The failure Thread-(Don't make these mistakes others made)

[thesmashge]

I have experimented a lot of things in IM and i have succeeded in a few and failed in a few.I have learned a lot from my failures.

I have seen a lot of Success stories...But This is a Failure thread.

Just image how helpful if you know how others have failed in something you are planning to do.......You can learn from their mistakes and avoid doing the same mistake or correct the mistakes and come out successful....

Share about how you Tried or Experimented with 'Something' and how it failed.You can say why you think it failed and what should have been done.

My Failure post:
It was Right when i started Internet Marketing.Back then i didn't have access to the 'How-to -do' videos of Gurus.I bought a 31 lettered DomainName which came with a Free Hosting.I Promoted it for one year and didn't earn a single buck.Looking back ,i am just lucky that i didn't lose hope in those period.

The Failures(Mistakes) i did....
1.Buying a 31 lettered Domain with no Keywords in it.
2.Going for a Free Hosting.(They put Advertisement in my site and they cancelled their free service in a year)

Advise:
When you are starting out don't use these Free hostings if you are planning for longTerm.You will lose all the Fruits of your Hardwork.

If you have no Money just use the Blogspot or Wordpress until you can afford to buy a Proper hosting.

Pls Post in this Thread and share Your 'Failures'(Mistakes)

 

[mrsix]

buying cheap (untargeted) traffic thinking I'd make a killing with adult dialer programs about 9 years ago :/

 

[bryanon]

My greatest failure during my IM career was definitely reading too much and taking too little action - and I believe there's a whole load of people who are currently in the same zone as I was back then.

I learned my lesson the hard way, others can be more wise. Advice:
* Reading won't make you a penny. If you discover something you think may work, put it into action RIGHT NOW!

And some other useful advice that I wish someone would've given me when I started in this business:
* Don't over-invest in things that don't work. If a method doesn't work then tweak it, if it still doesn't then ditch it and move on with something else.
* Similarly, if something works then keep doing it! Think of ways to make even more money out of it and of scaling it. It's incredible how many people do something that works and instead of putting their effort into scaling it up continue with something entirely different, which "might" work, but might not.

 

[Dragn]

as bryanon said, my biggest failure is all read, no work.

I started IM a few years ago and dove in headfirst, started making money but wanted more. I wound up spending the next 3 months finding sites like this (i stuck with this one!) and all i did was read read read. life cought up on me and i ended up qutting my IM stuff.

However, what i DID do (even though i didnt know wtf i was doing very well) did, continued, and still does make me money. its obviously not as much as it was when i was keepign the ball rolling, but its whats kept my interest in it all this time. I knwo it works, and i know i can do it.

Because of that ive started working on things again, and this time at least i know how to do it.

Moral of the storY: These sites are great, this site is great. but actually USE what you learn.

 

[farking]

jumping in on too many opportunities. it's better to optimize a few sites to their full potential, than it is to be running so many projects you don't have enough time to truly optimize any of them.

 

[penaakul]

too much theory but didn't test it by myself. spit that several theories out to my friend. the next month he made 4 figures from clickbank.

conclusion:
1. things that look simple and stupid can be the most successive thing..
2. i think i'm smart but..
3. i'm stupid bcz..
4. i'm NOT TAKING ACTION!

 

[UnDerDoG81]

 

[bryanon]

Some great posts in this thread!

I just wanted to add to my above post that when I started taking action (and consequently making money), I didn't give up reading and learning completely - this would be simply daft.

What I found to be working incredibly well was an exact plan for each and every one of my workdays:
* Reading/learning/self-development: 2 hours
* Project Management - 5 hours

Basically I limited myself to those exact numbers, and followed that I wouldn't spend more than 2 hours per day surfing around forums or reading books.

 

[thesmashge]

This Thread seems to be Turning Out Great.

To Summarise the Mistakes of Others
1.Don't Go for untargeted Traffic sources.
2.Don't waste too much Time in reading.
3.Not Analyzing the market before you start anything.
4.jumping in on too many opportunities

 

[kallen]

I'm with everyone else here... reading more than acting is the major killer of my success... Also getting too man irons in the fire at one time makes it where you cant effectively manage anything effectively... Honestly, writing this message is an example of a big time waster, but as usual I could not resist

Specifically, my biggest failure so far was the loss of 100 twitter accounts (with a combines following of about 100k followers) in a single day by being lazy and not using proxies when I KNEW they would eventually catch on. DO NOT BE LAZY when i comes to protecting your assets!

