Some newbies to the Internet Marketing world feel like, without a mentor, they’ll flounder online and won’t be able to make headway in this type of business. But that isn’t always the case.

The last thing you want to do is have a mentor whose only goal is to make money – for himself. You want someone who can look at your individual strengths and weaknesses and help you find a business model that will satisfy you personally and financially.

You may need an overall mentor for your efforts, or choose to hire a mentor who has experience in one specific area of Internet Marketing, like Search Engine Optimization or Pay Per Click Marketing.

Marketing can’t be summed up into one tiny, neatly wrapped package because there are too many aspects of marketing to make it that narrow. Don’t expect to learn everything in one session with a mentor. It’s not a topic where mastery happens in one sitting.

You don’t have to have a marketing mentor if you want to run your own online business or even several online businesses. You’ll make mistakes (even the top marketing gurus still make mistakes) and you may even have some total failures, but that helps you learn what to avoid next time.

Hiring a marketing coach isn’t cheap and you could expect to pay thousands over time for help from some of the best coaching experts. If you’re just starting out, or you’ve been in business awhile and it’s not taking off the way you’d like, you might not be in the position to afford a coach.

That doesn’t mean you can’t find free expert help to guide you on the path to marketing well. There’s a great deal of advice and guidance online for marketers in any stage of their business and it’s all free of charge.

You can find this advice and guidance online through marketing blogs, forums and even articles written by marketers who have already been where you are now. You’ll learn about which marketing tools to buy, which ones are a waste of time and money and what the hottest niches are today. All this will cost you is your time. Find a marketer who keeps a regular blog and covers the information you need to know. Check out the blog archives, too.

Having the ability to read is the only qualification you need to make your marketing business a profit puller. Put the effort into researching and studying what you don’t know but need to learn.

So many marketers have graciously shared the wealth of their knowledge online for free, but you have to do the work of unearthing the nuggets you need to succeed.