Tons of people have been emailing me lately with questions- and most of them are the exact same question: "Luke, I'm completely new to this whole 'make money with online marketing' thing, and don't have the slightest clue where to begin. Tell me what to do."

They're just like I was in the beginning: They're on about 20 different 'gurus' lists, getting 20 different emails a day, all telling them to do 20 different things... PPC, video marketing, facebook, twitter, ebay, ezines, banner advertising, affiliate marketing, blah blah blah... and every week, there's a new 'whiz-bang' course out that's gonna solve their money worries once and for all...

For most beginners, it's extremely and mentally draining. They want to make this work, but they doubt whether they can do it (it just seems so technial). Is it any wonder why most of them fail or give up? With the amount of info and product pitches been throwing at them every 5 minutes... what chance have they got? In my opinion, the BIGGEST reason people fail to make this work is:

They drown in deep sea of information before they even have a chance to swim...

So what's the solution - my internet marketing floaties!! ;)

Just kidding, you see, when you simplify this business down to it's basic steps, here's what you're left with:

Step #1:

If you want to sell something online... you first need a group of people to sell to. That seems obvious, but most people do not give this of their business the respect it deserves.

Now when I say you need a group of people... what I really mean is, "you need a list." You need a list of names and email addresses- (you get those by offering something of value in return- like a free report or in my case a free internet marketing bootcamp). Building that list needs to be your priority. Dont manually add names and email addresses to your list as this is spamming and very time consuming. Engage an autoresponder (like Aweber for example) and get your visitors to "opt in" to your list by giving you their name and email address in exchange for your free gift.

Typically, the biggest different between a 7 figure online marketer and a 6 figure online marketer is the size of their list. Now if you can add just 5 - 10 people to that list a day... within a year you'll have a list of around 3000 people. And I will tell you it's very possible to make 50K + a year with a list of just 3000 (I have seen many many people do this).

However, in order to build your list you need traffic visiting your website. So...

Focus on driving traffic to your website and building your list (and bonding with your list) - everyday.

Step #2:

You need something to sell. Again... pretty obvious. But here's what you DON'T do: you don't spend 4 weeks creating your own product and then try and sell it... that's recipe for disaster (ask me how - I know!) Instead, you start off by promoting other peoples products as a member of a group or an affiliate- so all you need to do is send them to the websites (already built for you and PROVEN to convert) and the system does the telling and selling for you and closes the sale.

Then when it comes time for you to bring out your first product... you'll have a decent chance of being successful (because you know what the market wants).

Step #3:

You create a relationship with your email list by communicating with them regularly, and as a person- NOT as a company. And you DONT ask them to buy regularly - you SHOW them how the product or system that you are marketing will HELP THEM ACHEIVE THEIR GOALS. They know what they want or need, they just don’t know where to find it, so that is your task.

Don't try and hide the fact you're marketing to them. They know it, and expect it however you need to keep it relevant to the purchaser - If they don't like it, or they don't like you, then that is their choice but as soon as you start flogging every product under the sun to them you will lose respect and creditability, as well as customers. Remember they are free to unsubscribe at any time (and the ones who didn't like you were never gonna buy anyway!).

I've said it time and time again, that is why I don't flog products- I will only ever recommend products or services that I have tried and tested myself and that are proven to work. It's a simple science really: Let's say I recommend a product to you worth $27 and send you the info and you buy it because you can see the value in it. You use the product and are blown away by its value and get so much out of it and it really helps your business. Next time I recommend another product to you, you are definately gonna check it out and most likely if it looks good you will buy it, right?? Because you trust my recommendations.

Now if I sent you a really bad product you are not even gonna look at the next one I recommend and you will likely unsubscribe from my list! This is important as you work hard to build your list and when you are starting out you just want to make sales, but believe me - I've learnt the hard way and you are much, much better off following my guidelines above!

So in a nutshell it boils down to these 3 steps. Another way of saying it, is you get good at email marketing. Where people screw it up, is they try and do 20 different things at once, and they lose sight of these three important things. So keep it simple.