IM FAIL FAIL FAIL! It hurts :(

132 replies
EDIT: I decided to put this at the top since this will be more important to future viewers to see. I've talked to a few people on this thread and in private who have really helped me a lot in terms of motivation and given me direction.

I'll admit, I was skeptical about this community, considering the WSO spam forum... but there is gold here. The gold is in the members who are here to learn and help each other learn. I appreciate the motivation. I can only imagine the huge response was a result of so many people identifying, at least at one point in their life, with the struggles I face right now.

I want to say thank you to all of you and I now owe it to you all and not just my self, to succeed. I appreciate you guys taking the time in responding. You came at a time that I needed it the most. You are really the only guys to talk to, since my friends and family don't really know or support what I'm doing. Thanks again.
I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.
#fail #hurts
  • Profile picture of the author Rich Struck
    Fail? You haven't even gotten started! Stop whining, stop buying crap, and get back to work.
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    • Profile picture of the author asiancasanova
      Originally Posted by Rich Struck View Post

      Fail? You haven't even gotten started! Stop whining, stop buying crap, and get back to work.
      What the hell... I created 5 websites all with 5 to 20 articles on them... not to mention all the stupid backlinking and software I had to master to promote them!

      And then the PPC campaigns were another story...
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      • Profile picture of the author dsouravs
        Ur icon img makes me sooo jealous...
        Stick with 1 plan only.
        Convert Ur niche sites to amazon review sites.

        Thnx
        Signature

        I can convert your Non-Responsive website to Responsive website ... How sweet is that? :)

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      • Profile picture of the author aceriker
        Getting rankings in Google at the moment is tough, I know because I'm the SEO guy for a 200+ employee company and if we're not #1 then no one gets paid (ok, not that dramatic, but still, we need our rankings). Even if you are not seeing any traction with your link building you just have to keep at it, we're finding that Google isn't counting links as fast as it used to, infact we've been link building for a phrase for 2 months and it's not shifted from 3rd position. Social signals and fresh content seem to be more important at the moment, and I'm beginning to suspect there is a problem with over optimization of the anchor text.

        Have hope though, a self employed friend of mine decided to get their act together in November and created a niche website around a hot selling Amazon product. By bashing out a few articles, not achieving stellar rankings and dropping to the 3rd page for the main search term, they made $1,000 in commissions in December thanks to people buying lots of other products at the same time. The result came because they were diligent and thorough with their research, spending well over a week to find the right product.

        Here's a thought, read the tech blogs and toy blogs and see what the must have gadget will be for 2012 and then create a niche Amazon site around that. Don't let it die though, try to keep it updated with new content at least twice a month, you can hire a writer on fiverr.com to do it.

        To be honest, you don't need to be buying any more products, it sounds like you probably have all the information you need right now, it just takes consistency.

        Peter
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        Interested to develop booking and rental website then choose booking software , popular in developing clone script like groupon and airbnb clone

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      • Profile picture of the author TCrosby
        Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

        What the hell... I created 5 websites all with 5 to 20 articles on them... not to mention all the stupid backlinking and software I had to master to promote them!

        And then the PPC campaigns were another story...
        He is not saying that you have not put in effort.

        Rather, he is saying that everyone who is successful has gone through that. If you want to be successful, you keep moving. Otherwise you do not want it bad enough.

        My advice:
        Stop working on multiple sites. Work on ONE thing, and keep working on it until you see results.

        Choose a niche with a large audience. Don't worry about there being a lot of competition. Choose a nice-looking blog theme. Starting writing GOOD content. No posts under 500 words. Every post should have a picture. Every post should target a keyword. Use subheadings. Make it NICE, ATTRACTIVE, READABLE content.

        Repost all your articles on article directories. You should be positing every single day on the blog. Meaning you post to a half dozen directories with the same article each day.

        Stop buying products and services. Don't waste time reading the forums. Focus on your one, single business plan, and do not vary.
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        • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
          Originally Posted by TCrosby View Post

          Stop working on multiple sites. Work on ONE thing, and keep working on it until you see results.
          Originally Posted by jeffsmith1 View Post

          Your blunder mistake was to work on three sites on one time you should have started with one site with proper link building and article writing.
          I wholeheartedly agree with this. It's important to FOCUS!

          F -- Follow
          O -- One
          C -- Course
          U -- Until
          S -- Successful

          Remember you're not building a website, you're building a BUSINESS. Choose ONE niche, ONE business model and ONE target market. Then FOCUS!

          There are dozens and DOZENS of ways to promote that site, some paid, many free or low-cost. Choose a niche, target market and business model, build a website, then focus on generating traffic, building a list and making sales. (In that order.) You're diluting your efforts if you're doing this with more than one site.

          Believe me, you'll be PLENTY busy with just the one site!

          Originally Posted by grandstar View Post

          You are making the persistent mistake on depending on Google.
          True! There are lots of ways to drive traffic other than SEO/Google. Personally, I think everyone should make it their goal to become as independent of Google as possible. (I certainly DON'T focus on Google. It's just too fickle and ever-changing.) Sure, do some basic SEO, then forget about it.


          Originally Posted by theebookcavern View Post

          2) Monetisation:- You said that you haven't made any money but I can't see any clear monetisation on this blog. Try adding some Adsense or affiliate links.
          That was my thought. I know you said these aren't your money sites though! Hopefully, you have a better site for making money.

          Clarity is a HUGE part of IM success.

          IM is actually pretty simple: you can sell only one of two things:

          1. Products
          2. Services

          That's it!

          And selling products or services online happens in the same basic way for everyone, no matter what they're selling:

          Traffic > Opt-in page > Autoresponder series (or e-zine) > Sales page

          That's it! It's just that simple. (We IMers tend to overcomplicate things.)

          But no matter what your niche is, or whether you're selling a product or a service, do you know what your business model is?

          A business model is the framework or skeleton of your business. Essentially there are three types of online business models:

          1. Membership-based model

          A membership-based business model allows you to build a community of people (your members) who are as passionate about your subject as you are. Your membership fees can be monthly or annual, but either way, you're building recurring, passive income.

          There are a lot of resources and information out there to help you build a membership-based business if you're interested in doing this.

          2. Product-based model

          Selling products allows you to maximize your time and effort by selling items over and over again. This can be hard goods or it can be information products. Information marketing is it's own business model under the product-based model. Information marketing allows you to take your brain to the bank by creating a product ONCE based on what you know and selling it over and over again.

          I see someone has already recommended affiliate marketing. You can choose to market either products or services as an affiliate.

          3. Service-based model

          Selling services can be great for 1) generating quick cash (as in the case of article writing or video producing) and 2) establishing your expertise and getting testimonials.

          However, in the long run, your goal should be to offer services at a PREMIUM. The biggest advantage of IM is LEVERAGE. You're able to leverage your time, money and expertise exponentially online. We all have just 24 hours each day. Time to get ruthless about what you expect for those hours you spend in IM each day. Expect more of yourself and more from your business friends, clients, partners, etc.

          What results are you getting for those hours you spend online each day? Ultimately, your services should be at the bottom of your funnel and cost the most since they involve your time and personal attention. (We all have a limited amount of time each day.)

          The fun (and confusion) comes in with all of the endless mix-and-match possibilities of the above models. If you're just starting or still struggling to make money, keep it simple:

          Pick just ONE!

          1. Pick ONE niche. (Something you're interested in and know something about.)

          2. Pick ONE target market for your product or service. (Who will buy what you're offering? The more specific you are, the more you narrow it down, the more successful you'll be.)

          3. Pick ONE business model.

          Now that you're clear about what business you're in, FOCUS! (And stop buying any info not related to your niche and target market, period!)

          F -- Follow
          O -- One
          C -- Course
          U -- Until
          S -- Successful

          In IM, it's easy to put the cart before the horse. Take a deep breath, step back and consider what type of business you're REALLY want. Don't worry about getting traffic or buying that expensive traffic product until you know 1) what your business model is, 2) what niche you're in and 3) WHO your target market is!

          Successful business people will tell you that MARKETING is more than half the effort that's needed for success anyway. So pick a niche, target market and business model. Then spend most of your time and effort marketing it.

          If you DON'T have a solid plan or system, THAT'S when it's hard. A good system will shave YEARS (and save you big $$$) off of your learning curve

          That's why I recommend investing in at least one good, comprehensive IM course (or mentor who will give you such a system) instead of jumping from one $37 e-book to the next. A lot of people here complain about not being able to make any money. But neither are they willing to invest in their business. (Buying a random bunch of $37 e-books doesn't count.)

          The best thing I ever did was invest in a comprehensive IM course aimed at REAL business owners, not just other IM wannabes. Yes it was $1500. (Now it's only $997. :p) But it was truly some of the best A-Z IM info I ever bought. Everything else I've learned (from the $37 e-books) since has simply been plugged into this system.

          Get a solid plan or system and then work the plan!

          Hope this helps!

          Michelle
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          "You can't market here. This is a marketing discussion forum!"
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      • Profile picture of the author Rich Struck
        Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

        What the hell... I created 5 websites all with 5 to 20 articles on them... not to mention all the stupid backlinking and software I had to master to promote them!

        And then the PPC campaigns were another story...
        It takes a lot more than that to make it in this gig. You need hundreds, maybe thousands of pages out there depending on what you are doing.

        The good news is that all of your work is cumulative so even if things suck now, this work will add up to something later.

        Just keep going.
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      • Profile picture of the author mrjosco
        Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

        What the hell... I created 5 websites all with 5 to 20 articles on them... not to mention all the stupid backlinking and software I had to master to promote them!

        And then the PPC campaigns were another story...
        5 Websites? 5 to 20 articles each?

        Yeah, he is right. You have just started. I think you should realize that you haven't 'failed' yet as you really haven't tried yet.

        Perhaps a good first start will be adjust your expectations...

        I am new to IM. I am not yet full time IM, but I am making consistent money now. I started my experiment, similar to you, with a few websites. This will be a long post, but I will tell you my journey from NOTHING to $120/week.

        I started in November. Now, even though I started so recently you should understand that I had some background in IM from years ago. When I was just out of high school I ran a vintage clothing website that sold over 30k a year.

        My first website seemed like a really good idea. I was going to do Amazon affiliate marketing on it and it was going to be a massive review site on a topic I have a lot of interest in. I did some (poor) keyword research and got started. I soon realized this was doomed to fail because my keyword research was not done well. I had spent time writing 5 book reviews, but decided to cut my losses.

