Are we too late to the party?

I think you're making excuses.

MySpace dominated before Facebook. Where's the logic in first come is the winner?

What about Kickstarter, tons of new startups banking today & next year.

Yes I remember it well. It was well over a decade ago. Finally it has all payed off.

No you're not too late.

But you need to be smart! The world of IM is awash with schemers and scammers and people who never made anything but who will sell you ebooks and courses on how to get rich. Get real. Deep down inside you know this to be true. I myself fell for the gurus and courses, many, many times.

Even the stuff that does 'work' (perhaps less than 1% of everything IM out there) is only temporary and weak.

Here's my advice: your possible future online is not just a function of the time you spend, part time or full time. Much, much more important is The Business Model you choose to pursue. I can tell you flat out, of the dozens of different business models for online business very few of them actually work in making a decent full-time living.

I was lucky (i'd like to think i was smart, but I was lucky) I found it for me. I now run a substantial online business that bring in over 6 figures a month, on average. It's real, long-term, sustainable, ethical and creates a valuable online business asset.

So, spend your time investigating the various business models. This is WAY more important to understand than the number of hours you clock up working or worrying about are you too late to the market place. First, the business model needs to be right. Only then is it a function of time and effort spent.

I hope everything works out for you. Don't lose hope but get very real, very quickly.

My genuine best wishes to you.

NB by business models i mean - affiliate, advertiser, merchant, infomediary, subscriptions, broker, etc.

A while ago one very experienced information marketer
suggested a combination of offline/online marketing worked
better than trying to batter your way through the internet.

He was marketing information well before the internet
and found his response was greatly improved.

You also need to remember the so called big names out
there just pay for everything to be outsourced. They aren't
sitting at home alone tapping their feet wondering what to write
next. Everything from the website to the newsletter is bought
and paid for and sent to a list, also bought and paid for with cash
or jvs.

And a massive percentage fake it till they make it - if they ever do.

It doesn't happen the way you think. Find out what goes on
behind the curtain.

The problem today is not just the competition, it's the advancement of the system.

Back then you put up a sales page, put it on PPC, and people came and bought.

Today, to compete, you need email newsletters, a blog, a sales letter, free content, videos, and everything else just to be at the level of everyone else, so in a sense, yes, we are too late to the party for the golden age of online success.

The best time to plant a tree was a year ago, the second best time is now - Chinese Proverb

I believe that should explain enough

There is definitely still plenty of opportunity out there, it's just a matter of finding it.

A lot of the stuff preached in the more popular IM courses is actually great, the problem is that people just copy and paste and expect to get great results.

There is a HUGE ongoing collision of the offline and online worlds. Many businesses still have not made the transition to doing things the "online way". Many businesses are not leveraging international resources effectively. Many businesses are not using online marketing effectively, even though their goods and services are solid.

And yes, even if a marketer wants to do affiliate offers only, where all they manage is traffic and offers, there is still money to be made. It's just a lot trickier than it used to be, because there are LOTS of people out there doing the same thing, and some of them are really clever.

This year the will be first timers who will start this year and make money and so will next year brand new people SO IT'S NOT TO LATE! It's just not easy that is really the problem for most people.

Go back 10 years and you'll find this exact post. And in 10 years you'll see it again.

The only thing I'm seeing are amazingly good URL's still available.

Here's the thing, Andoni...
While we may have 1 billion websites, those numbers are also including the millions of useless, abandoned, utterly outdated ones. So when you really think about it, the real number is far lower because you don't ever need to worry about some blog that only has 1 blog post since 2011.

Then, to make things even easier for you, every website is obviously divided into categories, sub categories and niches. Out of these, you will still find millions of abandoned properties as I said above.

Then, to make things super duper easier for you, other people don't necessarily have great internet marketing/promotional/advertising knowledge. But you could have this knowledge - because you're part of the Warrior Forum family.

Do you see the great advantage you have when you analyze the situation differently? Especially if you take into account every other reply above me - particularly from The Niche Man and Yukon.

So, don't look at raw numbers the way you did, because that's a surefire way to needlessly scare yourself into failure and obscurity.

The plateaus are never ending, once you think it can't get any better, things get outdone.This field is always evolving, there is no pie, just unlimited space and pockets of potential, it's up to you!

