If You HAD to Start Over - What would you do Different???

[Franck S]

I just stumbled upon this thread, and it's funny because James Martell handbook is maybe the only affiliate marketing well known ebook I don't have on my hard drive.

I totally aggree with this. Just direct all your effort towards one site in a good niche, in which you are the expet. A no brainer.

I am trying to do this right now. I don't have many sites, less than 10 (all with blogs). Right now I am setting up my main site, and in the meantime, I am still working on one already successful.

I think that 2 are already a lot!

If you have many sites, and some have a potential, it would be a great idea to outsource.

[yanbiz]

Except for the money part, I would have not done anything different because I failed, experimented and been manipulated in some ways with "too good to be true" opps. But the good side of this is now I understand much more (but still to learn, always need to learn) what the game is about internet and network marketing.

The good part, it's much easier when you have burned yourself to contribute to forums and write articles. Experience of failure is worth something in this industry.

In the top earners or people who have success now, who didn't fail and only succeed? I bet there are very few, if none.

One of my favorite quote:
Experience is what you get when you don't listen to advise. Advise is what you give once you have experience.

[RedHat39]

I don't know if this is an answer for "If I had to start over..." or rather "If I only then what I know now..."

But anyway I would learn to create landing pages and squeeze pages. Having a list is critical and I have after all of these years just now realized that.

[Wazzy]

Hi Everyone,

Well, I've learned a few things since my last posting on this thread. The one big thing is to stop buying into all the over hyped products that promise overnight riches.

I've read a few books that have really been helpful, but the majority of them being released, especially the recent ones, have been nothing more than re-hashed crap.

I'm content taking the slower approach through Blogging, article marketing, building lenses on Squidoo, etc... The funny thing is the results are showing up quicker than I imagined. I've already had the privilege of front page placement on Google in only three days.

The best places to learn? Forums. Hands down, places like this have really helped, and now I'm actually able to contribute instead of just lurking. That's a big accomplishment for me.

Good Luck Out There!
Mike

[danmayna]

I would have done better keyword research and better back link analysis. Experience is a great teacher.

[earner]

Firstly I would have started 10 years ago. Yes, 10 years ago I started spending all my spare time online and over the years I have found it all out. But I never actually started any site. Why not? Because I knew what I wanted. I knew I wanted autoresponders, clever sites, ad tracking, a product ... blah blah blah.

Yes, you "need" all that stuff. But it won't come on day 1. So I should have started a one page website 10 years ago hand crafted in notepad just with some affiliate links in. Just think how my income and tools would have grown if I had just done that.

So my advice is: no matter how small and crappy you think your free site with zero knowledge will look - DO IT. DO IT NOW. Whatever you create you can add to, change, enhance, modify. Use it as your learning curve. Then plough your income back into it. You have to invest in yourself and your "business" at some point! I've just spent £2000 this month - purely to move my whole game onto the next level... at some point you will have to really bite the bullet and say "I am no longer playing, this is working for me" - and BELIEVE in yourself!.

The other thing I'd have done is: sign up for adsense the very second it appeared. I'd have not spent hours/days/weeks looking for affiliate programs to sign up for, spending hours finding something I thought my site could promote, then getting the code, sending them traffic only to have 0 conversions.

No - unless you are starting out with a very tight niche then just use adsense on the damned thing. Site1 - you need money right! You can't be too precious about your site. Treat your first site(s) as learning grounds, experiments. . . and a way to prove that internet marketing DOES work and you CAN do it.

I did, however, install the best stats I could find - and now I've found the best free stats package in the whole world AddFreeStats Free web stats, free website statistics - check that out (it's not an affiliate link) - there's even a piece of code that you put on your site that tells you where your adsense clicks go to.

To me: Your site stats are King. Get them. Even if you've no idea why right now do it. When you do find out how stats can improve your site and sales, at least that way you've got some historical data to check out!

Good luck

E

[johntan]

Hi Earner,

I totally agreed with you on the point that we had to get started and put our knowledge into action. Do not wait till thing are perfect then we are happy. Our business will grow bit by bit as we learn.

Most of the top marketer also started in the same way. Their first site are not that great but as they move along, it become better and better.

Great info earner.

[ReVoVe]

Yep would definably agreed with both of you on putting knowledge into action. I wasted a lots of time over the past 12 months worrying about the layout of a page and not getting it out there and I'm just starting to build a list which i was in I didn't think was to important but do now.

[Linda Buquet]

"I wasted a lots of time over the past 12 months worrying about the layout of a page and not getting it out there"

2nd only to buying crappy ebooks "analysis paralysis" can be a new affiliates worst enemy.

Sometimes you can't just keep fiddling with a new site or trying to find the perfect niche. Sometimes you just need to pull the trigger and GET STARTED. Even if you don't get off to the PERFECT start, you'll learn the most valuable lessons on the way.

[ReVoVe]

Soooooo true. You defiantly have to draw a line even if the sites live and you do a few mods.