Some questions from a want-to-believe IM

Hi Ihhe (or is it Lhhe?)

1) Yes. You don't own or control the site - that's the main difference. There are rules you must follow or the blog will be deleted. Therefore, you use free/throwaway blogs for one purpose, and your own domains for another.

2) You need to try and understand the difference between what you do and experience, and what your target market does and experiences.

For example, try and sell to us in here, and we will respond differently to someone who is just starting out. We (in here) are a good 'extreme' to gauge things from - a complete newb is the opposite extreme and good for the same.

As your experience mounts, don't confuse that with the 'general internet population.' In here we talk about marketing, tricks, scams and all sorts of other stuff. It's easy to not notice what effect this has on you - you become cynical, wise, a little paranoid - all good things.

If you are doing things right and educating yourself, and you have come from a starting point similar to the majority (not really understanding marketers and marketing) then you should find that your view of the world and all of the interactions in it, changes radically over time.

This can be a little disturbing/depressing at first, because you see so many things in a different, sometimes less positive light. But again, to complete the learning process, you must not forget that people who aren't exposing their brains continually to, and learning about and understanding basic marketing 'rules' such as -

a) buyers/consumers think that their decisions are logical and consciously made, but in fact they are almost entirely emotional

b) most of the money-exchanging world revolves around spin, propaganda, PR and BS

c) understanding as much about psychology and persuasion as possible shortens the path to success, and self-mastery

...will not have the same perception as yourself, when it comes to websites, banners and links.

3) Again, you have learnt 'how the world goes around'. The only thing that matters is that you use this knowledge to your advantage, in whichever way suits.

It's safe to assume that most recommendations are biased, solicited, or compensated. To find the ones that aren't, you ideally need to look for them from people who you have observed for a while. But if you accelerate your learning as a priority, the need to rely on others' opinions is lessened dramatically.

Any business person worth their salt, regardless of whether they consult with others as a habit on a daily basis, is in the ideal position when they are capable of making snap decisions about any aspect of their business, if required to do so. To get to this point, one must set out on a path with this as one of their goals and pursue this goal relentlessly. Asking others along the way or looking for guidance is possibly an assistance, but not a requirement.

4) - yes. And many more too. I often still get them, but trample over them unforgivingly as quickly as I can. I use my friends to help with this, and vice versa. Anyone who says they don't have doubts is either superhuman, very experienced in self-mastery, or lying.

If they didn't 'get it' and encourage me - I sacked them as friends - mercilessly. Seriously, it's one of the best things you can do - give them a chance, then filter your friends, find real friends/useful relatives instead and learn to control your environment in as many ways as you can find that are conducive to a successful mindset.

ExRat, wow, what a reponse! I can't begin to thank you enough for the advice you have posted here - big thanks!

And Liza, do not worry, I am prepared for the long haul in this. Whenever evaluations or comments have been made about my personality in the past it's along the lines of "not that smart but bloody determined" - which I think is enough.

Thank you both again for your words of wisdom. I plan to start doing (not just reading/thinking) about this within the next couple of weeks.

Cheers.

Blogger works quite well. As long as your site is legit it is very rare for it to be locked and even rarer still for it to be deleted. Remember that with self-hosting you can run into 'worst case' scenarios too so take those "gloom and doom" stories about Blogger with a grain of salt.

But, there is a problem. Blogger blogs don't get a lot of respect from affiliate companies with the exception of Google (no surprise there since they own Blogger). I recently had to move about 50 Blogger blogs off of Blogger to their own domain due to changes in the EPN/eBay rules which was quite annoying. Fortunately, .info domains are cheap.

Yes, they do click ads, usually because it leads to something that they want, a new camera, a good DUI lawyer, a recipe book or something else. On a good performing site this will be about 10-20% of the visitors. So, if you have 100 visitors, 10-20 will click thru while 80-90 will feel like you do and not click ads.

You can't but you can figure it out through wise observation. There's a lot of free information that's very good out there if you look. Keep your money in your pocket, especially at first. I recommend putting yourself into action as cheaply as possible and gradually and carefully expanding as you earn money.

This is all really great information and brings back some of my same feelings and fears as when I started out doing this.