I have a feeling MANY people on here who are not making an money KNOW what they need to do... they have a plan that they have been THINKING about for awhile now hat they just KNOW will make them some money... but they don't even realise that THINKING about it doesn't make it happen

 

[drnobrain]

Yeah just as the above posts say, my BIGGEST failure was:
- not taking action, too AND
- that I could not really imagine that people actually would buy my product. (Or you can imagine the same situation as if you're promoting other people's stuff as well.)

Not taking action can be actually described with a phenomenon called "analisys paralisys".
You know, when you are always after the newest actual laziest and most profitable "magic method".

But that's all daydreaming, my friends. I became a master of how to find all the newest stuff, and was f*ckin' happy with how smart I was ONLY FINDING AND READING IT...

...then jumping on the next stuff and NO FREAKIN' ACTION AT ALL. I 've been doing it FOR YEARS.

Ok, I've became the master of an other thing as well: how to find the laziest, but fairly profitable jobs, ever.

But one day I've made that serious decision: "NOW, I really wanna make it as an internet marketer." And I did quit my job, "burned all the bridges behind me", looked for a profitable niche, and started to write my very first own ebook. (I do NOT recommend anyone to quit before earning a reasonable amount of STABLE income from IM. This was only my "hardcore way", 'cause I wanted to literally force myself doing it.)

Then I've set up a website, started to market my product in classified ads (jeeez... don't do it... or, let it be one of your very last sources... but, of course it depends on your market.)

Ok, after that I've learned some SEO, moved to Web 2.0 properties, blogged, social bookmarked my stuff... etc.

What's the bottom line?

WHAT WOULD I SAY IF A NOOB ASKED ME HOW TO GET STARTED?
==================================================

1. Find a niche - a market where you can sell your stuff (WHAT u gonna sell is only SECONDARY.)

Blackhat World's "The Niche Guide - Intro & Part 1 (Finding A Niche)"

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/making-money/10224-niche-guide-intro-part-1-finding-niche.html

AND

"The Niche Guide - Part 2 (Understanding your target audience)"

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/making-money/10225-niche-guide-part-2-understanding-your-target-audience.html

My suggestion: find a niche on a topic that would be profitable AND which one you are INTERESTED IN, wanna know more about, and love even the idea of it.

2. Get on ClickBank and find 2 or 3 appropriate top selling products about THE SAME TOPIC you gonna write about (selected by top gravity, and make sure these ebooks are really about the same topic and are competition to each other)

3. Go and search some articles about the topic u wanna write about on top quality sites of the niche.

4. Outline the TOP NOTCH IDEAS from the ebooks you've purchased, (all the ideas that YOU think would be important to know), and write them down as if you would talk about them to your best friend who'd be interested in the topic. Imagine "Joe", and start to talk about this knowledge from A to Z.

Keep in mind that "Joe" - although he's your best friend - DOESN'T have any degree, so he's a veeery "simple" guy.

Now, you have the basics.

5. Spice the whole thing up with ideas from articles you've found on top quality sites - where u think it would be a PLUS, NECESSARY to know about a selected sub-topic, but the ebooks didn't talk about 'em.

After u finished, here u go, you've got your very own ebook. Make sure u talk about things in your very own style. (What is that? Start to talk to your imaginary friend. That's it. )

6. Now u need your QUALITY website and wanna get quality traffic on it.

Here u go: Download John Reese - Traffic Secrets 2.0 video course from here, blackhatworld (just do a quick search) and WATCH THE FULL COURSE, then google: "make your words sell" -and download this free ebook.
John tells u how to get that traffic, and "Make your words sell!" gonna tell you how to write a killer sales letter from A to Z.

7. Get a PayPal button on your site in order to be able to accept payments - see on their website how you can do it.

That's my 2 cents on how to start, and how NOT TO get lost in the tons of info as a noob.