        My second website was going toward a desperate market that I really have a passion about helping. I wrote up a personal story of how I overcame this particular problem and found a series of products to promote that could help people achieve what I did. The goal was to eventually create my own product and switch out the ads with my own product. Once again I found that there were some fatal flaws in this project and, after writing a personal testimony, a lengthy 5 steps article and a few long blog posts I decided I should cut my losses on this project and use what I learn for a few more experiments.

        I like the idea of a desperate group of buyers and being able to help them, so I created 3 more websites based on this idea. I was finally able to get a keyword to rank well and I started seeing some traffic to one of my websites. It wasn't much, but I was getting about 20 visitors a day! Finally, I am on the right path.

        20 sales a day was able to take about 1-2 people to the affiliate offer each day. This website still gets the same amount of traffic and has sold the product 2x, about once a month. This makes me about $20/month. I have written over 10 articles and another 10 blog posts, each at least 500 words, for this website.

        Finally, I took what I learned from my other failures and partial success and spent two weeks researching a new keyword. I wanted to pick the right target as I knew this was the first step in doing things the right way. I finally stumbled upon a really cool website idea. This idea came from a book my brother in law was reading at the time. I bought a domain name and started working.

        This website was registered in late October of this year. It now makes me about $15 per day. I have over 80 blog posts, one article that has been syndicated and over 86 additional posts that have been used on different blog posting networks, guest blog opportunities and other areas that have brought me contextual backlinks. There are also uncounted number of forum postings and relevant blog comments.

        Some of this income comes from my list, which includes an additional 10 auto emails and the occasional broadcast email.

        I think this website has potential to make $2-3000 a week on its own, but it will take hundreds more backlinks and a consistent pattern of adding new information. Even with the time and work I have put into this project I think my success is also from some good luck.

        My point is FIVE websites and 25 to 100 articles is not giving it all you got! It is just scratching the surface of getting started in IM. It will take much more than that to start seeing results.
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        • Profile picture of the author asiancasanova
          Thank you for sharing your story. It was good reading about your unsuccessful ventures, since it relates to me.

          In all honesty, I think I did a bad backlinking strategy that penalized me later on that made me intensely frustrated.

          Now I don't want to take your idea or anything, but do you mind sharing your website strategy?

          Are you promoting a product/service? How many searches a month? Review site? Authority site? How did you promote/rank your site? Maybe you can pm me, thanks

          Originally Posted by mrjosco View Post

          5 Websites? 5 to 20 articles each?

          Yeah, he is right. You have just started. I think you should realize that you haven't 'failed' yet as you really haven't tried yet.

          Perhaps a good first start will be adjust your expectations...

          I am new to IM. I am not yet full time IM, but I am making consistent money now. I started my experiment, similar to you, with a few websites. This will be a long post, but I will tell you my journey from NOTHING to $120/week.

          I started in November. Now, even though I started so recently you should understand that I had some background in IM from years ago. When I was just out of high school I ran a vintage clothing website that sold over 30k a year.

          My first website seemed like a really good idea. I was going to do Amazon affiliate marketing on it and it was going to be a massive review site on a topic I have a lot of interest in. I did some (poor) keyword research and got started. I soon realized this was doomed to fail because my keyword research was not done well. I had spent time writing 5 book reviews, but decided to cut my losses.

          My second website was going toward a desperate market that I really have a passion about helping. I wrote up a personal story of how I overcame this particular problem and found a series of products to promote that could help people achieve what I did. The goal was to eventually create my own product and switch out the ads with my own product. Once again I found that there were some fatal flaws in this project and, after writing a personal testimony, a lengthy 5 steps article and a few long blog posts I decided I should cut my losses on this project and use what I learn for a few more experiments.

          I like the idea of a desperate group of buyers and being able to help them, so I created 3 more websites based on this idea. I was finally able to get a keyword to rank well and I started seeing some traffic to one of my websites. It wasn't much, but I was getting about 20 visitors a day! Finally, I am on the right path.

          20 sales a day was able to take about 1-2 people to the affiliate offer each day. This website still gets the same amount of traffic and has sold the product 2x, about once a month. This makes me about $20/month. I have written over 10 articles and another 10 blog posts, each at least 500 words, for this website.

          Finally, I took what I learned from my other failures and partial success and spent two weeks researching a new keyword. I wanted to pick the right target as I knew this was the first step in doing things the right way. I finally stumbled upon a really cool website idea. This idea came from a book my brother in law was reading at the time. I bought a domain name and started working.

          This website was registered in late October of this year. It now makes me about $15 per day. I have over 80 blog posts, one article that has been syndicated and over 86 additional posts that have been used on different blog posting networks, guest blog opportunities and other areas that have brought me contextual backlinks. There are also uncounted number of forum postings and relevant blog comments.

          Some of this income comes from my list, which includes an additional 10 auto emails and the occasional broadcast email.

          I think this website has potential to make $2-3000 a week on its own, but it will take hundreds more backlinks and a consistent pattern of adding new information. Even with the time and work I have put into this project I think my success is also from some good luck.

          My point is FIVE websites and 25 to 100 articles is not giving it all you got! It is just scratching the surface of getting started in IM. It will take much more than that to start seeing results.
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  • Profile picture of the author swilliams09
    Sorry for your troubles man. I'm sticking to the one thing that has made me money and slowly moving into trying other things. I think the goal is to settle down and figure out what it is you really want to do, then figure out how to make money at that. It's not easy nor overnight. What is it that you want to do besides just make money? I love video, I love film and tv. I'm focusing on that as my core and seeing what I can build based around that. I have no interest in getting into a niche that has nothing to do with that as I will have no passion for it and I'll abandon it at the first sign of trouble. But I've been working in TV since I was 17 and I love everything to do with the video/tv/film industry. If I can make some IM dollars off it too, awesome.

    What are you really passionate about?
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  • Profile picture of the author rohitreddy
    Hello..Dont send them directly to the offers,send them to a squeeze of your's first..so you can get a list too..after that build a relation with them and send offer which ever you like..this way you dont have to advertise again and again..
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  • I feel your pain, I've been there many times and I am sure a lot of other warriors have too. It can be very disheartening to put all that work into something only to have it flop or for the search engines you are ranking in change their formulas and you end up at the bottom again. It does help to drive traffic from sources other than organic search/ppc. Tapping into web 2.0 sources has worked well for me and there are some killer methods that I have found browsing the forum. The great thing is that you have produced some results so you now know you can do it. It sounds like it is now time to look a. t what worked, what did not work, and make the changes to turn your "flops" into a success. I do not know your experience with businesses or selling but that's how it works. You seem to be on the right track and remember, you will only fail if you totally give up.
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    • Profile picture of the author NicheMayhem
      No offense but checking out the sites in your sig doesn't convey a whole lot of time was put in. A lack of graphics is not a good thing. This is a digital world we live in online and you need to have stuff to look at.

      The big breasted chicks on the dating site take away from taking your advice seriously in my opinion. Plus there is only a single small image on an otherwise white page full of text.

      If there is anything people starting out need to learn it is that you can't expect to just throw some words on a page and have money shoot out of your disc tray. It takes time, it takes some style and it definitely takes perceived credibility among many other things.

      Also, what other heavily saturated markets have you attempted to break into other then the dating and make money niches? Those are two of the biggest niches there are.

      I'm sorry, but expecting to sell product with the sites in your signature in those types of markets is like taking a 92 Plymouth Voyager to the Barrett-Jackson car show and wondering why nobody bought it.

      You need a more aesthetically appealing site in a niche market within range of your skill level. Then you need traffic...after that it's all about tweaking and testing your visitors. Oh and landing on a squeeze page is not a bad idea either.

      Best of luck to you.
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      Whether you think you can, or think you can't, YOU'RE RIGHT!! <~~Henry Ford

      Check out my video gigs on fiverr!
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  • Profile picture of the author Targeted Traffic
    It may have been that you got attracted by those 'make money fast' tools,and when it failed, you fell for another again...and again...stop the spending and get into serious research
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  • Profile picture of the author LBspeaks
    Get a mentor... or at least a coach.
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    Lokesh Batra- The Man Who Serves...

    I am new to the online world of forums and social media... but I have spent the last 7 years of my life talking to business owners all over the world, and helping them generate extra profits. And I can show you how to do the same... Get the Review Copies of My $497 Ignitional Program Here...

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    • Profile picture of the author dukestravels1972
      Originally Posted by LBspeaks View Post

      Get a mentor... or at least a coach.
      Where? Theres some cool people offering advice, but few mentors that I can see.
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      • Profile picture of the author asiancasanova
        Don't waste money with expensive coaching. I've already done so.

        Let me save you a lot of time and money, everything a coach tells you, you can learn for FREE on forums and blogs. Have the balls to implement strategies and maybe you'll have better luck than me and not have to fail so much.

        Originally Posted by dukestravels1972 View Post

        Where? Theres some cool people offering advice, but few mentors that I can see.
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  • Hi there,

    Just had a quick look at some of your sites. For me, the clue is in your Breaking Zero blog. I just looked at the links and I couldn't see anything that compelled me to click on them, because there's no sign of a problem being solved which brings hungry buyers. Ask yourself, what could people want to buy on those subjects that would make them click on the links. If you're feeling burned, you might want to consider whether you can recoup some of your costs by flipping them on flippa. If you take a look, see what's selling and see if you can do a little tidy up that might help you sell it.

    Your third site on blackheads has however made a dollar. A small amount of money I grant you, but it shows that people spend money in this area. Focus your energy here instead. Content is king so keep adding something so search engines see it growing and smile on it. Also if your going to spend money, get yourself an autoresponder account and put it on your site. Put together a short report containing "hot tips" or "secrets" to keeping your blackheads at bay and write something on dietary approaches to managing the condition. Offer it in exchange for their email address. Send them regular updates and every so often send them a link to something blackhead related that you have an affiliate account for such as Amazon products.

    Then there's your Breaking Zero site. You've described the nightmare you've had with IM in this thread. Have you thought about setting up another autoresponder on your account and putting it on this site. Create a report around "mistakes I made when starting out and how newbies can avoid them". Build your list so can you can market to it. Grow that list by coming on here regularly and give good advice to those who are having the same struggles as you.

    Hope that helps.

