Are You Making These Mistakes?

It’s been a while since I last made a post as I’m getting tied up in other areas…but to make it up I said I’d put the effort in today with a rather long post.

Hello everyone that’s about to read here :-) please bear with me for the post you are about to read here is kind of long, but I’m certain you’ll get something out of it that you can relate to. I really wish someone had sent me something like this when I started out online. Back then I really was very new and knew next to nothing. I felt overwhelmed at just the very though of starting out, I’ll admit It takes a little while to catch on to things online, but that should never discourage anyone throwing in the towel.

Everyone that has anything to do with online marketing knows that things change online at a rapid pace…I can assure you, I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons about some of the biggest mistakes to avoid. Some of you won’t be new to the online world – but there are a lot of newcomers that may land on this post that are…so here are what I think are the top 7 mistakes that newbies make online.

No 1. Poor Planning:

I jumped into this one when I first started, I could easily say here (no planning) and it would probably be fair to say that most newbies coming online don’t do any at all. If one doesn’t plan…you will only get distracted by all the other new shinny products that are coming online everyday, yip just about every new item that comes online will distract you from getting things done. Newbies will jump into what they think is the right niches and markets to be in, only to find out it’s been a poor choice. They then begin to shift the blame game, saying this online thing hasn’t worked for me, they then get frustrated and angry.

I was guilty of this and quickly found out that I was in a bunch of niches where people were only looking to learn and not buy.

There’s a simple cure for this problem and it is to…PLAN!

You’ll have probably heard the old cliche before, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Well that very meaning couldn’t hold truer words. Just when were on the subject of planning – you don’t need a perfect plan, you just need a reasonable one that you know is going to work and that you can execute everyday.

Here’s what I recommend doing:

1). Search for a market you want to target. Research it through and through. Use Google to consume as much info as you possible can and find a market full of people who are BUYING right now.

2). Once you find that market…find a business model you’ll use to target them. You could start out with affiliate marketing until you start creating your own products, you could also aim at creating a membership site where you offer the answers to what that market is looking for, when the chance comes available to you, a good thing to do here also, is to create a simple product you’ll sell with a Mini site you know your market will buy into. There’s no right or wrong answer here, you just have to pick one and go with it…you have to carry through on it.

3). Create a relatively short low cost offer, that points directly towards your targeted market which delivers real value, remember it doesn’t have to be fancy…just to the point where it answers the needs of your targeted audience.

4). If you’ve done your research correctly, start focusing on that one product in that one niche/market until you begin to see it turning you a profit. If you find that market isn’t what you thought it would be and isn’t turning you a profit…drop it and keep a note, then move on to something else. Basically that’s it, you don’t need to be spending big dollars on all them glossy looking products that come through to you everyday. You only need to be sticking to the plan that is going to show you results, after that you can make your business grow from there.

No 2) Wasting Time:

This is a big one…

As the first rule set out not having a plan…wasting time is closely related to this one also. Yip! Closely related to that first mistake is wasting time. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll find yourself wasting time day after day browsing over and over to no avail. You can fall under the trap of buying several domains and setting up websites where you assign them domains to, then spend money on fancy graphics and fill it up with PLR and master resell rights offers…only to find out you don’t sell a single thing.

Quick Tip: Stop while you’re still ahead…start focusing on selling something and monitor the results, find out where the traffic is coming from and learn to go after them areas more effectively. Keep finding ways that will drive traffic to your offers. here’s another thing to know…learning can trip you up also, yip to much learning can suck your time away, yes we do have to learn something new everyday; but make sure you set aside a period of time and don’t go over that. I suggest an hour a day is plenty, now that doesn’t have to be a hard and fast rule, but I think you get the picture here.

Do not get hung up in a learning rut where you’re purchasing product after product to learn as much as you can and have nothing to show for it. Always keep in mind everyday that your first priority is the plan you set out. Some people get caught out with spending to much time in their facebook account or twitter and even there favourite marketing forums. Now forums are a hot place to be, but are you sure they’re the right place to be spending most of your time? If not, why are you spending so much time there???

