Being a self-taught person or taking a Digital Marketing Class?

Traditionally online business experts have been people who learned by themselves through years, without taking any formal digital marketing class or something related at all. It is also true that many of those experts struggled because of a lack of knowledge when the internet was still young despite having achieved success. Or because technological resources were scarce when they began. Or maybe because of those resources were too much complicated to manage.

Whatever it was the situation with such experts, two things are evident now:

1. Things have evolved, and now there are more knowledge and resources than ever. For example, platforms like WordPress to set up a website in minutes, not days like before.
2. Many of those resources are easier to handle than in the past. Although the options with any of them have grown exponentially. For example, the use of electronic devices to take pictures or video, and functionalities to modify them vs. the simplicity of photos and video that we made in the past.
3. There are many more regulations over online activity in general than during its origins. For example, Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird versions of Google‘s algorithms or the very new GDPR in European Union.

So as you can see, there is a paradox regarding how many things have become handier. However, putting all together have converted the online business in a more complex activity to do. That is why, what some time ago was learned by self-taught, today would require a systematization and guidance from a third-party.

It’s ok to be resourceful

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Being resourceful, it’s not only desirable but necessary both for digital marketing and for any other kind of online business or human activity.

Throughout your journey in digital marketing, you will encounter obstacles of both information and practice. Many of these problems can be solved simply by asking someone who has already answered before. But many others may require that we do a little more research on our own. And research is an activity that is booming and starts right there in front of you, in the Google, Bing, or Yahoo search box.

There is practically no topic at present whose information cannot be found online, whether in search engines, blogs, forums, or social media. Every person in the world now has the option of becoming a spokesperson for their skills and knowledge to help someone else, perhaps on the other side of the globe.

So in a wide variety of cases, a question can be quickly resolved by going to the web in search of an article, video, or podcast that offers us enough information on a particular topic.

Ingenuity or improvisation?

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The problem here is when such amount of information could turn overwhelming and in a lot of cases contradictory or at least controversial. In such cases, honest and informed guidance is needed. Such is the usefulness and opportunity of a digital marketing class or even better, an entire course.

Let’s say that you want to start your business but aren’t sure if you need a website or if you just can post offers online through your social media. Some sources of information say that a website first is mandatory for any serious business. Others would tell you that it is better if you can go further on your efforts without worrying about writing content or doing the SEO stuff. Who has the reason? Who to believe?

Since both sources of information seem to be partially right, you choose to apply the two strategies in parallel. Let’s suppose that twice a week, you post an article on your website as well as your offer on Facebook or Twitter, and nothing happens.

You look for an answer and find that some people say that to have income online, it is necessary to generate a lot of traffic. They also say that the fastest and most effective way to do it is by paying for that traffic. So you start paying a PPC campaign for your blog posts as well as Facebook ads for direct offers to an affiliate partner. Sometime later you have lost money, and despite having some traffic have earned nothing.

We can continue with a sequence of facts like this. However, this will suffice to support the idea that a lot of information is not the same as ‘the right information,’ one that saves you money, time, and effort as you learn.

Online business as a hobby?

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It’s true. A lot of people come to digital marketing because many unethical marketers have promoted get-rich-quick schemes throughout the years. They have created the false idea that you can make tons of money in no time or even overnight, just working a few hours a week. That is an absolutely FALSE assertion.

Digital marketing and online business, in general, require a lot of HARD WORK. The idea is that your business acquires authority, build trust in the target audience, and consolidate by generating a constant passive income. This can be achieved in a period of six to eighteen months as an average, which contrasts with a 9 to 5 scheme which usually never will generate passive income. And of course, depending on the niche and the products or services offered, the income can multiply several times in this period, compared to a salary which remains steady or that increases very slowly over time. Those are two of the significant differences between a regular job and an online business: generating passive income and multiplying it on a given period!

BUT (and this is a big one) to reach this very realistic goal, you should see your business like that and not like a hobby. It’s the constant presence through the content that you publish online what let other people know what you think, recommend or suggest about a specific topic of their interest. Day by day, any piece of content, especially that supported by research, will create a whole body of valuable information after some weeks or months. That’s how people will start to turn their heads to your website more often until it becomes an authoritative voice in the field. No matter what the niche or topic you work with.

