Jim Spriggs ⋅ South Bend, IN JES Web Copy & Marketing ⋅ 15 years experience

Hi Richard,
Your question was "What is the best way to learn about Internet Marketing for starting your own website?"
The answer simply is by doing it and tapping into the multiple resources out there.
Experience is the best teacher and I have been a student of Internet marketing for years and I am still learning new things.

Back to the website issue.
Creating a good money making website requires some knowledge of search engine optimization and best practices in web design that provide a great customer experience when prospects use your website. Gone are the days of simply throwing a website together and hoping the masses will pour in with their dollars.

Some of the things you need to think about are:
Who is your customer? Define what it is they want, why they want it, and why would they choose you instead of a competitor. This will help you target the right audience and also help you create relevant content for ads, website content, and the product or service you offer.
Create a profile of this customer that identifies their needs, fears, and desires. Successful marketing addresses those needs because people usually buy to satisfy an emotional need (benefits) and then justify that purchase with logic (features).

I hope this gives you a better idea of what your offer should be and to whom.
I would recommend using a Wordpress style website and host provider.
Resources for Internet marketing:
LinkedIn groups
Warrior forum
Free webinars from known marketers out there
SearchEngineland.com
YouTube, etc.

There is a wealth of information out there for someone that is willing to learn. The point is you need to get started and don't get caught up in the hype and shiny object syndrome. Some people will buy a course and never get started doing.

I'm available for specific advice if needed.
Happy marketing,

Drew Schildwächter ⋅ Wilmington, NC Salesforce ⋅ 8 years experience

Richard: John has a good point. A business plan will help you to figure out to whom you're selling and confirm that there is a need.

This becomes important because while a website is both easy and cheap, an eCommerce site is probably neither of those things. Once you've figured out your plan, then I would start with a site like lynda.com or with a basic internet marketing book. Once you've learned the lingo then you can go out online and start to really learn more about it. The concept of "internet marketing" is a big one and there are many levels and could be much cost: best to start with a plan so that you can figure out who you're targeting first.

Best,
Drew

John Green ⋅ Cary, NC Information Technology ⋅ 40 years experience

Creating a website is the easy part. The hard part is finding customers.

Have you created a business plan ? If not , why not ?

Dawn Serpa ⋅ San Francisco, CA John Masters Organics skin care ⋅ 20 years experience

I agree with much of what had already been advised. I too would go with Shopify and it has integrated SEO features and is open source so there are lots of partners you can hire and apps you can add to your site to make things like shipping ( labels etc) easier to manage. Facebook ads are the number one ROI in the digital space now so I would experiment with that making sure you use the target options so that your content goes to the right people. Start slow ( low overhead and investment and grow steady)

Good luck!

Justin Moodley ⋅ Columbus, OH LASANAN ⋅ 12 years experience

Hi Richard,

All the options you listed are good places to spend time, but the areas you want to focus the most on are going to be based on the unique value proposition of your business.

For instance, if you can be price-competitive with any other dealers selling the same products online, then shopping engines (Amazon, Google Shopping, ShareASale, etc.) are all places where you can redistribute your company's product listings.

If instead you have a service or process that's truly unique, it will take educating consumers on what makes you different. A lot of brands do this through content marketing strategies, which could include social media, email, blogging, and PR.

If you're looking to run an eComm business, I would recommend Shopify as a platform and as a resource. They will give you the ability to scale your software plan as your revenue increases, and they have a ton of great advice in their blog for first-time retailers.

Hope that's helpful!

Richard Alestock ⋅ Augusta, GA U.S. Army Reserve, Sergeant ⋅ 10 years served

I see that marking and web design work together. My thought was to do the marketing and hire someone else to put the website together, all I would do was update it. I have heard of SEO, Content Marketing, and AdWords. Just SEO is not good enough any more.

Emanuel Carpenter ⋅ Alpharetta, GA SDR Master Class ⋅ 20 years experience

Richard:

There are free education sites galore out there:

Lynda.com (free for a year for veterans)
Free Facebook advertising training: https://www.facebook.com/blueprint
Hubspot: http://academy.hubspot.com/certification
https://www.edx.org/ (free college courses)
https://www.coursera.org/
www.udacity.com
www.udemy.com

You'll find plenty here.