The savvy internet marketer knows what is hot from month to month. They know what is selling at the time and what they should be concentrating on. You, on the other hand, might not have your nose as close to the trough as the rest so might not know what is going on. If you do then you have a head start.

If you are new to internet marketing you will have a lot to learn before you can call yourself an internet marketer. There is a great deal to learn, and if you are looking to learn then you either need a few empty credit cards, a very deep wallet or follow the advice you are about to get here.

Many start off full of hope but end up full of despair, simply because they are unfamiliar with the way the internet works, and how those that are completely at ease with it can use it to their own advantage. Most people who purchase information books online never use them to any effect. That is a proven fact. There are more people with their computer directories full of unused and now useless information for which they have paid a great deal of money than there are that have made anything from them.

Sometimes the only people who actually make money from online software and ebooks are the writers and the copywriters they employed to write their adverts and sales pages. The purchasers often have no idea what they are reading about, and having read the books are still as clueless as when they started. That is no way to enter the very cut-throat arena that is the internet. Here you take no prisoners, and have to know your subject from start to finish in order to be successful.

That is why those inexperienced in internet marketing should start off with the type of income sources that were not available to those of us who started our internet careers some years ago. It is strange that concepts such as MLM marketing took so long to go online to the extent that it now has, although perhaps that is largely due to the fact that the way it worked was not fully understood, other than by those involved in the high profile offline network marketing organizations.

MLM marketing is ideally suited to the internet, and works far better online that it ever could offline, although some companies such as Amway did OK with it. That should be one of your initial income streams if you are a new internet marketer. You can run with the MLM company of your choice for a while and then switch if it doesn't work. However, network marketing takes time to get going so don't give up too early. It is the major online earner of a very large number of people, and many run three or four MLM projects at one time to bring them five figure incomes each and every month.

Another aspect of internet marketing suitable for a beginner is affiliate marketing. This is where most newbies to online marketing start. It takes away the need for a product and a sales page, cart and payment system and dealing with queries, complaints and refunds. You will likely need a website, but there are affiliate programs available that provide you with a website and with a wide choice of affiliate products to offer on it.

Basically what you are doing with affiliate marketing is drumming up prospects for others. You send the prospects to the merchant's sales page, and it is taken out of your hands from there. If somebody makes a purchase you get an average of 50% of the sales price for electronically deliverable goods such as ebooks and software. If you are selling hard goods, that could drop to as low as 2%. So don't specialize in selling hard goods!

There are many other ways in which you can make money online using internet marketing, but those detailed above are probably the best for a beginner to start with. Try one at a time and don't attempt to go too far too fast. What that means in practical terms is to try one MLM program and see how you get on with it. In the meantime find an affiliate program that provides you with a website and try that.

If you can get your own website and are comfortable with that, then that is even better. It is ultimately what you will need in any case, so it's the way to go. Every successful online marketer has at least one website, but usually several, and the sooner you can get yours the better.

If you are nervous about becoming an internet marketer, don't be. Get yourself together, open your eyes and go for it – with your eyes wide open and looking forward to the adventure that is facing you. You won't regret it.