How Much Information Do You Really Need to Get Started?
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A problem nearly every aspiring Internet entrepreneur faces at one time or another is information overload. This isn’t just something that gets in the way. It’s a big time dream stealer.
When you’re trying to figure everything out from scratch, it’s almost impossible to “know” when you have enough reliable information you can start using.
Even more perplexing is the more you get into it, the more “gurus” and “must have” information products you come across.
I heard an interesting story recently told by a well known marketer…
He asked a live seminar audience,
“stand up if you want to know how to get more traffic…”
Everyone in the room stood up.
“remain standing if you have a website”
Over half the room sat down! The majority of the attendees didn’t have a website up and running but truly believed they needed information about traffic.
Yes, if you’re going to have a successful online business, of course you’ll need to put all the pieces of the jigsaw together eventually.
But you have to learn along the way…
You can’t know everything and figure it all out until you’ve taken the first steps. What most people find difficult is committing to some action without knowing every step of the journey before starting out. We crave predictable outcomes, and familiar territory. It’s part of the human condition.
There is so much information around on practically everything, selecting and filtering information is becoming a vital business and life skill.
“uurgh…but what information do I select and filter?”
Here are 9 suggestions about the absolute essential information you probably need to know before getting started:
1. An understanding of direct response marketing applied to the Internet. The Internet is a direct response medium. Read something you like. Click the link. See something you want. Click the order button. One of the “classics” dealing with this is Marlon Sanders’ “Amazing Formula”. There are countless others but I’m trying not to overload you 
2. How to create a lead capture pages (aka squeeze pages). You can get others to do your web pages but you’ll find yourself held back time and time again until you can put a basic squeezepage up on the web.
3. How to use an autoresponder. This is the engine room of your email list. There’s tons of videos and help to get started on the aweber site which is the service we use and recommend.
4. How to build relationships via email with your subscribers.
5. How to set up a basic blog using wordpress. If you are to take advantage of the opportunities Web 2.0 sites (Facebook, Myspace, Digg, Propeller, etc) can offer for networking and getting traffic to your website, you’ll need a blog simple as that. See easy start videos.
6. Copywriting basic principles. If you wait till you’re an expert sales copywriter to get started, you could be waiting along time. It will help to start with if you have a basic grasp of what copywriting is all about. There’s no need to invest in an expensive course to start with. My recommendation would be to invest under 40 bucks for David Garfinkel’s Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich: Create Winning Ads, Web Pages, Sales Letters and More
7. Keyword Research. To start with you’ll need to have a basic understanding of how to find out what peple are searching for . The free wordtracker tool is a good place to start.
8. Affiliate marketing basics.You don’t need any fancy tricks or techniques to get started, but unless you have your own product to sell, you’ll need to be familiar with the concept of affiliate marketing. Go to clickbank and search the “marketplace”. When you search within categories, the products listed first are the best sellers. This will give you an idea of what’s hot and how much commission can be made by recommending products on sale through Clickbank.
9. Google Adwords:You’ll need traffic and the quickest way to get this is to pay for it. You’ll want to be able to set up a Google Adwords account and your first campaign. Even if using paid advertising will not be a viable strategy in the long term you’ll still want to be able to quickly drive traffic to test “ad headlines” and test your squeeze pages. Having the ability to get traffic quickly, then test an idea on a webpage is essential (for total beginners and experienced marketers) and well worth the investment in terms of cost per click.
Perry Marshall is the best known adwords “guru” and his “definitive guide is as good a place as any to start. Sign up for his free Adwords course.
If you have some basic understanding of these 9 online marketing fundamentals, you’ll have more than enough knowledge to get you started and into the game. I’m sure others would come up with additional items I’ve left out and alternative lists.
If you have ideas remember this is about the absolute essential knowledge someone needs to know to get started and into the game…
Over to you - what else is an absolute “need to know” before you get started?
Posted on July 18, 2008 by 
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In addition to the nine essentials you mention here in your post, I’d also add choosing and registering a domain name. Although it is often overlooked, choosing a solid domain name can have a tremendous impact on one’s business.