If you've decided that you want to make money from internet marketing then it pays to know at least some of the methods behind how you're going to achieve that goal.
Having an internet marketing plan is an excellent way to start, even if you're chomping at the bit in your eagerness to start.
Here are the main things that your plan should include: Decide on a niche Whilst you may want to conquer the world, the best way to do that nowadays is to start small.
Even the biggest companies around started this way - Apple worked from their garage initially.
A niche is simply a sub-set of a larger market.
Do some research to check that there are products for sale in your intended niche and that people are buying those products.
Most of the time you can tell this from a quick search at somewhere like Amazon and also by checking how many adverts appear in Google.
Don't spend forever on this part of your plan but do spend enough time to get a feel for whether or not it's likely to be able to pay you money.
And remember that since you're going to be spending time on this niche for the next few months at least, it needs to be something that excites you! Decide on a method Once you know the niche you're going to enter, you will have the inkling of an idea as to how you can promote it.
Different niches lend themselves to different methods.
That said, you'll almost certainly need a website to back up everything else, so pick a domain name that works for you - stick to.
com if possible, avoid hyphens, don't choose a name that goes on too long.
Then get some hosting.
Your precise method for promotion will depend on your niche - written content is almost always an essential because it gets indexed well by the search engines.
Videos are increasingly important.
Then pick a couple of social media platforms to back up your method - these could include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
Map out your first month A spreadsheet or an old fashioned piece of paper work for this.
In fact, the paper is often better as it is in sight more often.
Jot down the dates for the next month - one per line.
Then jot down the task that you will do to take you at least one step closer to your internet marketing plan turning into reality.
Then actually do those tasks each day! If you can add an extra task to get you closer to your plan happening sooner rather than later, all the better.
Start putting your plan into action A plan is useless if you don't use it.
You need to put your plan into action - that was partially covered in the last step but it's worth repeating.
A lot of people fail at internet marketing because they become distracted.
Chances are your plan will work unless you've based it on out of date advice.
A quick hint: if it mentions Alta Vista or MySpace or even the Google Keyword Tool, it's probably not as up to date as it should be.
Your success at internet marketing is usually at least as much to do with perseverance as any other factor.