Share the worst thing you have done

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by Louis8799, Dec 10, 2007.

  1. #1
    It is good for us to learn from others experience. But many have just shared the right ways to make money, so why don't have a topic sharing the wrong ways? I am still new to this industry and hope to learn from you guys:cool:
     
    Louis8799, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  2. DerkThunder

    DerkThunder Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Wrong way to make money.

    Listening to someone with no page rank and no Alexa rank about how to get traffic. In many cases we have the blind leading the blind. So if you are going to follow someone else's advice make sure they know what they are talking about first!! Also don't bother participating in an affiliate progam that doesn't have an exact amount of money you make per referral, don't waste your time with points or percent.
     
    DerkThunder, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  3. Louis8799

    Louis8799 Peon

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    #3
    good one :)
     
    Louis8799, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  4. kingcaw

    kingcaw Peon

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    #4
    I guess the "worst" thing I ever did was failing to take full advantage of what I knew would be a guaranteed moneymakers...

    I'm sure a lot of you will remember the whole madness surrounding Nintendo Wii domains, when the name change was just announced.. well, thanks to a trigger-happy PR rep I was notified of the change a good 15-20mins before the news was published on gaming websites; so immediately went out and snapped up pretty much the best Wii domains that were available.

    In total I think I grabbed about 10-15 domains that ultimately made me tens of thousands of dollars, but I *knew* at the time that there were a load more top domains I could buy, but for some reason I didn't bother picking them up.

    So yeah, although I came out "quids in", I didn't make the most of the opportunity to make even more from it.
     
    kingcaw, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  5. Pixelrage

    Pixelrage Peon

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    #5
    All of them involve procrastinating...putting off a website launch for 2 years, ignoring affiliate marketing for 5+ years, etc.
     
    Pixelrage, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  6. charlesm3

    charlesm3 Active Member

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    #6
    Yeah, I would say procrastination.
     
    charlesm3, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  7. The Emirates Gallastico

    The Emirates Gallastico Banned

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    #7
    Wow... I bought a pretty decent Wii domain yesterday.

    Care to share a few examples and the prices they went for? I got aNintendoWii.com :p

     
    The Emirates Gallastico, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  8. Pixelrage

    Pixelrage Peon

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    #8
    why would you want a Wii-themed URL? It's just a lawsuit waiting to happen. Nintendo, of all companies, is one of the most sue-happy.
     
    Pixelrage, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  9. magda

    magda Notable Member

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    #9
    Well, I was at a party and there was this bloke there that I'd had a bit of a fling with a couple of months before, and I drank much too much and....ummm.... oh, that's probably not what you're asking.

    Business-wise - Employing 'friends' do to work for me - it never works out as a professional relationship.
     
    magda, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  10. madk

    madk Peon

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    #10
    Well this is a thread about the worst things you have done. ha
     
    madk, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  11. kingcaw

    kingcaw Peon

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    #11
    I did have an article bookmarked when I was selling these in which Nintendo execs were quoted as encouraging Wii fansites etc; they were undoubtedly aware of the rush to buy Wii domains and set up sites, and i'm yet to hear of anyone even so much as receiving a C+D letter.

    That said, its all about usage.. games companies are accustomed to sprawling fansite networks and in many cases encourage and facilitate them (with "Fansite Kits" etc)

    Hooowever... thats not the subject at hand here so i'll let the thread get back on track =)

    markn26: I don't want to disclose prices, but some of the ones I sold included nintendowii.net, nintendowii.info, wiiforum.com, wiireviews.com, buywii.com, mywii.com and others of that sort of "caliber"
     
    kingcaw, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  12. Pixelrage

    Pixelrage Peon

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    #12
    wow, I'm surprised that was ever available in the first place!
     
