As you’ve probably noticed, there are many different ways of working online both in broad terms and in the specifics of execution. There are four categories I plan to pursue initially:

• Blogging
• Article Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• SEO

Now, I’ve noticed lately that the “key to success” that everyone is talking about is setting your sights on *one* method and focusing purely on that until you succeed with it (or conclusively fail). Even though I plan to use four strategies, as far as I can tell, they can all be tied together into one cohesive system. Let me tell you my thoughts…

Blogging

While blogging can be used for a very large range of things, from personal rants to product reviews to tech knowledge, in the context of internet marketing, I think the purpose of blogging centers around community involvement. I realize this stance is probably not typical of internet marketers but I don’t believe it’s in my best interest to use this blog as my prime income source.

Typically, the idea is to drive traffic to your blog where you then promote your affiliate products. Although I may use that model elsewhere, I feel that you need to be really passionate about your topic and, quite honestly, I’m not there (yet) in the internet marketing space. Instead I plan to chronicle my journey and, hopefully, provide value to others looking to work in this area as well. I should also mention that the internet marketing space has some very successful players and I don’t really want to try and compete with them. At least not while I’m working a full-time day job and doing a freelance tech project on the side. I just don’t have that much time…

Article Marketing

I’ve been somewhat aware of the concept of article marketing for quite some time, but it was Karol Gadja’s description of it in his How To Live Anywhere* course that really got me thinking about it seriously. He describes how he uses Hubpages to supplement his income and although there’s definitely work involved, that’s all it involves. Really, it’s not that difficult.

It seems you could make a tidy bit of money purely from writing articles and the associated Adsense revenue. But, used as a springboard for affiliate marketing, I believe some powerful synergy can be developed that will increase the profits of the two together when compared to either strategy alone.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the sales side of the blossoming info product industry. Like article marketing, I’ve been aware of the concept of affiliate marketing for a long time. Maybe even more so as I do purchase info products from time to time and I generally try to use the affiliate link of the person I first heard about the product from. If you’re wondering what I mean by that given that most affiliate links drop a cookie so that the originating site gets credit even if you come back later, I tend to hold off on checking out any info product until I’ve heard about it from a few sources. This includes blog posts (where the affiliate links usually are) and twitter. It’s generally a few days before I’ll decide to check a product out by which time I’m familiar with what it’s called and can Google directly to it.

Anyway, it seems affiliate marketing is where the bulk of my income will be within the four strategies. Ultimately, I plan to produce my own info products eventually moving me into the production side but that will take more time and effort than I can dedicate right now. As mentioned, this ties in nicely with article marketing as the articles can help jump-start the traffic to your affiliate links.

SEO

I originally only listed three strategies but Search Engine Optimization is a necessary component of any successful internet marketing plan. After all, if your audience can’t find you and your stuff, you’ve got nothing! Now, there are many tips and tools out there that can substantially reduce the amount of effort involved in doing SEO on your web properties. A few quick googles and some judicious use of the Google keyword tool along with SEO-friendly Wordpress themes and plugins allow you to skip most of the hard SEO stuff (at least initially), but this is something I think I can actually be passionate about. It appeals to the tech-geek in me. So I’ll likely dig into this stuff a little more than normal.

Final Thoughts

So, in a nutshell, that’s my focus. I’ve been moving slower than I would like but between my family, my day job and my side job, I don’t have all that much time to spend on this stuff. Of course, it doesn’t help when I get sucked into watching Wipeout and So You Think You Can Dance on TV. It’s amazing how quick you can burn a couple hours doing nothing (useful). I’m confident I can find a few hours a week to get this stuff moving and help shape my future. It’s easy to say “I don’t have time” and not do anything. But that’s what I’ve been doing for the last year and, not surprisingly, I’m in the same place I was last year at this time. There’s only so much reading and thinking you can do. Without action, nothing changes. I want different results in my life, so I’m going to do different things.

As always, I’m open to feedback and suggestions or just general comments. Tell me what you’re thinking!

- Dave

* Yes, this is an affiliate link. What kind of internet marketer would I be if I didn’t use affiliate links in my blog posts. However, I only promote products on my blog that I truly believe are worthwhile. As I said, the blog is about community involvement, not (just) profit.

As this is a side project (and one of many), I don’t expect to be posting more than once or twice a week and maybe less if my other projects consume my time. Be that as it may, I hope you stick around and join me on this exciting journey into the world of internet marketing. See you soon!

- Dave