Using forums (like this) could actually hurt a beginner's chances online...

Look all methods make money-if it's SEO, Site Flipping..Facebook, Youtube, Article Marketing Or List Building.

The trick is..Pick one thing that you LIKE DOING! AND DO IT! STICK TO IT TILL YOUR AN EXPERT AT IT NEVER QUITE UNTIL YOU MASTER IT.

Good Luck!

This forum is definitely information overload. No doubt.

Those who success will try a few different things, find what works, and duplicate what works on a massive scale.

That's all there is to it, really.

Your right about a beginner getting a overdose of information. This place can send someone over the edge. All a beginner needs to do is first make a plan. Next they just need to FOCUS and take massive action daily. The warrior forum can be like a huge library that guides you directly to the information you need when using the search function.

The best starting point for any newb is to probably get hold of some sort of ONline Marketing 101 course.

From there you will know if this is for you and you may also be attracted to a certain form of online marketing which will give you that point of departure that you need as well as an area to focus on.

There are way too many facets to IM which is why many quit before getting started... it's hard work!

you are right. I'm a newbie too and have found it overwhelming. I'm determined though and I'm focused on a few different things now. Time will tell for me

I, as someone who is in a research stage, would respectfully disagree. Forums like this are a gold mine. More dirt than gold, to be sure, but enough gold laying around to make it worthwhile. It is, however, a tremendously active forum - so heaps and piles of dirt to sort through.

You have, essentially, three options:

1. Have a scattered research methodology where you randomly scour the net to try to understand, with no guidance, how some people are making good money - to try to understand that money is changing hands, advertising is being bought and sold, products are being bought and sold and information is being bought and sold. And then try to reverse engineer it on your own.

2. Spend hard earned money on a litany of different 'Don Lapre' type info products.

3. Focus your research, and subsequently get the most value out of that research, in areas of the net where successful online business folk hang out and chat. And listen.

I think #3 to be the most cost effective as well as rewarding. No matter the niche or hobby, I personally believe that a forum is way more valuable for accurate information collecting than blogs as you have greater access to higher number of bona fide experts and the conversation is more diverse in topic.

There are many, many posters here who's main focus is to network and advertise, but this is still a forum, after all. After almost three decades of being an electron surfer and having authored thousands upon thousands of posts on various forums tailored to my interests, I have learned to easily separate those who merely post what they read in other posts and those who post from experience and knowledge. Granted, it is a more daunting task on this forum due to the amount of traffic, but there are experts here.

Experts post here, not to brag, but because, like myself, they simply enjoy the interaction provided by forums. They are here for entertainment and often drop pearls of wisdom. The trick, of course, being the ability to discern who is the real deal and who is as full of s#*t as a Christmas goose.

My forum trained eyes and mind have noticed many of them already and there is already a list of folks who have a post count higher than myself who's posts I scroll by in a thread in search of the those who's avatars I recognize as providing valuable information.

I personally will take an average forum over an average blog for information gathering, regardless of subject but especially concerning IM.

While I understand the point of 'focus on one thing and one thing only', I would suggest that perhaps that method is a sure fire recipe for disaster in the long run. This whole game is way, way too fluid and what worked yesterday does not necessarily work today. And applying a tunnel vision type focus to a single method that works today but may not be viable in 6 months can leave one to resort to starting threads like, "Help, I lost all of my traffic with Google's new update", etc. At which point, the one trick pony method subscribers can find themselves back at square one, having to reeducate themselves on the next method, applying another single minded focus to a single method that may or may not be making money in six months.

If a noob is overwhelmed and confused, I would suggest that they need to study the entire game more intensely so they understand which methods work and which don't. And if they are still overwhelmed, I would suggest they carefully consider whether or not IM is their cup 'o tea.

People need to be realistic. If it truly was as easy as some make it sound, if method A is the only method you need and you can simply ignore the rest, investors with deep pockets would already have hired large staffs and pushed most of us out of the game.

This is the Information Age Brendan. Do not fear it, relish it. Absorb and sort. Before applying one method, one rule, it is best to understand the entirety of the game and all of the rules if you wish to win.

There are a 1000 ways to skin this cat and everybody has their own methods that work for them.

Personally, I think people should try to learn from just one successful mentor (with a proven track record) who uses a method they feel comfortable with. Each successful marketer has a different way of communicating and some will resonate with you better than others. We all had to learn from somebody.

There's tons of high value info being shared in the WF, but if you try to just pick up bits and pieces from everybody here and there you're not learning any particular system. Your just gathering random tidbits --some really good tidbits-- but it'll get super confusing.

