What would not you do if you could start over

I would've stuck with the way I made money the first time I made money.

You get your first decent payday and then you can only see potential everywhere, ignoring the golden egg you're sitting on top of. Once you find one way to make money just push it as hard as you can, because you'll never actually find another way.

I would NOT have ignored the Warrior Forum! I would have come here everyday and absorb as much as humanly possible for a bit before getting started.

If I can start over, I won't waste time on so many useless dabbles, and I will focus on one thing, it is building my list.

Not an "IM" business exactly, but online business years ago, and a full-time revamp some years later.

Looking back, I'd definitely dumped more women I was with at those times. Most are not supportive. It's happened 3 times now. Women generally ARE NOT supportive of men who have uncertain futures. I choose to be realistically optimistic, and she would fixate on unlikely worst-case scenarios.

I had one delay me by a whole year. I'm still playing catchup many years later because of her.

Being your own boss is about support networks, not just the business aspects.

* This obviously excludes females here. So please, no dissenting posts from the ladies.

I wouldn't change anything. All my mistakes have brought me all this knowledge that I can use to build and sustain a profitable business.

Would have never bothered with SEO nonsense.
Would have never bothered with Amazon nonsense.
Would have never bothered with Social Media nonsense

Other than that. All other mistakes where necessary. The above one's I could have done without because the only lesson I learned was that they are all pretty crap, pointless and time wasting.

Reading and buying a lot of IM products
That's the biggest mistake i did, I should have first tried to be expert in something and sell that
That is what i did after 2 years trying almost everything i learned from IM products
All that i can sum up is
> If you are expert in something try to sell it
> If not try to be in one

The biggest mistake was wasting time searching for help and not actually doing anything with that help! Being busy isn't the same as taking action that brings you towards your goal.
I would find a blueprint that works, make it my own and stick with it.

I wish I would not have bought so many WSO's when I was learning about IM. When I was new I spent way too much learning and not enough doing.

In the IM niche it is all about and making sales. Most people don't want to hear that, but to make money you must sell something.

Steve

I worked hard from the start and I had good results after the first month. The mistake I made later was to seek other sources of income when there was still much to learn from the first.

As others have said, focus on one method to start. And do not fall into the trap of changing every week! If you can stick to a niche, it's even better.

Good luck!

As a product creator I would stay away from development partnerships and just pay coders for their time.

As a developer, I would stay away from development partnerships and ask product creators to pay me for my time.

I wouldn't have shone away from building relationships in my niche and niches tightly related to my niche.

Stop spending money on shiny objects.
If you research hard enough, you can get pretty much anything free online or a fraction of the cost elsewhere.
Find ONE good web designer instead of multiple designers

There is a great post by Rod Cortez, but it has been moved to the War Room unfortunately which is a paid section of the forum Aleeshar, cost to join is $37, but that is an investment and will be the best money you ever spend anywhere.

If you are broke, there is a blog post here that will help put you in the picture, stop you getting ripped off and prepare you for the long road ahead.

One word: procrastinate. Don't do it. Just follow through in a straight line.

I picture Yoda saying this.



lol.

In all seriousness though.. what I would NOT do:

1) jump from one thing to the next.. I would've just picked 1 thing to do and not even make failure an option.. no retreat. I'd go into a hot market from the beginning where I knew there was money at and would not change path or do anything else UNTIL I was crushing it.

2) Have an ego. I would ditch the ego, ask successful people questions.. and then I would just shut up and listen. They're successful for a reason. If you just honestly listen, ditch the ego, and do exactly what they say.. you'll make money FAST and skip the learning curve...

3) Sit around all day, read tons of stuff, do nothing.. and then wonder why I was broke?
If you want to make money.. you got to do stuff! so many times I would spend my whole day reading forums, reading ebooks, watching videos, and if you asked me what I did all day I would say I was working on IM!

no I wasn't.

Reading doesn't make you money. Doing stuff makes you money. The time I spent reading I would've spent DOING.. testing campaigns.. < the school of hard knocks.. real results.. that talks. and that would have taught me a heck of alot more than any book could.

oh and I would've built a list from day 1.

I drove tons of traffic to CPA offers.. and didn't built a list.. and the second the offer got pulled or my account got slapped.. I was back at square one and had nothing to show for it.

Don't make the mistake of NOT building a list.
Building a list from the beginning is seriously one of the smartest and most profitable things you can do.

I would avoid purchasing a lot of products because I finished spending a lot of money. So I would keep with one programs that I see it Works and of course stay focus and not get distracted with tons of programs.

If I could start over again, I would not have married my ex-wife!

I would get a book on marketing before I did anything else. Then make a list of tools I need. Then I would buy them. Set up a proper business plan and follow it to a tee. Failure and learn from them. Change test and grow. Basically master that. Then branch out and do the same thing with a second income stream.

Hi Aleeshar,

Not spam...lol.

I made silly mistakes in the beginning. I'd devote the energy I used to plastering my squeeze page all over the place toward writing, 1, 2 or 5 blog posts daily to boost my PR and Alexa score.

How about yourself?

I would have hired out more often. Starting out, I always tried to save money and learn how to do things myself. This is important but even better is to hire a pro and learn by watching his formula and seeing how he works. There were so many steps of the process that took out so much time because I insisted on learning how to do it myself. Looking back, I would have saved a lot of time and stress AND FAILURE simply by working with someone who knows how to overcome that challenge.

Think about any challenge you've ever had...I can assure you, there is somebody out there who knows exactly how to deal with it.

If I had to start over I would not have shied away
from Youtube marketing. I would've accumulated
years of videos that would be a steady source of
traffic to this day.

I also would have not allowed myself to be
convinced to focus all my traffic generation
on a company's sales page.

Those were years of lost time and possibly tons
of prospects - if I would've been focused on
list building.

Time, my friend, is a marvelous teacher.

I would stay as far away from the Warrior Forum as possible (stay focused)

Don't believe the hype. Don't try to make thousands in the beginning. Try to make one dollar. then when you make one dollar, try to make ten. then 100, then a thousand.


That's my tip.

Here are the mistakes I made when I was a newbie:

1. I didn't study internet marketing.

2. I believed all the lies I read about how easy it was to make money online.

3. I believed that just by creating good products I would surely make money.

4. I started trying to promote my own products without knowing how the internet works.

5. I didn't try to sell affiliate products first of all, before creating my products.

6. I didn't make any marketing research. I didn't know who my customers were.

7. I didn't have a marketing plan.

8. I didn't discover the Warrior Forum.

9. I despised the lessons I found at the Warrior Forum even after discovering it.

10. I delayed to understand that I was still a newbie even after learning the basics.

11. I delayed to understand that I should visit the WF everyday instead of being merely a tourist here.

12. I delayed to become a War Room member because I thought that it was useful only for webmasters.

13. I made many other mistakes, not as important as the ones I have already written in this list.

Here are mistakes that I wouldn't ever commit again:

1. Buying any type of WSO or training product.

2. Deciding that I'd rather not make my own website.

3. Deciding that I'd rather not write a lot of content.

Things that I'd definitely do again:

1. Analyze other websites and see how they're making money.

2. Come up with my own unique twists and have some fun.

3. Provide services and products of value.

4. Make friends with guys who aren't selling any product, but who seem to be successful. I'm good friends with an Australian guy from here who helped me a ton.