If I Had to Start Over as a New Internet Marketer Today
January 26th, 2010 | 
Author: Ami asked me a great question today via email and I wanted to share with you what my answer was to her, and expand on it a bit. She asked, “If you had to start over completely, knowing what you know now, where would you start?”
So here’s what I answered plus a little more detail:
If I was starting from scratch today I would:
1.) Pick my niche – and make it nice and narrow so I’d dominate.
I wouldn’t target something broad like dog training – I’d start small and then grow big later. I’d maybe start with dog agility training (just an example, I’m not in the dog niche). I’ve done some great videos on YouTube about picking a niche – go watch them: http://www.youtube.com/user/TiffanyDow
2.) Spend a day gathering keywords – both broad and longtail
Yes, a whole day. I’d start broad and dig down and find all those long-tail keywords that would send my site to the top. I’d alternate using them – broad then long-tail. I would exhaust them – use it on a blog, on a lens, on a Hub, in an EZA – everywhere I could.
3.) Launch a blog on my own domain and start blogging like a madman. Google loves blogs, they’re considered authority to consumers, and you can manage them easily.
I would buy a domain and host it at Hostgator because the cpanel is so easy for newbies and customer service is excellent. Then I would install a WordPress blog using the Fantastico button. I would blog daily – more than once a day – using 250 word blog posts with keywords in them.
4.) Start building a list from the day my blog went up.
I would use Aweber to start building a list from day one. Even if no one signed up for 4 weeks, it would be ready – and I’d add a new autoresponder email to the follow-up list every day so that once every 4 days, my subscribers heard from me.
5.) Begin working on my own info product to sell.
This is essential. Don’t rely on everyone else to have a decent product. The only person you can rely on for quality is – YOU! So I would use Building an eBook Empire to create and launch my own info product. That list I’d been building would get first dibs at it at a discount from what the public is paying.
6.) Approach someone with a bigger list once it was ready to JV with me.
I would create something extra just for their list – no one else’s. And when I said that, I would hold true to it – not just say it to get someone to promote and then 2 weeks later give the same deal to another JV prospect.
That’s where I would begin. That’s the starting point I use now when I’m launching something.
Tiff 
Posted in Internet Marketing
Tiffany,
how do you always know exactly what information I could use right now? Do you have secret powers?
Great stuff (as always). So happy to be on your list of useful info – keep it coming!
Have a lovely day.
Danielle
Tiff,
Excellent post, I don’t think you missed a thing! However, one thing I might add is once you get up and going, you’ll want to make sure to build a good team of outsourcers. If you have your outsourcing team already in place you’re not scrambling once you start growing. This is a mistake I made and I still have yet to find all the pieces to a great outsourcing team. Thanks for the post.
Hey super Mom,
Sounds like a good way to start, about longtailed keywords their great, but how many people think of these nerrow niches using the longtail keywords. I have a longtailed title and keyword on Hub pages, number one on Google every day 24/7, but I get very little traffic.
Hey Ken – you said “I have A longtailed title…” etc.
“A” won’t be enough to sustain you. The key is to have a ton of long-tailed keywords where you rank #1. Then the traffic starts to build up and matter more.
Tiff
Specific question, Tiff — what role would Squidoo play in your plan discussed above? My contact with you has come about primarily via Squidoo and your fine Squidoo products.
Would you still focus as much on Squidoo, both as a resource for your marketing and as a source of product development?
I ask because I know Squidoo has changed in the last year, but that it still plays a prominent part in your Internet Marketing presence.
Would it if you were starting over?
Tiff
I might just add that I’d connect my blog to my social media profiles so as to ensure my efforts were also on sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Jim
I would use Squidoo the same as a blog post. One lens per keyword phrase. Each lens would have five 150-word articles (approx). It would cross promote my blog. Squidoo would be like EZA…it helps you rank high. I still use it
Good add James!
Hi Tiffany – thanks for the excellent resume of what you would do if you started over. You make it sound so easy……lol
I am wondering, if you choose a topic such as dog training are you going to write an ebook on that subject and find JV partners working in the same niche? It would seem that writing an ebook on IM is far easier to sell and easier to get JV partners, whereas dog training seems a little more obscure. Sorry if it is an obvious question – but these are the sort of things that can hold the likes of me back from ever getting off first base!!!
Hey Janet!
Think of it this way – if you find a successful dog training site where the person is building a list, then you can rest assured they’ve studied Internet Marketing and know what a JV is. Or when you explain it to them, they’ll understand the benefits of having something to promote to their list. I can tell you that almost every “niche” site that sells an info product has a big name marketing guru behind it. I ghosted their stuff (they made tons of money on niche topics and then MORE money with their IM eBooks teaching people how to do it – with details left out, of course LOL!). But as an example, an ethical example, look at Travis Sago – he teaches Bum Marketing, but he makes a lot of money with The Magic of Making Up.
Tiffany,
Thank you for this post. I do have a question for you- can you suggest a good way to learn about selecting the best keywords? I am confused with all the information. How did you learn? What book did you study?
Thank you,
Kathy
Tiff~ Wondering why it is so popular to go into micro-niche instead of macro-niche where any piece of the pie is more money. Do you have any thoughts on this?
I didn’t study books, Kathy. I kind of learned on the fly – by doing. IE: I tried tapping into “ghostwriter” ROTFL. That’s kinda a hard word to rank for with 110k searches. But then I saw “ebook ghostwriter” – which is what I do and yet had only 140 searches. But I ranked high (this is old, not new stuff). I read posts on the Warrior Forum about long tail keywords. I learned about them that way, tried it with Squidoo lenses, saw it worked and applied it.