Every person just getting in has grist to think that (s)he's late for the party. Case in point: Bitcoin. The people who first bought or got some in 2012 had lots of rationale to kick themselves for not getting into The Big 'B' in 2011. Same goes for those who got in sometime in 2011: they had ample rationale to pine about not buying/mining in 2010.


Except for Satoshi Nakamoto himself, every Bitcoiner in the cryptocurrency's history has a pretext for worrying that he got in too late!


The moral: The best time to get in? It's the time that you're both resolved and committed to do what it takes to succeed. It's that simple!


Really, you're fooled by your hindsight bias. We've all been fooled that way to one extent or another. Hindsight bias cleans up the past - hence its prevalence - but it also airbrushes the past. I can say flatly that becoming an "instamillionarire" by buying a lot of Bitcoin in '10 or '11 was in fact very hard. There were lots of "mistakes" and scams along the way, and there was always the ever-present temptation to do the sensible thing and sell your Bitcoin for what would have been a huge rate of return for another kind of asset.


For the insta-millionaires, which I'm not, it was a long, slow, hard journey up to insta-millionaire status. Sounds a lot like life everywhere else, doesn't it?


The lesson: our built-in hindsight bias always makes something look a lot easier than it actually was. 'Struth.

I think NOW is the time!

The party is just getting started.

Don't think of it like that. There is going to be competition within any niche where there's opportunity to make money. However, competition just means that there are more products to promote, so each time a new product comes out, you have a chance to get your foot in the door. Just go for it.

Joey

I think now is as good a time as ever. Anyone can make money on line. I beleive like everything else it takes focus and a lot of practice and perseverance and an attitude of never give up!

plus you have to remember, people retire and people die.
opportunities will always be around. You just need to be ready.

I started doing this 7 years ago....blogging, creating sites, wanting to earn, etc. I was impatient. I gave up early or got disgruntled. I.E. I let a blog making $60 per month just expire instead of trying to get some money for it on Flippa. I was an idiot.

Now, after years (yes, I'm a slow learner) of learning (so, so important to learn) and doing what I've learned from my failures and other's successes, I'm actually making a little bit of money. Not a lot. But it pays the car. My next goal is to pay the mortgage. I want succeed more than I want to make money. I hate to quit. I hate to fail. However, in the end, you love the failure that you're currently earning from.

Just my two cents from a guy who is not a success but is starting to "get it"... Patience. Study. Delivering to a needy market. Then delivering more.

Ken

It is a good idea to find a kind mentor who is actually making money and follow their advice precisely and carefully.

Absolutely NO.. The trouble is you keep getting the same crap everyone is getting on how to get rich online. None of that crap works no matter how many fake screen shots they show you.

I just put up a new product last week and so far have made $49,000 (profit) from it right under 7 days and sales keep coming in daily.

You have to pick a product that you KNOW everyone could use and then you need to start building you some relationships online. Do that first. ( you guys call it building your list )

I call it building relationships ( getting new friends )

Talk to them just like you would a real friend and let them talk to you via email, skype or grab a conference room. I use meetcheap for my conference room. It's cheap.

Then after you get around 500 or so or less friends, start recommending products to them.

Not the same BS that everyone gets in their emails.

If you do that, then you are nobody special and they will know you simply want money from them.

Create your own products if you can. Learn how.

My new product made $49,000 in less than 7 days last week. This is not unheard of.

Any newbie can do this, but you got to have patience. It takes time to build a loyal friend list.

I know this is a useless post, because everybody is still thinking there is some MAGIC get rich quick button. Nope. Just good ole Online Entrepreneurship will do it.

Find you a mentor is my biggest advice.

Someone already where YOU want to be and then do everything he/she tells you.

My other advice is try and become a High Performance Online Marketer.

That is someone that gets everything done.

They don't sit around and think about it. They just get it out there.

Let your prospects be the one to tell you if your product sux or not.

My last advice. Become more SPIRITUAL.

You will need that more than anything. Anybody can build a product and a website and get traffic to it, but it takes someone very spiritual to really BELIEVE their product is of value to the world and the world will flock to it and buy it.

1% conversion. You better get used to that being a FACT or get out quick.

I wish you success.