    Andrew
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    • Profile picture of the author onespirit457
      I agree. It can take awhile to get up and running but take it from me it's worth it in the end.
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  • Profile picture of the author MatthewNeer
    For your niche sites man, I recommend you buy profile links from my boy Tabish!

    Everytime I have purchased the $150 package, I have got a first page ranking in Google. Obviously I always setup a quality niche site with solid OnPage SEO, but once you can do all of that well, the only equation left is getting high quality backlinks with the appropriate anchor text.

    Don't start the gloom and doom talk my friend, keep ya head up and keep persisting. YOU WILL SUCCEED!

    If you wanna investigate the profile links I was talking about. The link is below.

    Profile Link Services

    Best of luck to you my friend! I'm always here for you or anyone who needs help.
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    • Profile picture of the author asiancasanova
      It's cute how after saying I've spent $1000 on IM and am borderline broke right now, you still have the audacity to sell me even more useless IM services/products. You are one persistent snake oil salesman.

      Originally Posted by MatthewNeer View Post

      For your niche sites man, I recommend you buy profile links from my boy Tabish!

      Everytime I have purchased the $150 package, I have got a first page ranking in Google. Obviously I always setup a quality niche site with solid OnPage SEO, but once you can do all of that well, the only equation left is getting high quality backlinks with the appropriate anchor text.

      Don't start the gloom and doom talk my friend, keep ya head up and keep persisting. YOU WILL SUCCEED!

      If you wanna investigate the profile links I was talking about. The link is below.

      Profile Link Services

      Best of luck to you my friend! I'm always here for you or anyone who needs help.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cool Hand Luke
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author asiancasanova
        You're right, but when you're running low on cash and struggling, you become irrational and need to vent.

        Anyways, I can't afford any more PPC/paid traffic strategies... I need to try SEO/niche sites again. Maybe I'll have to try some short-term blackhat methods to make some quick cash.. or even do some fiverr gigs. Time to prostitute myself for now.

        Originally Posted by Cool Hand Luke View Post

        :rolleyes:

        Profile links are GARBAGE. Nobody with any SEO knowledge would pay $150 for a MILLION profile links, much less the amount offered in that sham service, and you should be ashamed of yourself for recommending this garbage service given the circumstances of the OP.

        Also, to the OP- Stop whining. If you want help, ask for it. NOT ONCE in your original post did you ask for help or ask a question about how to succeed. All your thread is is you crying. "WAAAAAAHHHH...Woe is me! I didn't make money after spending some, now I need to make a thread about it."

        Grow up, put your big boy pants on, and ask specific questions if you want help. Otherwise, stop begging for attention.
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      • Profile picture of the author simpleleveraging
        Originally Posted by Cool Hand Luke View Post

        :rolleyes:

        Profile links are GARBAGE. Nobody with any SEO knowledge would pay $150 for a MILLION profile links, much less the amount offered in that sham service, and you should be ashamed of yourself for recommending this garbage service given the circumstances of the OP.

        Also, to the OP- Stop whining. If you want help, ask for it. NOT ONCE in your original post did you ask for help or ask a question about how to succeed. All your thread is is you crying. "WAAAAAAHHHH...Woe is me! I didn't make money after spending some, now I need to make a thread about it."

        Grow up, put your big boy pants on, and ask specific questions if you want help. Otherwise, stop begging for attention.
        Not entirely strictly true here, the problem is that most folks don't realize how to develop correctly what they get. Profile links in isolation and left to their own devices can be a little on the slow side to get traction but when used in conjunction with other techniques are great for expanding the IP landscape of your back link profile which in our research Post Panda is one of the key areas that one should be looking at.

        However this is very much an aside to the original topic and direction of the OP.

        This whole situation seems to becoming one more of psychological motivation rather than anything else. As one poster above said, if you find stress and pressure hard to take or handle (no shame here) then being self employed is not for you and that in essence is what IM is all about.

        Let's forget about the mindless BS about "killing your day job" etc that is what this is all about.Being able to make the financial transition from getting your primary source of income from someone else or some major organization and being able to be self sustainable on your own.

        The sensible person in today's climate starts to make money online whilst working part time and then grows their business. It's a brave person who makes the jump into becoming full time self employed without having at least 4-6 months worth of money behind them first.

        It's just not wise or prudent, especially if you have existing responsibilities or unless of course you have no choice but then the pressure is really on.

        My advice at present is that you have to do something to take yourself out of the financial pressure cooker that you find yourself in and put yourself in a place where you can make quite dispassionate decisions about your business strategy and plan without the immediate pressure of "how the hell do I put food on the table this weekend"?
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Chicas
    What are you talking about AsianCasanova?? I checked out your site... I really dig that article you wrote "Don't fu****g give up. It's my favorite next to "How to meet to Blo* J** in 5 mintues"

    Alright, all joking aside - I'm willing to bet you that I failed 10 times more than you and I spent 10 times more than you... including a 1 thousand dollar scam site on Flippa, from someone I recently found out has a long history of scamming people. It's a punk kid from Australia and finally watching his Ronald McDonald hair do and demeanor on video screams scam all over. Some people might know whom I"m talking about.

    Anyways I finally got this enterprise going and it's going at full speed now. Look at it this way - at least now you know what doesn't work. Narrow down what works and implement your best skills and let others know.

    Experience is a mother effer... and sorry to say, I don't expect experience to get down her knees after 5 minutes.



    Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

    I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

    Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

    I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.
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  • Profile picture of the author blaugrana
    $1000 is a big amount of money. i'm never spent a big money for learning IM stuff. you just need stay tune on this forum, and there're many members shared them method. you need a little break bro, don't too rush
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  • Profile picture of the author TCrosby
    Let me give you a personal example.

    It took me 9 months to make $100. In the following year I made $1000. And now its increasing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Miguelito203
    Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

    I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

    Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

    I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.
    With the all the changes that Google has made to it's algorithm, we (those with niche blogs) have experienced highs and lows at some point. I've had a niche blog for two years and had lows and highs. You just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself, and keep going. With the past several updates, my Alexa ranking and traffic have continued to climb. I get backlinks naturally from places I couldn't have gotten on my own and didn't know existed. It's well worth the effort.

    Here are some things to keep in mind. Google's aim is to provide the end user with the most up-to-date and relevant content based on whatever it is he or she is searching for. Take the time to write unique, quality content that provides value. Lots of people don't realize that there is a human aspect to rankings in addition to the actual algorithm. Google has actual people to visit and evaluate sites with top rankings to see if they do indeed deserve the top spot.

    Also, you don't need a bunch of sites to make good money. You just need one. It just needs to be in a highly profitable niche where you have plenty of stuff to promote. Your site should contain both product reviews and articles related to your niche. You will get traffic from both. It's crucial that you learn to lay the proper foundation. If you don't, you are going to keep making the same mistakes on all of your sites.

    Good luck,
    Joey
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  • If you first don't succeeded try again and again and again! Take the focus off of making money and put the focus on providing value! And then you will began to see your income increase.
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  • Profile picture of the author JeremiahSay
    If you want a free and easy method, don't create blogs/websites.. My suggestion is go for PR7 squidoo lens, create your content there, and promote whatever you want in it. (I personally use Amazon). Create just 1 lens each day (make it a habit) and don't spend another dim on internet marketing info, products, backlink etc.. At the end of 2012, you'll have at least 300 squidoo lenses promoting your Amazon link as an affiliate.. now that's serious money + residual income.

    The reason why I suggested Squidoo is because Google loves Squidoo a lot, squidoo content will definitely get indexed faster than typical wordpress blog (They are PR7).. And not only that, you're able to add up to 9 affiliate link in Squidoo lenses, what's more its 100% FREEEEE!!!!

    Why Amazon? Because when people land up in your amazon affiliate link and buy something totally different from the products you offer.. for instance: You're selling books, but your customers ended up buying kitchen items.. you'll still received FULL commission! And Amazon converts extremely WELL.

    Target a lens to profit $0.50 cents a day (very achievable) = $15 per month. Now, imagine that you have 300 lenses promoting your amazon affiliate link.. how much money are you going to bring in every single month? Yeah. . Automated income, that's what I'm talking about here!

    Warning: Wait at least 2 -3 months to see results. Internet is really not a place to get rich-quick.

    It's 2012 and a New year my friend.. Don't start your new year complaining and whining, crying like a baby. Instead start a new year with big dreams.. by end of 2012, aim to have at least 150 squidoo lenses, promoting your amazon affiliate link.

    Seriously, you have come this far, why quit now? Give yourself a pad on the back.. Relax for a couple of days! Come back next week and start creating your lenses part-time.

    Hope this help, and remember not to waste another dim on IM products since you don't have much money now. (Human-being needs to eat)

    May God bless you always,
    Jeremiah

    P.S. I've just started out in Squidoo as well and currently have 4 lenses as far (BAD BAD BAD) .. in case if you want to take a look at an example of a squidoo lens, here it is: 5 Most Educating Business Books of All Times
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    • Profile picture of the author NicheMayhem
      Originally Posted by JeremiahSay View Post

      If you want a free and easy method, don't create blogs/websites.. My suggestion is go for PR7 squidoo lens, create your content there, and promote whatever you want in it. ...

      At the end of 2012, you'll have at least 300 squidoo lenses promoting your Amazon link as an affiliate.. now that's serious money + residual income.

      ...

      P.S. I've just started out in Squidoo as well and currently have 4 lenses as far (BAD BAD BAD) .. in case if you want to take a look at an example of a squidoo lens, here it is:


      Seriously? Spend all year building web properties you don't own pointing towards an affiliate link? Instead of blogs/websites?

      Wouldn't recommend that. What do you do if Squidoo deletes you? Once you have a web property your in control of....Squidoo lenses pointing to your site aren't a bad idea just like submitting to article directories. Hell that falls into backlinks in general.

      I think the problem here is more about the fundamentals. Don't start out aiming for the stars and don't forget to think about your visitors more then you do Google's ranking.
      Signature
      Whether you think you can, or think you can't, YOU'RE RIGHT!! <~~Henry Ford

      Check out my video gigs on fiverr!
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      • Profile picture of the author JeremiahSay
        Originally Posted by NicheMayhem View Post

        Seriously? Spend all year building web properties you don't own pointing towards an affiliate link? Instead of blogs/websites?

