IM 101 – Basic Curriculum

Continuing the series on “IM 101“, it’s probably a good idea to outline what the areas of concentration should be for such a curriculum. I’ve given this some thought over the past several months, but certainly not to the depth that something like this requires. Nevertheless, here’s my first crack at it.

As in college courses, there are the different levels of courses, e.g. 100, 200, 300, and 400. Simple concept — start out broad and general to build a foundation and then move into more specialized offerings once a major is declared. The same approach can be applied to the study and mastery of IM.

“What’s your IM major?”

You could major in PPC marketing with Adwords being your area of specialized expertise or you could make a full time living creating and launching your own products. There are a multitude of ways to make money online. However, like the study of most subjects, you really need to master some basics prior to venturing down an area of specialization.

So even if you don’t eventually wind up building Web sites for affiliate marketing or to turn around and sell at a profit, you still should master the basics of HTML, graphic design, and managing a shared hosting account. Even if you eventually outsource this “grunt” work, you still should have some basic experience of doing it yourself.

Here is the first year “100 Level” Curriculum for IM as I see it:

*Web Design 101 – this course would cover a lot of ground in one short semester: HTML basics, W3C Standards, JavaScript basics, Graphic Design, Page Layout, and Usability. Yep, that’s a ton of stuff, but all vital in my opinion.

*SEO 101 – this course wouldn’t be as intimidating as its title might suggest. The basics of SEO are fairly simple.

*Content Creation 101 – they say “content is king” and I wholeheartedly agree. Writing comes easier for some than it does for others, but being able to communicate effectively in writing is at the heart of not only IM, but just about any other career out there.

*Affiliate Marketing 102 - not everyone will wind up pursuing AM as a business model for their online business. Nor should they. However, it’s one of the easiest and fastest ways for novice IM’ers (notice I didn’t say “newbies”) to realize their first earnings online. This course would cover the basics of the concept of AM, the various affiliate networks, and best practices for pursuing AM.

*Market Research 102 – the ability to research markets, aka “niches” in IM, is critical to one’s success in IM. The various techniques and resources for conducting this research would be covered. This course would go hand in hand with AM 102 above.

*Time Management 102 – what more needs to be said about this course? Basic yes, but a skill that even the most experienced IM’ers struggle with on a continual basis. Areas covered would be the why and how to’s of time management. Perhaps the most important lesson to learn here is just how much time one actually wastes in the course of a day.

That’s a very rough outline of the first year curriculum and now that it’s written out, looks a bit too ambitious to all be covered in just one year. That’s why I shake my head when people just breaking into IM expect to be successful right out of the chute.

Sorry, in the vast majority of cases, it just doesn’t work that way.

Unless you’re willing to pay your dues and be frustrated for at least a year or longer, then you’re better off keeping your day job.

In subsequent posts in this series, I’ll start fleshing out the individual courses in more detail and provide resources, mainly free if at all possible, for exploring the subject in greater detail. I’ll also wrack my brain for what worked for me initially and what mentors had the greatest impact on getting me to the next level.