What's your worst IM mistake?

Poor keyword research was my worst mistake so far. To tell you the truth, I'm actually wanting to make mistakes and I want to make them fast.

not building a list earlier on

not having enough focus

not using solo ads soon enough to build my business

spreading myself too think in my earlier days of IM

trying MLM

i could write an entire new blog post of my mistakes over the last 4 years.....in fact i might just do that :-)

paul

I think the biggest mistake people make is getting caught up with 3-4 different products at a time, when they should be focusing on what works, and has worked, since the beginning of IM. It hasn't changed much.

It's fun to check out all the new cool ideas, but it's also detrimental in the sense that you're not getting any work done. No work = no money.

Focus on one thing (this does not mean only one stream of income, of course) I learned that early on in my career and it's the most important thing in my opinion.

My biggest mistake was not starting an email list from day one. I missed out on tons of potential subscribers and money.

I think when I started out the big road block for me was not precision focus, i'd get distracted or bored and start a new project, vs finish or getting the previous in a good solid place. Now I try to have laser sharp focus on whatever project i'm working on.

My worst mistake was spending a ton of cash on PTC. I had gotten -ROI then I quit that and turned to affiliate programs and direct promotion.

My biggest mistake was ignoring the value of email list.

My biggest mistake in the IM world is bouncing from one strategy to another without fully fleshing out and implementing ONE strategy. It's called the "shiny ball syndrome" and it has pulled me away from projects that are 3/4 done, time and time again. You need to really focus on one strategy, put the blinders on, and run with it full steam ahead!

All of my mistakes were bad ones lol!

In the beginning I didn't learn properly from my mistakes and by that I mean if it failed I assumed it was a failure, I didn't stop and try and put a twist on the same method or split test things properly.

We've all done something silly as some point, I suppose the trick is just to learn from it.

My biggest mistake was thinking that I should make money only from the internet. The lesson was that IM should be part of a bigger strategy utilizing other channels of communication (newspaper ads, direct mail, direct sales, flyers, event, etc.)

For me, it was not knowing what I really want to do.

I spent dollars on CD's and ebooks but I could have done what I'm doing now had I known what I really wanted when I started. I could have gone through my passion from day 1. It's easier to talk about something which doesn't bore you.

What domain, where to host, how to do keyword research, etc. should come after "What website should I really put up and why?".

Thanks!

My worst mistake in IM was pushing craigslist till I got banned. I had a program that banked $100 a day.

My biggest mistake was running around in circles, chasing the perfect answer that just didn't exist. Once you get it through your skull that nothing is going to be absolutely perfect and error free, it becomes a hell of a lot easier to move forward.

My biggest mistake was following the herd.

My biggest mistake was jumping from project to project only to find myself working hours and accomplishing nothing.

Being lazy, if we're talking on the broader level.

I have a ton of projects that are going really well and a number of others where I could be doing a lot better. I've also been trying to rectify my habit of not doing the little things that matter.

I didn't test anything earlier but now that I do, there is a lot more data to work with, for example and thus, the results are better. I've let sites that ranked on the first page (but didn't make money) expire because I couldn't be bothered to. Trying to improve all that now.

There are several small changes I've made over the course of the past few months — let go of things that were taking up a lot of time but weren't resulting in anything at all — and they are benefiting me now. There's still a long way to go!

I wish IM worked earlier for me.

It took me over 5yrs to earn my first $100 monthly maybe i would have been a Millionaire by now.

All things being equal, its achievable within a few years.

Worst IM mistake I've ever made was overpaying for things that could have been done better from a stranger on Fiverr. When I was first starting out, I barely knew anything about IM yet I paid over $200 to have a simple PHP directory site set up and also paid $700 for its design.

I don't regret it at all, however. Glad I made the mistake so I could learn and I'm glad it didn't discourage me from pursuing IM as a career.

1. Ignoring list building.

2. Relying too much on free traffic. Free is great but paid sometimes is better (solo, swap etc)

3. Sometimes falling for the shiny new object

4. Not taking action when needed

I have made loads of mistakes.

Not building a list.

Buying too many useless products.

Not building a list.

Buying really good products..but not taking action with them.

Not building a list.

Treating it like a hobby...not a business.

Not building a list.

Listening to friends and family and their negative comments.

Not building a list.

Oh...did I mention..not building a list...!!!

BUILD A LIST...!!!

my biggest mistake?
not focusing. it´s all about having a focus and actually follow instructions and not just reading them.

My biggest mistake is over-planning and found myself accomplish nothing.

My worst mistake is not replicating working methods...

Never looking for link farming ! It not a good way to shortcut because nothing can hide beyond Google .
My bigger mistake is do lot internet marketing in one times and forget to make tracking for every campaign i did. That the worst thing while i feel that marketing without tracking is wasting of time and cost.

Surely in IM there are no mistakes.

You need to be able to make mistakes to learn from them and better yourself.

Having said that - I think the biggest mistake is over planning and never getting started.

Automation was one of the worst mistake I made. Link building is better done manually. I learned this in a hard way, now I make sure my links are manually made. I do outsource now and i stay away from products that make promises for high ranking by using link farms.