        Wouldn't recommend that. What do you do if Squidoo deletes you? Once you have a web property your in control of....Squidoo lenses pointing to your site aren't a bad idea just like submitting to article directories. Hell that falls into backlinks in general.

        I think the problem here is more about the fundamentals. Don't start out aiming for the stars and don't forget to think about your visitors more then you do Google's ranking.
        Firstly, as long as you're playing by their rules and not spinning articles and doing some funny stuff I'm 100% sure that squidoo won't delete you.

        Secondly, did you read the entire post reply from me? I suggested squidoo lenses not because to gain back link to his website, but to create and promote AMAZON as an affiliate. I suggest you read the entire post clearly before you comment.

        Thirdly, I'm not shooting stars or bull****ing here, i'm trying my best to help this fellow by giving him some suggestion.. whether he wants to do it or not is entirely up to him. SO if you can't help him and give any advise, I suggest you should st*u:rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author niceguy36
    Most things were already said, so I just keep repeating the sentences I tell nearly everybody who works in this area:

    Never give up and look at your failure as an opportunity to learn from! I'm now soo long in this area, and I still have to work in a regular job. Thats not because I'm lazy (ok, a little bit) or that I have bad luck. It's because I made a looot mistakes, but I don't feel bad about them. I like it, because I learned so much from them! And you can be sure, I won't make the same mistake twice!

    Online Marketing is though, and its even thougher because everybody tries to let you think that it's easy (but only if you buy his product of course^^).

    best regards,
    Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author Bundberg
    There is very much free training on net, I have never spent any money on info. I would recommend more trying and more spying, I have found several good website ideas spying on Flippa.
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  • Profile picture of the author bushidosurfer
    Dude, keep going.

    “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
    ― Thomas A. Edison

    You are just figuring out what doesn't work. And you are learning more IM skills along the way. You just cannot connect the dots moving forward in Steve's famous words. But somehow it will click when you look back. So nothing is a waste.

    And as what Frank and Trey says in the InfoMill course, IM is complicated you just need to master the "many" parts to it to make money.

    Have you looked at what others are doing to their sites for those keywords that you are ranking? BTW list building is one smart way to move forward. My 2 cents
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  • Profile picture of the author frank07
    You will learn from this story. Now you will not lose all, you research keyword again and choose top 5 of your site and focus on that site, backlinks, promotion and make it on top 2 of Google. When you success, you will learn something and do for others.
    If you need more help, PM me and I will mentor for you free.
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  • Profile picture of the author toxicchili
    When many people enter this industry they focus on just one thing.. Money..

    And yes, there is a lot of money to be made, but you have to work for it.

    If you got a job in McDonalds, did a few weeks work and then expect them to pay you for a years work what do you think would happen?

    So why do people expect to make a living on the internet for spending a few hours here and there on various project.

    Do some research, ideally on a niche that is of interest of you, then put the time and work in. If you want a traditional site, then work on making the site user and seo friendly (perhaps use Google's SEO Starter Guide). If it is something that interests you then it won't feel that much like work anyway, for example, I run a number of music related sites, they have taken quite a lot of work and currently the revenue doesn't really cover this, but traffic is growing every month and I am confident that by the end of the year I will have added some real value and they will start to earn their keep. On top of this I have about 30 other sites, which all get some traffic/revenue and I will continue working on these and developing new sites.

    At the end of the day, if you want to make a career out of this industry, you have to put the time and effort in, and keep putting it in. Its not a regular 9-5 job that pays a regular salary, but give it time and I'm sure you will be able to gain something worthwhile from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Hackbridge
    I make a few dollars with Adsense, nothing to write home about but I ain't giving up! At the moment I am focusing on creating blogs but for me it's a learning curve as I am not familiar with WP. However, the point is that it's the only thing I am going to do for a while. No more WSOs! No more reviewing other Warriors stuff with some exceptions, no more reading useless emails! And dare I say it? Less time spent on the Warrior Forum. It's about being focussed. 2011 wasn't bad for making money, it was perhaps the best online but 2012 is going to be better because I am not going to quit, because I am not a failure, I am not the best but I will do better.

    If you want to be successful it starts in your thinking.

    Brian
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  • Profile picture of the author Hackbridge
    I make a few dollars with Adsense, nothing to write home about but I ain't giving up! At the moment I am focusing on creating blogs but for me it's a learning curve as I am not familiar with WP. However, the point is that it's the only thing I am going to do for a while. No more WSOs! No more reviewing other Warriors stuff with some exceptions, no more reading useless emails! And dare I say it? Less time spent on the Warrior Forum. It's about being focussed. 2011 wasn't bad for making money, it was perhaps the best online but 2012 is going to be better because I am not going to quit, because I am not a failure, I am not the best but I will do better.

    If you want to be successful it starts in your thinking.

    Brian
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  • Profile picture of the author 3000
    Almost everyone goes through what you went through. Failure is just a way for you to learn and move forward.

    I would recommend for you to stop jumping around and to just focus on one income stream, it could be Adsense, CPA, ClickBank, Amazon etc. Pick one and master it. Once you start making money from it move onto the next income stream.

    Remember, not all niche sites are going to be winners. Find out what you did wrong and build your next site without that mistake.

    Also, there isn't a magic bullet in IM to make you rich over night. So stop buying the next biggest product that promises you the moon.

    Or...

    You can go with the service route. Since you have all these SEO software you can use them to do SEO work for other people here on the Warrior for Hire section. You can also offer your services on oDesk.com.

    Charge $20 a pop, get 5 orders a day that's an easy $100 a day.

    Everyone fails. The ones who learn from those failures are the ones who bask in glory.

    Just take Thomas Edison for example, he failed 10,000 times before he got the light-bulb right.
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    • Profile picture of the author labpete
      "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
      Thomas Edison

      I have spent much more than 1K (not directly but in terms of my own working time) and have achieved nothing. You need to believe in your success though - it is still early days. Identify what went wrong and get back to the drawing board with better ideas and implementation strategies.
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  • Profile picture of the author YasirYar
    Don't let the often vicious nature of internet marking get you down. It can be really really cruel but hard work and perseverance ALWAYS pay off in this field in the long run. Trust me, you haven't spent near as much as others have when trying to make it successful into the field. I would only like to recommend you to cut spending to a bare minimum. A lot of tools can easily be done without, and costs can be minimized.
    Signature

    >>>Get your websites ACTUALLY ranked by checking these out: Quantum SEO Labs, Home Page Link Building & SERP Ability. Want to get rid of negative listings? Check out Reputation Enhancer.

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  • Profile picture of the author P.Sharma
    I failed for 2 years before I made my first dollar online and then once the money started rolling in, it is awesome. If you quit today you'll never know how close to success you were.

    PUSH HARD ENOUGH AND YOU'LL SEE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.

    Every field has a learning curve, FAILING is the best learning curve in IM. If you want to succeed fast, FAIL FAST!
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    • Profile picture of the author anshuldayal
      Sums it up perfectly.

      I nearly gave up with AdSense within 3 months of starting and glad I didn't as I am reaping the rewards now.

      Originally Posted by P.Sharma View Post

      I failed for 2 years before I made my first dollar online and then once the money started rolling in, it is awesome. If you quit today you'll never know how close to success you were.

      PUSH HARD ENOUGH AND YOU'LL SEE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.

      Every field has a learning curve, FAILING is the best learning curve in IM. If you want to succeed fast, FAIL FAST!
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  • Been there, done that. I also spend a lot of money when I first started. Sometimes I felt like throwing my laptop up against the wall.

    I won't say that I'm a pro/guru/whatever but I certainly learned you can make a decent living just from using basic methods.
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  • Profile picture of the author highrider21
    If you want to try PPC sign up for ppc-coach forum. They have really good info on how to do PPC. He has a great thread that explains that in order to reach $100 per day, you will more than likely have to spend $4,000 total to reach that, and that 90% of your keywords will fail.

    Plus try not to look at it as you failed, look at it as you now know what not to do. I'm sure you've heard of the story how Benjamin Franklin (I think it was him) tried to get the lightbulb working 1,000 times, and when asked about how he failed so many times, he said he didn't fail he found 1,000 ways not to make a lightbulb (or something like that).

    Also, don't feel bad about spend $1,000 and not making any money, I tracked all the money I spent last year and I spent a little over $2,000 and all I have to show for it is 1 website that makes me like $2 per month in adsense. Mostly because I kept buying courses and ebooks and then not following through on them.
    Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    “Did you know girls age faster than guys? Take models, for example.
    They peak at like seventeen. By the time they’re nineteen they’ve
    passed their prime. They’re middle aged. You’re twenty-one, making you
    sixty-three in girl years.”

    Did you write that? That's hilarious. Maybe not to girls... LOL

    I agree with the above posters. Keep working and focus more. It sounds like you did a lot but backlinking is key.

    I think your sites could look a little snazzier too. They seem kind of plain and lack direction of what you want me to do.

    Mahlon
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  • Profile picture of the author grandstar
    Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

    I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

    Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

    I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.
    You are making the persistent mistake on depending on Google.

    I would advise youy focus on article syndication where you write high quality articles preferably longer than 700 words and submit them to ezinearticles and other directories.
    If they are of very high quality, webmasters will pick your articles and publish them on the ir sites sending you tons of traffic.

    You can also contact ezine publishers directly asking if they can publish your article by sending it to their subscribers.

    The king now is high quality articles for syndication. That was the actual purpose of article directories until it was abused by internet marketers. Stop being a slave to Google. Rather target the audience directly and see your traffic zoom!
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  • Profile picture of the author hajro
    I just think you aren't for this job.
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  • Profile picture of the author Home Easy Earn
    When I got started online I did not have any money to spend on advertising, products or to purchase any internet marketing training. I had to put in the work not only to make things happen but to also learn how to make things happen.

    I know realise that I probably got some of the best training going because I learned to rely on old strategies that still work today, and I also had no money to chase the next shiny object.

    If you try something and it fails, try another way of doing it, and if that fails try another way, and keep trying. Every time you fail you learn an important lesson and one that you will not forget in a hurry. When you hit a problem go ask someone how to solve it, the best person to ask is Mr Google. I am still amazed at the number of people that do not use Google to solve their questions or find out how to do something they need done.