Again it’s your plan that should be your first aim here.

I suggest you focus solely 75% of your day on your plan and leave the rest of the day to check your emails, post on forums, visit your facebook learn something new and so on…this keeps you focused.

No 3: Not Building your List:

The very moment you start out online you need to have something set in place to capture names and emails, putting this one off isn’t going to do you any favours, so start by implementing an opt in form asap. I’m going to suggest this to any newcomer, or anyone that hasn’t implemented it yet…Never set-up any website, blog, sales page, or squeeze page, without some kind of an opt in form by way of capturing names and emails. Always make it nice and clear for the visitor to see and let them know exactly what they’ll get if they sign up.

This isn’t as hard as you may first imagine.

Let’s take for instance you’re selling a product like an eBook. What to do here would be to create a short free report of that eBook you are trying to sell and offer it to your visitors for free if they give you their name and email and you’ll send it straight to their inbox. Another thing you can do with this free report you create for a squeeze page is… also, use it somewhere on your actual sales page, because sometimes people will land on your sales page as apposed to your squeeze page and by giving them the option of seeing the first few paragraphs boosts your chances even more for them wanting more. My recommendation would be to use a third party auto-responder. I’d stay away from hosting your own scripts on your own server.

No 4: Wasting Money With No Return:

This can cause problems, the trick here is to adopt a simple rule and stick with it. Anything you’re thinking of spending money on to get results, should be carefully planned out. There’s a short report I wrote about planning, it doesn’t take that long to read…but it gets straight to the point of where a lot of people are going wrong. If you want to grab yourself a copy you’ll see it on the top right of my blog, under GRAB YOUR FREE REPORT. You should only spend if your likelihood of making a good return is going to go up.

Here’s an example, if you’re going to spend some money on PPC ads, and you get poor results, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a bad thing, if you did it, just hoping it would go well. Some food for thought here, you should plan your traffic experiment, and put a limit on how much to spend.

Once you do an experiment  with ppc ads and you find a result that has broken even or even cost you a little, that’s not necessary a bad thing, try at this point to figure out if you were to spend some more money on it, would it bring you in results, note though; if you don’t have a plan for it and where you think you see it going, then don’t spend any more money on it. Another thing to watch out for here is software and programs you’re considering buying, ask yourself…do I really need this, will this product help me or am I just buying it because it looked the next best thing to make money with. Don’t fall into this trap of the next best thing which is a push button system, the don’t exist, keep your money in your pocket and spend it on something you know will help your online business to greater heights.

TIP: don’t buy another thing online until you make that product you bought turn you a profit.

If you’ve tried endlessly and it just won’t work, only then move on to something different, make sure every avenue is turned upside down first then move along to another and you’ll eventually find one that works for you.

No 5: Chasing Bad Traffic:

I had to go through the trial and error of this at the start, but note that not all traffic methods work. Take the likes of traffic exchanges and safe lists…I stopped using them, I think they’re simply not worth the bother and are a waste of time and money.

The first role of business online is finding good targeted traffic where buyers are hungary to get on board and buy. traffic exchanges, safe lists and other gimmicks can build you a list fast, but them lists will only sit there and won’t do anything. You’ll end up with a few thousand subscribers who sit there and will never buy, because they are trying to sell to YOU.

Here’s what you should be doing; and that is…going after targeted visitors that are very reliable sources like the ones below are; and have stood the test of time.

1. Writing keyword related articles that are targeted to your niche and getting them placed on the popular article directories.

2. PPC advertising, remember do your research first and test some ads before you jump right in, but this method works very well and can be so targeted.

3. Get onto at least two high ranking social networking sites where you can build up a loyal following, I suggest Facebook and Twitter.

