Back in January I received an email from a subscriber to the Biz Opps UK email newsletter asking if there were other people in the same boat as him:

“Hi Ben

Please keep up the good work with the Bizopps site its very informative especially for someone who is ‘new to the trade’ and hasn’t realy got a clue what they are doing.

Internet and marketing are completely new to me and miles apart from my previous 30 year working career, but I decided that the bright lights and unlimited wealth was for me and after ditching my job here I am.

Do all budding internet marketeers find this industry so daunting when they first start out or is it just me ?

No urgency for reply

Regards

Gary”

The following emails show the replies I received after featuring the email in the newsletter:

“Hi Ben

Just like Gary, I am just entering the world of internet marketing and would like to reassure him that he seems to be bog-standard normal in his experience.

I have spent the last week trying to aquire and choose a domain name and to set up hosting for it and I have to say that I have trawled through so much alien information and put so much brain power into trying to understand it that I have had to have a lie-down in a darkened room to recover!

Of course, this is in addition to hours of niche research and days and nights of intensive thought on the subject of product creation.

However, I am loving the challenge and I am 100% sure that the steep learning curve will be worth it when I get the hang of it and actually start making a decent living.

After all, if you were aiming to be a dentist or an engineer, you wouldn’t expect it to be simple and straightforward, or indeed, fast, so persistence and perseverence will see the thing through!

Regards

Jane”

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“Hi Ben

Just a note about the new guy who felt overwhelmed. I knew nothing at all about internet marketing two and a half years ago, but always wanted to work from home. I was forced to leave my job of 27 years through stress and depression and so in desperation started looking online for things I could do at home.

I threw myself completely into it and eventually came across internet marketing and specifically affiliate marketing through pay per click. I must admit I knew zero about computers and the internet when I started, but didn’t think of it as being overwhelming – just incredibly exciting as I realized “Hey I can do this!!”

My advice is don’t ever scrimp on your education – get as much information as possible on your chosen area, and act on it. And invest in yourself, buy ebooks and information. In my experience some stuff is available free but on the whole it’s worth what you pay for it.

And what happened to me? I now work whenever I want to (or don’t want to!) and am earning more than I earned in 27 years in a high street bank.

One of the unexpected benefits of affiliate marketing and ppc (once you’ve got to grips with it) is that when you find a good selling product you can just let the ads run and run – giving a nice residual income. Over a period of time you will build a number of these ads until you have a healthy and ongoing income. Want a pay rise? Put more ads up!

If I can do that with zero starting knowledge – anyone can.

All the best

Gaz”

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“Hi Ben

Wow! What a lovely surprise to read through your email today and find my message reproduced for all to see. That really gave me a buzz! You might like to know that – following an extended period in that darkened room – I have reached the position of getting a test page upon the web.

Now, I know that this is probably like breathing to you, but to me it’s like getting to the summit of Everest. All I have to do now is finish writing my product (the fun bit) and learn everything there is to know about stunning copywriting (the Everest bit).

Exciting, this internet marketing stuff, isn’t it?

Best wishes

Jane”

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“Hi Ben

I know how Jane and Gary felt trying to get started on the Internet.

One thing that always bugged me was the advice “follow your passion” without been given any detailed advice about how to create products.

I finally discovered a great teleseminar CD set which proved to be a EUREKA moment from the fantastic info about creating info products. I’ve put extra information into this package and started my own business selling it.

So my advice to people looking to get started would be to make use of all the FREE advice and tools that are available and just get started in a small way and learn as you go.

As David Vallieres puts it ‘Fail Faster’

Ewan Chai offers a great free book at his site www.ewanchai.com which details the different business models people can adopt.

Also I got an email yesterday with a link to another great freebie @
http://www.keithwellman.com/recommends/vids

You probably already know this but free tools and resources are available @
Webmonkey.com
Bravenet.com.

There’s some great free e-books available and I’m reviewing some for Home Business Choices magazine and offering them free on my site. If you’d like the URL for this there’s great information and advice in here to help people get started quickly and cheaply.

Regards,

Tony”

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Thanks for all the replies, it’s great to see people contributing and helping each other out!

If you would like to add a comment, please just click on the “Comments” link below.

Ben