    It took me nearly 6 months to make my first sale online and I had worked 8 hours a day and usually 6 - 7 days per week to make that happen. You have to work hard and put in the hours just like any other job, unless you are incredibly lucky and there are not many internet marketers that are that lucky.
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  • Profile picture of the author mvirtual
    Be strong and go over it. This is normal. Get back to work. You should NOT give up after $1000 and three niche sites. It was many times that I wanted to give up and get another job. I am afraid to said how much money I spent before I started making any money online. But I didn't give up and today I am working full time on my online business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Webpromotion
    I know you did not ask directly for my advice but here it is anyways.

    Your sites need work. They are bland and colorless. They look like the sample templates that come with wordpress.

    Your articles are informative but they lack shine and enthusiasm.

    Pay someone to design your site to give it a deep facelift. There are a ton of people on Warrior Forum that can help you with that.

    Pay someone to write you an exceptional article. One that people love to read over and over again.

    Focus on just one site for now, make all your mistakes on that one site. When things work, then scale up to more sites.

    whatever you do..... do not give up.
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    • Profile picture of the author Loloy Diango
      How will you succeed if you've stopped working to succeed?

      You certainly will not get to Point C if you stopped walking at Point B on your way from Point A. I know it is a very simplistic analogy but I hope you will see the real power in it.

      Get back up on your feet, start pounding the computer keyboard again, focus on what you would like to do in internet marketing, and just keep plugging ahead.

      Don't get bogged down with technicalities and nuances when you're starting up again - the key is to just keep moving ahead after locking in your focus on your chosen internet marketing business model.

      Aim to take action that is purely relevant to your online business - nothing else. And learn to operate with as less money to spend as possible.

      I know, eventually, you will succeed.
      Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author Eduard Stinga
    Or just get a coach - it costs $200-500 here on this forum and if you spent the rest up to $1,000 on investments, supervised by the coach, you'd be amazed by the results

    Of course, the results are not guaranteed, the main factor in this is obviously... YOU!
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  • Profile picture of the author theebookcavern
    Hi asiancasanova - I've personally been running a fitness blog since October 2007 and have a bit of advice for you on your "The Asian Casanova" blog.

    Before I begin with the advice I just want to say I really like the style of writing and a few Warriors have also commented that they like your articles too. So on a positive note you should be able to hold readers attention once they hit the site and you definitely have something to build on.

    Now on to the advice...

    1) Blog Design:- Quite a few people have commented on the lack of images in the articles and the rather basic website design. I would have to agree with this. Use at least 1 stock photo in every article (Istockphoto.com is my personal choice for this) and get a fresh blog design. I personally use StudioPress.com for my blogs. They have some fantastic themes available at very reasonable prices.

    2) Monetisation:- You said that you haven't made any money but I can't see any clear monetisation on this blog. Try adding some Adsense or affiliate links.

    3) Blog Age:- Looking at your archives it seems that you posted articles to this blog between May 2011 and September 2011 - a total of 4 months. You need to stick at it a lot longer than this to see results. When I first started my fitness blog I was posting 15 articles a month, once every 2 days. For the first 3 months I earned £3 a month from Adsense. In the 4th month this then shot up to £10 a month. By the end of 2008 I was earning £40 a month from Adsense. By the end of 2009 I was earning £100 a month and so on. You've got to be in it for the long haul if you want to see results - especially when the site is non-retail and content based.

    4) Posting Consistency:- When looking through your archives your posting wasn't very consistent. Sometimes you would have 2 or 3 posts on the same day and then nothing for weeks. I've been guilty of this myself in the past. Sometimes I've not been able to blog for weeks then to make up for it I've posted a big block of posts when I got some free time. However, from experience I've found that committing to consistent posting yields much better results in terms of visitors.

    Now admittedly none of the above strategies will bring your Google rankings back but if you can write 1 new article each week and each new article generates 25 visitors a month (something that should be possible even post Panda) you should be able to get 100 new visitors every month. Just take the advice above, keep writing quality content, keep building quality backlinks and stick with it.

    I personally got hit with a double whammy towards the back end of this year. First, Google's infamous October 14th update hit me hard - a 40% to 50% loss in traffic. Secondly, Ezine Articles decided to suspend my account at the start of December for allegedly using spun content (don't know where they got that idea from as I don't even own a spinner) which meant that I temporarily lost a ton of dofollow backlinks. This caused my rankings to drop further and even when Ezine Articles restored my account and the dofollow backlinks my rankings were still down.

    However, I stuck at it, carried on writing quality content and building quality backlinks and now this month things finally look like they are improving. I'm not getting pre-October 14th levels but for the first time since October 14th my traffic is up significantly year on year.

    Tom
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    • Profile picture of the author asiancasanova
      Dude, I've checked out your website, it's very high quality and clearly you put a lot of effort into you. I feel like you deserve way more than $100 a month from that.

      Have you considered hiring a backlinking expert to rank it up or something?

      Originally Posted by theebookcavern View Post

      Hi asiancasanova - I've personally been running a fitness blog since October 2007 and have a bit of advice for you on your "The Asian Casanova" blog.

      Before I begin with the advice I just want to say I really like the style of writing and a few Warriors have also commented that they like your articles too. So on a positive note you should be able to hold readers attention once they hit the site and you definitely have something to build on.

      Now on to the advice...

      1) Blog Design:- Quite a few people have commented on the lack of images in the articles and the rather basic website design. I would have to agree with this. Use at least 1 stock photo in every article (Istockphoto.com is my personal choice for this) and get a fresh blog design. I personally use StudioPress.com for my blogs. They have some fantastic themes available at very reasonable prices.

      2) Monetisation:- You said that you haven't made any money but I can't see any clear monetisation on this blog. Try adding some Adsense or affiliate links.

      3) Blog Age:- Looking at your archives it seems that you posted articles to this blog between May 2011 and September 2011 - a total of 4 months. You need to stick at it a lot longer than this to see results. When I first started my fitness blog I was posting 15 articles a month, once every 2 days. For the first 3 months I earned £3 a month from Adsense. In the 4th month this then shot up to £10 a month. By the end of 2008 I was earning £40 a month from Adsense. By the end of 2009 I was earning £100 a month and so on. You've got to be in it for the long haul if you want to see results - especially when the site is non-retail and content based.

      4) Posting Consistency:- When looking through your archives your posting wasn't very consistent. Sometimes you would have 2 or 3 posts on the same day and then nothing for weeks. I've been guilty of this myself in the past. Sometimes I've not been able to blog for weeks then to make up for it I've posted a big block of posts when I got some free time. However, from experience I've found that committing to consistent posting yields much better results in terms of visitors.

      Now admittedly none of the above strategies will bring your Google rankings back but if you can write 1 new article each week and each new article generates 25 visitors a month (something that should be possible even post Panda) you should be able to get 100 new visitors every month. Just take the advice above, keep writing quality content, keep building quality backlinks and stick with it.

      I personally got hit with a double whammy towards the back end of this year. First, Google's infamous October 14th update hit me hard - a 40% to 50% loss in traffic. Secondly, Ezine Articles decided to suspend my account at the start of December for allegedly using spun content (don't know where they got that idea from as I don't even own a spinner) which meant that I temporarily lost a ton of dofollow backlinks. This caused my rankings to drop further and even when Ezine Articles restored my account and the dofollow backlinks my rankings were still down.

      However, I stuck at it, carried on writing quality content and building quality backlinks and now this month things finally look like they are improving. I'm not getting pre-October 14th levels but for the first time since October 14th my traffic is up significantly year on year.

      Tom
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    • Profile picture of the author capitalalchemy
      No offense, but I have written 5,000+ articles, built probably 30,000+ backlinks, made well over 800 videos, written well over 2,000 pages of content for my sites, done the graphic design for my own sites, created my own products, created the cover art, written my sales copy, tested this, failed at that, got good rankings, lost good rankings, got good rankings and made money, got good rankings and not made money, built over 40 blogs, made over 30 sites...

      On and on it goes. You just have to keep pushing forward until something works and then focus on that. Plus you need to keep working like this so that you can make mistakes and see what you did wrong.

      This is a tough job...it just is. Sometimes I ask myself "why don't you just go out and get a normal job like everyone else?", but I really like this work.
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    • Profile picture of the author wilsonljx
      Don't ever have this mentality that the more products you bought,the more money you will earn. This is completely wrong mindset!! Yes you have to invest in yourself. But that also includes with massive action taken,the purpose of investing in yourself is to cut short your learning curve and also to know what you don't know. Therefore, after purchasing some products, execute it and stop buying anymore products because the results will still be the same if there is no action taken
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  • Profile picture of the author tamiro1992
    As much as i used to think the same way, the facts is:
    MAKING MONEY ONLINE IS NOT THAT EASY

    sure many people say its easy, well yea, after you get your business idea going and your website is number 1 on Google it might be easy, but until you get to that point you have to keep on working.

    it takes people years until they see income from online business but many times when it comes, its nice CONSTANT income and that's what you want. you don't want a 1000 dollars one day and then not see a penny ever again.

    I HOPE YOU CAN FIND A WAY TO STAY MOTIVATED. DON'T GIVE IT. GL
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  • Profile picture of the author Nathan2525
    Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

    I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

    Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

    I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.
    Hey,

    I think you have started IM with completely the wrong expectations.

    Building a 6-Figure business is no different to wanting to become
    a black belt in Kick Boxing (or any other skill)

    Here is an analogy for what you just said....

    I just spent $1000 on fighting videos and audios... holy Jesus

    I started studying Kick boxing. I got to white belt and then got my
    ass kicked.

    So I took up Thai Boxing and got my ass kicked there too.

    Ive tried Karate, Judo, Brazilian ju jitsu for 1 month each and
    nothing seems to work.

    How the hell do you become a black belt???

    There is your problem
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  • Profile picture of the author sethczerepak
    Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.
    There's the issue right there. IM isn't something you learn and study, it's something you do and do and do until you find out what works. Too much BS out there to learn any other way.

    Plus, too much switching around, you can only learn what works if you find something and stick with it, refine your plan and keep refining and working until you start seeing results.
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    • Profile picture of the author Canuckystan
      I don't know if this applies to you or not...

      I see a lot of people caught up in a "system" rather than focus on the customer/user. Contrary to popular belief, people do not part with their money because they hit your website and system.

      You always have to ask yourself: "Would I spend money, click an ad etc., on this site?" Be honest. If you won't, nobody else will either.

      The greatest system in the world will do you absolutely no good if you are not selling something compelling enough for people to part with their money.

      It's not easy to get money from people over the internet - look at the scrapyard of the thousands of net companies that went bankrupt thinking people would happily pay without thinking.

