The # 1 Internet Marketing Skill needed for 2011

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There are many internet marketing skills required if you plan on earning income online.

There are also many opinions about which skills are most important.

Some skills are very mechanical, like creating a website or a landing page.

Mechanical skills can never be the most important because you can easily learn them or outsource them to someone else.

Copywriting is an important skill and can even involve creativity but for me it is still not the most important.

In my opinion the most important internet marketing skill is the ability to generate traffic.

If you can generate traffic to your business everything else will fall into place.

Sure, converting that traffic is important, even knowing how to squeeze every penny from your traffic is important, however no matter what business you are in if no one opens the door to your business you fail.

If you have traffic then you can concentrate on conversion, and certainly if you get this step wrong you will fail while those who get it right prosper.

But step one is getting the right customers through your door to take a look around.

One could argue that you could also outsource your traffic building and I would agree.

However there are elements of generating taffic that I would not outsource until I thoroughly understood the process.

One element is keyword research.

Knowing how to do keyword research will help you target the right people to your business and get you free traffic from the search engines.

Once you have your keywords you could easily outsource the rest of the project, from on and off page SEO to article writing.

Of course there are many ways to generate traffic; social media, buying ads, PPC, but getting traffic from the search engines is one of the easiest ways if you know how.

In my next post I am going to make a screen capture video on how I do keyword research, from beginning to end.

So now might be a good time to subscribe to my RSS feed to ensure you do not miss out on a very important internet marketing skill.

Peter Fuller MBA CA
905-566-1927

P.S. Share your thoughts below in the comments and if you found this post valuable please do share using the nice icons below. I truly appreciate all of your comments, whether you agree with me or not.

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This entry was posted on January 7, 2011, 10:52 am and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

#1 by Arjun Rai on March 12, 2012 - 3:58 am

Really impressive Tips Peter, Its my favorite topic to learn more and more about internet marketing and this post has all the important feature which helps to improve marketing strategy better.
Arjun Rai’s latest post Project Cars

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#2 by Angela on November 21, 2011 - 6:37 am

I agree Peter, without traffic you are dead in the water. I think this is a very important skill to learn and like you said you need to learn how to convert the traffic so you actually make money. Thanks for sharing this!
Angela’s latest post Why to Start a Blog if You Own a Business

#3 by Oil Recruitment on September 8, 2011 - 10:07 pm

I agree with you Peter. Establishing a consistent flow of traffic will play a very important role in making your internet market a success. Once you have established your authority on the Internet with both companies like Google and Alexa, and visitors to your site, you can focus exclusively on traffic quality. Being on top of the rank could not be acquired overnight. Knowing the right strategies such as this, could help you achieve the desired result you want for your website, online business.

#4 by Peter Fuller on September 12, 2011 - 6:20 pm

Knowing how to drive traffic is such a crucial skill to have

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#5 by Raena Lynn on August 3, 2011 - 5:17 pm

Hi Peter,

I always enjoy visiting your blog because your articles are to the point and rich in content. I always leave learning something new!

You listed many important skills in internet marketing, and I agree that the most important on is generating traffic. If it wasn’t important than why are there so many courses, coaching, seminars, eBooks, tools, and webinars on increasing traffic? If you can’t generate the traffic in the first place, there is no chance for conversion!

Traffic generation compliments SEO and overall it is worth it to make the effort to do the research.

I’m looking forward to your next article on how you do keyword research from beginning to end. This is an area I have been working on and I appreciate your article.

Raena Lynn
Raena Lynn’s latest post What Is The Most Important Offer I Can Share With The Most Value?

#6 by Hans Schoff@ways to make extra money on July 13, 2011 - 3:35 am

Hey Peter, you make a good point. There are many important skills and tasks necessary to be successful marketing online, however without traffic the others don’t really matter. It all starts with traffic!

#7 by gegejhordan on July 5, 2011 - 10:30 am

Hi peter, It was nice reading your articles and tips regarding the what skills set that you must possess in internet marketing. I still need to improve my skills.
gegejhordan’s latest post Traffic Lock Down : Secure your Traffic Now

#8 by Kevin DeRoo on July 2, 2011 - 1:44 pm

Hey Peter,

It was a pleasure visiting a neighbours blog today (I live very close to you my friend) and reading some of the wonderful suggestions you have set out with regards to blogging and marketing in general.

I agree with you 100 percent that keyword research should be something that you take the time to take care of yourself! I use the Google Keyword Tool to begin my research and have found it to be an excellent resource in my marketing efforts.

If fact I just recently wrote an article on my own blog staring our little gem of a free keyword tool.

I look forward to following you in the weeks and months ahead.

Kevin
Kevin DeRoo’s latest post iwowwe Video Email and Conferencing – Seeing the Future of Business Communication!