This is just my personal opinion, but ultimately I think it boils down to
-- what methods are you going to use to continually build a responsive subscriber list
-- and how do you manage that list to get maximum results

it takes trial and error for most people and that's not a bad thing. that's the best way to learn, evolve and develop your own personal style.

if you can stick to learning just one system from one mentor (at a time) I think it will help you get results faster because you'll be much more focused on each step along the way.

Just my thoughts based on my own experience over the past 3 years. hope it helps!

There is lots of information and products that one should avoid. thanks!

make a plan and stick to it

There is no problem with the forum and the info here.

There is a problem which the majority of people suffer from.......lack of focus and will power.

It's very easy to read an info product and say to yourself "yeah that sound like a great idea! Lets give it a go". The problem is that many people then implement the strategy they have just learned and expect it to work right away and by simply following the exact info in the guide not realizing that all info has to be taken with a pinch of salt and adapted a little for each person and situation.

Once things don't work quickly enough the person then jumps onto the next wonderful idea and either dumps what was done earlier or only goes at it half arsed.

You need to see an idea through to the bitter end. If you decide to jump ship becuase something is not working for you fine. But ask yourself have you given it 100% and enough time before you ditch and jump.

@Christopher

Thank you for your insight. I agree with you that forums (this one especially) are goldmines for learning internet marketing. When I first started learning about this field, I went here. That was back when I was purely reading, and not posting, so I did not have an account here back then. And, from when I started reading to now, I am not even close to knowing everything there is to know, but I have learned a ton. Way more than if I had never joined this forum.

For example, Alexa Smith's posts could probably be compiled into a PDF and sold. I know I would buy it. She has personally answered my questions in a complete and professional manner. She is one of those experts you are talking about.

However, I still can image many beginners reading all of this information and attempting to implement them all at the same time and find it overwhelming, resulting in a complete failure.

And, I do not mean "focus" as in spending a year only driving traffic. Or only posting articles.

I mean "focus" as in spending a month or two working with one method (or part of your business) instead of attempting to do 'everything' at once.

I do know the value of everything that you can learn here. I know I will never leave this forum as long as I am in the internet marketing field (which I hope will be for a long time). I can just see some potential problems.

But, maybe I am wrong. After all, I technically only have around two weeks of real, tangible experience. Those are just my thoughts, but I thank you for your response.

Yes. Piffle.

It's not the fault of the WF you or anyone else has information overload. It's completely down to everyone what information they take into their mind.

Read this, read that, read something else, hop, skip, jump around from one thing to the next - is it any wonder why many here suffer from information overload?

The amount of information you take in is purely your responsibility, nobody elses. If you're getting information overload stop reading more information thinking it's going to solve your problem. It isn't.

A drinker in a pub gets blind drunk. Is it the pubs fault s/he drank a half bottle of JD before s/he got to the pub? No. It's the drinkers fault, the alcoholics fault s/he got so pissed when s/he entered the bar and carried on doing what s/he ought not to be doing with his or her time and money.

You cannot blame the bar for the drunk who wakes up in the morning with the most hellish hangover ever.

What you do Brendan is your responsibility.

You control the amount and the quality of the information you take into your mind.

The WF is brilliant if you learn how to use the resources here wisely.

It's as simple as that.


Mark Andrews

I agree that forums such as this can be overload, however, what a 'Newbie" needs to do is sift through the information and take out what is relevant for the next step in their learning.

I think what happens to a newbie is what happens to all newbies and that is they do not focus on one thing, and keep on jumping around from one shiny new thing to another, thinking that what they are doing is not working, because many seem to have it all and be getting it all, whilst they are not.

Many people who have made it and (Please do not shout me down here) tend to make it seem Easy Peasy, when we all know it everyone has to do it tough in the beginning.

Thanks for sharing valuable information with us !! it was really helpful information for the beginners on the INTERNET marketing.According to me internet marketing is the most coolest and smartest way to earn money . i got many ideas for interenet marketing from this blog .

Don't you think 'all' forums do the same - offer too much information?

Once you realise that there are about 1,000+++ differing opinions on 'every' subject in the world you'll feel better about the 'information overload' suffered here by everyone.

There are some 'very' focused individuals here and RESPECT to them, it's an awesome trait to have in your arsenal, but I bet there's a good 90% of this forum who feel overwhelmed by it all. Just realise you cannot possibly learn all there is to know in a short space of time - limit yourself to a set 'time' each day or each week on here - choose your threads VERY carefully and know that only a few replies will be any good as most are just like you - in the dark and just rolling with it - Me included

Good luck though - Pete.