      Above all you have to be a clever business guy, or realistically, you won't get far.

      Just look at Craigslist - very ugly site, no graphics, no contact info (for the most part). But it makes what, $15 million+ per year? It is a compelling offer and provides value above all else.
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  • Profile picture of the author cherchar
    I agree with webpromotion about adding color and suggest maybe a photo or two. Enhancing your website makes it pleasing to the eyes of your visitors. I'm no expert on this, I too am learning. I also agree with someone who said, don't so much focus on the dollars you'll make, it's your passion and determination to be successful that drives you.
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  • Profile picture of the author lostcyclist
    I admire you putting yourself out for criticism. Already you are opening yourself up for a rocking 2012. Analyze. Regroup. Strategize. Dive in.

    Basically, in this game, you have to outlast Google. Because of that I've become a big fan of finding one plan, and sticking to it for a year. Right now, I'm using SEO to target organic traffic because it requires very little investment. Heck, you could do it without a penny if you needed to.

    There's a dozen ways to make money on the internet. I would say make a list of your favorite options.

    Then, work on your favorite idea for 2012. The others can wait until that first plan has made money.

    I have about 6 steps that will go into play in 2013 and beyond. Right now, I'm still on action plan #1 .

    Additionally, I would encourage you to shut out the noise. Find one forum devoted to your action plan and avoid the others. Warrior forum is full of strobe lights. It takes a careful person to navigate it.
    Signature

    Making $15k/Month with Amazon Affiliate Sites. Follow along or start your own escape: http://cubiclehoudini.com

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  • Profile picture of the author Ayush Sharma
    Lol ur crying about because u made 5 website??.. i have made over 40 websites in learning process.. lost over 10000$.. and i was about to quit.. when i realized that my mind was over many things.. u have to focus..think of 1 thing..be it social media,articles,fiverr anything internet is huge and to make money from it is unlimited opprtunities.. but just pick one and master whether u make small money or large irrespective..do what u like..not what yu think is profitable.
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  • Profile picture of the author perfectlovehere
    Try sending them to a squeeze page then sending related clickbank and cpa offers to your list regularly.
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  • Profile picture of the author tropvik
    Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

    I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

    Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

    I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.
    Bro i can relate.

    I honestly started in IM back in the beginning of 2008.

    For a full year i jammed info into my brain to the point i was seeing code like the matrix lol.

    Didn't make a single penny.

    So i decided to cut my losses and take a break.

    I had a turning point: discovered the import/export business with latin america and geoabitrage.

    $2,000/month in Colombia for example, will buy you a $6,000/month lifestyle, penthouses, weekly massages, parties etc.

    during that time in Colombia y was able to reset and reload.

    Met a friend there from Seattle who was working with this Coach William Souza

    Start Making At Least $1,500/Month - 100% GUARANTEED

    Long story short, after forgetting about IM, it came back at me with force, and now im seeing some income after finally working PERSONALLY with a COACH that was recommended by a PERSONAL FRIEND.

    Now i see IM as a side thing that will grow with time to supplement the other options i went after.

    Dont put all your eggs in one basket my friend.

    I think the secret here is

    1. Meet a coach you can talk to (not a course)
    2. Follow his system
    3. Repeat until you dont need him anymore.

    Technology sometimes makes us forget about the beauty of good old human interaction and mentorship.

    Hope that helps.. and good luck bro, hang in there. Freedom is worth any amount of pain and frustration. Just dont buckle. the closer you are, the harder it gets.

    Ive found that to be a law of life.
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  • Profile picture of the author simpleleveraging
    You've received quite a bit of advice from others so I won't throw my 2p in for what it's worth save this. Now is the time when you have to really pick yourself up and dust yourself down and go for it.

    I guess there aren't many members of this forum who were Internet Sensations straight out.

    Don't believe the BS - for every overnight success there was arguably a very long and quite expensive evening before.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dyer402
    I agree with didacus about finding a coach if you havent done so already. Finding someone experienced to help you in any feild is a good idea. Theyll be able to point out mistakes theyve already experienced through trial and error. Dont feel so bad about your situation man. At least youre taking action. Im still working toward braking that barrier so at least you have gained some experience with things will NOT work for you. I think thats pretty valuable. Stay resilient man..
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    • Profile picture of the author Karen Blundell
      listen I've been making a living online since 1997. I have had many many failures. And many successes too. Failures are just a lessons - learn from them and move on.

      Did you know that Walt Disney claimed bankruptcy several times before becoming a success?

      Did you know that many truly successful people sometimes spent years and years repeatedly failing until they made it big? It's true.

      I will say one thing: if you are afraid of failure, if you don't have patience and perseverance, if you give up too easily, don't be self-employed. Self-employment is not for the faint of heart. It really isn't.
      Signature
      ---------------
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      • Profile picture of the author asiancasanova
        I appreciate the feedback, including the criticisms.

        First: The 2 sites in my sig was way back when I first started IM.

        The theme for Breaking Zero is not a representative theme. It used to be a much better theme, but I decided I didn't want to use the website for IM purposes, but instead use the domain to host landing pages for my PPC campaigns. That's why the theme is kinda wierd right now. FYI, its using Profits Theme.

        The dating site was my first website that was gonna be my "passion project." I moved on since then. The newer posts were text only because they were posts that I threw up to backlink to my other projects. But there are pictures in my older posts. For guys who struggle with dating, the information is gold in there if you're willing to dig into it. Either way I'm not making any money off of it, for now.

        As far as me spending money on learning IM, I would say only a quarter of that money spent was on learning products. The rest were on creating domains, hosting, SEO software, services, PPC, Media Buys, and other tools.

        A few of you guys PMed me, I can't reply since my post count is too low, but I will get it up so I can reply back.

        In fact, taking into account how long I've been here and my low post count, this is representative of me TAKING ACTION, instead of doing the stereotypical asking 431243 questions and not doing anything. Sadly, I've probably been guilty of doing too much.

        Anyways, I have not given up guys. I just needed to pause, reflect, and vent my frustrations. I trying to figure out what my next step should be right now...
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        • Profile picture of the author Mr. Ken Russell
          Fail is just another word for give up. It's impossible to fail.
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  • Profile picture of the author jimrcole
    Just don't quit! You have to keep going and Focus on what gives you joy!
    Love what you do and it's not as much work!
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  • Profile picture of the author mimi k
    I would just say this don't give up! I think a large percentage of warriors have been through what you have. I know personally I laid out thousands and all I had to show for it was a belief that I knew I could do it! If others can be successful in this game, so can you...period. Things eventually just come together, all the knowledge you have gained will benefit you. Just believe in yourself and keep striving. They say Einstein failed nearly a thousand times before he succeeded...I'm sure he wanted to give up at some point too, but he didn't. That what separates the 1% who make it. Just my 2 cents Hope this helps...
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  • Profile picture of the author david15923
    I'm not an expert (I haven't made any sort of sale) but in the future (maybe in the summer), since I've got the basic concepts of IM, I will start with Wealthy Affiliate, and you should give that a go.

    A LOT of positive reviews: you pay 50$ a month but you get hosting up to 3 sites, keyword tool, click bank tool to find out what are the products that are converting better, +500 videos of tutorials, easy website builder (no programming involved), 1 on 1 training, a dedicated forum (much like this one) and some things more.

    See some reviews, ask arrount this forum and consider that
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  • Profile picture of the author BlogHostInc
    Try and Try again.

    You're already doing one of the most important things when it comes to making money online. You're taking action. Continue to do so.

    Let me give you a tip.

    You're over looking a treasure chest of valuable information.
    Join the Warrior Forum Room!! This will allow you to view case studies, blueprints, active success formulas. You dont have to invent the wheel to make money online.


    To your success,



    Alfred


    Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

    I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

    Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

    I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5359870].message }}
  • Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

    I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

    Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

    I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.

    Casanova,

    I've not read other replies on this thread (simply 'cos I don't have time), but I imagine some of them say the same things I'm about to say.



    1.) Have patience and endurance. To use a cliché...Rome wasn't built in a day. If you're expecting to go from nothing to millions then you're gonna leave sorely disappointed.

    Have patience and give yourself time. I didn't start earning good money until I was 6 months in. Even then, that's only cos I'm ridiculously good at what I do.

    Find your speciality (everyone has their I.M strengths and weaknesses), which WILL take time no matter what idiot 'guru' tells you. Once you find it, you'll suddenly find things have a way of working themselves out.

    2.) Stop buying course after course. You're wasting your money. Start with ONE thing to focus on and stick with it. If after awhile you're not doing very well at all, THEN you move onto something else.

    Remember: depth, not breadth.




    Hope this helps. Get in touch if you need anything.


    Ben.
    Signature
    50% converting squeeze pages, 12% converting WSO's, and more...
    BenPalmerWilson Copywriting
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  • Profile picture of the author Viramara
    I feel for you, but PPC is not recommended if you're just beginning. why don't you build a list, join an ezine network and started from there. trust me I'm a tech noob, I never have fancy automated software, and my startup cost was ~$30....with long hours of labors to work on articles. but it works, even though I haven't reach Clickbank payment threshold yet (hic!_). You already have the resources you need with those training materials and SEO tools.

    one more thing : STOP BUYING COURSES AND AUTOMATED TOOLS!
    it's not the course or tools that will help making you money. use your HEAD, be creative and don't give up. if I have $1000 I'll spend it for solo ads to build list fast and several MRR products to sell them to, rather than buying courses.

    And wish you all of success
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    • Profile picture of the author billyme
      This was a really great thread to all of us novices. I really discourage anyone from buying anything people were trying to sell on here - you have to be thinking clearly and I'm not sure this is the place for it.

      Thanks to all of you for your wonderful stories and advice. It was quite inspirational.

      Originally Posted by Viramara View Post

      one more thing : STOP BUYING COURSES AND AUTOMATED TOOLS!
      Also, this reminded me of the advice of one of my Calculus teachers: Never ever use your calculator until you have your equation written down. I definitely think this applies here. Really, they make your work easier but they don't do it for you.. you really have to learn how to do it yourself before spending money on simplifying the process.

      Dave
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
        Originally Posted by billyme View Post

        This was a really great thread to all of us novices. I really discourage anyone from buying anything people were trying to sell on here - you have to be thinking clearly and I'm not sure this is the place for it.

