In this week’s episode of the Extra Paycheck Podcast we’ll be talking about online marketing training and if you should be paying for it.
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I get lots of questions from people asking me if they should pay for a certain online business training. It could be basic marketing training or a very specific PPC (pay per click) training. It could be about affiliate marketing, social media marketing or drop-shipping training.
And the answer to this question is: it depends.
First of all, I need to warn you that there are free and paid resources out there and both of them have good and bad advice. Some free resources could offer amazing insights while some paid programs might be completely useless and even a scam. You certainly need to be skeptical and you need to pay attention to the source of the information you’re getting.
Pick Your Business Model First
My first advice would be figuring out what you need to learn. There are hundreds if not thousands of different online business models and you need to pick just one. Before looking for training, free or paid, figure out what is that you need to do. If it affiliate marketing? Or maybe offering SEO services? Maybe you want to sell your own products through your own eCommerce store? Figure out which business model you need to follow first.
Once you know your model you can start looking for training. Let’s say you picked affiliate marketing (my favorite online business model). As you’re looking for more information and training on this subject you’ll certainly come across hyped up blog posts and videos with very compelling claims. “How I made $47,000 in 3 months with my eBay store!”. “We earned $12,000 by self-publishing a book on Amazon!”. I am sure you’ll be tempted to pay for their training since you want such awesome results as well, right? But remember, you picked affiliate marketing as your business model. You don’t need to know how to publish a book. Or how to launch a software company. Or how to lose 20 lbs in 1 week or any other unrelated hype. You need to know how to set-up your affiliate marketing business.
There Is Plenty Of Free Information
I am rather certain that you can find all the information you will ever need completely free. However, there are a few issues with this.
Free information is scattered around the internet. You will probably spend hundreds if not thousands of hours simply trying to figure out your next step. Someone will tell you that you need to launch a blog and put affiliate links there in order to make money. That sounds simple enough but there is so much more to it. How do you set up a blog? How do you add affiliate links and where do you even get them from? What about making sales? Do you think that simply setting up a blog means that loads of buyers will start rushing in to it and buying stuff hence making you money? No, not really.
Although you can find all the information for free, it’s incredibly hard to make sense out of the actual structure. It’s also very easy to get overwhelmed and distracted. This is why it might be a good idea to find a proper training that will probably cost money.
Good Paid Online Business Training
You’ll find loads of different training ranging from a few bucks to a few thousand dollars. And the price isn’t actually a clear indicator of the value.
A good online marketing training program will offer you a very clear step by step action plan. For example, in the first step you will learn how to set up your blog. In the second step you’ll learn how to add content to it. In the third step you’ll learn how to get people actually visiting your blog. As you go through a well organized training and take action, you’ll actually be building your business much faster and with less mistakes. A good training program will also offer lots of support and help when you need it most. Your website might require something very specific that isn’t mentioned in the training. And a proper support team will help you with this.
When I started learning about affiliate marketing back in 2007 I wasted quite a bit of money on useless programs and scams. Eventually I came across this platform and almost 10 years later I am still a paying member there. Besides learning new strategies I am mostly using it for the community and the support. The online world changes fast so you simply can’t ever learn everything and I like to know that I can get help whenever I need it.
Last Piece of Advice
So should you pay for online marketing and business training? I’d say yes, if you can afford it and if you value your time. In my opinion having access to a good actionable course will save you a lot of time. Can you build a successful online business without paying for training? Yes, you certainly can. So it’s really your decision.
Here are a few things that you should pay attention to:
- Look for programs that have a good reputation and that have been around for a while
- Search for training programs that offer free trial access or free limited time access
- Don’t join any training programs that aren’t very clear on what exactly they’ll be teaching you
- Stay away from any and all programs that promise to make you rich overnight
- If you need help with specific technical issues (blog set-up, image editing, etc) use Youtube to find a solution
I still use a lot of free information and I am really good at finding the needed answers within seconds. This is because I know exactly what I am searching for.
Sources mentioned in today’s episode:
My #1 Recommended Online Business Training Platform (free basic membership)
SEMrush tool (affiliate link)
Do you have any questions? Would you like me to record an episode about a specific subject? Anything to add? Use the comment form below 😉
Alex
