10 Digital Marketing Tips for Beginners I Wish I Knew
What I’ve learned about content creation, affiliate marketing, blogging and making money online since starting from scratch.
When I first started digital marketing in 2024, I had absolutely no idea where it was going to take me.
I knew I wanted to find a way to make money from home. I wanted something that gave me an identity outside of being “Mom,” something I could build for myself and something that could eventually contribute financially to our family.
What I didn’t know was how many different directions digital marketing could take me.
Since then, I’ve tried different platforms, taken courses, learned affiliate marketing, created content, worked with brands, joined the Amazon Influencer Program, started a blog, built a website, started Pinterest, changed my strategy approximately a billion times 😂…and I’m still learning.
And that’s kind of the point.
If you’re looking for digital marketing tips for beginners, I don’t want to give you another article promising that you’ll make thousands of dollars in your first 30 days if you just follow a few simple steps.
I want to tell you the things I wish someone had told me.
Because building an online business can absolutely create opportunities—but there is a lot that happens between “I’m going to start making money online!” and actually figuring out what works for you.
If you’re completely new to digital marketing and want more of a step-by-step introduction, start with my Digital Marketing for Beginners guide. This post is a little different—these are the lessons, mistakes and realities I wish I had known after deciding to start.
Here are the 10 biggest things I’ve learned so far.
1. Don’t Try to Do Everything All at Once
This might be the biggest lesson I’ve learned.
When you first discover digital marketing, suddenly you’re hearing about:
TikTok. Instagram. Facebook. Pinterest. Blogging. Affiliate marketing. UGC. Amazon Influencer. TikTok Shop. Email marketing. Digital products.
And naturally, you think…
Okay. I’ll do all of them.
😂
I tried.
The problem isn’t that you can’t eventually have multiple platforms or income streams. I actually love having different pieces of my business working together.
The problem is trying to build every single one of them at the same time.
You’ll spend your entire day creating content, learning platforms, checking analytics and wondering why you still haven’t answered the email that’s been sitting in your inbox for three days.
And eventually?
You’ll burn yourself out.
If I were starting over, I’d choose one or two things to really learn first. Get comfortable. Create a system. Then add something else.
You don’t have to build the entire business in your first month.
Of all the digital marketing tips for beginners I could share, learning to focus on fewer things at once would be near the top of my list.
2. One of My Biggest Digital Marketing Tips for Beginners: Be Patient
This is NOT a get-rich-quick thing.
I really wish more people talked about this.
Spend enough time on social media and you’ll eventually see posts like:
“I made $10,000 my first month!”
“Here’s how I made $500 today from my phone!”
“I started 30 days ago and already replaced my full-time income!”
Can those things happen?
Sure.
Does that mean they’re going to happen for everyone—or that they’re the normal experience?
Absolutely not.
One of the hardest things about starting online is realizing that you’re usually seeing someone’s result without seeing everything that came before it.
Maybe they already had an audience.
Maybe they had experience.
Maybe they invested a lot of money.
Maybe they had a viral video.
Or maybe they’re simply an outlier.
That doesn’t make their success any less real. But it also doesn’t mean you’re failing because your first month doesn’t look like theirs.
Digital marketing takes time, effort, consistency and a whole lot of trial and error.
There have been months when I’ve made money.
There have been slower months.
There have been things I thought were going to work that…very much did not. 😂
That’s normal.
I actually shared more about how my own journey began in [How I Started Making Money Online as a Stay-at-Home Mom], because mine definitely wasn’t an overnight-success story.
3. You Can Learn SO Much for Free
One thing I wouldn’t do as a beginner is immediately start buying every course you see.
There is an incredible amount of free information available online.
I’ve learned things through Google searches, blogs, YouTube, social media, tutorials and simply experimenting until I figured something out.
If you’re brand new and aren’t sure where to begin, I also created a Digital Marketing Starter Guide to help you understand the basics and give you a more organized place to start.
