Internet Marketing For Dummies

During the November prior to my emancipation I’d begun building a website based on a book I’d written called “Conversations with Katherine.” It is the story of …

“…a middle-aged man’s struggle to overcome the debilitating lack of self esteem bequeathed him by an abusive step-mother. It is a vicarious account of the author’s own journey back to sanity and the lessons he learned along the way.”

More than any other thing in my life I felt compelled to build this site; indeed I’d been enlisted by a Higher Power to share my experiences in order to bring comfort, hope and reconstructive methodologies to others whose lives had been derailed be child abuse. During the writing of the second half of the book I’d learned an important lesson; I didn’t need to know how anything was going to turn out. I only needed to take the next step (which was always apparent) and have faith that I’d ultimately be led to a destination that was right for me.

This is a truth that I carry with me everywhere, and anytime I get agitated or worried about how a seeming challenge will be resolved I remember to simply take the next step with faith that by doing so the next one will be revealed and in due time, the successful resolution to the problem will come about. Then one day during an infrequent Internet surfing session (LMAO!) I stumbled into the world of Internet marketing. (Come on! I don’t care how good you are at putting one foot in front of the other; eventually you’re going to stumble!)

If I had to write a small classified ad for a class to teach Internet marketing it would read something like this:

“Work from home. Earn Ferrari money in 10 hours a week. For more info call toll free, 1 800-BULLSHIT.”

It’s like never seeing a fish and then getting thrown into a school of herring; fish are suddenly everywhere. Google “Internet marketing” or “work at home” and you’ll find tens of thousands of pages promising you to show you the way to make your fortune while working in your pajamas. There are blogs and forums to help you, courses for sale and experts to teach you, guide you and take your money every step of the way as you get ever closer to living the life of a rock star. The problem becomes this: among all these thousands of herring which are worthy of packing in cream sauce?

Amidst all the ballyhoo one thing became apparent; Internet marketing was viable and do-able. I knew that if I could learn what to do and how to it I would never again have to answer to a superior, I could repair the financial damage that years of frustrated and misguided career efforts had caused and I could win the one prize I coveted most—freedom. So I set about learning the intricacies of Internet marketing.

In the posts that follow I’ll try and help my readers find the pony that lies amidst the pile of manure* that comprises the bulk of Internet marketing information. It’s a jungle of misinformation and outright chicanery out there; add to that the fact that the mechanics of getting a site up are like reading Arabic to most old guys like me. But stick with me and soon you’ll be confounding your friends with tech-speak terms like “search engine optimization”, “keyword research” and “HTML tags”. And if you hang around long enough you may even learn how to make some money while sitting at the kitchen table.

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*Worried that their son was too optimistic, the parents of a little boy took him to a psychiatrist. Trying to dampen the boy’s spirits, the psychiatrist showed him into a room piled high with nothing but horse manure. Yet instead of displaying distaste, the little boy clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to all fours, and began digging.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the psychiatrist asked.

“With all this manure,” the little boy replied, beaming, “there must be a pony in here somewhere.”