9 Lessons I Learned Trying To Start An Online Business

I wrote this to my self as a reflection, but I thought I would share it with you guys - maybe it can help someone

A couple of years ago I had this amazing idea to take my successful local dog training business and turn it into an online business.

So I went out, bought a video camera, and made about 20 dog training videos that I would put up on a website and then sell.

I was going to sell them each for $1.99 because EVERYONE will want to buy them then, and I was going to be rich!

Well here is where it all started to go south.

First, I had no idea what was involved in creating websites. I knew NOTHING!

So what did I do?

I went online and looked up a web developer, talked to him, got a quote for $3500 to create my website, and paid him to do it.

LESSON #1: Get multiple quotes for work you need done. Being a young naive 21 year old I didn't even think of this.

LESSON #2: You don't need to pay $3500 for a basic website to sell digital goods! You can get hosting for $10.00 a month, get a free WordPress Account, buy OptimizePress 2.0 for $100.00, and use ClickBank as your payment processor. And you can build the site your self, it really is actually quite simple!

So there is the first part where I threw thousands of dollars away for no reason.

After I had my new $3500 website, I realized that no one knew I existed.

What did I do? I went out looking for ways to find traffic, found people talking about this "SEO" thing, found an SEO guy, and paid him $1000 a month to do SEO for my site.

Well 3 months later, I had 0 sales, and was out $3000, and that was the end of the SEO experiment.

LESSON #3: You can do SEO your self, or find someone that is much less expensive that can deliver results!

LESSON #4: SEO is NOT the only option. Paid traffic is much better. I was scared of it at first because I didn't realize the simple fact that as long as you make more money then you spend, you are doing just fine! I wish I could of taken that $3000 and used it for FaceBook/Google ads.

After the SEO mess, I decided it would be a good idea to own a better domain...so I paid $1,000 for one because I was dead set on having the name and the .com version which someone was holding.

LESSON #5: Don't get caught up in your name. I wish I could have that money back and just spent a day or two coming up with a different name that had the .com available for $2.99

It was at this point I decided I needed to trademark this great name because I didn't want anyone stealing it...

LESSON #6: Trademark is useless unless someone is going to actually try to make money off your name. I don't for see a lot of people trying to sell T-Shirts that says "BrightDog Academy" on them that I would need the trademark to stop, so it was again just a waste of money.

So after this a guy contacted me who owned this big marketing company. He told me he wanted to be 50/50 Partners, his team would handle all the marketing, and I could just sit back and relax.

Wow this would be great! Finally the break I was looking for. He said he would contact me the following week.

Then a week went buy and I didn't hear from him, so I sent him an email. He said he was super busy and would be in contact in a month.

A month went buy and didn't hear from him. He told me check in next month he will have more time.

Another month went by.

I emailed him and he told me "Oh sorry, still busy. Let's talk next month ok?"

Another month went by.

I emailed him multiple times and never heard from him again.

LESSON #7: If someone truly wanted to work with you, and believed in what you were trying to do, they would not put off working with you, they will make you a priority. If someone flakes once, odds are they are going to continue to flake.

So after that 4 months of wasted time, I tried to find someone else who could help me, who I could be partners with.

I found a guy who I thought was great, had a proven track record here, and appeared to be experienced at what I needed, marketing.

So we came to an agreement I was going to pay him $3,000.00, he would completely rebuild my website, create affiliate center, sales pages, autoresponders. The whole thing - and it would only take 60 days.

After 60 days, nothing was done. He said next month.

The next month, there was nothing done.

Or the next.

Or the next.

Or the next.

Or the next.

Or the next.

Or the next.

Finally, 11 months later, something was starting to come together.

And an ENTIRE YEAR later, I had half of what I paid for, a new website built with OptimizePress (which I could of done my self for $100.00 and built in 1 week) and a sales page.

At this point I decided to again, just deal with loosing another $3,000.00 and end the partnership, because I could not wait any longer.

LESSON #8: Don't hold on to false hope. Every month when he told me next month it will be ready, I would keep telling myself "Ok, what is 1 more month if this is going to make me $10,000 a month? I can keep waiting" But you reach a certain point when reality sets in. Sometimes, you HAVE TO LET THINGS GO. Swallow your pride, admit you made a huge, costly mistake, and move on!

So after these past 2 years of completely getting no where. I decided to do everything on my own.

Over the past year I was waiting, I had decided having 20 dog training videos and selling them individually was not going to work. It was a bad idea. So I revamped the idea. I created over 150+ videos, pdfs, articles, etc and decided I would sell it as a monthly membership website.

Now I created it, created the affiliate center, and currently am trying to get affiliates to promote me. Everything I am trying to do on my own.

LESSON #9: Being a naive, 21 year old kid with 0 experience owning a website or having an online business, here is what I should of done instead, and what I will do on my next project.

• Buy a domain name for $10.00 a year
• Buy web hosting for $10.00 a month
• Install WordPress for free - Get a free theme
• Buy OptimizePress 2.0 for $100.00
• Create my digital product
• Hire a professional copywriter to do the sales page ($700.00)
• Hire a professional copywriter to write autoresponders ($400-$600)
• List my product on ClickBank or just PayPal as payment processor
• Use paid traffic and recruit affiliates to promote my product

So there you go, I could have spent 1/4 of what I spent, saved my self 2 years of time, and been much further ahead had I known what I know now.


To anyone out there thinking of starting a business, I hope you might find this useful and can save you time and money that I lost.