        Thanks to all of you for your wonderful stories and advice. It was quite inspirational.



        Also, this reminded me of the advice of one of my Calculus teachers: Never ever use your calculator until you have your equation written down. I definitely think this applies here. Really, they make your work easier but they don't do it for you.. you really have to learn how to do it yourself before spending money on simplifying the process.

        Dave

        I see this a lot, and I have to disagree. You should absolutely invest in knowledge that is worth paying for. The difficult part is that when you've just started learning, you don't know what is worth paying for, yet.

        But it is a business. You should expect to invest money, time, and effort, and for some of those investments to be wasted in every sense except for the lesson learned.
        Signature

        The bartender says: "We don't serve faster-than-light particles here."

        ...A tachyon enters a bar.

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        • Profile picture of the author billyme
          This was a really great thread to all of us novices. I really discourage anyone from buying anything people were trying to sell on here - you have to be thinking clearly and I'm not sure this is the place for it.

          Thanks to all of you for your wonderful stories and advice. It was quite inspirational.

          Originally Posted by Viramara
          one more thing : STOP BUYING COURSES AND AUTOMATED TOOLS!
          Also, this reminded me of the advice of one of my Calculus teachers: Never ever use your calculator until you have your equation written down. I definitely think this applies here. Really, they make your work easier but they don't do it for you.. you really have to learn how to do it yourself before spending money on simplifying the process.
          Originally Posted by MikeTucker View Post

          I see this a lot, and I have to disagree. You should absolutely invest in knowledge that is worth paying for. The difficult part is that when you've just started learning, you don't know what is worth paying for, yet.

          But it is a business. You should expect to invest money, time, and effort, and for some of those investments to be wasted in every sense except for the lesson learned.
          Sorry, I should clarify. When I said here (bolded) I meant on this thread. I really feel like people should do research and people advertising here might just be looking for some quick sales from desperate people. Hope I didn't confuse anyone too much. However, I do think you need to have some kind of idea of what to do before you buy too many books or softwares.

          Dave
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  • Profile picture of the author Ricky Dawn
    I think you have decided to early, it takes a lot of time to get into Google (and stay there).

    You probably only had the sandbox affect which saw you on the first page for a small amount of time.

    I think you need to realised you dont need any software, books or anything else for SEO. There is all the information you need online for free, and I think its SEO that you are failing at.

    You mentioned you wrote 5 - 20 articles on your blogs (sites) thats not that many... Maybe instead of buying hyped crap you should invest in some content writers and link builders (not fiverr link builders) use Odesk and only accept quality links + content. I use iwriter for content and reject all rubbish articles that have been spun, you can spot them a mile away.

    Ricky
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  • Profile picture of the author hamzidosh
    Wow...I finally got to read d entire thread today!
    I aint tellin U how I've been struggling online since 2008 wit only 1 $88 clickbank check (in 2008) & $34 amazon balance + over 20domains in my name cheap acct...Nah! I wont tell U how I feel wen I go hungry to buy petrol to fuel my generator set...Nah!
    I'd just tell You that I'd willing to help you design a proffessional looking blog for free!
    PM me when U r ready to start hussling again!
    To our success.
    Hamzat
    Signature

    For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11

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    • Profile picture of the author asiancasanova
      Alright, I have spent enough time moping around and grabbing attention from you guys. I'm back at it.

      I know this journey is tough, but I'm gonna ****ing make it work.

      Anything worth having in life is not going to be easy to get! IM is the ultimate dream, let's make it a reality.
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      • Profile picture of the author hamzidosh
        Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

        Alright, I have spent enough time moping around and grabbing attention from you guys. I'm back at it.

        I know this journey is tough, but I'm gonna ****ing make it work.

        Anything worth having in life is not going to be easy to get! IM is the ultimate dream, let's make it a reality.
        Yeah! You are welcome back bro.
        So whats your plan/goal statement?
        mine is:
        "I'd build only two amazon affiliates sites in 2012 that will each be on the 1st page of google for their root keyword and will collectively make me $1000 by the end of the year. I am devoting six months to each of the sites and I promise not to move unto a new site until the first site sits on a comfortable spot on page one"
        Signature

        For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11

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  • Profile picture of the author Invert Planet
    asiancasanova and all those that replied... this is an inspirational thread. I wish to tank you all. I am sure many other members are still in the same boat and struggling.

    Well done and well said.
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  • Profile picture of the author TopKat22
    I can so relate. This forum really helped me a lot also. Yes, you still have to check into things because there are those on here just after themselves also, but there are also a lot of great people offering great help.

    I think the main problem people have is getting attracted by all the headlines. There are a few that are real gold, but most are not.

    Glad you are getting help. Good luck.
    Signature
    44 days in and we broke the $10K a month recurring bench mark.

    Guaranteed 60% Opt In Rate Traffic-Real People-Fresh Today-High Quality Biz Opp traffic![/URL]
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  • Profile picture of the author MMateo23
    Hey Asiancasanova. I feel your pain. Believe me. I'm pretty sure we all do, or did, at some point in our IM careers. However, Keep a stiff upper lip. Remember, it's always darkest before the dawn and There is nothing to fear but fear itself. O.K. enough with the encouragement cliches. Now down to business.
    I would suggest that you sit down and think hard about what you want to accomplish. The write out a plan (call it a business plan) illustrating how you will go about achieving your goals. Try to concentrate on one thing at a time. You might want to try Squidoo lenses, such as JeremiahSay suggested. I never thought about them, but after reading her post, I myself would like to give it a try. Also, take what Peter (aceriker) said and try to concentrate your efforts on things people need, not just what they want. Look around the Internet and other blogs and see what the popular items are and try to duplicate what they are doing. Revamp your sites and focus on people's needs.
    Finally, don't spend anymore money on IM products. You probably have all the answers you need. And whatever answer you don't have, you could find in this forum or on the Internet for free. But remember, there is such a thing as information overload. Pick and chose what you need. You have a good amount of great knowledge just in this thread alone. This is just my take on things. Hope it helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author YasirYar
    Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

    I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

    Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

    I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.
    Err.. not to bum you out or anything but USD 1000 lost on "learning" isn't really a loss.. people lose a lot more in trying to find out what works in online marketing.

    I personally know some people who work their bum off for 2 years and THEN cracked the code.

    My advise.. keep trying.. try different stuff.

    Over time, you will gain experience and will get to know which methods are more likely to succeed.

    Then you just dump the ones which arent working and focus on the ones which are.
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  • Profile picture of the author Laubster
    Definitely think a mentor would help. And remember, there is no such thing as failure, only learning experiences. IM is not easy, but the reward is so huge it's worth the work (and picking yourself up after failing).
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    Here are the best tips I can give you.

    1) Focus

    2) Take action

    3) take more action.

    Do proactive things each day, checking emails, buying latest WSO or reading blogs or the warrior forum all day is not what you should be doing.

    Focus, read something and test to see if it works, there have been many warriors do that, and get excited and come back and post..." Holy Moley, I just made a sale"

    Hope you are the next one.
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    • Profile picture of the author adammck
      Change your mentality mate.

      $1000, see it as $1000 invested in your education and learning. You've done something, it hasn't worked, you're 10 steps ahead of when you started.

      Sit back, disconnect, take a look at the IM game and where you may fit in to it. Find a niche, check the competitors, DO IT, be patient.
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  • Profile picture of the author AndreasJacobsen
    It is too bad feeling that way...
    Either way, I recommend not buying any more products! If the products, you have bought, have had some value you will have all the knowledge, you need, to make money online. Just don't get frustrated and give up, that is the most important thing

    Hope this helps!
    -Andreas
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  • Profile picture of the author DavidTT
    Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

    I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

    Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

    I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.
    all I can tell you is to STICK WITH ONE THING AND WORK HARD!!

    its easy to feel overwhelmed in the IM world since the learning curve can be forever if you dont stop and start working. All I can tell you is that you shouldnt expect instant results and you need to work hard.

    I seen/knew very successful IMers and they all told me the same thing. Work hard, be patient and focus. Take one step at a time. If you need money now, you're better off getting a job.
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  • Profile picture of the author stesnees
    Looking at your dating site, you certainly need some images on there in the posts. Some nice attractive women work wonders for click through!
    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Osman_M
    3 months? Some people don't crack into IM properly for years. I think you should stuck with niche sites. Whatever you do just stick to it until it gives some kind of results and then gauge and track from there.
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    • Profile picture of the author barbarajean
      There are already so many posts here that I did not read them all b4 posting, so sorry if my reply is redundant.

      You have found what doesn't work, now it's time to find something that does. Doing the same thing will most likely not get you different results. Something needs to be changed.

      Do you know why you want to succeed online? When you find a compelling enough "why", you will do what it takes to make it work.

      Not to sound irritatingly simplistic, but to make money online you need to find a group of people that has a big want or need - then give it to them. Of course quality & trust are factors here also.

      Remember the story of the tortoise & the hare? If you persist, eventually you will win

      Good luck ~
      Barb
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      A delicious way to get healthy
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  • Profile picture of the author MrOfferz
    As soon as you start talking about how you've failed, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy...Get back on that horse. Focus on one niche to make it less expensive/time consuming in the short term and do it right.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tonylee93
    If there is one thing I learned in life it would be you have to fall in order to stand up!

    So Stand up and earn that money back! I know it wont be easy but if you stay focused and stay motivated you can earn it back! I just know it!

    JUMP IN! my friend! YOU GOT THIS!

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Elion Makkink
    Sorry to say but, the money is in the list! :-)

    So either start a quality WSO here on the forums or an ebook/software/video tutorial with a squeeze page and you will make profit in no time.
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    Cheers,
    Elion Makkink

    Become an SEO Hustler too at seohustlers.com

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  • Profile picture of the author Newbie Watch
    Thank you guys for the advice... I'm about to do my first WSO and I am worried about failing at it... but, like most of you said... if I "fail" at this, it's not really a failure and you have to keep moving on.
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    • Profile picture of the author passiveincomebiz
      Just my 1 cent:

      I wouldn't build a business on Sqiudoo pages -- it will be virtually out of your control as that page could be deleted at any time. Why take he risk. maybe for backlinking it is ok.

      Good luck with the wso but if it doesnt work out I suggest you read the free affiliate guide on the sitebuildit site (do a google search). You'll learn how to identify a hot niche and how to build an affiliate pre sell site that works.