Ryuchi

starting IM too early (during the age i use the 56kb modem)

Hoping that someone would "save me"

Lack of focus and not treating IM like a job.

my worst mistake: I am building link for a blogspot site ;( I feel so insecure by having it in blogspot

Oh and spending far too much time on Warrior Forum

My biggest mistake (so far!!!) is believing advice from "experts", which got the site I'd put my life-savings into, de-indexed (due to bad advice on backlinking).

Still, that's the kind of mistake you only make once, and doing things like that is a better way to learn than not taking action because you're afraid that your results might not be perfect

I've learned a lot since then, the content from that site which was de-indexed is now making good money, and my profits from IM are increasing constantly in the year since I bought that domain.

In general, I'd say that the biggest shock from mistaken assumptions in IM is assuming that a course or system you buy is a real system that really makes real money. After you've tried a few systems, wondered why others are saying their making thousands with no work, and you're making nothing, you keep learning bits and pieces here and there, and start to spot obvious signs, like the list of websites in the system you've just bought, that the seller says they "use every day" to make their millions, contains sites that have been down for several years, and you start to see that their just putting together a bunch of stuff they've read somewhere, certainly not ever tried even once themselves, and selling it to people who don't know any better! Still, I've learned a few things from every single course I've done, and eventually one learns enough to make some money at IM and there certainly a few real systems out there too!


Chris

Lacking focus.

There are a lot of projects that I started but didn't complete.

I would get started on something but then

Well for me the worst was not building a list and lack of focus obviously.

Did someone say mistakes!?

I'm a guru at them! Yes, I am the undisputed world champion at f***ing things up!

I got some HUGE ones to share! Here are the most significant to me...

IGNORING KEYWORD RESEARCH
Very very stupid mistake. It's pretty much like leaving out MARKET RESEARCH when doing a business plan. Without market research, you don't even know what you're targeting! It should be the basis of all your marketing in the first place.

GURU-HOPPING
Bought all these courses like shiny objects. Didn't follow through with most of them. Because another guru popped up with an awesome new course. Spent money on that, didn't capitalize. This was caused by a lack of clarity. I wasn't laser-focused on one course, one expert, one technique.

BELIEVING IN 'GET-RICH-QUICK'
The truth is that 'Get-rich-quick' is that it really means 'get-broke-faster'. Yes, one of the stupidest, most humiliating mistakes I've ever done was fall for those stupid scammers with those sales pages promoting push-button traffic software that's been going around. This is my own fault for being greedy, impatient and lazy. Thinking that this stuff doesnt require hardwork and 'push-button' riches actually did exist. I felt like such a fool!

NOT TAKING ACTION
Pretty simple really. Action is the only thing that brings results. No action, no results. That's really it.

ARTICLE SPINNING AND SPAMMING
I'll probably get flamed for this. But this is probably one of the biggest waste of an investment of time/money I've ever attempted. Quality of the content sucked, backlinks were of no real value and actually put my reputation at risk because the content stank. What a waste of time.

DOING ALL THE WORK MYSELF
There's so much to do in IM, it could be overwhelming. The day I started leveraging time and money was when I realized how I can better shift my focus on things that were really important and things that really made me money.

BEING AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES
Probably the worst mistake of all time. Don't need to explain why.

I probably have more, but these are probably some of the biggest ones I've done so far. I'm bound to make more though! I'm getting better at it every day

Not building a list sooner, for sure.

I think my biggest mistake was not setting aside an hour a day for IM. I get so busy with life and then try to cram it into a day or a weekend.

Not building a list from the beginning.

My biggest mistake was i missed huge list of emails and bear loss.

My biggest mistake is not being able to realize that I was wasting too much time unfocused and doing nothing instead of getting work done.

I lose focus easily unfortunately.

This has been said but I would like to restate it based on the excellent question this is.
I found two big mistakes in the beginning. One was way to easy to fall pray to. It is
spending too much time learning and not applying. Sites like this are awesome, but for
me I got in a loop of taking in the information and not applying it.

The other big mistake I made is believing in a project so much that I failed to really give
the full gravity of keyword research as I should have. This is the foundation of a project-
it should not be taken lightly.

My biggest mistake was not seeing through obvious intentions early on. I've never bought a junk IM product, but I've come close. I've gotten better at spotting it, but only after a lot of time wasted following junk peddlers.

My biggest mistake was jumping from method to another and want to become millionaire very fast hhh.

Now I follow the correct path and know what I am doing.

My big mistake so far was register as a member of warrior forum and realize after 8 months I could find everything I need to make money on here, at the meantime, I was spending $3000-$8000 in loads of crap things,nothing to do with make money online.What waste!!!

I start to think my mistake right now is not building a list

Paying someone $349 to critique something I wrote. Ugh!!!! My husband still gives me a hard time about that one!!

My worst is I did not focus on list building when I was started. Hope someone out there who read this post will not do the same.

Ross

My biggest mistake was stopping when I was just getting really successful and making good money. I was too afraid of failure so I stopped pushing myself. I learned that failure has to be a part of the equation. We learn from our mistakes.

My biggest mistake has been starting sites in niches I am not passionate about. I get swayed by trends and potential to make money, I set up the site, and then never do anything with it again because I have no personal interest in it. I always do much better when I stick to what I know and care about.

My biggest mistake is not building an e-mail list sooner. I would be banking if I starting building an e-mail list from day 1!