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When we talk about Internet Marketing, most people get a blank stare on their face and wonder what we are talking about.  Then, most people will start to think the worst – that internet marketers are peddling the “less than desirable” products, (yes, I mean “adult” products), or that everyone is involved in spam and all the other wonderful scams that are all over the internet.

There is usually a bit of shock that you – especially when you are a MOM (gasp!) – would be involved in such a shady business venture.

Well, to put the record straight for anyone who thinks that is all internet marketers do, I am going to give a bit of a run-down of some of the other possible ventures we are involved in.  And, for any of you who are wanting to learn a bit more about Internet Marketing, and start working from home – you can pick up some ideas of possible avenues you could try for earning your own income.

While I am not the official source for the Internet Marketing term – to me, it involves marketing a product, idea, or business on the internet.  There are tons of ways of doing that – and they don’t involve spam or anything else that is remotely illegal.  It is simply another means of advertising and marketing your product to get it in front of your target customers.

The internet has opened huge doors of opportunity to everyone – and has helped to level the playing field a bit for the average person who has an idea for a product, or who has a small business – to get it seen by more people than they could have before.

Here are just some ways that you can be involved in Internet Marketing:

1.     Affiliate Marketing: Simply put, affiliate marketing is when you promote and market someone else’s product in return for profit when an action is taken.  Usually, it is when a customer purchases a product – you will get a certain percentage of the sale price.  Affiliate marketing has been widely used by even the top businesses, and became a pretty mainstream way of doing business when Amazon became so well known for their affiliate program.  It is a very good way to make some extra money, or to take it to the next level and make it your sole income.  There are many people who are making very good money doing this full time – but it isn’t something you can just jump into and expect to make money.  You need to learn how to market that product, which involves a series of steps, such as keyword research, SEO for your website (if you choose to go that route), or learning how to do Pay Per Click advertising, link building, article marketing and a whole lot more.

2.    Article Marketing: I mentioned this in with affiliate marketing, and it does tend to go together.  But, you can use article marketing for your own product or business as well.  It involves writing many keyword optimized articles, submitting them to sites on the internet – which will bring traffic to your website.  This takes time, and patience, but is a very effective means to build up traffic to your site.

3.    Product Creation: While most people shy away from the thought of creating their own product, it is said by many people that this is the best way to establish a solid income online.   Again though, it involves a lot more than just going out and putting something together that you think people would want to learn about.  You need to make sure there is a market for a product, which involves at a minimum, keyword research and market research – and you need to make sure that you are putting out a product that can genuinely help people, or give them the knowledge that they are searching for.

4.   Offering Services: I made my start in internet marketing by writing articles and editing for other marketers.  I learned a lot during this time – and still do some work for a few of my original clients who have been with me for so long.  This is a great way to get started, or even to use as a full time income – but although you want to start out offering lower prices so people can see your work, you want to make sure you start charging enough to make it worthwhile to you, or trust me – you can end up burning out pretty fast!

5.    Blogging: There are a lot of people out there who are blogging and who make their entire income from that.  What a great way to make money – by writing about something you love!  But, there is a lot more to it than that – and I am not really the expert in that field.  Blogging takes commitment, and it isn’t something you can just expect to make money from overnight.

6.   E-commerce: Whether you are selling your own products from your brick and mortar business, or using a dropshipper to send goods to your customers, selling products online reaches a huge audience and has become something that is open to just about anyone who wants to sell online.

The truth is, there are a lot more ways that you can be involved in internet marketing – running your own membership site, selling on ebay, flipping websites – the list goes on and on, but the basic premise behind everything you do is learning to market so that your product, or the product you are promoting, is being seen by the customers who are searching for it.

And, that can end up being more work than most people realize.

I am not just playing on the computer every day, reading emails and chatting on Facebook – I have spent countless hours learning new strategies and trends, working on the tedious tasks like building links to my websites, submitting articles to directories and a whole lot more.

So – if you think Internet Marketing is something you would like to get into – find some people you can trust to learn from, and be prepared to put the work in.  But, it will pay off – and eventually you will end up like the rest of us, who learn to love everything we are doing.  It almost becomes an obsession – which can be hard for other people to understand.

Especially when they think that all we are doing is sending spam emails out to everyone on the planet!

PS:  Here are some great resources for you to follow and learn from:

•    Warrior Forum: This is, in my opinion, one of the best learning resources for internet marketing by far.  Pay the extra money and join the War Room – trust me, it is worth every penny, and the best part of it is the subforum of posts by Allan Says (the forum owner).  Avoid the WSO forum, unless you absolutely know what you are needing.  Some of the names to follow and learn from (that you can trust), are Steven Waganheim, Kevin Riley, Bev Clement, Michael Oksa, JayXtreme, Tiffany Dow and others who you will learn to trust.

•    If you are interested in learning more about Blogging, you can go to http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/.  This is just a really good site to follow, with very good advice.It is written by a successful internet marketer, Yaro Starak – who has great hair by the way, and is not at all hard on the eyes;-)