Do you want hobby results?

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Posting once in a while an offer of a product or service to sell, hoping to see crowds coming to your site to make you rich is the same as playing the lottery. It’s not impossible. It can happen in real life but once in a million times!

How many times have you seen that something really worthwhile happens as a result of a hobby? Could you mention any great actress or actor who won an Oscar by chance? Could you say an athlete who trains only in his spare time and has won a gold medal? Would you put your or one of your loved one’s lives in the hands of a surgeon who had learned surgery in the time he had left while he was engaged in another job? I assume your answer will be negative.

Why then does our mind remain so susceptible to believe that although all other valuable things in human activity have required an effort, online business is the exception?

Perhaps it is because there is a trick that scammers continue to use, and it still works. They tell people that there are millions of other people using the internet and that definitely everything you post there will be seen by someone. What they don’t tell you is there are also millions of people trying to do the same as you. And that any message you share online will have to compete with that of millions of other users.

So again, who do you think will win the SuperBowl? The team that plays as a hobby on weekends after work? Or the one that is dedicated to football like a professional, exercising, nurturing, learning new plays, and training daily?

It’s your decision. You can have a prize from your neighborhood, from your city or from the country, whichever is valid. But don’t fool yourself thinking that all three require the same effort.

Knowledge collector

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So far, we have referred to what can happen when we refuse to adapt to a learning system or discipline to build our business. And what occurs when we want to develop it as a hobby, learning in a disorderly manner and dedicating extra time.

However, there is also the risk of being at the opposite end. Continually seeking and finding information to develop our business. We then become compulsive students of any new theory or an original method for us and pay for one course after another to master the art of digital marketing perfectly.

It is desirable to have the most useful information on a subject. As long as this does not become a symptom of information accumulation and paralysis to analyze syndrome, in which it seems that there is nothing good enough or complete to take action. So time goes by, and the internet would never see a word about our business.

Businesses require practical training

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As we mentioned, venturing into a business without prior knowledge makes us waste time and money when experimenting. Besides, a business requires to use time wisely to make it grow because otherwise, it will give us hobby results. But on the other hand, dedicating only time and effort to learning without practicing, stagnates us in a sterile accumulation of information.

The right balance is in building our online business step by step as we learn digital marketing. How do we do that? Well, there are courses designed by experts in the field carefully thought and designed to guide you to the first step as a beginner till more advanced levels as your knowledge and expertise grow.

WEALTHY AFFILIATE, for instance, it is a platform with more than 15 years of experience. They offer two comprehensive courses both to build a business within the niche of your election (Online Entrepreneur Certification) or promoting the platform itself as an affiliate (Affiliate Bootcamp).

As a Starter, you can go for free through ten-lessons first level of Online Entrepreneur Certification:

• Lesson 1 – Getting Rolling
• Lesson 2 – Understanding How to Make Money Online
• Lesson 3 – Choose a Niche
• Lesson 4 – Building Your Own Niche Website
• Lesson 5 – Setting Up Your Website
• Lesson 6 – Getting Your Site Ready for Search Engines
• Lesson 7 – Creating Your Initial Website Content
• Lesson 8 – Creating Customs Menus on Your Website
• Lesson 9 – Understanding Keywords,  The Start of Your Business
• Lesson 10 – Congratulations and Your Next Step

There is a specific list of tasks to carry out in each lesson. So that at the end of this first course, the entrepreneur has not only learned new useful concepts about digital marketing and online business in general but also has achieved:

• Choose a niche
• Build a website (hosted for free)
• Optimize your site for search engine indexing
• Write at least your first blog post
• Format and adapt the design according to your preferences and
• Learn the procedure to find the necessary keywords to write more suitable content to be positioned (SEO)

All of the above in 10 days if you do a daily lesson, or faster if you wish. The learning of the new millennium requires that people have theoretical knowledge but also the skills to achieve objectives. Wealthy Affiliate offers you this type of training for this mega-trend of humanity in the 21st century. CLICK HERE for more information.