The Most Common Newbie Mistakes In Internet Marketing
When I first got started online 12 years ago, I was the greenest pea in the pod.
At the time, I was newly married and selling mobile phones in Elizabeth City, NC.
Like most people who end up finding this forum, I would come home and google "how to make money online" because I wanted better for my family than the $8.50 I was making at the time (I also made a $20 commission or so on each sale so... woohoo)
I found a ebook that basically taught everything about starting a business online at the time, from the sleeziest method to the best long term business model available at the time.
I picked a method and went.
*Note: the method was direct linking from ppc campaigns, still works just not nearly as well.
In about 2 days I had spent $32 and made $18!
The $18 was all I needed to see to know that making money online was possible.
But what happened next, is what inspired the post your are reading now.
I proceeded to make every mistake possible...
I've made more mistakes than I could even remember but along the way I figured out a system that works for me.
(I was even able to help my sister build an audience for her Network marketing business and win a sales content that get her 1 week on a Times Square Billboard, but that's a story for another post...)
As my way to help new and would be internet marketers avoid all of the mistakes that I made I decided to put together a list of mistakes that I commonly see and hear people making when they are new to online business.
Here they are:
"I just bought a course on xx method but then I saw this push button software that says it's like printing money, so..."
The day that I bought the course that helped me make my first sale, I also bought a course by another person that I ended up never going though or even downloading.
Then after my first sale, I would go on to buy these "Push Button Riches" softwares that became very popular back then.
Ultimately, I was suffering from Shiny Object Syndrome.
This happens when you mix a blind sales letter with the fact that we all desire to be lazy at heart.
You see the sales letter, start imagining how much money you could be making in the next month then the wallet comes out...
It's only once you get access to the software that you realize you just paid $147 for 8 plr sites that will never get you traffic or sales.
How do you avoid making this mistake:
This is an easy mistake to avoid but it requires discipline.
The simplest thing you can do is never pull out your credit card to pay for something that you don't understand.
The saying goes if you can't explain it to a child with 2 sentences or less, you don't understand it.
If you don't understand it, don't pay for it.
"I bought "xx guru" Ecommerce course and used facebook ads..."
This is something I see a lot of people miss the mark on over the last 2 years.
They see all of the YouTube marketers telling them how easy it is to start a Shopify store and send traffic through Facebook ads.
What these YouTube marketing coaches don't tell you is that paid advertising is a moving target.
To make the type of money that they claim to make you can't just buy a course on ecommerce sites, then throw up a Shopify store and a few ads.
You have to understand that a business works as an ecosystem. One thing makes another thing happen, which leads to the next.
Facebook ads directly to a product page can make you money if you understand advertising and have a decent budget to find the sweet spot but it's definitely not a magic formula.
How to avoid this mistake:
Look at business as more than a way to make money. Stop looking at online business as a way to get rich and instead focus on learning skills that make selling products less challenging.
Advertising is a skill, not a tactic. The same goes with every part of running an online business.
"I have an idea for a new product, blog, podcast, ect"
The good idea fairy has blessed me with more than a few once in a lifetime ideas.
The problem with most new product or business idea is that their is no proof of concept.
In case you don't know what that means...
Proof of Concept= Are people willing to pay for this?
Think about this for a second, are you willing to spend days,weeks or months plus your money and resources to test out a maybe?
Are you willing to take a months worth of income to buy as many lottery tickets as possible because it COULD increase your odds of winning big?
No...
That's how it sounds when you tell your ideas to a much more seasoned business person.
How to avoid making this mistake:
Fall in love with doing research.
You have to know who you want to sell to, then understand what they are willing to pay for, then offer it to them.
"I was gonna start an xx but there was already a business doing that so..."
Generally speaking, new online business owners always seem to want to avoid facing any competition.
Here's the problem with that...
Competition= Proof of concept!
Having competition is key to knowing that people are buying these products and that you could potentially make sales as well.
How to avoid this mistake:
Learn how to pick your fights.
Think of it like this, if you were gonna run a race for a $1b prize and the judges let you choose your challenger, who would you choose to race?
A. Usain Bolt and all of the other Olympic quality sprinters
B. A handful of 5th graders
You may not be in the best shape but I'm pretty sure you would at least stand a chance against the 5th graders.
Choose to face competition like this when it comes to online business.
If you see a bunch of Magazine brands and products sold in chain department stores, you may want to keep looking for a smaller pond to be the biggest fish in.
"I started a blog in the xx niche, but I have no idea how I can make money from it"
This is usually something you do when you find those "find your passion" gurus.
They tell you to follow your passion and money will chase you.
And while I do agree that being passionate about you topic is helpful, it's definitely not the most important thing.
The best thing you can do is choose something that you are passionate about AND ALSO has plenty of products availible to help solve problems or improve results.