You can absolutely start learning without spending hundreds—or thousands—of dollars.
Some of the best digital marketing tips for beginners I’ve learned didn’t come from a paid course at all—they came from researching, experimenting and actually doing the work.
But there is another side to this.
Sometimes you don’t want to piece together 47 YouTube videos, six blog posts and a random TikTok you saved three weeks ago. 😂
Sometimes you want someone to organize the information and say:
Start here. Then do this. Then do this.
That’s where a good course, community or mentorship can be valuable.
The key word there is good.
Before spending money, research the person you’re learning from. Look at exactly what’s included. Ask yourself whether the course solves a problem you actually have.
And please don’t buy something simply because someone’s income screenshot made you feel like you’re falling behind.
Education can be an investment.
FOMO is not an investment strategy.
4. You May Have to Spend Money Before You Make Money
This was another mindset shift for me.
There’s this idea that because you’re building something online, everything should be free.
And yes, you can start digital marketing with very little.
But as you grow, there may be things worth investing in.
A website. A domain. Software. Equipment. Education. Tools that save you time.
That doesn’t mean you need to go spend $5,000 before you’ve made your first dollar.
Please don’t.
But think about almost any traditional career.
People pay for college degrees, certifications, training, uniforms, equipment and continuing education because they’re investing in the skills they need to earn money later.
Building an online business isn’t magically exempt from that.
The important part is learning the difference between investing strategically and buying everything someone tells you that you “need.”
Those are two very different things.
5. Your First Direction Probably Won’t Be Your Final Direction
If you had shown 2024 me what I’m doing now, I’m not sure she would have believed you.
I’ve changed what I’m doing approximately…
a billion times.
😂
I’ve explored different types of digital marketing, changed my content, tried different platforms, leaned into affiliate marketing, worked on Amazon content, started blogging, built Pinterest into my strategy and continued figuring out what actually fits me.
For a while, changing direction felt like I was starting over.
Now I look at it completely differently.
I wasn’t starting over. I was narrowing it down.
Every time something didn’t fit, I learned something.
Every time I found something I enjoyed, I learned something.
Every time I realized, Yeah…this isn’t where I want to put my energy anymore, I learned something.
Your niche can evolve.
Your offer can change.
Your audience can change.
Your entire business model can change.
Pivoting doesn’t automatically mean something went wrong.
Sometimes it means you’re finally figuring out where you belong.
6. You Don’t Need a Huge Audience to Start Making Progress
Follower count used to feel like such a big deal to me.
And don’t get me wrong—growing an audience is great.
But I’ve learned that follower count is only one number.
People can discover your content through search. They can click a Pinterest pin without following you. They can find an old blog post months after you publish it. They can watch an Amazon review without knowing who you are.
I’m seeing this firsthand with Pinterest right now.
After a little over a month of consistently pinning, my content had reached thousands of people while my actual follower count was still tiny.
I break down those numbers and exactly what I’m doing in [Pinterest for New Bloggers: What I’m Doing to Grow My Blog From Scratch].
That experience has been a really good reminder:
Reach matters. Clicks matter. Saves matter. Searchability matters.
Don’t convince yourself that you can’t start until you have 10,000 followers.
Start with the people who are finding you now.
7. Creating Content Is Only Part of the Job
Before I started, I think I pictured digital marketing as…
Make a post.
Post it.
Make money.
Seems reasonable. 😂
In reality, creating the content is only one piece.
There’s keyword research. SEO. Affiliate links. Product research. Emails. Brand outreach. Analytics. Website updates. Scheduling. Editing. Learning new platforms. Updating old content.
And then there’s the glamorous task of spending 45 minutes trying to figure out why one tiny thing on your website moved three pixels to the left.
Living the dream. 😂
The more I’ve added to my business, the more I’ve realized how important systems and batching are.
For example, instead of creating Pinterest pins every single day, I now set aside dedicated time a few times a week to create and schedule them.
That frees up other days for blogging, social content, Amazon review videos and everything else.
