What Are Your Lessons Learned in 2011?

Lesson that I learn this year is:

Quality is better than Quantity...

Playing with volume is good, but to keep up and maintaining a lot of thing requires a lot of resource. So, during the starting phase, always focus on quality first. Then quantity.

I'd say the #1 lesson I've learned is that you NEVER know what is gonna happen, but its all for a reason. That is as simple as I can get for the reason. Trust me its a long one that I've typed on here before, and I'm not typing it again.

But trust me on this.. things can drastically change overnight.

The lesson I learned this year was:

BE AUDACIOUS

simple....

do more of the things that do work and convert and do less of what doesnt work.

outsource and upscale more of this, = more dollars for our business.

2012 is gunna be a big year, I have a funny feeling. Economically speaking that is.

Take nothing for granted! I learn this on a daily basis.

Hold on what you have and expand it. New ideas are good but not at the expense of what you already have. Although we learn through trials and errors don't try it within your already successful business.

I actually just wrote an post about this on my IM blog a couple weeks ago. My biggest lesson from 2011 is that you MUST focus. You cannot start out trying to do 3, or even 2, different IM ventures. You must decide which one you want to do and stick with it, at least until it becomes profitable and you can afford to outsource some of the work.

I spent way too much of 2011 trying to figure out how to manage the different projects I wanted to do...all at the same time. It's not worth it and I am sure it cost me a lot of success and revenue. For 2012, my PLR store will be my primary focus.

Do not ever give up.

1) Have learned to be tough and never give up easily

2) Have learned to build businesses which can run on complete Auto-pilot (This alone is a big break-thru for me)

3) Have learned that Article-Marketing is still working today and will continue to work for many years to come. "Content is king"

4) Have learned to always improve myself every single day - regardless of how bad my day is

God Bless,
Jeremiah

I learned last year one great lesson that understanding nature, people and their natural thoughts etc...is a great tool so that we can know the best way to move in every aspects of our life in a smooth way...

The main lesson in 2011 is to focus.

When you've found one way to make money online, focus on that method. You'll probably get bored, but resist the urge to try "yet another way to make money online."

Keep at it, whether it's article marketing, SEO, affiliate marketing, or selling your own product or membership site.

Try focusing on ONE... for 10 months.

Kind regards,
Manuel Viloria

I learned to quit F&^%ing around with shoestringing your site's growth and go borrow $500-1000 to execute its setup and initial promotion/6 months of SEO QUICKLY...not piecemeal.

Abstract lessons: focus and leverage past work.

Practical lesson: Go local. There's decent money to made generating sales online for small local businesses with high-value customers. This is my latest venture and it's working very well. With the right set-up, it's a long-term business that (1) generates income, and (2) builds an asset.

Focus and keeping your mind fresh! Things are always changing so it is important to not let the cobwebs settle on you.

Quality over quantity is also a big factor, especially since the Panda. The site that I put a lot of effort and writing into breezed through Panda without a problem. Those that I threw together quickly and put little effort into (on the front end) got wacked. Although I brought them back by increasing the amount of good content and reducing the amount of affiliate links.

So I am now spending about 50% of my time on what I know works and keep building money that way, and the other 50% of my time pushing and trying out new ideas to see what works.

boy oh boy 2011 was quite a year for me thats for sure. Its my first year doing full time IM and it was quite something. A lot of ups and downs but overall its a constant upwards which is okay in my book. slow but steady.

I think my main biggest problem was distractiona dn deleting my facebook made a BIG difference! lol. Hopefully 2012 will be a better year for me. Shall I hit the 10K monthly barrier next year? We'll see loll.

Indeed! I don't facebook for the same reason!

Leverage. And, it's all about time and money. These two are not completely interchangeable, but are slightly so. Everything, however, needs to be looked at through the lens of time and money. Leverage is achieved by outsourcing, jv'ing, and automation. Also, one biggie that I'm only now getting good at is begin with the end in mind. If I start something new, then I need to have in mind the fact that I want whatever that is to be cut up and outsourced in the near future. Also, reinvesting money made back in my business.

Persistence and gratitude.

I finally focus on what I am doing and able to build my list! Yippee.... will do better in 2012, though.

Lesson learned in 2011:

"Expect the unexpected."

Google Panda surely did a good job pissing me off. LOL.

Focus focus focus...that's my lesson learnt for 2010. Focusing on too many things..

My lesson:

"Too much play make Nur H a mere toy"

Trying to KNOW it all is not half as important as DOING some of it consistently.