How to avoid this mistake:
Again, Research is going to be your new love if you plan to have success in business.
One of the simplest things you can do is to write down a handful of ideas that you are passionate about then go to amazon and find products in each of those areas.
If you don't find at least 10 products on amazon for that idea, scratch it out.
Don't waste your time building a business that will never be profitable. Without products there is no advertising, without advertising theres no money circulating, which means it's a hobby, not a business.
"It's a scam"
I always chuckle whenever I hear this. I even remember saying it myself.
When I hear someone say that something was a scam it let's me know that 1 of 3 things is true.
1. You have a poor work ethic
2. You are lazy
3. You are greedy
Not saying that there is no such thing as scams that bully you into sending money to strangers or other types of psychological robbery that takes place.
However, If you bought into an opportunity that has products or services to sell and you don't succeed it wasn't because it was a scam.
Most people buy into these opportunities because of one of those 3 reason I gave before, if not all 3.
Once they realize it's not easy, they start picking it apart as a way to justify why they don't succeed.
How to avoid this mistake:
Don't buy into hype! Be real about what it's going to take to become successful in anything you do.
It takes a lot of work to achieve success in any area of life.
If you believe that there are any tricks or shortcuts then YOU SCAM YOURSELF!!!
read that sentence again...
"I've got $xx,xxx, what should I do with it"
Once upon a time I got a five figure settlement and wanted to use that money as a way to push my way to success.
I ended up paying almost half of it for a 6 month group coaching program to a big name guru that gave us a system that told us to sell cheap ebooks through affiliate to build a list.
The rest was spent on the software tools that the guru suggested (and got an affiliate commission through each of us in the group who purchased through his links)
In the end, what I learned is that most people who have a chunk of money will do is pay for high dollar coaching.
If you're in this situation, and have 5 figures to invest into yourself, why not buy a business instead of getting a coach?
Even if you spend a few thousand dollars on a website, email marketing software, content and traffic you end up with an asset that can be sold or you can continue to grow it as time goes on.
How to avoid this mistake:
Think of a business as sellable (or growable) assets, not just as an income source.
If you start a website that has lots of great content that people like to read, your traffic will grow.
Even if you just have 10,000 people per month coming onto your website, that could translate into $500+ per month income.
If you had an asset that makes that much per month, you could potentially sell the asset for over $10k plus you get to keep whatever you earned before the sale.
What mistakes did I miss?
I know that this is not every mistake that a new internet business owner could make but these are the ones that I see most often.
What are some mistakes that you have made or seen others make?
At the time, I was newly married and selling mobile phones in Elizabeth City, NC.
Like most people who end up finding this forum, I would come home and google "how to make money online" because I wanted better for my family than the $8.50 I was making at the time (I also made a $20 commission or so on each sale so... woohoo)
I found a ebook that basically taught everything about starting a business online at the time, from the sleeziest method to the best long term business model available at the time.
I picked a method and went.
*Note: the method was direct linking from ppc campaigns, still works just not nearly as well.
In about 2 days I had spent $32 and made $18!
The $18 was all I needed to see to know that making money online was possible.
But what happened next, is what inspired the post your are reading now.
I proceeded to make every mistake possible...
I've made more mistakes than I could even remember but along the way I figured out a system that works for me.
(I was even able to help my sister build an audience for her Network marketing business and win a sales content that get her 1 week on a Times Square Billboard, but that's a story for another post...)
As my way to help new and would be internet marketers avoid all of the mistakes that I made I decided to put together a list of mistakes that I commonly see and hear people making when they are new to online business.
Here they are:
"I just bought a course on xx method but then I saw this push button software that says it's like printing money, so..."
The day that I bought the course that helped me make my first sale, I also bought a course by another person that I ended up never going though or even downloading.
Then after my first sale, I would go on to buy these "Push Button Riches" softwares that became very popular back then.
Ultimately, I was suffering from Shiny Object Syndrome.
This happens when you mix a blind sales letter with the fact that we all desire to be lazy at heart.
You see the sales letter, start imagining how much money you could be making in the next month then the wallet comes out...
It's only once you get access to the software that you realize you just paid $147 for 8 plr sites that will never get you traffic or sales.
How do you avoid making this mistake:
This is an easy mistake to avoid but it requires discipline.
The simplest thing you can do is never pull out your credit card to pay for something that you don't understand.
The saying goes if you can't explain it to a child with 2 sentences or less, you don't understand it.
If you don't understand it, don't pay for it.
"I bought "xx guru" Ecommerce course and used facebook ads..."
This is something I see a lot of people miss the mark on over the last 2 years.
They see all of the YouTube marketers telling them how easy it is to start a Shopify store and send traffic through Facebook ads.
What these YouTube marketing coaches don't tell you is that paid advertising is a moving target.
To make the type of money that they claim to make you can't just buy a course on ecommerce sites, then throw up a Shopify store and a few ads.
