Internet Marketing: Is it better to LEARN or to HIRE ?

Hey every one,

I am just curious as to people's opinion on whether it is better to learn various internet marketing strategies or to hire people to do the leg work for you?
(SEO, PPC, Article Marketing, Video Marketing, Email Marketing)

Of course, not all of us (including me) have the kind of money needed to consult and hire marketing professionals...but I am curious as to HOW MUCH you think should be learned and how much hired?


Thanks,
Mark McCoy

 

Well, hiring an expert always is a good practice...
doing yourself is also good if you have sound knowledge in SEO and PPC

If not, its going to cost you very high, and less ROI...
In regard to SEO without proper knowledge can make your site de-indexed.

All the best

 

I think learning is better. Marketing techniques change constantly, especially if you are concerned about SEO. If you hire someone to take care of your marketing today, you would have to continue to market to maintain the status quo. The marketing techniques you paid for today, may not be effective a few months down the road. You would either have to hire again or learn to do it yourself for your site to keep up with the latest marketing techniques.

 

Well, Mark - this was a nice question. You don't need to be a hen to tell when eggs are rotten, right?

My advice is to hire an expert only when you are able to assess their performance (or have another resource handy to do it for you). Otherwise you might end up paying for snake oil. It is also important to understand HOW results are achieved - if you don't know the method, you might not be able to mitigate the risks - for example aggressive link spamming can get your properties sandboxed with Google etc.

So my take on it is to rather outsource than hire - make sure you know what you are asking of them and be able to finish the job if they leave you midways. A good example is social bookmarking - you could do it yourself, but if it is cheaper to hire, go for it. A bad example is SEO - if you get some self-appointed guru that stuffs your pages with keywords and gets you sacked for low quality, hiring him would be a poor decision.

One last word on assessing performance - make sure you state the deliverables clearly to avoid disappointment.
For example, "forum promotion" is very unclear - will they use xRumer? Will your site be blacklisted on the forum, next to the Viagra offers?
While "forum promotion with at least 10 affiliate links dropped in existing threads / day under the TOS" is something Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound - more on this and I start charging for business coaching

Good luck to you - I hope this helps! (and REP given for the "SMART" question)

 

To start out, it's better you learn a bit so that you actually understand what's happening. Hiring a professional might be expensive but if you find a really good product to market, it's going to be worth it.

 

It depends on what your real profession is. Sometimes it doesn't make sense to learn a whole new field. By the time you're done, your competitors will have taken over your markets, and all of the time you've spent learning internet marketing could have been outsourced while you did your primary job.

 

Learn a little to begin. Then when you have made a little you will realise it is more cost effective to hire someone to do the menial tasks.

 

I personally think learning is better. I charge for seo consults and link building and it is not cheap I usually tell my clients if they took the time to learn it would save them hundreds especially when it comes to basic link building. Though in this economy you may find people desperate enough to do the work dirt cheap. Still as a webmaster it is important that you learn and stay on top of internet marketing.

 

If you have alot of time on your hands i would say learn it yourself.

 

It's useful to at least understand it even if you plan on hiring someone.

 

Both.

You should attempt to learn more than to hire.

 

I would say learn if you have the time.

 

learning is always better than hiring cuz that way you will earn money..

 

Learn as much as you can. This will depend on whether or not you have more time or more money.
My choice was to study and learn. Once you learn the methods, there is little or no chance that someone can take it away from you. If you learn to market products, you can market any products.


If your business is built on today's "hot" product, what will you do when that product goes out of style.

 

I would learn before paying anyone. The internet is full of bogus companies that say they can get you traffics for enormous fees. At least by you making the effort to learn the various techniques used to drive the traffic you want to your site, when the time does come when you can afford a SEO expert, you will have the knowledge to reduce the chances of getting scammed.

 

I definitely think you need to learn internet marketing. You can always hire someone to do the work, but if you have a basic understanding it helps.

Knowing internet marketing will help you come up with new ideas you can implement, maybe something that most others don't do. If you run an online business, I believe a knowledge of internet marketing is essential to be successful. IMHO

 

I think it is good to learn everything if we can ,But if you want to make your career in internet marketing , SEO then it should be good to learn by self study and learning various strategies otherwise you may also hire an expert for this

 

brilliant career to get in to and the great thing about it is there are so many avenues to explore!

 

I think it should be determined by your real condition.You can't draw a conclusion easily.Both of these two ways are very good.But learning is always the most important.So you should keep on learning even if you have found
an expert working for you.

 

Time is the key, If you have lots of time on your hands then you can afford to learn yourself!