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Lost In Translation

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How do you take what you read on Gooruze or any blog site and translate it so that it applies to your work in internet marketing? Here's my story:

Fresh out of college, I accepted a job with a local interactive marketing agency. With little experience on my resume except the university yearbook editor position I held and the summer media relations internship, I assumed my job description would mostly consist of writing press releases, blog entries and general company literature. But after several days of working, I was introduced to search marketing and the gargantuan industry behind it, and feeling a little overwhelmed, I started my research.

Blogs were my number one resource for information, although I thought they were really advanced and were a little over my head. Eventually all my research led me to Gooruze, which I see as the ultimate resource for all things search marketing. Many of the blogs I used to check regularly are now infrequent stops for my browser. But as a fledgling search marketer, how do you turn all the information you find on blogs, Gooruze and online classes into information that works for you and your efforts?

Luckily for me, I had campaigns to play with and a slew of people who make their living off Internet marketing for guidance. However, I still had to learn things on my own – a process which I’m sure every marketer continues today – but here’s some tips if you find yourself clueless when it comes to deciphering this stuff.

Make it real – Apply it to something you already know. You may not know everything about creating enticing titles, headlines or ads, but chances are you have had to come up with a way to cram a lot of information into a small snippet of text. Or think about the classified ads in your local paper or restaurant marquees with attractive sayings – same underlying concepts.

Create a giant resource – Take everything you learn and create a giant checklist, list of bullet points, or desktop file and store everything you find helpful. Organize it by topic and you have created your own personal library for future reference.

Read until you are cross-eyed – Just keep at it. Eventually it all will click (pun intended) and everything will make sense. You may think you are reading the same thing over and over again (and in essence you probably are), but the nature of search marketing makes certain that everyone has a different experience regardless of how similar their efforts may seem, so you are learning something new every time you read a different article.

Return the favor – write about what you have learned in relation to your own experience. You may think your beginner experiences or your similar experiences don’t contribute much to the conversation, but there is always a new search marketer who can benefit from your knowledge.

Four months into search marketing, I have gained some confidence in the field and I realize that there is always more to read, more to learn and more to write about when it comes to this ever-changing industry. If you have any helpful tips for your learning style, or how to translate other experiences to work well for you - post away! There are tons of different learning styles and my tips might not help everyone out there.