When a student asked me last week what his approach to learning about online marketing should be…I thought the answer I gave him may be useful for you too…

Let me be very clear up-front though, I am not against seeking out coaching or buying a training program,  I have invested in training very strategically over the years and more often than not, benefited tremendously from it. 

START WITH WHAT IS WORKING

I’ve always learned most by watching what is working at a given point in time — in other words, watching what the top people are doing online and why.

This approach will never let you down.  There are so many trainers and courses out there that are NOT based on real success or results…the way to sift through the ones that don’t work or do not apply to your online business is to become a student of learning what works…

When I first started out in 2000 I learned by watching Corey Rudl, Yanik and Marlon come out with their own products – along with my background in developing training programs, the lightbulb went off, there was (and still is) huge opportunity for cost effectively creating and distributing infoproducts (in the past printing and recording costs were prohibilitive).  So that’s what I did…I went ahead and did the same thing after finding a gap in the market.  I then invested in some consulting to help refine my first infoproduct…exactly what I needed at the time. 

Then, I watched in the early 2000’s as email marketing came into its own – list building, relationship management, copywriting became more important as competition heated up, etc…  Again, I started by modeling some of the most effective email campaigns and sought out training where necessary. 

Late 2000’s it was all about SEO – learning how to get your online business in front of your market – content, SEO, blogging, video, etc…  I learned the basics about SEO, went and got my hands dirty and learned a TON more from one course and a whole lotta figuring it out by doing!

Now, I’m learning the latest by watching infoproduct business models turn into larger training and franchised opportunities, traffic generation and online marketing becomes more social and ways of finding opportunities evolve as well.   So yes, I’m following mult-million social networking experts that have PROVEN to me they know what they are doing by building businesses online largely through social networking. 

Yes, I’ve bought courses, had some coaching, etc…but I’ve always organized that around what I saw happening rather than just jumping into a program here or there.

My advice…become a student of watching, digging and learning what is actually happening online, base your plans around that and seek out training to fill in gaps along the way.