In my short time being active on this forum I've seen a lot of people talking/asking about internet marketing, passive income, etc., so I figured I'd help out.
I run a large (10K products) ecommerce website and a top 100 (rated top 100 by serps.com) SEO agency, and have experience in most internet marketing related spaces. I've sold a few ebooks, but none of them have done spectacularly well.
To start, anyone can get into internet marketing. There are no barriers to entry--other than your own motivation--and you can easily start a business with minimal investment, not including time.
It's also worth stating: truly passive income is very difficult to accomplish. What's commonly referred to as a lifestyle business, is far more realistic.
For the younger guys on here, if you're in college or fresh out, look for paid internships or full-time gigs with companies that are in the space. Some cities are better than others, but there are rich IM guys/firms all over the US.
Craigslist has more gigs than you think and almost everyone I know posts IM-related jobs there. Check marketing and web/internet related categories daily. Yes, daily. It's much faster than going through 3 weeks worth of marketing gigs.
Meetup groups are a group source, assuming you know how to chat people up and network. Make sure you have biz cards, even if you don't own a biz. Make sure you know the acronyms. People love to test you with that. It's my one gripe about the industry. Anyone, feel free to add more and/or any variations of these that you've heard.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
SEM - Search Engine Marketing
PPC - Pay Per Click
CRO - Conversion Rate Optimization
CPC - Cost per click or cost per conversion. Most people mean cost per click when they say this.
CPA - cost per action - this can refer to the cost per action/conversion, OR CPA networks, which are affiliate networks (like clickbank) that pay per action/conversion/sale you send their way.
IM - Internet Marketing (commonly refers to the info product scene, which is kind of it's own space)
SMO - Social Media Optimization (easily biggest boat of shit talking wannabe marketers on the planet).
There are more, but you should know what those are and entail before you go asking for jobs.
MediaBistro can be legit as well, but most of the firms that post there want qualified people.
Identifying small companies in your area that are in a space you want to learn is relatively easy and if you're persistent, you can usually get a job there; just show them you're interested.
You'll learn more at a small ecommerce or product development (assuming they sell online) company than you will an agency. Agency gigs are fine, but you'll typically be doing one thing only. SEO is probably the best to learn. PPC advertising--in my opinion--is awful. The only thing I dislike more than that is accounting.
If you can land a gig, you can learn the game relatively quickly.
For those that are jobs they can't leave, there's a website called The Challenge, at http://www.challenge.co/. It's free, and will teach you basic stuff. The guy makes money off of his software recommendations. I don't agree with all of them, so if you have questions about the tools, message me.
There is a very solid chance that your first business/website/product WILL fail. Don't get frustrated. You're just one step closer to making cash.
Oh, and if you run any form of Google AdWords, there's a free software called word watch that will optimize your bids for maximum number of clicks.
If you have questions, let's open this up. I'd also love to hear from any other people in the space.
I run a large (10K products) ecommerce website and a top 100 (rated top 100 by serps.com) SEO agency, and have experience in most internet marketing related spaces. I've sold a few ebooks, but none of them have done spectacularly well.
To start, anyone can get into internet marketing. There are no barriers to entry--other than your own motivation--and you can easily start a business with minimal investment, not including time.
It's also worth stating: truly passive income is very difficult to accomplish. What's commonly referred to as a lifestyle business, is far more realistic.
For the younger guys on here, if you're in college or fresh out, look for paid internships or full-time gigs with companies that are in the space. Some cities are better than others, but there are rich IM guys/firms all over the US.
Craigslist has more gigs than you think and almost everyone I know posts IM-related jobs there. Check marketing and web/internet related categories daily. Yes, daily. It's much faster than going through 3 weeks worth of marketing gigs.
Meetup groups are a group source, assuming you know how to chat people up and network. Make sure you have biz cards, even if you don't own a biz. Make sure you know the acronyms. People love to test you with that. It's my one gripe about the industry. Anyone, feel free to add more and/or any variations of these that you've heard.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
SEM - Search Engine Marketing
PPC - Pay Per Click
CRO - Conversion Rate Optimization
CPC - Cost per click or cost per conversion. Most people mean cost per click when they say this.
CPA - cost per action - this can refer to the cost per action/conversion, OR CPA networks, which are affiliate networks (like clickbank) that pay per action/conversion/sale you send their way.
IM - Internet Marketing (commonly refers to the info product scene, which is kind of it's own space)
SMO - Social Media Optimization (easily biggest boat of shit talking wannabe marketers on the planet).
There are more, but you should know what those are and entail before you go asking for jobs.
MediaBistro can be legit as well, but most of the firms that post there want qualified people.
Identifying small companies in your area that are in a space you want to learn is relatively easy and if you're persistent, you can usually get a job there; just show them you're interested.
You'll learn more at a small ecommerce or product development (assuming they sell online) company than you will an agency. Agency gigs are fine, but you'll typically be doing one thing only. SEO is probably the best to learn. PPC advertising--in my opinion--is awful. The only thing I dislike more than that is accounting.
If you can land a gig, you can learn the game relatively quickly.
For those that are jobs they can't leave, there's a website called The Challenge, at http://www.challenge.co/. It's free, and will teach you basic stuff. The guy makes money off of his software recommendations. I don't agree with all of them, so if you have questions about the tools, message me.
There is a very solid chance that your first business/website/product WILL fail. Don't get frustrated. You're just one step closer to making cash.
Oh, and if you run any form of Google AdWords, there's a free software called word watch that will optimize your bids for maximum number of clicks.
If you have questions, let's open this up. I'd also love to hear from any other people in the space.