What do you wish you'd done from the beginning?

Hey Kelly, can you elaborate a bit. When you say separate freebie, maybe an example etc. I have about 20 sites today, and they are all different sectors, but list building could use some organization for sure. Thanks mate.

Yes - I don't disagree at all.

But more generally, I just wish I'd started off knowing all the stuff it took me 3 - 4 months to learn. As it turned out, I virtually "started again from scratch" at that stage, because so many things I was doing before that were wrong.

If I could go back to the beginning I wished I could have had the plan I have now. It would have saved me tons of time and a lot of additional profits in my business.

Having a plan and knowing it works is the real battle if you ask me. There would be a lot more successful people on this forum if they just believed in a simple plan. Even if they knew it would take them 2 to 5 years to get where they want to be financially.

Working hard at something and not seeing results is discouraging... but if you absolutely knew that your hard work would pay off eventually then you'd be more apt to put everything you have into it... This is why I believe having a solid proven plan is the key.

I agree Kelly I postponed listbuilding longer than I should of myself. I also would of only concentrated on tasks that actually make me money and get rid of the time sucking stuff that is not making us a dime.

I would of worked a little smarter, not harder in the beginning!

I started off with list building with the guidance of a great mentor 8) I'm still at the beginning about 8 months in and 800 subs later and am still learning.

One things I would change is get a domain name that had brandable value. I bought a very generic domain and am now going to start a brand new blog that I can build a brand around.

I wish I would have put more focus on my own products, instead of affliate products.

Affliate programs are ok, still my own niche product has no limits or TOS, I can be as creative as I want to be.

Things that Rod should have done from the beginning:

* Focus on testing more than one offer at a time.

* Focus on having a product mix instead of starting out with just one product.

* Focus on building targeted lists from the get-go.

* Focus on creating my own products sooner and mixing it up with affiliate marketing.

* Focus on my own virutal real estate and growing it's value instead of someone else's domain name.

* Focus on building my own mastermind group with a peer group that's at my level or just a little bit above me (so we could all suceed together)

* Tracking all the traffic I have coming in so I can test conversions.

* Test, test, and test some more.

* Trade up my coffee mug from 44oz to 244 ounces.

* I should have gotten a white board a lot sooner.

* Made all my autoresponder series at least a year in length, mixed with content and offers.

* I should have outsourced a lot sooner, but hey, I was a control freak back then......

* Focus on one marketing promotion technique at a time during my first year, get it to profitability, before moving onto the next one.

* Invested in paid advertising a lot sooner.

* Grab "Make Your Words Sell" a lot sooner (it's free now, just Google it or go over to the Sitesell.com website).

* Attend Adtech.

* Utilize the power of free publicity sooner.

* I should have attended a hands-on seminar a lot sooner (wait, they didn't have those back then yet).

* Mailed Allen Says some Cuban cigars.

RoD

I wish I either 1) had a job when I first started and/or 2) didn't have a girlfriend. I could have reinvested the money from my job (or business) back into my business like I am now in order to have it grow exponentially. Instead, I wound up spending all the money I made and failed to see much materialize for the first year and a half.

I wish I had sat down and clearly defined what I wanted and where I was heading. (AKA, create a business plan.)

Becky

Figured out that Google lokoks at
Links
Titles
Clean URL's and
then keywords...
Understanding that PageRank is a hoot and it is all about Trust Rank. (good quality content!

I wish I knew earlier how easy it was to outsource than doing everything by myself. That would have saved me a lot of time and allow me to spend my time on things with higher priority in life.

It's not too late to build your revenue and business credibility. For email lists, the higher companies will work with list management if you become an exclusive partner. Of course it take hard work and time to get there but it's always a step forward, which is what you want.
And the key part of marketing, online or not, is defining your audience and segmenting different roles/responsibilities. Understand your SWOT and the environment in which you wish to pursue.
Especially for Online marketing, outsourcing to an affiliate network is a great way to have a partner develop your skills and momentum forward. you can't go wrong. there is a great one based out of Sarasota, FL.

I agree marcuslim!

lol! You think this is direct marketing?

• Focus on one thing and see it through to the end.
• Take action - reading & planning are essential but you can do too much of it without getting anything done.
• Resist the urge to jump onto every shiny object
• Don't buy dozens of Domain Names with good intentions that never get used

Took several years to figure out the above, years that could have been so much more productive.

I can sum that up in one word "specific".
I wish I'd have been more specific.
Thanks for reminding me to think about it.


All the best,
Guy

I wish I had stayed focused on one method and not deviated from it. That would have cut out a TON of wasted time and money over the years.

I wish I would have been focused on ONE objective and not lose track with doing so many things at once. Also if I would have had a mentor early on I could have avoided some major pitfalls!

