What is the biggest mistake you have made in internet marketing?

I took a job for a small company who asked me to open and run their affiliate program even though I had never done any affiliate marketing and didn't know even a little bit of what I was walking into. Every day was a learning experience and every day was difficult. I made it work in the end, but I was completely unqualified for the position and should have declined out of respect for the people who offered it to me.

Never made big investments so never made big losses. It's more like a series of small losses: hiring the wrong developers, buying the wrong scripts, buying plenty of bad domains etc.
The mistake I keep repeating is buying low quality products. I don't expect my websites to make loads of money so I'm usually wary of buying expensive products. I usually go with free or cheap products and that just f***s things up for me.

Spending years and years, and an embarrassing amount of money, buying countless IM courses.

Spending an inordinate amount of time listening and re-listening to a wide range of IM 'gurus'.

Spending enormous effort in endlessly trying to make those IM courses return a decent income.

I'm talking about well over a decade of trying to make lots of different IM stuff create a business for me. But you can't polish a dog turd. And, you can't make an immoral charlatan a 'guru' either.

Ironically it was only when i became totally cynical about the whole IM world that something happened, by chance, to change everything completely for me. I then went from being an addicted consumer of all things IM related to being a genuine entrepreneur.

Now I own and manage a 6 figure a month, on average, ecommerce company.

I'm still almost totally dismissive of the crap that counts as IM. I estimate that accounts for about 90% of courses and 'gurus'. I now see much more clearly and trust my own instincts.

Hope this helps those of you struggling to make IM work.

Good luck with your ventures.

My biggest regret was buying cheap solo ads or cheap traffic in general. You really do get what you pay for. Stay away from those that sell solo ads or traffic for cheap. You aren't going to get good traffic or make sales.

Also if you are new it pays to have an experienced mentor or coach who is making good money. Will save you a huge learning curve. You'll have to pay up front but it will save you, and make you money in the long run.

Not building my list consistently.

Not branding myself "loudly" enough. There are a ton of marketers who have been around as long as I have or less, and don't really know who I am or what I do.

Being consistent in what I do has paid off well, though.

My biggest mistake was falling into the trap of using tricky SEO and link-building techniques promoted by "gooroos", many on this forum. It seemed to work, for a while. Then Google nearly destroyed me with Penguin and other updates. I've since "come clean" and gone mobile-friendly. Traffic has been steadily climbing now for over a year.

Actually I not make any big mistake in this section. I think it is my mistake that why I did not join to the IM more early than now. I have been working in this field since 2011. If I joined before 2011, it would more good for me. Thanks.

My biggest mistake was not doing due diligence on the so-called "IM Experts" before purchasing their courses. Spent thousands!!! Some of them are no longer in the business.

The next biggest mistake was not finding the right one-on-one coach that did not cost an arm and a leg. You know the kind. They are talking to you but you still feel lost and all alone and more confused. They also make you feel that it's your fault you're not "getting it." Been there and gone through that?

I got tired of hearing IM coaches say "Take Action. You've got to take action." And you sit there confused.

I now have a fantastic IM Coach now that is worth every penny I spent, and I would not trade him for the world. He definitely is hand-holding me by making me understand everything about IM. He's taken all the confusion and fluff out of IM and gotten right to the core of what I need to know and do. For eg. "Stop buying any more courses. Concentrate on one thing. Become good at this one thing first." "My first goal is to help you make your first $100. Then, $1,000 and then we will 5X your income." Clear.

Just sharing.

The mistakes I made when I was starting out, and hardly knew what Internet markting and selling online is all about, also didn't know about copywriting stuff, I gather and packed lots graphics from the internet together and tried to sell it. within just 5 hour i got hammered ... then I learne tids and bits of Internet marketing.

my first error, at the beginning of my new IM adventure in 2009, was to create an Adwords campaign without have study enought.... so I spend 50$ in an hour for only 50 click!
fortunately I sold a camcorder and I took a 50$ commission!

My biggest mistake I have made in beginning of my internet marketing career was to try too many things at a time. Internet marketing is very tricky but once you learn it becomes very addictive. It is an awesome career.

Biggest mistake: Getting caught up in "internet marketing" instead of creating a real business - also niche jumping (although that sounds like it could be a good sport!)

I was setting client account (I was really tired) and instead some long tail keyword I just copied keyword "mail" and let it to work in broad match, all languages, all countries. Could you imagine size of that peek in statistics that we got buy next week?

My biggest mistake was bothering with free traffic methods and/or listening to anyone who preached their use. Free methods are good to setup in the long run, but should not be relied on as a main source of traffic. I lost so much time and potential money bothering with them.

project hopping

Never make excessively huge payments to get internet traffic even if you've tried it a small batch prior to the huge payment. Always do things in small-medium sized batches so that you maintain good control over your marketing budget.

Laziness costed me quite a bit when i decided to just lump a large chunk into paid traffic after getting results from a small test batch and expected it to work the same. I was wrong...

