The internet has opened up a whole new arena for marketing and with it has come many obstacles. There is an abundance of information on the internet that will tell you dozens of ways to market your product or business to the masses. I have purchased my fair share of courses and read more e-books than I care to admit, and I have now found the #1 obstacle in online marketing. Its not skill, its not money, its not time and its not fear.

The number one obstacle in online marketing is simply: a starting line.

The problem many of us face is that there is so much information available on so many different strategies: forums, articles, MySpace, E-bay, U-Tube, Funded proposals, etc, etc, etc. There are so many different strategies that it becomes overwhelming as to where to start. The problem is that many people get so overwhelmed with what to start with that they don’t start with anything. Trying to sort through all the information available on all the different online marketing strategies is like trying to eat an elephant. My grandma always told me there is only one way to eat an elephant; one bite at a time.

So which bite do you take first? The answer is it really doesn’t matter. Start at the tail of the elephant or start at the trunk, just start somewhere.

I found it easiest to start by creating a blog, writing a few articles and posting them to my blog along with a short description of me. Make sure that your blog contains links to your website. Once you have several articles on your blog, post those same articles to 4 or 5 article directories. You will now have your name and links to your company website in 20-30 places. Continue to write and post articles as frequently as you can. I try to post at least one new article every day.

Forums are also a great way to get your name out, but there are a few guidelines you should follow. Join forums that are of interest to you. These can be forums discussing your industry, network marketing, or any other hobby you might have. Use the reference box to promote your product or company, not the body of your posts. You will soon find yourself banned from the forums if you are promoting your products instead of providing assistants to other forum members. Also make sure you are adding to the discussions within the forum. No one likes a spammer. Don’t post just to post. People will see right through this and you will soon lose credibility.

I also encourage you to lean on your sponsor or mentor. Find out what they did and see if they have any articles that you can borrow for ideas on what you can write about. Make sure that your articles contain information that is accurate and of value to the reader.

To be effective in marketing your product or business, you have to diversify and use many different marketing approaches. No one approach will ensure success in your business, but a combination of them will.