    Pixelrage, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  13. The Emirates Gallastico

    The Emirates Gallastico Banned

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    #13
    Nice one. There was a guy selling WiiNintendo.biz a couple days back, received two $100 bids about thirty seconds after he put it up... :eek:
     
    The Emirates Gallastico, Dec 10, 2007 IP
  14. affiliatesheree

    affiliatesheree Peon

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    #14
    The worst thing I've ever done is slack on setting up my autoresponder content. You think you have time and then bam, all of the sudden people are on your list waiting for something from you. If you don't have it all geared up and ready to go, they'll forget they subscribed and your emails won't get opened. This happened to me when I was changing everything from just text to videos as well. I probably missed out on building some good relationships with my procrastination.

    But, all's well that ends well. We learn from our mistakes and we move on and grow, right?

    Sheree
     
    affiliatesheree, Dec 11, 2007 IP
  15. ng51online

    ng51online Peon

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    #15
    I think that might have to be agreeing to sing in my company's Christmas video...

    I guess I have to ask myself whether anyone will be able to take me seriously again! but you can view the offending video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gUmpPtdVMg or by searching for the "12 SEO days of Christmas"..

    At least it was a lot of fun :D
     
    ng51online, Dec 11, 2007 IP
  16. medaa25

    medaa25 Active Member

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    #16
    The worst thing so far... (i am sure some more will come!) : was to think I could become a millionaire and be ranked number 1 with one of these host offering you free hosting and free website builders... I ended up with url without keywords and full of numbers a bit like:
    www.mydomain.com/98792846734893874.html.
    Looks nasty and its useless... If you believe in your business, invest in it !

    The second mistake would be bad chosen domain names. My first business was a sexshop called pleazure.co.uk ... To me, this domain screamed LACK OF CREATIVITY. I was young and naive ;)

    A few other mistakes to avoid:
    • Don't do a website if you haven't done your research on the competition and if you don't have a slight idea on how to monetise it.
    • Don't rush into your design, make a template and be sure it is user friendly.
    • Do or die.... it's good to read ebooks till the end of time but ultimately you gotta have balls and go for it...

    There are so many more mistakes one can do, learn from it and move on...
     
    medaa25, Dec 11, 2007 IP
  17. egk

    egk Peon

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    #17
    Wow that is a horrible video. Thanks for wasting 3 minutes and 58 seconds of my life. Which day are you?
     
    egk, Dec 13, 2007 IP
  18. danielmcgonagle@yahoo.com

    danielmcgonagle@yahoo.com Peon

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    #18
    I'm still a PEON here on this forum, but hopefully the post
    gets allowed...

    I wrote an 81-page free report covering many of the most
    common mistakes people make when doing online business.

    Hopefully this link remains, it will help people

    It's a free report, free download, no optin required

    firsthandreviews dot com/toptenmistakes.pdf

    Thanks,

    Dan
     
  19. hanleo46

    hanleo46 Guest

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    #19
    Well this may not be so dramatic, as the booze and the bloke......or was that the damsel, and the bottle....well
    there goes my focus again.............

    Having too many irons in the fire, caused me to jump around and lose focus for too long.......but the belief that a SEO optimized multipage content site would somehow be a like a miracle, and attract visitors [ie traffic] was like waiting for the second coming...........or was that buildit, and they will come...........was my biggest mistake..in a hugely competitive market....

    But the good thing it taught me how to learn to find a balance between free and paid web traffic sources - doing so will definitely improve your ROI and profits online.

    It also taught me to re-start by learning about the three core principles of creating profits online - traffic generation, list building, and sales copy writing......everything falls into one of those principles.......there really is nothing new after all......

    Hope this helps somebody just a little......

    Sincerely;
     
    hanleo46, Dec 13, 2007 IP
    Arcanus likes this.
  20. tokstumble

    tokstumble Peon

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    #20
    One of the mistakes I've committed this year is trying to manage 10 blogs all by myself. It's just later this year that I have discovered the power of outsourcing the tasks that can be outsourced.
     
    tokstumble, Dec 13, 2007 IP