It's My 10 Year Anniversary - Here Are 10 Things I've Learned in 10 Years...

I agree with you. My first online money came from selling on Amazon not on ebay but they are very similar sites.

Those are some great tips!

I never really used ebay to make money online. Well it makes sense though, go where the buyers are and sell.

I would say if you have a basic knowledge pn building sites, then flippa is just as easy. You can basically build a site in one day, list it and get paid in 3 days. These are all great things if you want to make your first dollars online.

And i agree, it takes a lot of time and effort to build a solid online business, but there are shortcuts ofcourse.

Firstly, awesome thread, sir. It's one of the best I've read so far in WF. I do agree, an average internet marketer has way more knowledge than a offline biz owner. But, offline marketing is entirely a different think, I reckon. However, Internet Marketing is way more profitable if it is done right. Good luck with your earnings sir!

I've been preaching this for the longest time and it is so true haha

I 100% believe that social media marketing is effective, but it takes time. I currently run an online phone case / accessory website geared towards a certain niche. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest prompting products and interacting with the community. Lo and behold, a month and a half in I made 2 sales within 3 days, both of which were from Pinterest. I would recommend taking a look into marketing on Pinterest, It may be very beneficial to you. For me, It's the main staple to my business!

Great post, and I agree with all of it! I would add though that people determined to work in IM really should make learning basic HTML/CSS and perhaps a bit of PHP a priority. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to make any money at all online without having a little bit of technical knowledge, yet I see it all the time (people who're looking for "methods" without even grasping the basics).

Excellent stuff here. I agree with just about everything you said. I like to think of it this way. Making money online is simple but not necessarily easy. Think about that and let it sink in.

It comes down to filling a legitimate need. I think out of the 10 points you brought up #10 is just a tiny bit off. Finding something to sell doesn't need to be hard. People have made it hard because they continue to frame it in the context of SEO. That means they approach it backwards. They put the search for keywords and all the rest of it first and try and fit that model to what they sell.

Once upon a time that worked but it no longer does. I believe finding something to sell is the easiest step in the process. Find something that people want, need and can afford and then give it to them with a smile. Treat them the way you want to be treated. I hung out with a major SEO dude a few years ago and he was the one that told me (I already knew but he made it very plain) that the keyword stuff was a bunch of unnecessary baloney. He said picking a market was simple.

First he'd take a few very obvious keywords. Some very common and some relevant, though not as common long tails. The results from those searches needed to show an average of 10 million relevant sites and an average of 5 or 6 Adwords ads. That was all he did to determine the market was profitable.

Personally, I think people, especially people new to marketing should pick a market they know something about and actually like. Once you have success and know what it takes to actually make money you can branch out and look at products based solely on profit.

#7. Article marketing sucks. I tend to agree but again, it's the accepted practice and execution that makes it suck. And again, it's people insisting to do it with an unrealistic measure of outdated SEO mixed in that find failure. Content syndication and curation is where it's at but there're only a few people I know that understand how to make it work right.

#1. eBay. I've made a pile of money on eBay. I agree that it's the easiest way to make good when starting out. But I see so many people complicating it. I cringe when I see someone asking how to drive traffic to their listing. eBay is its own ecosystem. People go there for almost everything under the sun. It's like a captive audience. Amazon is the same thing. Warrior Forum fits into that context as well - warm buyers with credit cards in their hands.

The trick is to choose stuff that sells. Once you've got that down, getting traffic to the offer takes care of itself. Here's a little tip that made me a lot of money. Offer a little bonus or freebie with your item and mention it in the listing title.

When I sold books I'd often throw in an additional related title and it always outsold the other listings. I've offered American flag lapel pins as a bonus. Family oriented CDs with jokes, games, ebooks, videos, and other stuff. Shark's teeth. There are all kinds of inexpensive, light weight value-added bonus items you can throw in that will get people to buy.

I like your comments on Social Media marketing. That's the traffic generator of the future. There's a cool little technique that's easy to do and will get you excellent results and almost no one is using it. Maybe a topic for another time.

Nice list.

Congrats on the 10 years. It's amazing how fast time flies. I always think. WOW has it been that long? When I see how long I've been doing something.

Wishing you another happy and great 10 years.

All those you have listed are useful points. Market research is the first thing on which your success and failure depends on.

Great insight. I totally agree sell stuff on ebay. I used the funds to buy my hosting, domain, paid traffic.

Congratulations on your 10th anniversary with WF. That is a long time to stick around and share your insights. I tend to agree that eBay and Amazon are too giants that can help you make money. There are some good WSO on both right here on the forum and other wealth of information. Nothing comes quick and easy. Spend the time and effort and be patient is the biggest mantra.

Congrats on the 10th yr Anniversary.

Can't agree more with the Ebay point. I think the first money we made online was with Ebay and it certainly provided seed money for other projects . It may not be what most people think of when talking about internet marketing but it never fails to deliver if you sell the right stuff at the right price.

Congrats on Zachary for your 10 years. I have to agree with you on something too... your #1 lesson: Ebay is the fastest way to make money online... probably even faster than Amazon. Congrats man!

When you said Ebay, I thought you meant the ebay AFFILIATE program! Shows where my mind is.

Seems like selling on Ebay would require a lot of shipping, work, inventory, for small ROI. With volume and high priced products, I guess that's different.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It's really refreshing to hear it from someone like you who have been doing for a long time. I'll definitely take your advice to heart. Were there things you wish you would have done differently in the past? Or something you wish you would have tried sooner?

One thing that dumbfounded me about eBay sellers - is why they don't add people whom they buy from and people that you sold to the list????

That free traffic!!!

Some great points there... and your #1 is 100% correct. I started at 15 years old and ebay was the only thing i could do to make some decent money. thanks for sharing !

I agree that making money online is hard, it is really hard if you are just starting right now. Many people got out of the game due to the Google updates targeting affiliates, Amazon and similar platforms domination - you name the reason.

Many affiliate programs closed, other lowered the commissions to ridiculous amounts. Dropshippers are selling you at the prices of Amazon.

And there are so many crap courses out there teaching you things that used to work several years ago. If you are new and in the unfortunate even come to such course you are doomed.

There are very few things that work right now and you better take advantage of them.

To me: Amazon, eBay, Info products, Membership Sites - not especially in this order.

The very first thing I started doing to make money online was finding hidden gems at garage sales, Goodwill and facebook garage sale groups. It was great at the time, I was able to spend about 6-8 hours a month finding all the products, and an additional 3-4 listing and shipping them. On average I was able to make $700-$900 in 9-12 hours worth of work.

If you have the patience for it and are really into it, as well as eventually learn what you need to do, you can make a lot of money doing this.

Thanks for the post and congratulations on ten years!

What have I learnt in the last 10 years? Those who want it the most are usually the ones who get it. Nothing can substitute for honest hard work.