#9 by Andy Nathan on June 27, 2011 - 10:24 pm

Completely agree with you! At some point the numbers just dictate that if you have 100,000 people someone will buy. I spent my entire first year building the traffic on my site, so it was useful. Now, I am working on converting more, but traffic is still my number 1 priority.
Andy Nathan’s latest post Email Blast Software Bad, Bad, But So Much Fun

#10 by willie@freedom to be your own boss on June 19, 2011 - 9:16 pm

Hello Peter,

I recently had to battle with this subject, the key components of Internet marketing.

After starting my first blog in 2009 on blogger, I then moved over to word press, lost interest and stopped posting.

In 2011 I re-focused and starting and re-named another blog that I felt I had a passion for.

Than I started to get invites to webinars on how to get traffic, but I felt, heck If I don’t have anything to offer, which then I didn’t, what good is traffic?

I kinda see it all going hand and hand.

Find a need in the marketplace, supply the solution to the need or problem, create a website or presence on the web to show case your product or service and then work on getting the right kind of traffic to the site.

Lastly, get that traffic in your marketing funnel and convert it to paying customers, hopefully repeat customers.
willie@freedom to be your own boss’s latest post Does It Take Money To Make Money?

#11 by Andrew Walker on June 18, 2011 - 9:43 am

Hi Peter. It’s always nice and great to read your articles. and this time I also got some nice tips from your article. Thanks a lot!
Andrew Walker’s latest post Folli Follie Coupons

#12 by Dereck on June 14, 2011 - 4:21 pm

I almost wanted to disagree with you for a second, because even when traffic is great, if you can’t convert… than you it’s no different than being ignored.

However, there are many different ways I consider converting now days. Share, likes, comments and leads are all ways for me to convert.

Because even if someone doesn’t “buy” something from me, if they share, comment or spend quality time on my site… I win.

So yes, traffic generation is by far one of the most important skills needed and SEO has a major part to play in it.

Also, Copywriting I’d say is just as important to learn, if you are operating offline. This the number 2 skill you must acquire in my opinion.

Thanks for the posting!

-D
Dereck’s latest post 8 “Underground” Tips To Improve Your Blog SEO

#13 by Lori Tisot on June 12, 2011 - 1:01 pm

Traffic is key!! Search engines and social media are by far the cheapest methods – but they also require dedicated work to get them working for you. Great post reminding us all what to focus on for greatest results. Thanks!
Lori
Lori Tisot’s latest post Backing Up Facebook Profiles and Fan Pages – A Few Solutions

#14 by Joyce Penner on May 31, 2011 - 7:50 pm

I’m looking forward to following your training on keywords and keyword research. It isn’t an area I am particularly strong in as I like to write, let the me out and “Me” doesn’t always tie in well to keywords.
Good post Peter.
Joyce Penner’s latest post Are you the insane one

#15 by Jenna on May 30, 2011 - 9:22 am

This method is without a doubt correct. Keyword phrases are crucial and they’re just one thing I personally have trouble with, still I am gradually obtaining the grasp of it. Another major stage towards good results is undoubtedly discovering how to manage targeted visitors.
Jenna’s latest post Before Buying Jewelry to Complement Your Kasper Suits You Should Know These Useful Details

#16 by Lynda on May 28, 2011 - 8:14 pm

Peter,
This is true. Keywords are essential. They are something I struggle with, but am slowly getting the hang of. Thanks
Lynda’s latest post Diettogo Promo Discount

#17 by Saira Hayat on May 19, 2011 - 6:19 am

Interesting bits of advice. My own keyword research revolves around the Keyword Tracker Tool. Here is something going through my mind these days. When brands advertise online, should the copy in their ads reflect the brand essence and the same thing which is being used on TV, print and billboards or should they also be modifying internet ads to reflect keywords relevant to their category which their target audience punches into search engines. Would love to hear your thoughts.
Saira Hayat’s latest post Why Ecommerce Will Be The Top Tool in 2011

#18 by Pastor Sherry on May 18, 2011 - 7:35 pm

Keyword research, huh? You know, this has come up for me several times recently, and I haven’t paid much attention to it. There’s so much to learn, and sometimes things get swept under the door just to stay afloat! But once I get my feet back on the ground again, I really need to research this keyword stuff. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Pastor Sherry’s latest post Bold For God- David Wilkerson

#19 by raymund@MICR Toners on April 7, 2011 - 2:48 am

For me, SEO is the most important internet marketing skill for 2011. Next is PPC advertisibg.