4. Some other great high ranking sites to go after are squidoo, hubpages and forums within your niche.

Again I cover the importance of going after traffic that works for you in my free report. Today building a great relationship online through the social networking sites is a fantastic way to succeed online.

Spend a few hours each week by looking for JV partners, writing a few articles a week for the article directories, ppc advertising which is well researched and so on, keep a note at what’s working for you and “forget about the rest.”

That’s what your aim should be, looking for really good targeted traffic and when you find it, ramp it up.

No 6: Start Building Them Relationships:

Building relationships is the best move you can hope for…whenever the time is right and you have a solid base set in place and maybe a product of your own created, start looking for people to joint venture with. Building up relationships with other people is going to be the backbone of your business. Most top Internet Marketers will tell you this…they wouldn’t be as high up the ladder today if it weren’t for the JV relationships they had built up as they went along.

You may be a bit backward at approaching these JV’s, but the fact of the matter is…you sit stale if you don’t make the move to approach these type of marketers that are in your niche. Yes you may be that private type of person and that’s OK, take it with a cautious approach and just start to find people you can trust…I’ve always said this and this applies to any type of business; whether it be on-line or off-line – (this is how it goes).

There has to be a certain amount of trust in any business when you join in partnership with someone, it’s just the way it is…if you can’t trust that person, you’ll never make that move to get involved with them in the first place, cover yourself as best you can and if something goes wrong – move on and forget about it, but don’t stop there or you’re beat, do exactly the same again and learn from your experiences for your next JV online or even someone you need to partner with for specific tasks. If you keep on building relationships your business will start to rise every year until people start to come knocking on your door and that’s all good, ain’t it :)

Start looking for people like this in forums! (make sure you go in with the intention of doing just that, instead of wasting time posting all day). There’s also nothing wrong spending half an hour each day posting and answering questions, but that should be left in your schedule as daily tasks, the other is specifically for building relationships. When you get a chance and are fortunate enough to attend live events, go for it, they can be a brilliant means of gathering knowledge when meeting like minded people and striking up JV’s right there at the live events.

No 7: Giving up to easily:

Quitting when the going gets tough…

I look back and think about the first day I looked into Internet Marketing, yes there are times you will want to drop your head in your hands and say I can’t do it. Get that thought out of your head right away, that’s silly talk. People throw in the towel to easy, if you are persistent and work hard with a determination to succeed, nothing will stand in your way; if it takes being stubborn to do that, then adopt that attitude and don’t throw that towel in.

I know people reading here are at different levels online and if you’re just starting out it can be overwhelming to say the least…Yes! you probably can’t relate to what it feels like yet to have made it at Internet Marketing, but you’ll never experience it if you give up to easily.

REFUSE TO DO SO and if you’re thinking about it, come back time to time to this post and read it again, that should spark your emotions again and get you going :)

Here’s what I’m going to suggest you…

Never quit, NEVER…until you make that first sale online, without putting yourself into debt. I cover how to do this in my free report on the top right of this post called, GRAB MY FREE REPORT. It covers what you need to do to make your first sale online and the traffic methods you need to be thinking about to make that happen. If it’s traffic that’s holding you up you may want to consider looking at my product www.trafficsecretsapproved.com where I show you how to go about bringing in traffic everyday, regularly.

Keep in mind the other things I’ve mentioned in this post, stick to them and you should begin to see results and find that you can make this work. I’m going to wrap things up now, this is my top 7 tips I see new Internet Marketers make and some of the things they don’t do to further their career. I know I’ve given you some good advice here, because I came through a lot of the trial and errors mentioned in this post…so take it on board and I guarantee it will start to open doors for you. Make sure you PLAN to avoid these mistakes and watch out for them daily, so as they don’t trip you up.

I wish you all the best and hope I have helped you a little.

Feel free to leave me a comment and if you thought there was some value in the post, kindly give it a tweet :)

All the best,
Eamon Diamond


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