Try baking your own pies instead of trying to fight over scraps. The leaders succeed and the followers fade away

al

Often with competition comes opportunity! Yes 10 years ago we had less competition in trying to rank on Google, but today we have other venues that in some cases makes Google irrelevant. I know people who are getting all the traffic they need from just Pinterest or just YouTube alone...10 years ago, these weren't even options!....Today there are a ton of 3rd party sites where we can earn money without ever even needing a website of our own (although it's still recommended). For example, ETSY, Zazzle, Udemy, Sunfrog, Teespring, and more are all money making options that weren't available 10 years ago. What we need to do is remember 2 things...1) We are not "website" marketers, but rather, we are marketers of PRODUCTS...The internet in all its forms is simply a communication tool...2) BEFORE we market our products, we need to do a better job of marketing OURSELVES..Someone else may be able to build another website, but they can't build another ME!

Once when I was in direct sales, I noticed a peculiar phenomena...The NEW sales people often outperformed the experienced sales people in their 1st few weeks...I asked my boss why he thought this was...He said he KNEW why it was...the NEW people hadn't been around long enough to 'learn the excuses' yet....Hope this helps

No your never too late to join the party

Opportunity doesn't only knock once, opportunity knocks with each brand new day. It's about being innovative and creating your own opportunities. Even if certain industry's or markets get saturated there's always fresh new opportunities no matter when you decide to start your IM venture(s).

Success and earnings may not necessarily come as quickly as they might have in the early dot-com days but that doesn't mean there isn't always money to be made. It all boils down to how driven, patient and dedicated you are to making it happen. How good you are at networking, branding yourself and creating distinction in a saturated market.

You'll also have to be willing to accept that you'll probably make a few mistakes along the way but that's okay as long as you learn from your mistakes and that's how you grow. Trial and error, persistence and a lot of hard work will pay off. Online marketing strategies that used to be effective years ago may not apply today but there's always a way.

~Darryl

True, we all wish we started sooner but to think that there are no more opportunities is missing the point altogether.

Yes as many have posted, markets spring up, early adopters appear and reap the benefits and soon follows the masses, and by then the smart money makers have moved on to the next thing.

There really is no difference in any hot market in any industry, region or stock. Historically this is how all markets operate.

Early Adopters Win > Finger On The Pulse Next > Dumb Money Earners In Last > Market Crash - Cycle begins again.

IM is the same, apart from the crash perspective, this is just how markets work.

I got in on something in a few years back, wasn't the earliest on the go but now it earns passive income of about $1.8k per month. Only work involves checking the affiliate account, so not entirely passive.

Is a huge market, been around for years - not going away anytime soon, and still people can get in on it, with the right approach.

Still the world is evolving and new markets are appearing everyday, just think of Uber and Airbnb - both just a few years back didn't exist - now worth multi billions.

So look for new ops, keep your ear close to the ground - and use the skills you learn here, to tackle these new fields of opportunity. The same rules apply, develop a quality product (content is product) deliver that to a hungry crowd and the rewards are yours.

This always works, even in crowded markets.

People will continue to buy products and services till the end of time. There is more competition, but also the opportunity is greater as more and more people are buying online.

The reality is that you have to be a better marketer than 10 years ago, but other than that the opportunity is out there.

It's never too late.Of course the competition has increased but so also the opportunities...latter many fold..

Patience and the skill to spot the right opportunity are keys to success.

After 8 long years ,finally I have found my passive income opportunity and I am happy about it.

Never give up.

Once you give up,it's all over.

Keep trying hard and eventually you will succeed.

It can be so confusing because there are so many options. And there are so many "experts" out there. I think it is a case of trusting your gut and taking things slowly before you commit too much money.

If you think about it, the market is always changing. Products that were in trend 3 years ago might be obsolete today. In this sense, the market is always getting refreshed with new opportunities every single day.

The challenge is not that there are more people doing IM, but how to stand out from the rest of your competitors that are doing it. Also, more people have become exposed to the internet over the years, so although more competition is around, our number of customers have increased as well.

The web is certainly saturated these days. Look at YouTube. I like ASMR videos and there are just soooo many!!!!

But look again and you'll see that the most popular videos routinely have over 1M hits.

I'm also looking for programming jobs right now and I've been to companies turning over ££££'s online.