Don't whine that you can't do it, or how to chop the info into chapters or so... and "what if", "what if", "what if"...

...JUST DO IT! START IT RIGHT NOW! <--- 'Cause this is the EXACT STEP, where WE ALL f*cked up first RIGHT BEFORE making money.

P.S.: Believe all the time, and SET PAINFUL DEADLINES TO YOURSELF! (E.g.: if you don' finish the first chapter in 3 days, you gotta eat some kinda disgusting cat food! And bet on that deadline with a cruel friend of yours who definitely will force you to do the eating if you don't finish - hint: you gotta get LIGHTNING SPEED in doing things AND developing the skill to set the right deadline. )

And after the first few sales comes in, you become to believe even more. And then u gotta start the whole thing over, to set up your second money stream.

I hope I could help.

Doc

 

[thesmashge]

DrNobrain.....I am following your steps 4 and 5 already.I am of the same idea "why be a affiliate when you can write your own book"....Like you.

Previously i was losing money promoting as a affiliate for simple things where i could have written it myself.

 

[gooser898]

I have so many mistakes it's laughable. The biggest ones i would guess are:
- Not outsourcing earlier
- Hiring poor quality article writers. Good quality is what makes you money.
- Procrastination. Still an issue, but not as bad.
- Writing down goals. Both long term and short term
- Not fully researching a niche. And then realizing it's almost worthless
- Not realizing that spending has the potential to make you a lot of money

 

[Tcm9669]

• Don't Invest in new 'investment' schemes, they are scams!
• When going Black Hat, make sure you cover your ass with the hat
• Don't be afraid of outsourcing! It can fail sometimes but it is all about finding the right persons
• Don't be afraid of developing stuff, just because one fails it does not mean that all the others will.

 

[tomtomgo]

anybody guide me how to find traffic secrets 2.0 i could not find any links in DL section thanks in advance

 

[n2zen]

Failure: Buying sites that were 'proven' money makers, from people with good iTrader (no not on this site).

On one occasion I'm sure that the traffic/clicks were amped up with PTC or Trekpay, because the CTR went to 0 as soon as I took ownership.

I've acquired a few, and not all have been bad, but none do as well as ones I've grown myself.

Ousourcing 5-10 articles and throwing up an autoblog is not expensive, or rocket science - so why don't I have 10x more than I do? Good question...


Failure#2: Getting bogged down with 'busy' work

It's all to easy to do things that need to be done and at the end of the day/week/month/year have nothing to show for it.

The key is ask yourself, how much money will task X make for me. If you don't like the answer, the skip it, and do something NOW to generate revenue.

 

[AgentZero]

anybody guide me how to find traffic secrets 2.0 i could not find any links in DL section thanks in advance

What the hell has this got to do with the thread??? Piss off.

In regards to this thread, i would say a big failure of mine was reading way too much content which was interesting, but hard to put into action. Action is key, make as many mistakes as you can. Success in this game is actually failing. More times you fail the faster the road to success.

Also not implementing new ideas quick enough,just leaving it on paper, and finding them a couple months later.

 

[Abstroose]

Don't forget analysis. I think forgetting to test and analayze my SEO, Keywords etc was my biggest mistake. Using Adsense to track traffic was naive of me. For newbies, make sure to keep track of everything you do - see what works, see what doesn't. It will save time and money, and make SEO a lot easier.

Oh, and all eBooks suck. All the knowledge you need is freely available. It's down to your own initiative to implement the methods effeciently.

 

[reqd]

Internet porn | Not marketing adult material, but actually using it myself while trying to get work done.

It's easy to become frustrated, to reach a mental block when working a project and simply turn to the bangbros to rub one out and just take a nap; thus avoiding having to do anything at all.

I was yanking the cord a dozen times a sleepless day when I started IM. I mean shit, I was already in front of the computer.

What you have to do is use internet porn as an incentive, not as a crutch. i.e. When I finish building this linkwheel, I am allowed 5 minutes on realitykings and a 30 minute nap. You would be surprised what a great motivator pornography can be.

Then again it could just be a personal vice.

 

[jamesmith]

Buying several domains without doing keyword research.
Iam still suffering.