Ask Ned the Newbie about his online marketing background he will sheepishly tell you how pathetic he was and how he was the poster boy for the frustrated and desperate marketer, who didn’t have a single marketing muscle in his body. Then look out because once Ned tells you how bad he was he gets really wired and can’t stop talking about the search engine marketing strategy that turned his Internet Marketing experience into an enjoyable and profitable one. I really like Ned, probably because I see so much of myself in Ned. I think Ned found me just in time though, he had already started pulling his hair out and had his finger nails chewed to the quick by the time I got to sit with him. That was Ned, but not anymore, Ned is a new marketing man now. I like to ask the friends that want to learn from my experience questions that make them think. Open ended questions so they can’t get away with a YES or NO answer. This makes them think and actually learn more as they answer. Because I teach my clients how to do things for themselves I frequently ask open ended questions so I know they are understanding the strategies that will help them get what they want, which is targeted visitors to their web site.
Now let’s ask Ned the Newbie some questions and see if it helps you.
Ned does tend to get a bit excited and much like myself can start babbling and get off on tangents, so I will edit his responses to keep them direct and short.
James: Ned, what was the turning point in your online business? The point where you were losing money and the point where you started getting noticed? Ned: James when you taught me about optimizing my web pages for search engine traffic I stopped spending money and started learning search engine optimization, and after a few short weeks I was seeing the traffic increase yet I wasn’t advertising at all. James: Excellent, but you actually were still advertising, but instead of cash out of pocket it was a learning curve and you spent your time, which is still money, just not out of pocket, and that investment of time gives a great return on the invested time. James: Okay next question Ned. Do you have any idea of the money you saved by learning search engine optimization? Ned: I know that I didn’t make any money from my advertising or web site before learning from you, but I stopped paying for advertising when I started learning about keywords, content and search engine optimization. So for now I would say I have saved all my money. James: So you are saying that you really didn’t start seeing anything positive until you took the time to learn how to earn and build a list of target group subscribers? I did exactly the same thing until I learned about two really helpful forum owners, Mike Merz and Lynn Terry, from that night on my Internet life was changed for the better.
James: Next question Ned. How long did it take to see any positive results for what you have learned? Ned: This one is easy James. I started see changes in my own mental state almost immediately because I started understanding what I wasn’t doing that was causing all my stress. So there were positive results right away. The next results I noticed were in my cPanel (control panel) for my web site. There were visitor showing up and my advertising had stopped, yet my visitors were increasing. I wasn’t making any money yet, but I was getting more people to my site and even a few emails from interested visitors. It was almost a month before I put any money in my pocket and that moment goes down in history as the most positive thing that has happened to my online business. A definite turning point.
James: Thanks Ned, that was great and keep up the great job you are doing.