      Then get a sbi site or build your own site as an affiliate presell site and aim for some degree of authority. Aim to get at least 100 quality pages up and do your backlinking.

      It may well take time to be earning good as it did for me but I think a solid well-written hundred page or more pre-sell site is less susceptible to google's idiosyncrasies and better for long term profitability than playing around with building these thin and static 1-5 pages. Leave that to others for now.

      I built 2 decent performing sites with sitebuildit and I am no great writer or designer - I just wrote and wrote and just tried to give value and it worked. And the beauty of such sites is that once you get over the hump and momentum builds - they run a virtually autopilot. Whatever happens -- good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author pnisbet
    Too True: I Paid $12,500 for mentoring with Corey Rudl and another $5,00 approx on various software and money-making schemes. None worked!

    I am now making around $12,000/month in affiliate marketing, article writing and CPA, but it took me 4 years to break even and two more to get where I am now - so don't give up. Nobody makes it overnight no matter what they say. Keep going and success will come.

    Pete
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  • Profile picture of the author Sillysoft
    I didn't read all the posts in this thread, but I will say this. I have failed many times in life, still do. But you really never lose out on failure, in order to fail you must try. When you try to gain experience, when you gain experience it helps you in your next venture of better identifying what works and what doesn't.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanmilligan
    Banned
    Originally Posted by asiancasanova View Post

    I've spent probably over $1000 in internet marketing learning material and software/seo services/domains/hosting. And.... made no money, holy jesus.

    I started with trying to make niche sites. I managed to get 3 niche sites ranked on the bottom of the first page of google, before they started to drop in ranking and into oblivion. That was 3 months of work gone. In a extreme frustration I gave up on those sites and let them die a slow death. It's sad to look at how many articles I wrote for those sites...

    Then I spent another 2 months working on PPC/CPA. After lots of money drained on numerous campaigns such as dating offers, games, email/zip submits, and making no money from that too... I return here to cry like a baby to you all.

    I am so depressed and frustrated right now... and nothing but an empty wallet to show for it. FML.

    So? What do you want us to do about it?

    Stop acting like a kid and do either othese things:

    -Give up, get a job and get on with your life

    -Keep going. Understand we have all failed.

    If we took myself for an example and I told you I have failed about 200 times. No word of a lie. I do alright for myself now unlike I did in the start of my whole IM journey.

    But I fail ALL the time. I get unsubscribers daily, things don't go the way I planned. I have taken weeks to make the 'perfect' product and made no more than ten sales. I get distracted daily. I do stupid things and then think to myself 'Why did I do all that to try make $200 when I could have just mailed my list and made that with one email?"

    I have more bad days than good.

    But heres what seperates us. Instead of acting like a 6 year old and running to my fellow marketers and asking them for a hug and to hold my hand through the whole experience, I get up and dust myself off. And I get back to work.

    So like I said it's your choice, use this as a learning curve or give up.
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  • Profile picture of the author magneticweb
    I read just recently that there's no such thing as failure unless you just give up completely.

    Only a tiny few of us manage to succeed in what we attempt at the first try. Failure is something you have to deal with on the way to success. In fact you need to fail a few times to make success possible. All successful people have failed at some time or other, often many times, but they all learn from their failures and eventually succeed in their endeavours.

    I hope this helps everyone on this thread.
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  • Profile picture of the author gojiberryman
    Hey asiancasanova what you can do to make money online is to build a list. All you need to do is create a desired number of squeeze pages and advertise this squeeze page in every way possible. After building your list over time it will be very easy to market to them because they have learned to trust you. If you follow through with this tactic you will be very prosperous. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author squeeze
    This reminds me of the ol' 10,000 hour rule, which basically says that you can't expect to be an expert at anything until you've spent at least 10,000 hours working on it. For someone working on IM (or anything for that matter), that's more than a year full-time. If you're trying to get started in your spare time (like I am, in addition to my full-time job), its going to take longer. Don't give up yet!

    Joined the site today and am looking forward to some really great discussions with everyone here.
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  • Profile picture of the author DoubleIT
    Don't give up m8. Find out what's wrong with your strategies, and fine tune them. The most important thing is to learn from mistakes and failures. Failure is not the end of everything. IM is a competitive and fast moving industry, we have to keep on learning and improving our skills and knowledge. Good luck and all the best for you in 2012.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Zukerberg
    got it, and thanks! remove your sigs link, stop failing others
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  • Profile picture of the author richrowley
    Dont give up - there are other methods to making money online besides niche sites. You're perhaps a good writer if you created all the content for your sites so use those skills somewhere else.

    There are always people looking for writers on this site and outsourcing sites like oDesk so go and make your $1000 dollars back buddy. You can totally do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author barbling
    Also, this reminded me of the advice of one of my Calculus teachers: Never ever use your calculator until you have your equation written down. I definitely think this applies here. Really, they make your work easier but they don't do it for you.. you really have to learn how to do it yourself before spending money on simplifying the process.
    Hehe, that reminds me of my Calculus professor who said, you have no right using a formula unless you prove it to yourself that it works.

    I've learned to embrace failure - I learn 'way more from that than from success!

    Actually, I find myself encountering success after I internalize the lessons the previous failures taught.

    Think about it..... (she said after realizing she's created 23 WSOs in under 5 months, 19 in under 4).
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  • Profile picture of the author The Marketeer
    Dude,

    Sorry to hear of your temporary set backs.

    If you are really determined to succeed, stop trying to figure it out by trial and error.

    There's a bigger picture that you don't see by buying individual parts of the puzzle.

    Try to find a mentor. There are plenty on this forum.

    Do a search on this forum. Go with one that has experience and results in the areas your interested in.

    You will have to invest in your success.

    But it will be worth it. Trust me.

    All the best
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  • Profile picture of the author sarconi
    never give up , adjust where you have to and build a LIST !!
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  • Profile picture of the author MattBest
    The only fail I know is quitting your dreams
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  • Profile picture of the author Darven Lake
    Don't give up brother, i want tell you about my friend, i have a friend an internet marketer who earn tens of thousands of dollars that I know. He can not understand how to research, do not understand SEO, even I was surprised because he did not understand some terms Internet Marketing that I think is very common. And I believe it! the simplest way we can succees. Do you believe?
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  • Profile picture of the author ttdub
    I understand. It takes complete perseverance. Some people get lucky, but most people have to work extremely hard. Don't give up!
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  • Profile picture of the author rmolina88
    I know this feeling all too well.

    2 years ago when I started, I spent $600+ on various WSOs, outsourcing, etc. While I saw traffic, I wasn't getting any sales. I kinda stopped doing it for over a year, but I recently got back into it and all of the stuff I learned back then really made it easy to jump back in.

    I'm getting my first adsense payment next month and I'm seeing my revenue skyrocket each day. It'll take me a long while to break even from 2 years ago, but I'm glad I decided to not give up.
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  • Profile picture of the author skibbz
    identify a product or service which is in high demand...for example seo services and then package it properly and promote. u can make it, its just the simple things we overlook....over strengths are talents are there hidden waiting to blossom
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    • Profile picture of the author mjsca07
      I'm very new to this forum (as you can see from my post count) but reading the numerous posts and information people share tells me that the IM gig takes work and persistence. The old adage "If it was easy, everyone would be doing it" holds true. You really think that the people making money in this game haven't failed? I'm sure as hell no expert but I think this thing is no different than anything else in life; if you want results you have to work for them. You're regretting 1K? At least you were being productive. Try racking up over 5K just in bar tabs. Try spending another 10K+ on a hobby you don't even do anymore. I've screwed off the last 12 years of my life and now I've finally got focus and am playing "catch up". It's life man, we've all been there. Learn from your mistakes and press on
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    • Profile picture of the author labpete
      Originally Posted by skibbz View Post

      identify a product or service which is in high demand...for example seo services and then package it properly and promote. u can make it, its just the simple things we overlook....over strengths are talents are there hidden waiting to blossom
      Not sure he has the expertise to offer or become an authority in SEO services. Actually, that's the problem with some of the existing services...
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  • Profile picture of the author Jonathan Emanuels
    I think you are sad because you think everyone is making money and you don't. To make your burden less, I don't make money now online.
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  • Profile picture of the author cupcakemonster
    AsianCasanova - I think a lot of us here feel your pain. That being said, it doesn't sound like all was in vain. You have some sites. You have the experience. And you obviously have shown that you're willing to put in the work.
    My advice to you from this point forward is to 1. not spend any more money and 2. focus on one site. When I started IM, I had pretty much no money to invest which proved to be a very good thing for me because it forced me to research a LOT and seek out answers every time I ran into a dilemma. It made me think twice about buying backlinking software or running ad campaigns. And it helped me spend the majority of my time writing quality articles intended to help people solve a problem. Those sites ranked on their own - no backlinks, no promotion, no nothing (I will probably alter this strategy going forward, though, and spend a little money on backlinking and building a list).
    The second bit of advice is to really focus on one website. I actually have major difficulty doing this myself because I get bored really quickly. But I found that telling myself that I will focus on just ONE site for at least ONE week or ONE month (depending on the scope or the topic and how "authority" I want the site to be) really, really improves the quality of that site. I've done the rushing from one site to another and in the end, you're left with a handful of mediocre sites. Stick to one. Make it strong, make it sticky. And then move on.
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    • Profile picture of the author palmtrees
      This thread was from Jan 2012 and just got bumped for some reason.
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  • Profile picture of the author Story
    Sorry to hear about your story. I can totally relate, as I have spent more money with 0 return. Heck.. I could've spent the money on food and entertainment

    Of course, we can say that we found 10000 ways that don't work all keep on trying different things. But the net is vast, very vast. We can easily spend few more years and get nothing in return.

    If I can start over again, I would find a mentor and learn the correct things. I could've saved so much time and money had I understood this years ago.
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  • Profile picture of the author canada94
    Take the positives from it AC, I know how you feel, I felt the same way,but what I found that was sit back and think of the new skills you've learned along your journey, and how many people you can help when it finally does click into place, don't get down, get busy.

    Hope this helps


    Kevin
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  • Profile picture of the author edwardmmp
    I can relate to you my friend, I also struggle to earn online, I've tried everything with no or little results until I stumble the world of email marketing and slowly learn the right way to do it. To my surprise I earn my first commission in autopilot without selling to everybody. If you want to know what I am talking about, you are free to visit my profile to know what I am doing.
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