As I’ve said before, the internet is made up of information.

While video and audio are becoming more and more popular as people get faster and faster internet connections, the text format still has it’s place in any marketing campaign.

For one, many people prefer reading over audio or video when it comes to absorbing information.

I know I much prefer being able to read something as opposed to listening to an audio on the same topic.

I’ve written previously on using article marketing for traffic generation, as well as link building, and sharing with you some of the results I’ve had, including my article marketing case study that you can get for free at ArticlePublishing.com.

Article marketing will drive traffic to your site. 

How much traffic it drives and how much money you make will depend on other factors, such as your niche market, your keyword research, your resource box for your article and then the structure of the offer on your web site when people do click through and visit.

Here’s a recent look at my main Ezine Articles account (yes, I have other Ezine Article accounts. In the past, they didn’t allow you to have multiple author names in one account so you had to sign up for different accounts for each pen name you used).

One thing I want to point out is the clicks.  This number is probably much higher. 

I had my EA account, and most of my article views, long before EA started tracking that information.

My first site, which is still around and about 1,000 pages or original content right now, was built around  proper keyword research, SEO, and article marketing. 

As you can see in the image below, this site gets a lot of traffic from a lot of different web sites.

That’s because the articles I’ve written get picked up by other web sites and link back to my sites. 

This means the articles you submit to a site like Ezine Articles help you in other ways. 

They get you links on other sites which helps your search engine rankings and they also get you direct traffic from other sites as well.

If you’re beginning internet marketing or you’ve been trying to make money online but have been struggling and are frustrated with your results, or you don’t have much money to try things like ppc, article marketing can do wonders for you.

Haven’t made money online?  Want to make that first bit of cash?

1.  Grab your own domain and hosting and set up a simple 5 page web site OR just set up a free site at Blogger.com

2.  Put Adsense on the site

3.  Write and submit articles to EzineArticles.com and GoArticles.com

4.  See money in your Adsense account

Obviously, that’s a very simplified example but it also works. 

I finally started seeing success online when I focused on building a quality web site using Site Build It and writing and submitting articles to EA.

Everything else I’ve done has grown on top of that initial site building and article marketing process.

Now, a crucial point to understand is that you can leverage your article marketing efforts by turning your articles into audios to submit to podcasting directories, and videos to submit to sites like You Tube, Meta Cafe and Revver.

You can do all of this quickly and easily with PushButtonTrafficSystem.com

You don’t have to create completely new content.  You’re just re-purposing your articles into different mediums to generate more links and more traffic to your money sites

I know, it sounds really simple, but it amazes me how few people actually follow through and do this.

Instead, they purchase every new internet marketing product that comes along, no matter if it fits into their current business model or not.

They may be working on building up their adsense income by writing articles to drive traffic to their little content site that has adsense ads.

Then they get bombarded by 57 different internet marketers touting the next great thing in internet marketing that they must BUY NOW before it’s too late!

So they buy it. It has nothing to do with their current online business model but they start working on it and abandon what they’ve been doing up to this point.

Then the pattern repeats itself. They spend money, start something new, abandon what they were doing, and soon start the process all over again by purchasing the next heavily promoted internet marketing product.

This cycle is in full swing as I write this.

Huge marketing campaigns are going on right now for some big, expensive products from Frank Kern’s Mass Control to the SMARTS program put on by StomperNet.

Regardless of how good these programs may be (and they could be great. I don’t know because I don’t have them), if they don’t fit into your business model you don’t need them. At least not right now.

Yes, there is a ton of stuff to buy, the sales letters make you want to buy, and you’re afraid of missing out. I get it.

But if you want to succeed with your internet marketing business, choose a business model and then focus on the fundamentals of what makes that model successful.

If you want to turn this internet marketing thing into a real long term and successful business, then you have to treat it like a business. And that means becoming a business person.

You need to learn the marketing fundamentals of your business model. Then you need to implement those marketing fundamentals consistently.

Here’s how I did it. After getting buried by offers and spending a lot of money and running over in a million different directions I decided to focus on one thing.

And that one thing was creating an authority content site in my niche.

I chose SBI for my hosting needs and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. SBI is a complete, all in one, internet success package.

I focused solely on what SBI taught me and I went to work creating my content site that now totals over 526 pages of original content, that generates over 1,000 unique visitors per day, and has top search engine rankings for very competitive keywords in my niche.

Then I expanded from there by focusing on aspects of internet marketing that were natural expansions of my business model.

I started a newsletter, I wrote two ebooks that I sell, I started writing and submitting articles to sites like EzineArticles.com and writing for big content sites in my niche, etc.

I also created a blog to compliment my original content site so I could take advantage of the new web 2.0 traffic generation sites.

You can learn more about creating a virtual real estate empire.

All of these things built upon what I originally started with SBI

If you want to succeed with your internet marketing business, you need to treat it like a business and focus on the fundamentals of what will make your business model a successful one.

According to a recent Yahoo/Harris survey, a whopping 70% of Americans said they have thought about starting their own business.

In addition, millions each year start home based businesses.

People thinking about starting their own business listed the following as the main reasons for doing so:

• For a passionate hobby/doing work I love 35%

• To be my own boss 20%

• To make more money 16%

• To create something people need 11%

• For the challenge 11%

• To get rich/nearly rich 3%

• Other 4%

These are all great reasons. Interestingly, I think they can all be placed under one banner. Freedom.

All of these things give us what we really crave from having our own business and that’s the freedom to do what we want when we want.

I recently returned from the Authority Summit, and we discussed this very thing.

Overwhelmingly, we agreed that almost any reason you can come up with for starting a home based business can fall under freedom.

Without it, do any of these other reasons really matter?

Now is the time, more than any other, to jump in with your own home based business.

Today’s technology and the internet has revolutionized what a business can be.

In addition, the barriers to entry are almost non-existent. What do you need?

• Register A Domain Name

• Web hosting: I recommend a web host without reservation -

  SBI which is an all in one online business package that helps you create content sites that the search engines love.

• Autoresponder Account

That’s about it at the beginning.

You may not grow your business as fast as if you had a lot of money but you can be very successful with a minimum investment in your business.

You can then reinvest profits and continue to grow your business.

I have a web site that generates 30,000 – 50,000 unique visitors per month from free traffic sources only.

Automatically. Pretty cool, right? So all I’m paying for is my web hosting.

If you’re serious about jumping in with your own home based internet marketing business, I highly recommend you sign up for the VRE Coaching Course

I don’t want to bash you over the head with too much hype but it’s truly more valuable than some courses you’d pay hundreds of dollars for.

Did I mention it was free?