Thanks for the comment Dan. I think social media is definitely a powerful platform. I don’t have that much experience using it myself so that’s why I just mentioned it briefly. This business is riddled with hoaxes and sub par courses, the only truly good one I have come across is Wealthy Affiliate.
Hi and thanks for the information. Your description of internet marketing is right on and you make a great case for getting into online marketing. The internet has grown over the last few years and with the expansion of sites like YouTube, the market potential is only going to increase. The world is available at our fingertips.
I have not tried Warrior Forum, but from your description it is not a newcomer friendly place. I am a current member at Wealthy Affiliate and can agree wholeheartedly with your comments about WA. It is a safe place to learn affiliate or internet marketing.
Thanks for the comment Sanders! There’s definitely money to be made, you just need the right tools. I also think WA is the best and most newbie friendly source there is. The only down side is you have to pay the membership fee to get the use of it’s full potential and training. It’s not a deal breaker for me but for some one looking for the information for free they will get the basics but not the details with a free subscription as you surely know.
There is a lot of free information on the internet. So really anyone could figure it out on their own. I actually did that a lot in the beginning. You sort of learn through trial an error. It wasn’t until I found Wealthy Affiliate that things started to click and I started seeing a lot of results. I wish I would have found them a lot sooner than later.
I’ve had pretty much the same experience Wendy! I knew the basics of making money online but It was all the small pieces in between I was missing to create a successful site. Wealthy affiliate made everything click for me too as you put it.
This is a very informative post. I liked the way it was written, very easy read. I like the stats you pointed out. When it does come down to a numbers game. There are so many people out there trying to do the same thing you are. The goal is to just do it better. Do it your way and be personable while doing it. As long as your are helping people you will feel the gratitude and want to keep moving forward!
I’ve honestly found the hardest thing for me is all the information that’s available. I find myself looking up a solution t a problem I’m currently having and 2 hours later I just read 5 blogs on 5 different subjects on affiliate marketing. Now I feel way overwhelmed and walk away. I realized that I do this so I’m trying my best to stay focused while working at home. It’s a challenge, but this challenge has been accepted 🙂
Thank you for the comment Sabrina! I can sympathize with feeling overwhelmed with information. I do this all the time myself. I have found one of the most important and the hardest part about success is maintaining focus. Good luck with your online business!