How to get started in 2018?

[MrDawn]

Hey everyone;

Today, I'm finally quitting my job so I can pursue my dreams of a bright future and financial freedom! (well actually it was yesterday and the company I worked at went bankrupt, but it sounds more poetic this way )

I have been interested in affiliate marketing for a long time so decided to give it a try. As usual, whenever I want to learn anything from the internet, the first thing I do is a search for a reliable source of information.

This is how I found this site.

After that, I looked for some sort of a course or guide I could follow. now I understand that "a good magician keeps his tricks for himself" and no one wants to reveal his secrets in this business, so most of the courses online are probably some wannabe gurus trying to sell you sh1t...

Crash Course, on the other hand, looks like a real gem.
But because the market is very dynamic, I want to know if it's still valuable after three years. I haven't red the entire thread, but it seems like it dives pretty technical in some of the "days," and I'm sure Google algorithm changed quite a lot since then plus there are many new tools/places to advertise...

Do you have any course you can recommend?
Do Crash Course still viable in 2018? Or maybe the only way is to success is an endless grind for any piece of useful information.

Thanks for your time,
Mike

 

[Ryuzaki]

Someone asked if the Digital Strategy Crash Course remains relevant before, and here was my reply:

If you're looking for fundamental information that never changes, then it's for you.​

​

If you're looking for tricks and shortcuts that are birthed and die within a year's time, it's not for you.​

​

The Crash Course is about working smart and hard at marketing, administration, outsourcing and automating, design principles, SEO, and optimization of all of these things. These things don't change.​

​

It's not for the SEO as such. It's not for the web designer in the capacity of a web designer. It's not for the PPC manager qua PPC Manager. It's for the entrepreneur that knows he will wear all of these hats at once, and wants to know he's nailing the fundamentals of each, reducing the risk and waste of being hasty, amateur, and sneaky.​

​

If that doesn't sound good to you, then I'd recommend looking at all of the gurus out there and finding the one who's lies and sales pitch makes you the most excited and take their bait and fork out $2,000 to a few of them. When you get sick of that, you can come back and read the guide they all started stealing the outline and material from, for free.​

​

This question gets asked for the exact reason you stated, you haven't read it yet. Neither had the other guy. If you did you'd see that we don't talk about time-sensitive information in there. We also don't talk about the specifics of algorithms in any specific way, but we do in broad strokes. It's kind of like bringing up the topic of backlinks. We don't say "Get X number of links with X number of anchor texts of X types." We tell you how to get backlinks though and tell you how to not shoot yourself in the foot.

By the way, we do update the Crash Course any time a better tool or info comes out or something changes fundamentally and no longer fits the context in which it was mentioned.

_______

Welcome to the board by the way, you have a good adventure ahead of you. I heavily recommend you find an immediate source of income though, unless you have funds and plan to go into PPC or are very slick at marketing in general. SEO isn't going to replace your day job's income in a year's time even. That's just the nature of the game now with time being a way to disincentive spammers and with so much weight being given to age, authority, and brand signals.

 

[bernard]

The crash course is excellent.

Work hard at following the recommendations very close to the letter, because the temptation to stray are many, but the results will suffer.

 

[MrDawn]

Welcome to the board by the way, you have a good adventure ahead of you. I heavily recommend you find an immediate source of income

Thanks man, you are right of course... I figured out I can probably give it one month just to kick thing up.

By the way, we do update the Crash Course any time a better tool comes out, or one changes fundamentally and no longer fits the context in which it was mentioned.

wow this is great news

The crash course is excellent.

I'm sure it is.

If you're looking for fundamental information that never changes, then it's for you. If you're looking for tricks and shortcuts that are birthed and die within a year's time, it's not for you.

Actually I was looking for both... I mean the way I see it, "fundamental information that never changes" is the most important thing. However, if a 100$ course can save you some precious time and gather all the time-sensitive information, it might just be worth it. Although the problem is; I'm afraid that misleading information and outdated methods will cause more harm than good, and make me lose all my money.

So the plan now is: follow Crash Course, whenever you get to a technical part like SEO / Website building / paid traffic use Google to dive deeper into the needed area.

I hope I will not skip any crucial "steps" along the way...

 

[funlol]

Look for the CCarter "traffic leaks" post. It helped me a lot when my sites weren't making any headway in the search engines.

 

[Syrinj]

However, if a 100$ course can save you some precious time and gather all the time-sensitive information, it might just be worth it. Although the problem is; I'm afraid that misleading information and outdated methods will cause more harm

So here's the thing: think of what incentive a guru would have to release parlor tricks that still make them money. None. Why? It's not safe yet. Any worthwhile guru in a worthwhile niche has competition taking him into account, competition fully willing to pay him $2k once just to undermine him with his own parlor tricks if he's not careful. You think he's going to give it to you?

If you really want time-sensitive information, then don't restrict yourself to adding value to customers through your business. Expand instead into also being an active participant in the internet marketing community. Relationships are built here just like anywhere else, and if you engage with your peers by providing feedback; asking for advice, taking it, and telling them how it worked with a thank you attached; and do business with members in PMs, Skype, or the BuSo marketplace, you'll find that a lot of blanks will get filled in. Eventually the ones you have bonds with will divulge deeper insights when you face a problem that baffles you, but they've seen before and solved.

Stick to the fundamentals, trust that you'll get the insights you need throughout the long process as you participate, and you'll gain "skin in the game." Gurus don't have skin in the game. The community here and the larger industry does.

 

[PaulDragos]

Once you understand the basics. Grab ahrefs/majestic. It's 100$ and well worth it.

Grab 10-20 niches. Put each top 5 affiliates in them try to understand what they are doing. You will mostly see everything apart from maybe PBNs.

Reverse engineer. Understand. Do better.

 

[Varaya]

Hi Mike! I can recommend books that I think it good for who want to do a business.
"Law of success" by Napoleon Hill
"Think and grow rich" by Napoleon Hill
"The millionaire fast lane" by M.J.DeMarco
"4 hour work week" by Timothy Ferriss

Good luck for your business.