#20 by Samantha Dermot on March 17, 2011 - 11:49 pm

I find copywriting as the most tedious task for internet marketing especially if you’re not a writer. I know it’s true to myself because I find it hard to focus on writing with so many distractions around me. Also, I can only write in a much organized manner like having an outline of the topic.
Samantha Dermot’s latest post Symptoms Of Teeth Grinding

#21 by rebeccahappy on March 9, 2011 - 4:44 pm

I took me a while to understand the importance of keyword research. I never looked at is this concretely before Peter…get them in the shop to at least look around first and foremost. I can’t wait to see how you describe keyword research. Sometimes I find it so vast with so many possibilities..it does take practice but after a while apparently it doesn’t take as long. Anything that makes it simpler the better.
rebeccahappy’s latest post 6 PR Tips to Increase Visibility

#22 by Pearly Quah on March 8, 2011 - 4:39 am

Hi Peter,
This is such a great post with important tips of generating traffic to blog. I have actually read some information about traffic generation before but didn’t pay much attention to it because I wasn’t sure of how to write a blog yet and just started at that time, so that can be too much to remember. But after setting up my own blog and started writing few posts, I will have to make improvement on it because I find it is also a great promotional tool too

Thanks so much for your tips and glad I found this post, Peter ! I will check out your video soon.

Cheers
Pearly
Pearly Quah’s latest post Health Application of Scalar Energy

#23 by Pat and Lorna Shanks on February 7, 2011 - 10:11 pm

Peter,

We agree… there are parts of our business that we definitely want to do ourselves, and parts we would be best served outsourcing to others.

Another thing we feel strongly about… for us it’s more important to help people as much as we can through our business rather than squeezing every penny from our traffic. Basing our business on service to others is key to us.

Thanks,
~ Pat and Lorna
http://TheCoolestCouple.com
Pat and Lorna Shanks’s latest post What Do Facebook and Chocolate Have in Common

#24 by Navid on January 28, 2011 - 8:45 pm

Hey Peter,
I absolutely agree with you about traffic generation. The next big step toward success is obviously knowing how to deal with that traffic, but yes, generating it is key.
Looking forward to more great posts!
Navid’s latest post Team National and MLM Compliance

#25 by Josephine@online home based business opportunity on January 27, 2011 - 7:15 pm

You are right about one thing: keyword research.

That is the key to targeting the right audience. The challenge though is beating your competitor/s who are targeting the same keyword. This is why link building is critical and whoever has the most relevant quality backlinks wins the ball game That’s a realistic SEO theory.
Josephine@online home based business opportunity’s latest post Mastering The Massive Cash Injection- The Formula In Action

#26 by Heather C Stephens on January 10, 2011 - 9:10 am

HI Peter!

I love learning how other people do things and I am excited to see your video on keyword research.

I’m sorry to say that I ignored this important step in the beginning and I’m playing catch up in a few areas trying to fix some of the early posts I created to do some on page SEO on them. Time consuming, but worth it!

Thanks for the reminder to focus on the fundamentals, and learn them ourselves before we outsource them to someone else!

Heather
Heather C Stephens’s latest post 40 Benefits of Participating in a Blog Challenge

#27 by Peter Fuller on January 11, 2011 - 12:12 pm

Heather, I did the exact same thing as you when I first started my blog.

The original purpose of my blog was to allow old friends to find me online, so I targeted my name for search results.

Once I decided to get serious about my blog I concentrated on social media, not the search engines.

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#28 by Tommy DiPietro | MLM Sales on January 10, 2011 - 8:04 am

You make a good point on your keyword research.

Last week I began a new keyword list and I started to
target certain keywords.

I would rather do the research myself, this way as I am
coming up with the best words for my campaign, I am also start to come up with the content I will use for those words.

Tommy D.

#29 by Peter Fuller on January 10, 2011 - 8:25 am

Hey Tommy

I agree, if I were to outsource keyword research it would be for affiliate type products.

No matter what there is still judgement involved when picking your final keywords.

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#30 by Angelique on January 10, 2011 - 7:44 am

hi Peter! For me, SEO and social media marketing are the cheapest and easiest yet effective internet marketing strategy among the rest. I am also looking forward for the video about keyword research. Been researching some tips about this topic but still couldn’t get it.
Angelique’s latest post 2011 is the Year of the Log Home

#31 by Peter Fuller on January 10, 2011 - 8:26 am

Hey Angelique

I agree 100%. Video tomorrow.

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#32 by Devesh Sharma on January 9, 2011 - 2:40 am

Awesome advice here Peter. I have to agree with you.
The most important thing is marketing.

Thanks for sharing peter. Looking forward to your video.
Devesh Sharma’s latest post Tnsblog- RT @tnsblog Tips To Optimize YouTube Videos Make Money Blogging Blogging tips Technshare http-bitly-fIa1Qx

#33 by Peter Fuller on January 10, 2011 - 12:15 am

Hello Devesh

Thanks for stopping by and I am really like your http://www.blokube.com site

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#34 by Dan Lew @ SEO Professional on January 9, 2011 - 1:43 am

I am a huge believer in keyword research and ranking blog posts high in the search engines, it is the driving force of a majority of my traffic!

