Guys I have learned from and experienced that to make anything you need tools to build something whether it is a automobiles or building or a bicycle exact think happens in internet business.
There are plenty of marketing tools which are important for making money online but all of are not neccesary if you understand how to use free marketing to make money online.
For example if you take article marketing, post everyday an article and you will make money. Suppose you pick one clickbank product which has high gravity and post everyday one article in ezine articles, go articles and so on. YOU WILL MAKE MONEY.
First when I start marketing online and seen so many tools online which I need to buy it, what I used to think that "I know everything" and "All that things are fake". But one day when I bought one tool which is an article marketing tool, believe me how wonderful it is.
Some people don't have money to invest to buy any tools so they focus more on free marketing like manualy post one single article to each an every article directories where an special tools is made to all this things, so if one article is post to 300 article directories in 10 minutes than you can understand how powerful it is.
There an way to make some money by participating in surveys which actually pays or posting some good content to article directories who gives money to you at least $4 for each article and sometime you get $4 -$10 per article if your article is great.
Not only you need article marketing tools, you need keyword research tools, seo tools and social bookmarking tools, social media tools and so many tools you need. Once you bought one tools, make money with that tool and than focus more to invest in your business.
I will back with you with more information about marketing tools... so best of luck with your online business.