When beginning to learn about Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing, Online Business, etc., a person seeks a source of information that is reliable and also contains the basic knowledge to acquire a sufficiently complete and comprehensive view of the issues.
Google search can be quite confusing task particularly because these topics have many potential sources and it ‘s hard to know which are serious and which are a fraud, or at least incomplete and partial.
Among countless promotional pages, blogs, courses, conferences, events, offering information related to Internet Marketing, is overwhelming to choose the suitable information source. How to identify valid information? Is there any way to evaluate it? Is it necessary to pay for the information?
From all the possible options described, there are two clearly standing out from the rest: the books and forums or communities.
The books concentrate a certain amount of theory and can be a good choice to learn once a lot of concepts regarding Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing, Internet Business. If books contain practical exercises are a good way to start on the topics mentioned above.
However, books have several disadvantages:
1) It ‘s hard to determine in all cases the author’s background, to know if he/she speaks with authority or has just taken concepts from different sites.
2) Generic topics such as Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Online Business, etc., are very broad so, a book that addresses them will usually be incomplete unless addresses very specific topics, techniques or methods.
3) Technical books, in general, tend to be backward or obsolete and in the case of internet obsolescence rate is even higher.
Forums and communities instead have the advantage over the books of addressing issues that are critical in time.
1) The questions made in a forum lack excessive theory and concentrate on discussing very practical matters.
2) The exchange of questions and answers or comments on a forum or community are made by people who are actively working on the issues addressed at the time, hence its practical and time value.
3) The possibility of multiple answers, comments, opinions is significant so that the wealth of information multiplies.
4) The range of topics is broad and dynamic so far exceeds any published static material.
There are various forums and communities related to Internet Marketing. Perhaps the most complete of all of them is Wealthy Affiliate where you can find everything that you look for in one place: courses of different levels, Webinars, interactive chat, as well as the option to create up to 25 websites by WordPress and many other features available for regular and premium members.
In short, books are an excellent choice for information but should be taken with reserve and for very specific technical issues. Instead, communities are an active entity, as active as it requires working these days on the internet that is changing at breakneck way. When in doubt always choose to consult with a community.
3 thoughts on “Learning Internet Marketing: ebooks vs communities”
I try to learn from everything, including e-books, youtube videos, forums and platforms like Wealthy Affiliate. However, I do find that WA provides more value and a more consistent approach to their training. While you can find most of the same information elsewhere on the Internet, it’s pretty much scattered and often mixed with contradictory advice. You’ll also find it out of order and there are just some things that have to be learned before you try other things. This is the advantage of the coursework approach at WA.
Hello Mark. Yes I agree with you, the best thing to learn on the internet especially about online business is to have centralized and systematized information. Wealthy Affiliate meets these conditions and it is also a platform that has been tested by more than one million people, which gives it complete authority in the industry.
https://affiliate-marketing-co…
Nicely said on differentiating between learning from the books and the community. I think in order for us to learn we need both. Sometimes books can be hard to understand if you do not know the jargon. When you come across that it will save you a lot of time asking people who are familiar with the terms. I think it is easier to compare them as book smart and street smart, you need both of them to be successful. Books’ theory is not practical sometimes. It is always better to have some peers that you can discuss over what you have learned.