1 Year Later: 10 Lessons Learned

A great article for us newbies. I hope I get to your point one day.

You read that in two minutes? That's 2700 words there. 22 words per second is hella fast :rolleyes:.

Joe you are an inspiration, like most of us we can waste a lot of time in the learning process but in the end the only way to be successful is apply what we have learned and take action.

Fantastic article you've got there Joe. An insipration. Like you, the start of IM career was no success story - so I can totally relate to that.

I think I've said this to you before on the forum, but your writing style totally attracts me (not in a sexual way lol), if you ever wrote a book I would probably read it.


P.S what are you eating in your avi? Been wondering since you put it up.

Holy Crap! You're 22?? You are wise beyond your years!!
This article covered a lot more applicable business skills than I received with a Business degree!

Joe, I am very Impressed..

How the hell did you managed to write so much lol!!

U should become a copywriter =))))))))))

Really good post, one that everyone should read.

A lot of value in those words, even though I will bet that most people won't follow your advice, Joe.

Anyone trying to succeed should, though.

Holy bloop (sounds cooler than bleep)!

Wonderful article... no, wonderful essay, Joe.

You deserved a "thanks" - congratulations.

Essay is a classification I'm ok with. Article...not so much. Makes me cringe lol.

Now this is a contribution to the forum! Excellent post, Joe. I'm a little concerned, though, that you didn't include any pictures. I hope you're not slipping.

Thank you for sharing! Great words to live by, wishing you continued success!

Andre

Good post Joe. You will give newbies, and perhaps some oldbies, encouragement with that.

Heck, I even suspect that about now old Thaddaeus is right proud of you. With what you have achieved, and your ability to write, maybe now he will get off your butt about makin' some money at that Internet thingy.

:-Don

Awesome job, Joe. Keep up the good work.

Hi Joe,

Very interesting article and i am appreciate it because of willingness of you sharing your experience.

The main point from there i think is "TAKE ACTION".

Good luck my friend with your journey!

Zudie

Congratulations on the completion of your first successful year in IM and thanks for the great post.

I am sure your post will enlighten many, who have unrealistic expectations regarding raking in money from content creation and online marketing. It is natural for a newbie to make mistakes, but I'd say, anybody who happens to read this post will learn to frame meaningful morals out of their mistakes and turn those morals into their success mantras.

Thanks again!

Great tips, Joe. Thanks for the insightful post. I'll keep this bookmarked.

Why doesn't this thread have more views? Thanks a lot for their input and tips.. I will definitely reference back to them when I get into poop mode.

D

Great post. I am in a very similar situation that you were in a year ago and one week ago I decided to pursue actually making money online and not just dreaming about it. Great advice, perfect timing. Thanks!

Thanks Joe... I really needed a kick in the pants to get me going. OK, so (deep breath) here we go...

This boy can write...

Enjoyed reading your post

Kim

Im dissapointed.

I read through all of that, and not one funny picture.

I want my money back.

I'll add my 2 cents too...
- always keep learning
- don't take work or yourself too seriously
- don't keep beating your head against a brick wall. if it's not working, regroup and do it differently.

Great post Joe! I agree, your post should be required reading for everyone who is just getting started in internet marketing. The points that you mention will help anyone to enjoy long-term success online.

Excellent post, my friend...

As for this:

Don't beat yourself up. It's a pretty common thing. Just look at the stock market and the real estate market bubbles in recent years. Just about every generation goes through a period when it thinks that this time things will go up forever.

Cmon man Really?
.
Me too!:p

I have trouble with this. hmm
Maybe Im not that smart after all

On a serious note though.. I'm tackling affiliate marketing through Article marketing but I am having trouble calling myself a "writer". I have No training or tertiary education, yep just a dirty ol' tradesman.
When do you know your writing is at a standard that is suitable for sydicating?
Do I just keep writing and contacting potential syndicators until I get the desired outcome?
Does a proof reader help to improve chance of syndication?



Fixed that for ya

Thanks Lucas

PS
Great Post by the way
Very Inspirational

Another newbie to WF & IM here who is completely shocked that you are only 22 years old. Keep that great attitude & your star will continue to shine & grow brighter.

I hope that others will pick up on your sparkle and "get" it. Success is not going to come to you in a box or in 1 day. You need to swallow your pride, have some modesty, open yourself up to learning something new & stop looking at what is on the other person's plate. You have to DO & keep doing. That is the lesson I've picked up over the past 3 years & the message I've taken away from this thread. I hope others will too.

Here's to your continued success. I hope by this time next year you reach those 6 figures...somehow, with your tenacity, I have a feeling you will.

