Does it Take Money to Make Money?

The short answer is, “No.”  You can effectively launch an Internet marketing career without a single dime.  All you need is a computer or phone and an Internet connection, which does cost money, but since the vast majority of people do have these two things already we are going to presume you have those two components already.

Many a marketer has gotten his or her start as an affiliate marketer.  Aside from shuffling around in your attic to find something you can sell for a profit on eBay, affiliate marketing is your best bet for a zero-dollar start-up business in the Internet marketing industry.

All you need is a free ID that you can get on PayDotCom, Amazon, Commission Junction, LinkShare, or ClickBank (to name a few), and the ability to learn about free traffic sites and you can begin generating an affiliate income without investing a penny of your own money.

That said, it’s best if you save a few dollars here and there to invest in some tools that are going to make your Internet marketing efforts a whole lot easier.  For instance, you could sit around and brainstorm for five days to get a list of keywords – or pay for a one-day subscription to WordTracker and harvest thousands of keywords in less than an hour.

You could also use nothing but web 2.0 social sites that are free, such as Facebook or Tumblr, to host your content and affiliate links.  Or, you could pony up the $9.95 one-time fee for a domain name and $6.95 a month for hosting and have your own business presence on the ‘net.

You can also spend days and weeks searching for information about how to do a task that will help you make money as an Internet marketer – such as how to master pay per click advertising. 

Or, you can invest in a step-by-step guide to shorten your learning curve.  What most marketers suggest is to take a look at your budget and see what you have to invest.  If you have to start out with nothing, go for it – but set aside a few of your profits to pour back into your online efforts. 

Invest in good quality training on basics like writing promotional copy and email marketing. These two skills are your fastest path to making money on the Internet so they should be a priority for everyone starting out in online marketing.

Keep the same perspective in regard to the tools you purchase. Avoid products that promise “Overnight Riches” and other shiny objects that will only serve as a distraction while adding nothing positive to your bottom line.

If everything you invest in is built to ease your workload and hasten the process, so your income will increase faster and with less input from you as you learn to wield these tools in your favor.