I wish I'd got coach/mentor from the beginning instead of spending money on ebooks that turned out to be useless.

Almost a year in and I'm finally getting somewhere through the help my coach. I've made money, but only now am I setting up a STREAM of income and not just odd jobs here and there.

If was to start again from last year, knowing now what is and isn't scammy looking, I'd have joined this forum straight away and took the coaching course I'm currently on.

I wish I had learned that th e information available here on the WF is far more valuable than that found most anywhere else online. I wish I had focused on building a list using product creation, and stayed focused on the process of product creation in order to facilitate the growth of my reputation and list.

Ken @ EliKen

My feedback is same as to what a few had posted here - I wish I had met my mentor earlier, before I had even know that PayPal existed.

I wish I understood leverage, and, the "inside behind the scenes" marketing tricks.

I wish I tried to accomplish all that I can in the first place of my learning.

I have three regrets.

1) NOT BUILDING MY LISTS EARLIER!

2) NOT BUILDING MY LISTS EARLIER!

3) NOT BUILDING MY LISTS EARLIER!

So put me over you knee and spank me! LOL.

I guess you now know what is the most profitable thing we do in our business is now.

I wish i focused on list building when i first and not lost contact with thousand of customers i generated whom i cannot no longer communicate with because i refused to build my list

I wish i had created more products of my own quickily

I wished i worked harder than my 30 minutes a day i did at the begining

I wish did product launches after i found something that worked

I wish didn't buy anymore product but used the one thing that worked for me to 6 -7 figures

I wish i automated what worked for me

I wish i started outsourcing as soon as i can

I wish i didn't buy a domain name with my name on it because now I cannot sell it

I wish i didn't get lazy and stop doing the work sometime when i was sales coming into my inbox from my previous efforts online

Those are things i wished i did at the beginning

I wish that I would have actually applied the stuff that was in ALL of the courses that I've spent so much money on over the years.

You know, we get this stuff....ebooks, video courses, memberships, WSO's, and then we don't apply the stuff. Where would we be if we had?

I guess that can apply to life period...a healthy dose of "JUST DO IT" would have us all a little further down the road.

nohypetraining

I wish I was thinking of my business as a business from the beginning and thinking about leveraging time and money through people so much earlier

I wish I'd started my OWN business sooner. Too bad I was addicted to my 'comfortable' job.

I wish I'd bought a few one-word domains when they were available.

I forgot to add one very important thing. I believe that success is at least 95% based on your mindset, positive attitude / outlook, and self development. I wish I would have started reading success books a lot sooner. No, I take that back, I started reading them when I was a teenager.

What I meant to write was I wish I would have started taking them seriously a lot sooner. I would have been profitable a lot quicker and I would have been more fulfilled a lot sooner. It took me a long time to "get it". Having more money does you no good unless you know how to enjoy it.

RoD

I agree one 100% on the list building...and I wish had a clearer focus on the direction I wanted to go and built a strong plan around that instead of listening to all the noise.

Wish I started creating my mobile website creator/editor a year ago - then I'd be done by now!

Mine is pretty simple: buy a better, keyword rich, domain name.

I went with something that sounded memorable to me, and spent a full year promoting three different websites on domains that had zero applicability to my keywords. Now that i'm seeing how simple it is to rank with the same techniques I've been using since four or five years ago, I know I made a HUGE mistake by not taking the time to invest in a better domain name.

I've made a lot of mistakes but one thing I wish I had done from the beginning was to check the competition on page 1 in google for various phrases I used for blog posts and article marketing. I often just tried to see if there were under 50,000 results in quotes but have been finding it more helpful to see the listing on page 1 and reviewing their number of backlinks, age of domain, whether they have keyword in title/domain name and other factors as well if there are a few pr0 or pr1 on page 1. This helps to reduce the number of backlinks needed to acheive a page 1 ranking.

Debbie

I would of like to been the first one to start creating videos on capture pages... for affiliate programs.. imagine if you were on top of that.. Ok now I will stop dreaming and start working on the future..

I wish I had gone into untapped spanish speaking markets instead of the saturated US market.

Not that you cannot succeed in the US, many have including myself, it just takes a lot more time and effort. In the third world you can be an internet marketing god within a few months.

I wish that I hadn't gone off in ten different directions but instead focused on developing and monetizing one website. I wasted a lot of time doing this and eventually had to start yet another website from scratch because I'd made a tonne of mistakes.

I also wish I had been collecting leads in the form of a mailing list to begin with (seems I am not alone there!)

Took more action! This is the most important thing. I took action in the beginning then got lazy. Its about maintaining. Doing that something every day!
Taking action is the biggest step to making successful money online

I would have built a list before developing my product.

I'd bought a lot more nice .com domains than I did.

I'd earn much better earning in outsourcing if i have joined them before.