When I started out with Internet marketing (IM), not so very long ago I wanted to learn everything there was to learn about this IM business. I am a person who likes to read and I do hunger for new experience – so reading up about how to make money on the internet was no sweat.

Now in the process of learning about the internet marketing business I was also signing up to almost every membership list I came across. This way I was able to get access to a lot of free stuff like ebooks and software. You’d be amazed how much stuff is given away free online – sometimes one gives away what one is selling next door. Funny hey! Anyway these freebies did not come without a prize; Everyday I was being bombarded with promotions about this get quick rich scheme and that one and that one. Tip! If you are to subscribe to these mailing lists make sure you set up another email address strictly for these – trust me you’ll be glad you did when the email start pouring in like crazy.

To be honest, most of the offers from these mailing lists were really attractive. Just imagine reading a page where the site owner tells you that as you read he is probably on a vacation somewhere and everything is on auto pilot – and then he promises you the exact same system if you pay US$37. Or They offer you a free software to do what their site is doing more like article dashboard’s free article directory software.

I won’t lie, I fell for most of these programs, however, because I did not have a credit card when I started out it was easy for me because as much as I wanted to buy, there was no way I could.

A few months down the line I found myself still reading up and not taking any action. Reading can be addictive by the way. I thought I would learn the internet marketing business by just reading up on it and trying everything that came my way. I read about affiliate marketing, how I could get free affiliate websites in an instant –actually I still have a few. I tried email marketing, I set up a free auto responder using Bravenet (a pretty good service). Let’s not even get to the pyramid schemes that promises you residual income for every person who joins under you: every minute they send you a message telling you so and so has just joined under you, lock in your position right now – heck! I even tried blogging way before I understood what it was all about. You’d laugh if I would give you some of the addresses to the blogs I set up back then.

It was not until I received an email from one of the people I was subscribed to, I think it was a guy from India. It told me to ignore everything and concentrate on one thing. He even said I should start ignoring his emails if they were distracting me or were not in line with what I was working on at that point (I did by the way). This email changed my life or rather my internet marketing business venture.

I realized that I was busy trying to learn about everything and not doing anything. So I started sifting through what I had learnt and tried to find what appealed to me the most. Most importantly I looked for those IM opportunities that could enable me to receive payment right here in my country. So I decided to set up a virtual empire, what is called a virtual real estate (VRE) online. I used Adsense account from Google and then started reading up about what really mattered the most i.e. Adsense, search engine optimization and niche marketing (keyword mining).

Three months later I set up my first website, which failed dismally because it was not keyword targeted (the good news, however is that to date this same site is wrecking a few hundred dollars because of some changes I made as I learnt about SEO).

It took me about 4 months to build my first 10 websites and 5 months to make my first $100 from Google Adsense. The estimated average to make your first $100 from Google in 3 months, which means you can do better than me.

The moral of the story is, do not be overwhelmed by the vast opportunities available online. Set a time frame and have an overview of everything that is there. But at a certain time (at least two months later) you should know what appeals to you. Stick with it until you start earning some real income from it. Read about it, find relevant mentors and grow your internet marketing business just by focusing on that particular business venture. For example, these days you will often come across people who are saying Adsense is dead – if Adsense is what you are interested in, learn as much as you can about it and don’t be disorganized by people who lack tangible proof in their claims.

The internet is not going anywhere, at least not in this millennium (I hope) so take your time and grow your business by specializing on what you can do best. Diversify gradually after you’ve seen some tangible income from the one niche.

After I started focusing on building my VRE and monetizing with Adsense only, I started making real money as compared to when I had all the information about everything that concerned internet marketing business and was continuing to pile it up on a daily bases.

Try this internet marketing strategy i.e. of focusing on one thing at a time and see if your Internet Marketing business venture will not make a positive turn within the next three months.

Wishing you all the best as you find your niche. Feel free to email me on mavicks@internemarketingstrategies.co.za to discuss this topic further. I strongly urge you to post your comments below. Share your own experiences and voice out your opinonsc about my recommended internet marketing strategy.

Warmest regards

Mavicks