Have a great day!

Dan
Dan Lew @ SEO Professional’s latest post How To Trim Fat Off Your Blog

#35 by Peter Fuller on January 10, 2011 - 12:09 am

Good stuff Dan

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#36 by Jared Holland on January 8, 2011 - 10:50 pm

Lots of great advice here Peter!

I look forward to your next video showing us your keyword research process.
Jared Holland’s latest post 4 Simple HTML Codes All Online Marketers Should Know

#37 by Peter Fuller on January 10, 2011 - 12:09 am

Hey Jared video comes out on Tuesday

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#38 by Paul Reimers @Network Marketing Online on January 8, 2011 - 7:51 pm

I totally agree Peter, traffic is #1. Content I would say is an extremely close second. If someone had the most powerful content on the planet, it doesn’t help anyone if the page is not found. If the page is highly visible, it’s likely that someone will find value there even if the content is average.

Ultimately, what we make is proportional to the value we deliver to the market place. If we find a way to deliver great value to a massive number of people, success is inevitable.
Paul Reimers @Network Marketing Online’s latest post Abundance in Four Minutes

#39 by Peter Fuller on January 10, 2011 - 12:08 am

Hey Paul

My philosophy is that if you know how to generate traffic everything falls into place.

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#40 by Mavis Nong @ Free Marketing Training on January 8, 2011 - 4:10 pm

Great advice. It’s important to know what people want, what their problems are so you can attract laser targeted traffic.

You make a good point about knowing how to convert your traffic. I recently wrote an article about effective lead conversion strategies that can explode your bank account!

Thanks for sharing your insights. Look forward to your next post

All the best,
Mavis
Mavis Nong @ Free Marketing Training’s latest post Are You Still Annoying Your Blog Visitors

#41 by Peter Fuller on January 10, 2011 - 12:01 am

Nice article Mavis, step 1 get targeted traffic, step 2 convert

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- #42 by Mavis Nong @ Free Marketing Training on January 10, 2011 - 10:43 am
  
  Thanks, Peter
  Mavis Nong @ Free Marketing Training’s latest post Are You Still Annoying Your Blog Visitors
  
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#43 by Susanna Hess@Video Branding on January 8, 2011 - 10:37 am

You’re right, keyword research is something that needs to be understood and applied.

I was just talking with someone who said he was going to outsource for this. If you must, you must, but it’s still important to know the basics.

I’m looking forward to your video. Although I’ve finally learned to do this well, I’m sure there are things I can pick up from what you share. This is one of those area’s I don’t want to miss a thing.

Thanks Peter!

Susanna
Susanna Hess@Video Branding’s latest post Your Blog Branding- and My Big Blog Mistake

#44 by Peter Fuller on January 9, 2011 - 11:59 pm

Susanna

Nothing wrong with outsourcing keyword research, my philosophy is to know what you outsource

Video on Tuesday

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#45 by Nicole Long on January 7, 2011 - 6:47 pm

Traffic generation is a essential for any business. I have found that sometimes we go with the philosophy that “if you build it they will come”- but building is only half the battle. Once you build it the question then becomes how are you going to get them to come… and you provide a good answer with keyword research.

Thanks
Nicole Long
Read my most recent blog at http://workwithjohnandnicole.com

#46 by Peter Fuller on January 9, 2011 - 11:57 pm

Hello Nicole, welcome to the EIF group, looking forward to your posts

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#47 by Oliver Tausend on January 7, 2011 - 5:50 pm

agreed ! In order to run a restaurant successfully – for example – we need a mob of starving people. Is this an adequate word picture for targeted traffic ?

I’m looking forward to your SEO advice.

Take care

Oliver
Oliver Tausend’s latest post Oliver Tausend’s Blog- Thanks To Top Commentators In December

#48 by Peter Fuller on January 9, 2011 - 11:55 pm

Hey Oliver

I like the restaurant analogy, because once you get them in the door you need to keep them with good food.

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#49 by Kevin Martineau on January 7, 2011 - 5:27 pm

I totally agree with you. Without traffic it is going to be very difficult to build an online business.
Kevin Martineau’s latest post Live with anticipation

#50 by Peter Fuller on January 9, 2011 - 11:53 pm

Nice to see you here Kevin.

Being able to generate targeted traffic is money

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#51 by Stacy on January 7, 2011 - 2:55 pm

I’m looking forward to your video! Keyword research is something that I need to learn more about this year. In creating my blog last year I learned a great deal about blogging but that is one topic that I have not spent much time on, but I know I need to.

Thanks!
Stacy
Stacy’s latest post Are You an Airline Pilot or a Kamikaze Pilot