You have to understand that a business works as an ecosystem. One thing makes another thing happen, which leads to the next.
Facebook ads directly to a product page can make you money if you understand advertising and have a decent budget to find the sweet spot but it's definitely not a magic formula.
How to avoid this mistake:
Look at business as more than a way to make money. Stop looking at online business as a way to get rich and instead focus on learning skills that make selling products less challenging.
Advertising is a skill, not a tactic. The same goes with every part of running an online business.
"I have an idea for a new product, blog, podcast, ect"
The good idea fairy has blessed me with more than a few once in a lifetime ideas.
The problem with most new product or business idea is that their is no proof of concept.
In case you don't know what that means...
Proof of Concept= Are people willing to pay for this?
Think about this for a second, are you willing to spend days,weeks or months plus your money and resources to test out a maybe?
Are you willing to take a months worth of income to buy as many lottery tickets as possible because it COULD increase your odds of winning big?
No...
That's how it sounds when you tell your ideas to a much more seasoned business person.
How to avoid making this mistake:
Fall in love with doing research.
You have to know who you want to sell to, then understand what they are willing to pay for, then offer it to them.
"I was gonna start an xx but there was already a business doing that so..."
Generally speaking, new online business owners always seem to want to avoid facing any competition.
Here's the problem with that...
Competition= Proof of concept!
Having competition is key to knowing that people are buying these products and that you could potentially make sales as well.
How to avoid this mistake:
Learn how to pick your fights.
Think of it like this, if you were gonna run a race for a $1b prize and the judges let you choose your challenger, who would you choose to race?
A. Usain Bolt and all of the other Olympic quality sprinters
B. A handful of 5th graders
You may not be in the best shape but I'm pretty sure you would at least stand a chance against the 5th graders.
Choose to face competition like this when it comes to online business.
If you see a bunch of Magazine brands and products sold in chain department stores, you may want to keep looking for a smaller pond to be the biggest fish in.
"I started a blog in the xx niche, but I have no idea how I can make money from it"
This is usually something you do when you find those "find your passion" gurus.
They tell you to follow your passion and money will chase you.
And while I do agree that being passionate about you topic is helpful, it's definitely not the most important thing.
The best thing you can do is choose something that you are passionate about AND ALSO has plenty of products availible to help solve problems or improve results.
How to avoid this mistake:
Again, Research is going to be your new love if you plan to have success in business.
One of the simplest things you can do is to write down a handful of ideas that you are passionate about then go to amazon and find products in each of those areas.
If you don't find at least 10 products on amazon for that idea, scratch it out.
Don't waste your time building a business that will never be profitable. Without products there is no advertising, without advertising theres no money circulating, which means it's a hobby, not a business.
"It's a scam"
I always chuckle whenever I hear this. I even remember saying it myself.
When I hear someone say that something was a scam it let's me know that 1 of 3 things is true.
1. You have a poor work ethic
2. You are lazy
3. You are greedy
Not saying that there is no such thing as scams that bully you into sending money to strangers or other types of psychological robbery that takes place.
However, If you bought into an opportunity that has products or services to sell and you don't succeed it wasn't because it was a scam.
Most people buy into these opportunities because of one of those 3 reason I gave before, if not all 3.
Once they realize it's not easy, they start picking it apart as a way to justify why they don't succeed.
How to avoid this mistake:
Don't buy into hype! Be real about what it's going to take to become successful in anything you do.
It takes a lot of work to achieve success in any area of life.
If you believe that there are any tricks or shortcuts then YOU SCAM YOURSELF!!!
read that sentence again...
"I've got $xx,xxx, what should I do with it"
Once upon a time I got a five figure settlement and wanted to use that money as a way to push my way to success.
I ended up paying almost half of it for a 6 month group coaching program to a big name guru that gave us a system that told us to sell cheap ebooks through affiliate to build a list.
The rest was spent on the software tools that the guru suggested (and got an affiliate commission through each of us in the group who purchased through his links)
In the end, what I learned is that most people who have a chunk of money will do is pay for high dollar coaching.
If you're in this situation, and have 5 figures to invest into yourself, why not buy a business instead of getting a coach?
Even if you spend a few thousand dollars on a website, email marketing software, content and traffic you end up with an asset that can be sold or you can continue to grow it as time goes on.
How to avoid this mistake:
Think of a business as sellable (or growable) assets, not just as an income source.
If you start a website that has lots of great content that people like to read, your traffic will grow.
Even if you just have 10,000 people per month coming onto your website, that could translate into $500+ per month income.
If you had an asset that makes that much per month, you could potentially sell the asset for over $10k plus you get to keep whatever you earned before the sale.
What mistakes did I miss?
I know that this is not every mistake that a new internet business owner could make but these are the ones that I see most often.
What are some mistakes that you have made or seen others make?
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