You don’t need a perfect system immediately.
But eventually, you’ll need some kind of system.
8. Stop Comparing Your Beginning to Someone Else’s Middle
This might not sound like one of the typical digital marketing tips for beginners, but learning to stop comparing your progress to someone else’s can make a huge difference in how you approach your business.
This one is hard.
Especially online.
You see someone with 200,000 followers.
Someone posts a huge affiliate month.
Someone has a gorgeous website.
Someone launches a product and sells hundreds of copies.
And you’re sitting there thinking:
What am I doing wrong?
Maybe nothing.
You don’t know what happened before the screenshot you’re looking at.
You don’t know how long they’ve been doing it, how many things failed first, what audience they already had, how much they invested or what experience they brought with them.
The internet makes it incredibly easy to compare your behind-the-scenes to someone else’s highlight reel.
I’m still learning this one myself.
Instead of asking:
“Why am I not where she is?”
I’m trying to ask:
“Am I farther along than I was three months ago?”
That’s a much more useful comparison.
9. Pay Attention to What’s Actually Working for YOU
There are approximately 4,732 people online willing to tell you exactly what you have to do to succeed.
Post three times a day.
No, post once.
Use short-form video.
No, focus on long-form content.
Pick one niche.
No, build a personal brand.
Start an email list.
Start a blog.
Start Pinterest.
Start yesterday.
😂
Advice can be incredibly helpful.
But eventually, you have to look at your own results.
Which content gets clicks?
What gets saved?
What gets comments?
What drives traffic?
What converts?
What do you actually enjoy creating?
And equally important:
What fits into your real life?
A strategy that works beautifully for someone with eight uninterrupted hours a day may not work for someone building a business around kids, another job or other responsibilities.
Learn from other people.
Then take what works and build something that works for you.
That’s why one of my biggest digital marketing tips for beginners is to pay attention to your own results instead of blindly following every strategy you see online.
10. DON’T GIVE UP
Yes, I’m putting this in all caps.
Because I mean it. 😂
I’m not going to tell you that if you just keep going long enough, you’re guaranteed to make a million dollars.
Nobody can promise you that.
But I will tell you not to mistake a slow season for failure.
Don’t mistake one video flopping for failure.
Don’t mistake a brand saying no for failure.
Don’t mistake changing your niche for failure.
And don’t mistake being a beginner for being bad at something.
If I had quit every time something didn’t work the way I thought it would, Lindsey, Lately wouldn’t exist.
I’ve changed directions, tried things that went nowhere, invested in things I probably wouldn’t buy again, learned new platforms, abandoned strategies, started over and questioned what I was doing more times than I can count.
But every version taught me something.
So if you’re at the beginning and wondering why you haven’t “made it” yet:
Keep learning.
Keep testing.
Pivot when you need to.
Take a break when you’re burned out.
Celebrate the tiny wins that nobody else sees.
And most importantly…
Don’t mistake being at the beginning for being bad at it.
If I Could Go Back and Tell 2024 Me One Thing…
I don’t think I’d give her a secret strategy.
I wouldn’t tell her which platform to start with or which income stream to focus on.
I’d probably just tell her:
Of all the digital marketing tips for beginners I could give, the biggest one might simply be this: you’re not supposed to know exactly what you’re doing yet.
That’s what starting is.
The things I’m doing today came from everything I tried before them—the things that worked and the things that didn’t.
And I’m sure a year from now I’ll look back at what I’m doing today and realize I’ve changed another billion things. 😂
I’m okay with that now.
Because I’m not trying to build someone else’s version of an online business anymore.
I’m figuring out what mine looks like.
I hope these digital marketing tips for beginners help you go into this with realistic expectations—and remind you that you don’t have to figure everything out at once.
Want to Follow Along? 💗
I’m building Lindsey, Lately in real time and sharing what I’m learning along the way—from blogging and digital marketing to Pinterest, affiliate marketing, content creation and all the pivots in between.
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