@Mark Andrews

Thank you for your response. I hope I don't sound like I'm blaming the forum itself. I love this forum. Also, I do not think I, personally am suffering information overload.
I agree with you that it comes down to the individual person to be responsible for their success. I did not mean to make it seem like I was blaming the forum.

I think you are 100% correct, and your examples were great.

@azmanar

Thank you. I have never actually thought out the process of "focusing" on something. I always just considered it to be not attempting a multitude of different methods.

Brendan,
I agree that WP could really mess someone up. Especially a newcomer, if they start trying to follow everyone's advice, or buy endless WSOs.

Focus is the key to success. So, I try to limit myself to about 20 minutes pre day max.

I've never walked a straight line to get to where I'm going. All the little twists, distractions and detours make the journey more interesting and memorable and also add to the overall experience in a positive way.
If you take a snapshot of any one day in the life on a business person it isn't always going to show a person under full control and on the right path.

The 'overload' aspect is part of what you can go through in any business. When I started a food business some years ago the amount of reading involved (regulations, State laws on food processing/handling etc) left me feeling overloaded to the point where I almost put it down and walked away.

What you get from this forum is no different than any other resource, be it online, the local library or wherever. You just have to take the information, process it as efficiently as you can, filter what you don't need then move on.

A bigger concern for me is for people who arrive here still wearing short pants and wet behind the ears. They encounter a lot of erroneous information and have little or no point of reference to help them see through the crap.

Well yes there are many methods, journals and case studies which can become very confusing for a newbie. I would suggest to stick to one thing and keep working on it.

Yes - Information overload is the enemy for newbies. I deal with it everyday. I am afraid to look at my inbox of email as something there could lead me astray.
There are SO MANY methods of making money on the internet...... and the very best one is.............. the one that YOU select and stick with. Make a wise decision and part of that decision should be to not let yourself be destacted!

Think you are spot on Brendan,

Another thing that goes hand in hand is the fact that people are always look for reassurance with a method or technique to making money online.

As a beginner you think that everyone that is making money online has some SECRET system or something that they are not sharing when in actual fact the whole basis of making money both online and off is trial and error.

At least that is what I have found.

Of course the mistakes get less and less as you pick up experience.

What is experience?

Learning from your mistakes right?

I say get out there and start making mistakes to become a success!

Chris

One important aspect in picking the right path is looking at one's own strengths and weaknesses. What skills do you already have? What time frame do you need to start making money? How much money do you have to put into your efforts? How much time daily do you have to invest, etc. Then take those strengths and weaknesses and factor into the game plan what to focus on...

This is exactly why I ended up taking a 'black out' from all things IM when I was in the beginning stages of my career. After getting so many ideas, making so many plans, researching so many methods, I finally figured out that just about any of the 101 marketing method you can learn about on WF will work, provided one simple prerequisite: You have to actually do the work!

And it's certainly not just the forum - Information overload is how many in the IM niche make money. WSO sellers sure aren't doing their best to keep you focused, even the ones that market towards newbies.

Once I figured out that my information overload was making everybody else money except for me, it was a lot easier to take a break from WF for awhile until I actually had something working for me. I knew once I actually had consistent money coming in I'd feel a lot less pressure to find the "golden ticket" idea.

So yes, I'd recommend newbies spend a week or two doing in-depth research on the forum, but after you've established a plan of action you need to CUT AND RUN until you've got something stable working for you. Otherwise the first hiccup in your plan will make those 100 other ideas suddenly seem much shinier.

Great post!

This is a good Topic, and Brendan (OP) does have allot of valid points.

I also agree with the many others that said, it is the responsibility of the individual to handle the information they find here, efficiently.

Browsing the Warrior Forums is not the only way to get Information Overload.
The same can happen also via browsing the Web (Google Search).

You could pull up about 50 Articles in 1 day, about different methods, ideas, strategies of making money.

If you don't know how to handle that information in an effective manner, and do not take things 1-step at a time, you'll end up in difficulties from the begining.

==========

Let me share with you guys, something I have been doing a long while now. It will help you avoid this Information Overload Problem.

So at this point, I've already decided what projects and strategies I would like to work on next, I have a HUGE ever-growing To-Do list.

What I do while browsing Forums such as these, is to Save or Bookmark the information.

Classify it as "READ LATER".

This is very important.


Every day that you spend on these Forums, you will keep finding new and exciting ideas, that will distract you from your current projects.

You'll end up wanting to work on 5+ Projects all at once!

So, to avoid this, anytime you see a new and exciting idea you want to try, just Bookmark/Save the idea for later.

