Internet Marketing - fact or fiction

So, I've been interested in a couple of business opportunities in my life more than any others. This is noteworthy to some who know me because I've had a wide spectrum of jobs since I was in High School. However, there are two that just keep me coming back for more. The first is Real Estate, since 1992 when I helped my dad with his 10 investment properties (that I inherited shortly thereafter,) and Internet Marketing, which I learned about from several different sources, one being my classes at the University of Phoenix, and the other being from an Internet Marketer named Derek Ghel.

What I want to address here is the latter, Internet Marketing.

So, why did I mention Real Estate at all? Well, because they both have a lot in common in one respect; they both have a bunch of Gurus and Hype. And while I've learned a bit from experience with my Father and some real-world experience building a couple of eCommerce websites for friends with products to sell, there aren't any clear and concise textbooks you can buy on this subject. It's all informational products without the whole story up front, and the closest you get is people telling you about what's wrong with the other guys as part of their sales copy so that you'll buy what works for them they say. Whew!

So, what do you do when you want to learn more? Do you just spend a lot of money and hope the "system" you buy pays off? Do you just assume you'll have to weed through a bunch of junk but know that your cleverness and persistence will pay off eventually? What do yo do?

Well, I've found that there are foundational technologies that everyone is using and that you can find out most of this information for free, which people are willing to sell to you for $27, $47, or $97 dollars (even though it's worth $197 they say). If you know the foundation you can get an idea of how you're going to work the system; because, after all, this is really a game with rules that allow you a range of creative options for application. But you have to know the basics first.

I picked up quite a bit step-by-step from:

1. My classes in college that taught me a little about SEO and Adwords or PPC


2. Derek Gehl, a guru with a lot of information and products designed to help automate your selling process


3. Continued Internet research, usually signing up on Gurus' email lists and RSS feeds to gleen what I could


4. Participating in Ed Dale's 30 Day Challenge, which is a great step-by-step free course

Again, start with the rules and the known gadgets and then dig a little deeper. All the while using your whiteboard (everyone should have one for brainstorming)to come up with ideas and track your research. Oh, and don't forget some sort of Journal, Blog, or Notebook to keep track of what you've discovered with your process.

Above all, I've seen a lot of people getting rich quick offering "Get Rich Quick" scams. (Funny how that works.) But since I'm looking for legitimacy, I'll let you know how it goes. I might even put the best of what I've learned up here so you don't have to repeat all that I've done ... you can flatten the learning curve.

Check back, I'm sure I'll have more here on all this and I'll let you know how it's going.