Rob Fraser here…
When I first started in online marketing, I didn’t know that it was a thing. I just wanted to make money online and little did I know that this journey would take me over some high highs and some low lows.
Not having a basic strategy to continuously execute on kept me buying new marketing courses over and over again. I didn’t need the new information. I needed to execute my strategy and study the information I already had access to.
What Result I Want to Give You?
By the end of this post, you will have a solid understanding of what online marketing is and the basics on how to create your own online marketing plan.
How to Create Your Own Online Marketing Plan – Overview
There are 3 main categories of online marketing. I like to call them the “3 C’s.” The 3 C’s are clicks, content, and connections. Everything that you do to market your business online can be categorized in those 3 categories.
I like to say follow the 3 C’s of online marketing to create continuous cash.
With that being said, let’s get into the 3 C’s!
How to Create Your Own Online Marketing Plan – Clicks
The first ‘C’ is clicks and by clicks, I mean paid traffic.
Clicks is simply paid traffic. With affiliate marketing, or any type of marketing rather, paid traffic comes in many different forms.
When I say traffic, I mean people to come to your website. Wanting to get “more traffic” is simply wanting to get more people clicking on your affiliate links, website, blog, or YouTube video. Paid traffic is buying clicks which is simply paying a person, entity, or vendor money for a certain amount of clicks. Each click is one person clicking on your website.
Personally, I’ve used solo ads, Bing PPC (pay per click), and various CPC networks.
Buying traffic is what really helped go from struggling to earning a decent income.
The basic rule of thumb I use for paid traffic is simply taking 25 – 40% of my income and buying traffic. I did this when I was working a job and when I started making money in affiliate marketing. You want to be disciplined when buying traffic. It took me a while to work up to this amount of buying traffic. In the very beginning, I was taking 10 – 20% so it wouldn’t hurt me too much financially to buy clicks each week for my websites.
Some folks I talk to want to buy a huge crazy amount because they are getting a tax return or something and I always discourage that. For example, one guy was getting like $2500 ish back and wanted to put all of that into paid traffic. This is lottery mentality.
I told him I would rather him just take 10% and have an advertising budget for the next 10 weeks. This would give him ample time to learn his numbers and his business would become very mathematical at this point.
In order to make buying clicks work, you would need something to collect leads such as a free list building system. You buy clicks and then send those clicks to your list building system.
How to Create Your Own Online Marketing Plan – Content
Content marketing is blogging, YouTubing, doing Podcasts, answering questions on various forums, and what you post on social media. I started content marketing when I first got started and for the most part have continued.
Neil Patel in his post “How to create an online marketing plan that will grow (nearly) any business” suggest focusing on one marketing channel. In that post, he really breaks down some higher-level marketing (in my opinion) and he also shares that you should focus on one social media or content marketing channel (as he calls them). I’ve seen multiple higher-level marketers mention this.
My take on this is, while I agree that newbies should focus on one channel, that once you start growing to grow your reach and get into a good routine, to add new channels as need be.
In my case, I write one quality blog post, shoot one quality video, and record one quality podcast each week. I’ve done this so long that I can’t not see myself doing this. Most weeks, I actually record 1-3 videos.
In the beginning, I just wrote blog posts and then made the transition to YouTube. What I do is whatever my blog is about, I make an abbreviated version for YouTube, and then an audio version for the podcast. So while it isn’t really that much more work, it does spread my similar message across multiple platforms without too much extra effort.
If I could change anything I would have never took long breaks from YouTube and my blog. I’ve made 100’s of imperfect videos and written 100’s of imperfect blogs. The most important thing here is to just get started and let the muscle memory and repetition start to work for you. I also would have started podcasting a bit earlier as well.
You can learn my exact 6-day routine by checking out my post on my content production schedule.
I still earn commissions from old videos and blog posts that I’ve written years ago on my Google Blogger.
Creating content teaches you so much about marketing just in and of itself. This is a continuous learning process.
How to Create Your Own Online Marketing Plan – Connections
Connections is simply building your network on or offline. I’m sure you heard the adage “people do business with people they know, like, and trust”
What I simply do here is connect with 20 new people per day on social media or offline if the opportunity arises. This isn’t always easy for me but what I do is find people who are active in network or affiliate marketing and engage on their social media posts and send them friend requests.
I find something that they post on social media (Facebook or LinkedIN mostly) and like, comment, connect, and message if it can be related to my niche in any way.
To get a general idea of how I use social media to build my connections, check out this post on traffic and leads for affiliate marketing on LinkedIn.
How to Create Your Own Online Marketing Plan – Strategy
It’s overwhelming when you look at all of this as a beginner. I wish someone would have pulled me aside and given me some clear-cut direction.
I wish I would have never stopped when I started.
What I’ve found is that having a daily method of operation and a mentor really helps this process along. I aim to complete a decent blog, video, and podcast every week. I have this process broken down into daily activities that I complete which takes most of the stress off. I have certain days I write, edit, record, and shoot. I also take Saturdays completely off as far as content creation. As of right now, I prospect (connections) 20 new people per day.
How to Create Your Own Online Marketing Plan – Next Steps
I’d suggest finding 2 methods that you are comfortable doing, can see yourself doing indefinitely, and doesn’t interfere with your life. In my case, I have a young kiddo that keeps me super busy so I have to ensure that I’m not wasting time with him or when I do get a moment online as well.
It took me a while to come up with a schedule that I can actually execute on a daily basis.
If you want to work with me as your mentor, then click right here!
Until next time!
Rob Fraser
