Newbies Desperate to Make Money: If I Knew Then What I Know Now

Hi Warriors!

I want to share five points I recently taught my subscribers about If I Knew Then (at the beginning of my marketing career) what I know now (as someone consistently making money).

I would never let fear slow me down.

You might be afraid to put your pic in your profile on here (I was – I had a hot female golfer as my original pic for awhile because I’m fat but now I think, “Oh well! It’s not like y’all are here for some porn pics – you’re here for business.”

You might be afraid to make a video because of your looks, the way your voice sounds, your accent, etc. I thought my Southern twang might get made fun of, but it doesn’t.

You might be scared of participating here. In fact, you might be a lurker not ready to post because you think whatever you have to say could be deemed stupid or get picked on by another person. Same goes for blog participation and even emailing someone.

You might be too scared to create a site/product/etc because you aren’t sure if you’re doing it right or setting the price right or using the perfect keyword. Maybe you aren’t good enough to compete, you worry.

The first step is to DO IT – “do it afraid – courage will come later,” someone once said. You can always swap out an avatar, a price point, content in an eBook, etc. But waste NO time being scared.

I would know HOW to know who to trust.

This is biggie – “Who can I trust?” Well don’t trust anyone to tell you who to trust – you never know who’s friends with who. Just fine tune your own gut feelings on that. Here’s what I look for when determining if someone’s trustworthy:

1.) Are they transparent with their success AND failures? Failures and mistakes make them human to me.
2.) Are they accessible? May not have to respond in 24 hours to an email, but they should somehow be accessible whether it’s email, blog comments, a forum PM, etc. If I constantly see them blame their support system for their response failures, it sets off a red flag.
3.) Do they have good word of mouth? No one can please everyone so everyone will have something negative, but I ask people if they’ve heard of so-and-so. I get the scoop and find out if there is anything to worry about.
4.) I never trust a sales letter. Even wonderful products that I love and adore have had a bunch of over-bloated BS in the sales copy. I put my hype blinders on and try to read it by putting some realistic expectations on it.
5.) Remember that the person selling to you MAY be JUST as desperate as you, and could be compromising their ethics/morals (whatever label you want to put on it) just to get over some horrible financial burden and then they plan on shooting straight.

I would know that the best ONE way to make money online isn’t one way at all, but a 3-tier system.

When you’re desperate to make money and you need it yesterday, here’s what I recommend:

First, you become a service provider. Be the one who helps all the already successful marketers and earn while you learn. You’ll have a financial safety net while getting to see how marketing works from the people you’re catering to. You could do ghostwriting, backlink building, site creation, graphics, or other grunt work. But the pressure to make money fast will be OFF and you’ll be able to think clearly and make wiser decisions. Get friendly with those marketers and pick their brain little by little.

Second, you build a product of your own and set up an affiliate program so others are selling for you. This could be an eBook, a membership site, a “thing” you sell like PLR content, graphics, minisites – whatever.

Third, you add affiliate marketing into the mix. Put it into your products and promote to an existing base of followers. (Kind of backwards since most people try to do affiliate marketing – desperately, I might add – first).

I would know that giving pays high returns.

I used to think of making a freebie opt in report as a chore or task that I dreaded. I wasn’t thinking of the benefits my subscriber would get at ALL. I was thinking, “I have to make something to give them so I can get their name and email.” It was all about me. I knew the freebie would be good, don’t get me wrong, but it was NOT selfless.

I’ve since learned to randomly share to simply give back and build good will as an expert. I’m not writing a report and thinking, “How many affiliate links can I get in there?” I simply have ideas to share and some I charge for, and some I give freely. Why? Others did this for me – they gave me free help. I strongly believe in paying it forward.

I would know to have FUN with this!

I have hated every single J-O-B I have ever had in my life – from working as a reporter for a newspaper to banking and everything in between. I had to work for a boss who took credit for my work and didn’t pay me enough. I hated waking up early. I hated wearing panty hose. I hated office gossipers. I hated having 1 hour for lunch.

Now here I am working at home and I make every day as fun as I can. I don’t dread my tasks. I don’t panic and stress (well, most of the time lol). I get silly and I don’t care. I dressed up as a clown one day and did my vlog. I made one from the state Fair while eating fried guacamole.

Let your hair down! Make some friends on here (online in general in the business realm). Be personal! Quit being so serious and depressing all the time. (That’s me talking to myself years ago).

A good, positive attitude helped me go a long way.

I know it’s hard to be new, frantic to make money (or even someone who’s been doing this a long time and still not succeeding). But it can happen for you.

Tiff

PS – I know not everyone will agree with the above. And that’s okay, too. No one has to be a cookie cutter replica of someone else.