How and why did you get started in Internet Marketing

[Dagenius]

I got involved in it because it was a natural evolution while trying to do my real estate business, from sending out email blasts about properties and such, I realized that I would need more tools to make my work more efficient. So, i did some investigating of tools, and I came across some products, and some gurus, then more products and gurus, and then as they say..... the rest is history. Im in the game now, and im happy to see theres such a huge community of people that do this and are successful. It shows me that If I can apply myself, I can do it too. Im glad I met the people that Ive met, and i'm looking to meet even more people and create even more relationships/ partnerships. As it stands now, I got a launch i'm working on currently which will soon go live. If you're interested in it, let me know. Always willing to explore new avenues and propositions. Id also like to know how you guys got in the game and what drives you to keep moving forward.

[Chris Derenberger]

I got started by accident many years ago when I had no idea what Internet marketing even was. I first saw the term affiliate partner on Amazons website. I clicked through and could not believe they was going to pay me to refer traffic to them for sales.. this was an amazing concept! Although this was about 5 years ago, until about 2 years ago, I never done much with it.

After promoting other peoples products for 2 years, I decided to make my own and now fully understand why everyone told me I should have my own products.

[kacey]

Hi,

I just joined this site, and this post looks like a good place to start.


I got into this business totally by accident, I met my now friend, mentor and partner in Spain 2 years ago. He was advertising for an assistant in an English rag over there, and I applied. I didn't know what an affiliate was or Pay Per Click and Dreamweaver was still a mystery to me as well (although I'd been doing graphics work in photoshop for a while).

I was amazed at the prospects this business showed....Wait, I can travel wherever I want...work from anywhere I want and make money without having to go to an office.....My dream come true!

Well, My boss realized quickly that I could write, design websites, network and generally be quick to learn. So he promptly threw me in at the deep end...and for a while I sank!

This all sounded so easy, but my first stab at working for myself turned out to be harder than i thought.....I was amazed that i could spend 10 hours in front of the computer...and have NOTHING to show for it at the end of the day!

Slowly, I've learned to work for myself and be productive. I am now living at a beautiful beach house in Mexico (just south of San Diego if you want to come visit us :-) and we have several products coming out in the next 6 months.

I'm excited to be part of this community and get to know everyone (Mike, if you see this, I'm the one who just sent you a note and a goofy video).

Love to hear everyone elses stories too...

Cheers,
Kacey

[BrianJ]

Hey Gang,

Fun post ... here we go.

So I have always been quite the entrepreneur *wannabe* ...

I tried several network marketing or MLM business when I was in my teens,
I also remember signing up for some big drop ship company out of California.

However nothing really seamed to work for me and I always lost more money
than I made. At the end of my run with MLM it was about 1997 or so and I thought ...

This internet thingy is the perfect match, I saw all these people online and knew with
a few emails I could recruit them all :

Then as the years past I began to see just how much opportunity their was with
the Internet and I saw it would be an amazing place to shop. I began to start making
little freebie websites ... tripod comes to mind.

I purchase many books as well and struggled with Frontpage 97 ...

Then the following year MS released Frontpage 98 ...

Somehow I was able to put together really poor websites and I began to play
around with affiliate marketing. By 2002 I was well on my way and making more
online than I did as a chef. It has been a bumpy road, however I have always managed
to make money online.

This year I started getting into product creation and really enjoy that ;-)

I think my sig line below says it all ... if you do not quite you will make it.
However I find that people expect too much too soon.

[Christopher Everson]

To make money duh! Isn't that the right answer?

I got started because I knew that working for other people wasn't for me.

I had a friend from high school that had great success with marketing various products online, so I decided "if he could do it, I could do it".

So long story short, here I am, and I love it.

[Sylvan Noel]

Hey guys,

These are some awesome stories.

My story starts like Brian's, in the field of mlm.

I actually started the end of my senior year with my first mlm, then program hopped for a while. I finally learned how to do MLM properly and had some good success. Unfortunately my continued success depended on other people, who were often not very dependable.

I recently realized that information was the way to go. With my years in marketing in general, studying many topics other than just MLM, I decided it was time to take a stab at creating my own product. Well I am in the process now. I know what I want to do and I have the resources to learn anything I might leave out. I hope this starts me on a path to many more products.