Hi Joe

I just read the entire post and just wanted to say thanks for sharing your experience with us, I find it inspiring specially for a newbie like me, I've only starte learning IM about a month ago so this advice is invaluable. Again many thanks a best of luck

Joe thanks for your article - it actually was my birthday yesterday but I'm a complete newbie when it comes to IM. I thought your Communicate point was totally apt, as my family are already complaining that I am neglecting them with my new IM venture. I am obsessed and would work on the site 24 hrs if I could, I just am getting such a buzz out of creating something. But you are absolutely right. We should not neglect our family and friends, so I am going to pace myself from now on!

Are you sure you wrote this? I thought I was the only sarcastic, badass 22 year old punk turned internet marketer! Great read.

I just love reading posts like this - not necessarily the advice/lessons part (those are cool, too) but where the writer (Hey Joe! ) takes serious stuff and makes it fun to read.

Brightened my day. Thank you.

Thanks for a very inspiring article Joe!

I think we all have times where we feel tempted to buy a new shiny piece of software, and e-book or something else we believe would skyrocket our income within an hour! :-)

Some people are addicted to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, chocolate or other thing - and in this forum many of us are information junkies.

You know the feeling, and new WSO is launched - if it is cheap you probably think "well, let's wait for the reviews before I buy." If it is expensive, you follow those reviews carefully because it COULD be the missing piece of the puzzle.

When you push the buy button, you get this warm feeling - convincing yourself "I deserve it, I need it!"

You download your purchase, look through the book or install the software... grab a cup of coffee, and then... NOTHING... you start to browse a bit, answering a Skype message, check your e-mail. "I will look at the new stuff tomorrow"...

And the product remains untouched and collects dust at your hard drive - you manage to convince yourself that it was not worth reading/using. And you have already convinced yourself that it was not that important...

However, 2 days after you got a mail, a brand-new WSO... amazing reviews, and it can.... here we go again.

Does it sound familiar? Been there, done that - bought the T-shirts? :-)

There is nothing wrong by buying WSO´s but we just fool ourselves if we don´t take action.

No matter how hard we try, it is impossible to master all aspects - you might be a fantastic designer, but a lousy salesman.

I have tried to make a little action plan for myself - yes. I also buy WSO´s and some are fantastic and some are pure crap.

Before I buy I ask myself:

1. Is this something I need to learn now?
2. Do I have the time to learn it?
3. Would I put it into action?

All questions have to be a yes.

And here is another little advice - if I buy an info product, I have decided that I would write down 2 - 3 things I learned or not knew before.

Let us say it was a SEO book, and I learned that it is important to use outgoing authority links - then I would write that down.

If we just keep hunting the latest info, we spent more time chasing info, instead of taking action.

I worked for a big ISP company as an internal sales manager some years ago. We got a new girl as a junior sales consultant without any knowledge about hosting.

However, the funny thing, she was that she sold a lot! - in the beginning she had no clue what the difference between a Unix based or Windows based web hotel was.

Then she got curious, and started to gain a lot of knowledge - being able to ask the customers if their website was using ASP or MySql.

Her sales dropped 60% - why? Because she started to use technical terms a lot of the customers actually not knew - and IT managers are often males, and try to make them tell a little lady that they don´t know the tectonically terms she is using :-)

Wow,! that was a fantastic and great article to us. As a beginner it helps me a lot to carry some knowledge. Its very informative and helpful for every newbie .

Hi Joe, I just became a member here not even 10 minutes ago (but I have heard about this forum for years), and this is the very first post that I viewed. After spending over 16 hours on the computer today, at another attempt to make progress toward my business, I ultimately made NONE (again)! And, I was REALLY at a quitting point, AGAIN! But, after reading your post, I feel very different than I did just a few minutes ago! This was the "soft kick in the ass" that I needed ...and at exactly the right time. Thank You!

What a writing!
No, we will not take those as gospel and bind to keep that as a good book! Rather let us follow your work and do something like that.
Thanks for the nice post.

@JoeRobinson - Nice post! Really well done.

That awkward moment where it is your post that gets bumped back to the top after the fact.

Ah, the fond memories I have of this one though.

Great post. It was an easy read. Unlike many, you gave something a go, and you discovered new things about yourself along the way.

Thanks, Joe...read the whole thing and enjoyed it.

Takeaways:

#1 - take action on making money - "Will this generate revenue for me?"

#2 - move away from trading your time for money as soon as possible

#3 - expect that what you'll be doing in the middle won't be what you were doing at the beginning.