I received a newsletter from Neil Harvey the other day. In it was something almost revelatory. And no - it was not the product he was promoting. Rather, when introducing the product, which was an Adwords ebook, he wrote that he was nowhere near an expert on adwords.

Now, I never associated Adwords expertise with Neil - that was not what was revelatory. Rather, it was the admission from a successful, full-time internet marketer, that he was just plain aweful at one aspect of promotion that comes under the umbrella term of ‘internet marketing’. His description of his first (and one of the few) forays into using adwords reminded me of mine - that he lost all the money he invested in it.

Yet he moved on and became a success on the internet - a great success. I liked that lesson, which has been echoed by others before - that you don’t have to master everything - you just have to master one (or a few) things. What usually happens when people just starting out, or only with an intermediate level of online success, try and become good at everything is that they fit into the proverb ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ - if they are one of the lucky ones, that is. Worst case scenario - and more likely for beginners, is that they never get off the starting block.

They get information overload, marketing and opportuntiy ADHD, and end up with loads of products sitting on ther hard drive, and a ‘to do’ list longer than the Great Wall of China.

Don’t fall into that trap. Pick something - affiliate marketing, adsense, adwords, product creation, having an online store, developing a newsletter and building a list, and stick with it until it really starts to work. These areas will overlap, and there is nothing wrong with combining elements of the absolute basics. In fact, its probably a good idea.

For example, you build your first website. You put up an online form and accept email addresses to start a mailing list. If you’re not up to doing a newsletter from the outset, you can offer to send them site updates. Or send out articles written from an article directory. But at least you’re getting a list without any real effort or time. You can worry about what to do with it later.

You can put up a few affiliate links (not lots of flashing banners) but good, recommendations. Nothing necessarily in depth, unless affiliate marketing is something you really want to pursue. And of course, you could become an adsense publisher, which is a great way to fund your expansion.

The main thing is to learn how to get traffic, build a good quality site - or perhaps go the adwqords route and become a master at that, with a whole different set of rules and strategies. But don’t try and do it all at once. Bit by bit, and you’ll get there in the end. Who knows, you might be like Neil - already a success online and yet going back to basics in one area.