I’m not saying avoid the macro niche – but START with a micro niche because you’ll be able to make your site and content perform better in the SERPs. Then broaden it up.
I would also start linkbuilding for my main keywords. There are free semi-automated tools for directory submissions, a very easy way to start.
Tiff, you hit the nail on the head again and produced just the advice I needed right now to help me figure out exactly where I’m lagging.
Bill touched on a subject which I for one would appreciate some help with. Though I am not ready for outsourcing immediately, I would love some help with geeky tasks as soon as I can afford to pay for it.
You provided great outsourcing resources for copywriting, but maybe outsourcing other tasks could be the subject of another post?
As usual, thanks for all your help.
Hi Tiff,
great post with excellent advice. Your answers to the questions gave me some great ideas too.
I hadn’t thought of using Squidoo that way. Gotta try that!
About long-tailed nkeywords…
How long-tailed is too long, or rather, how low would you go in searches to make it still worth your while?
I find that a lot of keywords that would work great have not enough searches to even list the numbers in the Google tool, and other tools I have used won’t list them at all.
I mean I’m talking monthly search numbers in the two digits or less. Would you still include those? Or where is your cut-off point.
At the same time, where are your cut-off points in terms of competing pages?
Thanks!
Elisabeth
Hi Elisabeth!
With long-tail it can be tricky. You’ll get to know which are buying keywords and which aren’t. I like those with the word review in it, for example, because it tells me it’s a consumer who’s ALMOST ready to buy. Now if it says “repair” in it, then you know it’s an owner whose product is broken, for example. Just play with them and you’ll start to see what works and what doesn’t. On Google, just an fyi – I’ve seen lenses with Amazon products result in sales and when I took the keywords on my traffic stats page, they weren’t found with enough results in Google, so it just depends on the keyword itself. I like to start at around 8,000-22,000 for my long-tail. Not if I find the perfect keyword with 46 searches, like “buy an elmo doll now” then I’m grabbing it! lol With competing pages, I don’t give it a second thought. Means nothing to me.
what is a long-tailed title….a total newbie here.
how do I know if my market is narrow enough?
What do you recommend if you started broad? Any way to go back and narrow if you had already started with a “Big/Broad” topic?
Can you just start “narrowing” on the same blog or do you recommend starting over with a new blog (depending on the current domain name, etc.)?
Just curious.:)
I would concentrate on one thing at a time & finish it before starting on another project. Also, I would quit chasing every get rich quick scheme. I would be much further ahead and less in debt. Sad but true.
HI Tiff,
Thanks so much for this. I always love to hear what successful marketers would do if they had to start over!
Q for you – what about testing your market or list before you put blood, sweat and tears into creating a product? Or do you think, as long as the free gift you offer for the opt-in is similar to the product you create, that’s enough?
I know some marketers “test” with a little Google adwords compaign – because it’s fast, (scares me to pieces), or suggest testing the waters with a similar Affiliate product first – but I’m not wild about that idea either. Or still others will tell you to survey your list ASAP and ask them what they want.
Would appreciate your thoughts! Thanks!
Hi Tiff,
Thanks for this very helpful info. One question, though: In your reply to Gary, when you said,
“…I would use Squidoo the same as a blog post. One lens per keyword phrase. Each lens would have five 150-word articles (approx)…”,
were you talking about five text modules per lens or were you talking about 5 articles on EZA to promote each lens? Thanks.
I am not sure whether Ami meant “from the very start”!!!
Ami, my advice is to learn some basic skills if you do not have them. As Tiff says – “don’t buy anything to start with”. Learn about Unzipping files, using free software like Kompozer, Squidoo and Wordpress. Learn how to load your website material onto the web using ftp. (filezilla.com is free) Learn how to resize graphics. (Irfanview.com is free too) (Learn how to use an autoresponder (Aweber is best – not free but only around $20).
Find a good mentor – a really good mentor and they don’t cost very much. Tiff is great!
When you have the basic skills then you will have an idea of where you want to concentrate your time. Choose ONE area and stick with it until it works.
Just a few thoughts as I reviewed my long search for help on my journey.
Hope this helps, & all the best for your success,
Bev
Great advice Tiff! You do spell it out clearly. I might add to start a Twitter and Facebook account in the same niche using as close to the same name as the original blog. Then tweet snippets of blog postings with links back to main site. Post and link on Facebook in the same manner!
Thanks for all your tips and advice Tiffany, your the greatest!
I’m going to reread this later… I plan on doing something different with what I have and some of your tips will be most helpful Tiff! As always YOU are right on. I feel so blessed to have you as my friend and mentor!
Roz Fruchtman
You know Tiff, I can somehow apply these tips to my online business (even though it’s not about internet marketing). So, thanks for sharing!
Perfect Post as always!! Great advice and right where I am at
Belinda
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I agree!
Especially with building a list FROM DAY 1 that is the most important thing you can do!
Hey everyone! Just an FYI I made a video answering your questions here:
http://www.tiffanydow.com/blog/main/resources-keywords-market-research-and-squidoo/
Thanks for videos. You look fabulous. I can see I need to redo my squidoo lenses. Way too much on them.
I would concentrate much more effort into article writing. I wasted time trying to get around it.
An article I wrote a year ago just trickled in a couple sales. I can’t help but wonder what I would be banking now if I would have kept my nose to the grindstone.
That’s me-learning the hard way.
I did learn a ton along the way…
This helps with Rounds 3, 4 and more, too, as well as Round 1 and 2.
Thanks!