What Knowledge Bag Do you Need to Make Money Online?

What tools do you really need to make money online? What tools do you really need to make money online?

I’m a marketer.  And I would love to sell you the moon.  And I could present you with the what’s and why’s as to products that I think you should buy.  But I’m not.

And the reason behind this isn’t because I’m a good guy out to look out for the beginner.  The reason is because most of the stuff out there, you won’t need and in most cases will be completely useless to you or your business.

A fairly prominent internet marketer once made the statement that if the world was full of “business” minded people, he wouldn’t be able to sell as much as he did in the make money online market.  The reason?  Most people who are just learning how to make money online are opportunists who still believe that there is a push button easy way to do it with very little effort and are willing to buy products that promise as much…

Contrast that to a frugal entrepreneur who looks at a product, determines what it does and whether it is a worthwhile investment in terms of their business, and makes the decision to buy after carefully reviewing its potential worth (rather than making a flash decision)….

This isn’t to say that you need absolutely nothing.  You do need things.  And as you progress through your journey, you may find that you need some things more than others.

What every beginner marketer needs….

A domain that YOU control with hosting-  Some people will tell you otherwise.  They will tell you that you can use free hosting (like blogger).  I am going to tell you that that is a seriously foolish proposition.  Besides, a domain name is going to cost you $10 bucks.  Hosting will cost you $5-10 a month.  Suck it up.

A way to track who is coming to your site and from where-  This is free.  It’s called google analytics.  ’nuff said.  For the paranoid marketer, there are also several analytics tools that don’t come from Google that are free as well.

What you don’t necessarily need:

I want to make something clear here.  Chances are, down the road, you are going to want to play with each of these tools but for now, there is no reason to break the bank until you determine your monetization model as well as your strategy for lead generation.

A keyword research tool-  Get yourself an adwords account instead and use the tool that ALL keyword research tools use for data.  Practice on it for awhile.  Get proficient at learning how to watch things.  Then consider buying one at a later date.

An autoresponder-  This is a tool for list marketers.  An autoresponder will serve you no great purpose until you are getting traffic to your website and understand basic elements of copywriting.  It is probably the most useful tool you can own if you know how to use it.  But you aren’t there yet.  Slow down and learn the rudiments first.

Anything that promises automation-  Automatic link builders, automated article and directory submission software, bot creators, tools that connect your network together…they all serve a purpose but right now, they will be nothing but time sinks for you.

Training tapes, quick flash-in-the-pan reports on how to make money online, business’ in a box, videos, teleseminars, or anything else that requires you to drop a chunk of change to get-  Time sinks…all of them.  Better to take the rudiments and use a little common sense to build real marketing strategies.