So it is harder to get established now, but IF you are successful the rewards are very much greater.

I've been doing IM since 1998 and it's much more difficult now in 2105 to be successful than it has been even in recent years.

Not that there are not opportunities but finding those opportunities and making it successful is harder due to the incredible amount of competition that exists for nearly anything you want to do.

In my case, there was almost no competition in the beginning, and it definitely paid to be first. But, now, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of copycats that realized my success and duplicated my work, often copying it outright. Many are junk, but they still drain traffic and distract users from my site. So, even if you manage to find a great niche and build a successful site, you'll soon have copycats diluting your traffic.

Of course, Goggle has made it tougher to get organic traffic. Many of its "adjustments" have been made because of crappy sites and wide-spread black hat SEO techniques that unfortunately made it more difficult for the good guys.

why do you think some one would share their success secret here?

In fact, there are 7 BILLION of people trying to grab a piece of the pie. Will you stop living?

Life is competition.

One more opinion: If you find that becoming an IM master requires you to traverse the long, slow, hard path - I say go for it! Put in the time & do the work that means taking Massive Action: you will be glad you did.


Myself, I'm here to learn and I fully expect to slog along the long, hard, slow path myself. Maybe we'll bump into each other when we we're sloggin'

I often think about what it would be like to get started today and how much harder it is today rather than about 10 years ago. The thing is that I got started with my business selling domain about 3 years ago and back then I thought I was too late to the party but looking back on it now I'm glad I did it.

The way I see it is to look at it like this - think of what it would be like to be 5 or 10 years into the future. Chances are if we were in the year 2025 you would have wished that you started today because the competition in 2025 in the internet marketing industry would be hyper competitive.

So just think about what it would be like in the future, not right now. Yes, people who started 10 years ago had is significantly easier than we have it today but don't focus on them - focus on improving yourself and your life because you'll thank yourself for it 10 years from now.

I believe we are in an exciting time right now.

The internet is really coming of age... right now!

The encouraging thing is that there are so many people who will be looking at how to work from home. Of course the internet marketing niche is growing. There are so many people out there who want to know how... it is an ever growing area.

You have got to position yourself where the people are.

So there are a few niches that you can focus on online;

1. The Home Business - Internet Marketing Niche
2. Weight Loss & Fitness Niche
3. Dating & Relationships Niche

Position yourself as an expert in one these areas and the will be endless opportunities.

You just have to put yourself in a position where you will get noticed.

Cheers

Tiff

Well, the booze is all gone. That said, even the stale salty crackers are gone. However, I do notice a few tiny crumbs on the table, and you are welcome to them if you want any.

Be very careful of those answering to this thread that have a footer with a link. It is damn near impossible to make it today if you are a one-person show. The marketing alone can no longer be done by a single individual crouching over your computer late into the night.

The truth is that the internet has gone corporate and the little person no longer has a chance. I pulled out and closed shop because it can no longer be done. I came back to look at the warrior forum to see if there is anything new happening. Nope, same old bs. Become an affiliate, flip websites, sell here, sell there. On and on. Nothing new. The ones making the money are the ones who sucker you to believe that they have a method that works or they can coach you. Yeah...they are the ones making money off your desire, desperation, etc,.

As I said, be very careful.

This is not the thinking of a true entrepreneur.

Never, in the history of mankind, has there been greater opportunity for a person of small means to break out of his/her circumstance and become a huge business success. In fact, you don't even have to be a "huge" winner to make a very nice income online that will take care of you and your family.

Look for opportunities - they are everywhere!

Steve

Tonight I went in my Google Webmaster Tools for the first time in nearly a year.

So what's the verdict?

1. Old micro-niche-sites I made in the "write 600 words about each keyword" style are mostly dead, especially in competitive niches like finance. I will soon ruthlessly destroy any of my domains that aren't making more than $10 a year.

2. I did recover a site from Panda/Penguin (success story here). Executive summary: unpublished low value articles, added some real values to end users. Then waited.. And waited...

3. Sites with REAL valuable services are still doing well, even sites I launched last year (when the web was supposed to be saturated).

Today's newbies are late to the party in that the business is almost fully legitimized now. Ten years ago it was possible for a newbie to attain decent success in a year since the standards were lower. Now I'd push that to 3-5 years.