How I Would Learn Digital Marketing (If I Could Start Over)

Ahrefs
16 Aug 202312:54
EducationalLearning
32 Likes 10 Comments

TLDRThe speaker shares his 14-year journey in digital marketing, from early mistakes like spamming forums to later successes consulting Fortune 500 companies. He recommends new marketers focus on learning one area, studying fundamentals then applications, getting hands-on experience, and connecting with peers and experts. He warns against taking shortcuts that could backfire. Looking back, he would build relationships sooner and considers ongoing learning critical for long-term growth. He doesn’t view mistakes as wastes of time but stepping stones. For those interested in SEO, he plugs his beginner course on getting organic traffic.

Takeaways
  • πŸ˜€ I started in digital marketing 14 years ago and have had success but also made many mistakes
  • πŸ‘ Focus on mastering one area of digital marketing first before expanding your skills
  • πŸ“š Learn digital marketing in 3 stages: understand fundamentals, make connections, learn workflows & tools
  • πŸ“ Commit to practicing what you learn by creating your own website to apply your skills
  • 🏒 Working at a digital marketing agency accelerates learning due to exposure & working with experts
  • ❌ Avoid shortcuts - they can backfire and have long-term consequences
  • 🀝 Build relationships with like-minded peers and respected people in your field to grow your network
  • πŸš€ After establishing expertise, specialize further or expand to complementary areas of digital marketing
  • πŸ“ˆ I'm still learning 14 years into my career by surrounding myself with smart people and practicing regularly
  • πŸ”œ Take our free SEO course for beginners if you want to get started in search engine optimization
Q & A

  • What was the first digital marketing channel the author tried when starting out?

    -The author first started with forum and classifieds spam when he launched his first website in 2009.

  • What was the turning point in the author's digital marketing career?

    -The turning point was when the author hired an SEO company to help improve his site's rankings. Although they scammed him, it fueled his desire to focus solely on learning SEO.

  • What are the three recommended stages for learning digital marketing?

    -The three stages are: 1) Understand the fundamentals 2) Make connections between the fundamentals 3) Learn workflows and tools used to execute the techniques.

  • What shortcut did the author take early in his career that ended up costing him?

    -He used a private blog network to quickly build backlinks, which violated Google's guidelines. This caused him to lose 85% of his traffic and millions in his business sale.

  • What are two groups of people the author recommends networking with?

    -1) Like-minded people trying to learn the same area of digital marketing 2) People you respect who are established in your niche.

  • What are three options mentioned for deciding your career path?

    -1) Stay a generalist 2) Niche down further 3) Expand into complementary areas of digital marketing.

  • How long has the author been working in digital marketing?

    -As of the time the video was recorded, the author had been working in digital marketing for 14 years.

  • What initial digital marketing tactic did the author find success with?

    -The author found success with search engine optimization (SEO).

  • What platform does the author recommend for beginners to learn SEO?

    -The author recommends taking their free SEO fundamentals course to get started with learning SEO.

  • What mindset does the author have towards mistakes he's made in his career?

    -He doesn't look at any experience as a waste of time, since all of it helped him get to where he is today.

Outlines
00:00
πŸ˜„ Getting started in digital marketing and focusing on SEO

The author started his career in digital marketing 14 years ago, built and sold a few online businesses, consulted for various companies and became recognized as an SEO expert. However, he still made many mistakes along the way. He recommends choosing one area of digital marketing to focus on instead of trying to learn everything. Stage 1 is to learn fundamentals, Stage 2 is making connections between concepts, Stage 3 is learning tools and workflows.

05:04
😎 Practicing digital marketing skills by creating your own website

It's important to practice what you've learned by creating your own website. This allows you to get first-hand experience. The author recommends cutting off new content while practicing to stay focused on fundamentals. He also suggests not obsessing over small details unrelated to your goals.

10:07
πŸ’Ό Getting a job at a digital marketing agency to accelerate learning

Working at a digital marketing agency gives great exposure to diverse projects, forces you to apply learning, and allows you to learn from more experienced people. However, avoid taking shortcuts to speed up learning as they can be very costly, as the author learned.

Mindmap
Keywords
πŸ’‘digital marketing
Digital marketing refers to marketing products or services using digital channels and media, such as websites, social media, email, and more. It is a core concept in the video as the narrator shares his career journey in digital marketing over 14 years. He discusses focusing on a specific area of digital marketing like SEO and provides tips on how to learn it.
πŸ’‘SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It involves optimizing a website and its content to rank higher in search engines like Google. The narrator chose to focus specifically on learning SEO when starting out, which led to major success. He provides tips on learning SEO fundamentals, making connections, and execution.
πŸ’‘backlinks
Backlinks refer to links from other websites that point back to your site. They are an important SEO signal to help pages rank higher. The narrator made the mistake early on of buying backlinks rather than earning them properly, which violated Google's guidelines and cost him rankings and revenue.
πŸ’‘agency
A digital marketing agency is a company that provides marketing services to clients. The narrator recommends working at an agency to accelerate learning, get experience across diverse projects, and connect with experts you can learn from.
πŸ’‘networking
Networking refers to interacting and connecting with other professionals in your field. The narrator stresses the importance of networking with both peers and respected figures to enhance learning, get advice, find collaborators and opportunities.
πŸ’‘generalist
A generalist has broad knowledge across the different areas under digital marketing. The video discusses deciding whether to stay a generalist vs. specialize further in a niche area under your main focus.
πŸ’‘reputation
Your reputation is how you are perceived professionally by others based on your expertise, character, past work, etc. By establishing yourself as an authority in a niche, you can build lasting reputation to demand higher pay.
πŸ’‘career
A career refers to the path you take in a profession over many years. A key message in the video is taking a long-term view of your digital marketing career with lifelong learning.
πŸ’‘failures
Despite his major success, the narrator shares openly about failures he faced early on such as wasting money on ads, buying bad backlinks, and not networking. He frames failures as learning opportunities.
πŸ’‘fundamentals
Fundamentals refer to the foundational concepts or basic building blocks of a subject area. The narrator stresses the importance of deeply learning digital marketing fundamentals before attempting to apply skills.
Highlights

I started my career in digital marketing 14 years ago

I've built and sold online businesses, consulted for companies of all sizes, and been recognized as an expert by Forbes and Inc

The U.S. government considers me to be in the top 1% of my field

Despite my success, I've made tons of mistakes that cost me time and money

It's best to focus on just one area of digital marketing and become really good at it

I recommend learning in 3 stages: fundamentals, connections between concepts, executing techniques/workflows

After learning, commit to actually practicing what you've learned by creating your own site

Get a job/internship at an agency to accelerate your learning through diverse real-world experience

Avoid shortcuts - they can be very costly despite short term gains

Build relationships with like-minded peers and respected people in your niche to grow your network

At some point, decide whether to stay a generalist, specialize further, or expand your skills into complementary areas

I took an SEO shortcut early on that ended up costing me 7 figures when I sold my business

For 8 years I didn't network at all which stunted my growth - a big mistake

Watch our free SEO course for beginners to start your digital marketing journey

Despite mistakes, I don't view anything as a waste of time - it got me to where I am

Transcripts

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