Then there is the one my wife is trying to teach me..."If I were half as smart as you, I'd still be less than half the idiot as you." (Which is accurately in reference to lesson 1.)

For me there was a lot of changes during the year of 2011:

- Firstly i have had changed my overall look to finance and earning money systems
- I have started to work in affiliate marketing area

Work Work Work and focus on quality.

Focus.



Tamara

To work smarter, not harder.

My number one, and maybe not IM related but in a way it is...

Things really do happen for reasons!

I left the military in July 2011, and I was supposed to start a job in September that hired me on the spot. After being told by my veteran rep that I was approved for the 599 program (the gov't would cover my college expenses) I said goodbye to the job based on my approval. Eventually what happened is that I really WASN'T approved for the program and started college without it being approved thus I now had an unexpected college bill to pay for. However, my luck with money just appearing has been odd the whole time I've been on unemployment.

I discontinued my courses since I didn't have the money since I needed both my GI Bill and 599 to cover all expenses, to only have the VA cover 95% of my tuition and received 2 unexpected large sum checks from the VA for my use. By that time, I had already started my website and since it was the only thing keeping me busy on unemployment, I decided to just work on it to keep me busy and used some of the money from the VA to pay for web design and what not.

So in all, if I would have stayed at the job I wouldn't have started my website which I ultimately never started working because I was told I was approved for a program that I wasn't even approved for. And if I was in school, I wouldn't have the time to work on school and a website but because I originally was going to school, the VA gave me my GI Bill money. And after all, my website came about because I needed to save money and I wanted to learn to use coupons which I wouldn't have even looked into unless I left the military and went on unemployment. And now because I'm starting to make money from my website, I found this forum as I was searching how to make money online and now I know more in the last few days than I've known my whole life on IM which I plan to implement in 2012.

IM has been something I've always been interested in, but never jumped in! I'm glad I have.

Be persistent.

TEST, TEST, TEST!

I agree with Tamara on the Focus and never give up!

Austerity is a path to prosperity.

hello warriors i think the only think that every new IMer sould know is to focus on only one thing at a time , learn about it , train your self and get involved , it will look hard at first but after a while everything will be clear, like when you met someone the first time you feel uncomfortable with it and have doubt all the time with him but once you know him and trust him you would leave your children with him (like said ) . the same thing with internet marketing , "GIVE IT TIME AND FOCUS AND IT WILL GIVE YOU MONEY"

regards

Bassem Jaber

i should stick to webdesign, lol

The best thing I have learned this year .. You have to work hard if you want to reach the very top!

2 things I learned in 2011:
1. If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to meet it.
2. Whether it's the best or worst of times, it's the only time you have to go after your dreams.

Lessons I learned:

1. Be adaptable
2. Be flexible.

The lessons I learned:

When you work hard you will reach your goals!

Use Google ONLY to build your list...

Give your list something they can actually use...

Realistically evaluate your operation on a regular basis and cut the fat that doesn't convert into muscle...

Become a lean, mean IM machine in 2012...

Learn Learn and Learn then test test and test.

What people say and what people do are not always the same thing. Learned this one the hard way in both the IM field and my personal life.

Mindset is SO monumentally important. Direction and clarity are beautiful things.

Several pieces of advice. These aren't direct quotes, just general ideas of what was conveyed.

Doing it perfectly is almost never an option. Worry about doing it at all, and then do it perfectly later after you know it works. (Colin Theriot)

It's not about the size of your products so much as the frequency of release; small products every week or two are infinitely preferable to massive products three or four times a year. (Mike Carraway)

The best way to run your business is in a way that content for products naturally falls out of what you do every day, so all you have to do is pack it up and stick a price tag on it. (Bond Halbert)

If your business runs entirely out of the WSO forum, you have a massive flaw in your business plan that needs to be resolved before you worry about anything else. (Paul Myers)

Personal branding is all about putting your face and your voice on as much video as possible, and getting that video out into as many places as possible. (Brad Gosse)

Stop working on all these damn products and just release them already. (Dr. Ben Adkins)

Take action

Out of all the SEO services that I have tried, only two of them works. Money wasted but lesson learned.

I learned that I break my limit of earning in the past months... lol, that's funny but it's true... thx

Work hard, focus, don't give up.
Enjoy what you do and keep smiling through the tougher times!

Create your own products and build a list.

Oh...and did i mention...work hard.

Tonio