Spamming
Get on page one SERP, but then get banned by google

My biggest and most expensive mistake was buying everything I need (domain, hosting, subscriptions, tools, etc.) straight away driven by excitement but without immediate execution nor any crystal clear business plan until they've expired or outdated and still unused. I've now learned my lesson to control or postpone my expenditure until the right time or when genuine needs arise.

Using paid SEO service for $300 but no good result and no refund

I can rattle off a whole slew of mistakes, but I think the major one (which many people tend to do) is not building my list from day 1.

Building an email list is what will generate consistent income for you and give you the ability to stay in the IM game -- to survive and to invest in resources, traffic and training.

Depending too much on SEO or indulging in shady SEO tactics. I enjoyed short term gains but then came along Panda and Penguin

Years ago... Once I finally scraped up enough money to buy some paid traffic to my site I sent the traffic to the wrong link. Hence to say I got zero opt-ins on 500 clicks. I now not only triple check my URL's but run everything thru clickmagic so I can not only track my clicks but change the domain on the fly.

Not getting a coach quickly enough.

I spent way too much time, effort, and money trying to figure things out on my own.

Actually it varies from person to person. I never remember how much mistake i had made because every mistakes teaches me a lesson and step up me to my success.

My biggest mistake was in thinking, and telling myself, that I could do it on my own. Over 10 years later, having spent in excess of $15,000, I finally came to realize that I wasn't going to make it on my own after all, and I needed a mentor --- someone to tell me what to do, and show me how to do it. Now I'm making progress. Not much, admittedly, yet! But I've stopped throwing money away on projects that don't work, at least not for me. I know I'm on the right track at last, and that it won't be very long before I begin to have regular 4 and 5-figure days like my mentor. Keep smiling!

well,
the biggest mistake that i have been done is to my blog in which i used to copy the content of someone's website and paste it to my own blog.Thid i use to do on every third thats by my rankings are misplaced from their usual position.

The biggest mistake is to join Internet Marketing at a time when I knew nothing in Internet Marketing. Most of us will join first THEN learn, only to find that it is not as easy as it looks and sounds. It seems that you never get to see the steep learning curve before you decide to join. That's why we are prone to information overwhelm, because there's simply too much to catch up with. I am sure that if many had known what internet marketing entails before they decide to join, then there would be much fewer internet marketers.

I've made so many mistakes I'm not sure I can remember all of them. These are the key ones though:

1. Buying way too many shiny objects - courses and products.
2. Giving up too easily, and not sticking through with something until the end.
3. Trying to do too many projects and once and getting nowhere with any of them.
4. Spending thousands buying domains and websites on Flippa for zero return.

However, I do believe that mistakes and failure make you stronger. Now I've learnt, and I'm focusing on one thing at a time.

A few years ago I lost $50k on a failed business - but I learned a skill that I later used to make $6k every month as a freelancer in my spare time. If I could turn back the clock I'd still choose to lose that $50k!

Signing up to an affiliate marketing course with out reading any legit reviews about it, then getting scammed hurts, live and learn fast tho!

The biggest mistake I've made as an internet marketer is trying to go the "free" route when it comes to traffic generation.

I have many mistakes, not just one! First, I have bought way too many shiny products and cheap traffic. But one of my biggest mistake was to not make any research on the product that I was about to buy. I think this is one of my biggest. I could've avoid spending lots of money only on this one. But I guess it was part of the process somehow. I have learn from them in I move on.

One of my biggest mistakes is lack of focus. I tend to start with a concrete and very good plan then after a while I will start planning on another project without first finishing the previous project I have. So I always end up with a lot of pending projects and none finished.

I wouldn't call it a mistake, but misdirected thinking and lack of commitment. That is, buying course after course. When it got hard or difficult to understand I went looking for the next course. After thousands of dollars and I mean thousands, I finally found a mentor that boldly instructed me one-on-one, to concentrate on one IM business and stop being a buyer, the ("learner") and become the seller. He stated that if you keep doing that you will never be an internet marketer and make money.

It has not been easy, but so far, it's a relief to just concentrate on one business and not feel so distracted. I find myself anticipating the next move in the business with my mentor's help.

Early on...treating competition as the enemy instead of as possible partners.

How much time do you have? ;-)

I think the biggest thing I have done to make progress and correct a myriad of mistakes is to have a long term plan, and spend time thinking about how I am going to achieve the long term goals I set myself.

Doing this provides daily direction, motivation - as progress is more obvious, and it helps me say "no" to things which would otherwise cost me money and time - and take me in a different direction every week!

Bought traffic to a direct offer and never track the clicks. Didn't use a squeeze so miss out the chance of collecting the leads

I think a lot of people when they start their initial internet marketing career go through a ton of trial and error.

Not building a list! I had a nice network of CPA sites bringing in $1,000 - $1,500 per month and thought I was rolling.

Google pimp slapped me down and the money was gone overnight!

BUILD A LIST!

Not focusing on one thing and not starting earlier.

Cheers,

C.G.

I also bought to much courses = information overload and no focus! I believed i can do all on my own. To many projects at one time.

To late working with an Mentor who knows the business.

Now i am on the right way to my first information product.

It not about the money, you will have a lot of money if you doing something you love. I want to help people to make money online.