I m still in MLM but I am also creating a product to brand myself in that industry. I want to rule the internet, at least money making methods on the internet. I dabble in adsense, mlm, copywriting, seo, and a few other marketing tactics. I hope my knowledge can be put to good use, without having to dissect my brain , at least not with a scalpel.

Sorry for the rant guys, but pretty much, this is where a 20 year old kid like myself can make as much and even more than a doctor, and work his way up to CEO status before he can drink legally.

Watch out Reed Floren, theres a new young marketer on the block :P.

Well everyone have a good night, its time to turn in, Im just loving this lace too much right now.

Sylvan Noel

[KristineWirth]

What a thought-provoking question.

Years ago, I worked as the head of the Internet department for a telecommunications firm. Long story short, we were in charge of rolling out a brand new interactive website that would integrate accounts, billing, etc. The company spent millions and millions of dollars on the project and then snuffed it all out.

Which means my entire department was laid off. By the way, the fiber is still out there laying across the country doing lord knows what now.

So I found myself without a job, was recently married and to make things worse, my husband worked for the same company so needless to say we were living in fear that more layoffs were coming around the corner.

I happened to work part-time with a local web design firm and did some work for them creating back end databases, interactive sites using my PHP background and such, but they were a small firm and the money just didn't roll in like I had hoped...at least not at the level my income was at. I was desperate to find another job because we were planning on having a child and I wanted to be sure we had the additional medical insurance. At that time, jobs for the kind of work that I did weren't exactly plentiful. So little by little, I started investigating other ways to make money - and that's how I was first introduced to IM.

Now, back then IM wasn't nearly what it is today and so it was slow-going to say the least. But, little by little I became almost obsessed with marketing, why things worked the way that they did, how come one site was first in the search engines and not another one and so began studying SEO and SEM passionately. I think I attribute it to the fact that I always loved figuring out those Logic Puzzles you see in the stores (hokey I know).

Slowly I began working with lots of other web design firms doing SEO consulting which helped with the bills along with the IM I was doing. But boy, did I get sick quick of the unrealistic expectations that many people had. I'm still floored at how little the general public (non-IM people) knows about SEO, why it's important, and just exactly what it takes to get where the "big guys" are today. It pretty much felt like I was working for "the man" all over again.

Now although I still do consulting on a very part-time basis through these firms, I have now put the ball into my own court and have finally decided to just put something out there for everyone - (a.k.a. my own product). I realized that I was still working my fingers to the bone and still not seeing a heck of a lot of return for my efforts - aside from making other people money that is; I wish I had the foresight to ask for a percentage of income instead of a flat consulting fee - but hindsight is 20/20.

And that was a whopping 8 years ago, so even though I am still involved in promoting other people's products and testing out different marketing ideas and methods here and there, my passion truly lies with SEO.

So that's my very short story as to how I first got involved in Internet Marketing.

[martinsejas]

Hi everyone,

I got started in Internet Marketing after going to a seminar in March called World Internet Summit, where the biggest and most successful Internet gurus shared their experience, knowledge and techniques on how to make a full-time income online.

It was a 4 day seminar and it was absolutely mind blowing. The calibre of the presentations were excellent and it all contributed to opening my eyes as to the power and potential of IM for everyone. So I've been involved in IM for the last 7 months and I am still learning something new every single day.

At the moment, I'm selling other peoples' products, but once I learn to do that well, and I can use my knowledge and experience and sell that as a product.

That's my story.

[Paul McPherson]

Chris Carpenter's Google Cash started me - This was way before the Google 'Slap', of course.

You guys all seem to have hit it on the head. Here is my Simple Five Step Plan

1) Start with Selling Other People's Products

2) Learn Everything there is to know about SEO, PPC and who the Players and JV Partners in IM are.

3) Build a list, learn to share.

4) Build a product people really want or people really need.

5) Treat your customers with respect like people, not dollar bills. i.e. Be 'nice' to them. They pay the bills.

Paul

[stephanejsmith]

I've started internet marketing when I've first started to work as a web designer.
The business couldn't afford a web specialist so I was forced to optimize the sites on google. Now I mainly work as an SEO specialist.