It’s very well known that Internet Marketing is not as easy as it looks when you’re just starting out. Believe me, once you get the hang of it and understand it, it gets a whole lot easier and becomes a whole lot of fun. To help you along your journey I’ve put together a list of the top 5 Internet Marketing mistakes that you must avoid.
Please note, these top 5 internet marketing mistakes are in no particular order – order shouldn’t matter either, as you should avoid all of them!
Mistake #1 – Expecting Overnight Riches
I hate to destroy a lot of excitement and hope right out of the gate but the first thing I always tell anyone trying to make a living in Internet Marketing, “lower your expectations and be patient”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not impossible to make a lot of money in a short period of time but 90% of Internet Marketers don’t make their first dollar within their first week of I.M.
How to avoid this mistake: Understand that many people including the author of this article (that’s me!) make a comfortable living from I.M. You just have to be patient and take it step by step. A solid work ethic also helps!
Mistake #2 – Force-feeding Your Customers
If I had to pick one out of the 5 Internet Marketing mistakes to be the most common, it would this one – force-feeding your customers. I see a lot of newcomers and even some big name marketers doing this. They write their content with a lot of hype and false promises. They lie, misdirect, and practically force you to click on their order buttons.
Sure, you might make a sale or two or even some good money. But I can assure you that you’ve lost a lot of potential customers and loads of credibility – repeat customers are very important in a lot of niches and even where they aren’t, bullying your potential customers will hurt your conversions.
How to avoid this mistake: Try and help your customers solve their problem and do it honestly. It’s that simple. Don’t tell them that your product (or affiliate product) will solve all their problems if it doesn’t. Build a relationship with them, truly try and help them and you will be surprised how people will force their wallet onto you and you won’t feel bad about taking it.
Mistake #3 – Trying To Take The Free Road
This I.M. mistake is a bit of a funny one. A lot of people getting into Internet Marketing make the mistake of buying every product in site that makes many false promises and plays on their emotions. However, when it comes to investing in Web Hosting or buying a domain name they hesitate and try and find free solutions or end up buying a .info domain name rather than the .com. It’s not your fault; we’ve all been there.
On a side note and something I could never understand – .info domains are usually around $2 and the .com domain with a coupon code (Google them when you use GoDaddy) will run you just over $7. That’s $5 more and I can guarantee you the ROI is massive on that 5$ as a lot of people look at domain names and think .com is “official”. (I guess this article just became the Top 6 I.M. mistakes)
How to avoid this mistake: Muster up some cash and devote it towards giving your online marketing career a fair shot. Pick up an extra part time job, offer to help a buddy out for some spare cash – just make sure you have a few hundred dollars ready to invest online. Secondly, only invest in one training product and stick with it. Many I.M. related products are rehashed information spun into different words that mean the same thing.
If you’re interested in what training product I swear by and recommend you will just have to wait until the end of this article as these are important mistakes to avoid and I don’t want to distract you.
Mistake #4 – Lack of Persistence
…work ethic, anti-laziness – whatever you want to call it. Since most products sell you on easy overnight riches many people think they don’t have to work hard at Internet Marketing. Well the reality is, you do. Now I will say that it definitely gets better and easier as you move along. Sites will eventually run themselves more or less and income will be easier to come by. However, to get I.M. to work, you must work hard at it and be persistent.
How to avoid this mistake: Solve this mistake and you won’t need Internet Marketing to make your riches.
On a serious note, most people (even successful) will fall victim to this mistake. You just have to find out what works for you. My next article will be on some tips to help you stay focused and on task, but until then, grind it out.
Mistake #5 – Not getting your hands dirty
…(figuratively speaking) and being scared of failure. I know I said these are in no particular order but if I had to rank one the most important mistake to avoid it would be this one – so listen up!
What you will find when you first get into Internet Marketing is a little thing we like to call “Information Overload”. With a good training resource you are going to be reading about everything under the sun and will often not know where to start! Or even worse, be intimidated and quit right there.
Not to worry – how to avoid this mistake: Once you have spent a good few days reading over the material involved with marketing online, go for it with the intent you won’t make a dime and that you are doing what I like to call “self charity work”. You might make a sale or two off your first site but more importantly you will learn so much more than if you spent your time reading loads more information.
Now, initially I wasn’t going to promote anything in this article as it was just meant to be nice and informative for you. However, when I got to mistake number 3 I felt I should at least give you a recommendation of where to get good training so you will have a good foundation. By no means do you need the following to be successful and it is only a recommendation – trying to avoid mistake two here.
My recommendation is joining the Wealthy Affiliate University or WA for short. It’s where I started learning about I.M. 3 years ago and is where I am still a member to date. The reason I swear by WA is simply because it’s the complete package. Web Hosting is included, full training in every area of Internet Marketing from beginner to advanced, and most importantly live help from successful marketers such as myself through WA Live Chat (or forums if you are a little shy). Tip: If you decide you would like to take my advice, you should only need the Gold (cheaper) package when starting out and you can upgrade at any time. Click here to join the Wealthy Affiliate University.
If you are a member of WA and don’t fall victim to any of the mistakes I’ve laid out in this article, the odds of success are extremely in your favor.
Robert is 24 years old with a little over 3 years experience in Internet Marketing. While still very successful, he takes a different spin on Marketing by cutting out all the crap he dealt with to get to where he is. Hopefully he (I) can share that with others. - I love writing in 3rd person :)