You can add it to your To-Do list, so that you can come back to this idea later on, AFTER you have successfully launched your currently pending projects.

If people took this bit of advice seriously, I'm sure that their productivity will increase by a HUGE amount.

-Andrew

Just one other thing I should note:

NOT using forums (like this) could actually hurt a beginner's chances online... EVEN WORSE!


If newbies/beginners go surfing around the internet looking for the fastest ways to Earn Money Online, they'll end up being "Prey" to those "Sharks" out there.

There are too many Fast Money Making Scams that appear at the top of Search Engine results.

I was nearly suckered into paying money for scam programs like these years ago, when I started off trying to learn about online business.

I only started getting solid and more truthful information when I joined the Warrior Forum.


In this Forum, if someone is trying to scam you with a WSO for example, then Senior members, more knowledgeable persons or existing clients of the WSO will expose the fraud as early as possible.

So allot of members here work hard to protect each other from scammers.

Compared to other money making sites you may find online, you'll find no truthful warnings about how good or bad a product or idea really is.

If you visit Review Sites looking for a more honest opinion of a Product, most of them will very cleverly convince you even more, about why you should buy a fraudulent product.


In general, because this Forum involves allot of discussion and feedback from experts on each Topic posted here, it's a much safer place to start leaning about Online Business than anywhere else.


Information overload is quite likely to happen to many beginners, no doubt.

But it's better for them to be overloaded with 50% useful information, than the 99% hoaxes they would find in many other places.

-Andrew

@Andrew Davis

Yes, I actually do bookmark threads and articles to read later. I have a whole folder in my Google Chrome Bookmarks just for Internet Marketing threads/articles.

And, I know that sites like WarriorForum are extremely useful for anyone, not just beginners. They just have to be used the right way.

You make excellent points.

F ollow
O ne
C ourse
U ntil
S uccessful

I was going to post my (long) personal take on this, but Christopher and Mark did a terrific job already.

So, long story short, even with information overload (awesome btw) it's OUR job to learn to read/understand/apply IF/WHEN needed.

Dude, without this forum I would go nuts searching/understanding/discussing topics!

Find something you like, focus on learning all you can
about it, implement everything you learn. If you make a little money,
scale it (expand on it. Do more of it to make more money).

If successful, you've got a WSO.

HTH
Vince aka makingiants

I actually couldn't agree more. When I first started out I didn't know anything about Internet marketing forums. I did the usual newbie stuff such as buying IM products that were going to make me rich from people who new nothing about IM but to sell you a junk product and make money off it. Once I found this forum and others like it, my problem was information overload as well. Finally after jumping around to a million different things, I started listing to the people who said don't jump around pick something and stick to it until it works. For me the money was in PLR products, but only sticking to it and working hard did it for me.. Finding what works for you and sticking to it is important before you fill your head with a bunch of stuff not even on the subject.

Information overload can be crippling to getting started as an Internet marketer. Many others, and myself included, have been there.

A great approach is to establish a connection with a mentor, somebody who's already "been there", and can help to guide you down the right steps to getting started.

When I got started with Internet marketing, my first introduction was to PPC (Pay-Per-Click), and at that time I had no idea that any other form of online marketing existed. It's something that you have to explore.

If it helps, think of it as a MMORPG of sorts (If that's what you're into). When you begin for the first time, there's an overwhelming amount of things to do, and you can go anywhere, but if you have a friend or make a friend who's "been there" then they can help guide you towards the goal. In this case, that goal is financial prosperity.

Go make some friends.

The information here is tremendous to say the least. I am a beginner myself and for a short time I was starting to think I couldn't do this. I was doubting myself. I have settled down now and know I just have to work hard and study relentlessly. Hardest thing I find about the forum is trusting myself to figure out what is legit information and knowing what steps to take first.

Good post brendan. I think the key is to remember that regardless of the information overload, the thing you need to do to find out what works for you is simple trial and error.

While the warrior forum CAN be overwhelming, it is each individuals responsibility to use it to their benefit. If you have enough self-discipline, and you KNOW WHAT YOU want, this is an amazing resource. Nowhere else can you learn so much about internet marketing for FREE. There are a lot of really amazing threads, and you can find some really helpful warriors. Now if you just get on here and start buying WSO's and not doing jack, then it's your fault !! Too much of anything is always bad. I think its an individual's choice as to how they use the information, and IF they actually apply it.


P.S. If this is too much information then . . . try the opposite, try learning IM all by yourself, no support, no input, feedback, ideas, etc. And let me know how long that takes!