Not researching your niche market before you jump into it. Yes, you promote a niche that you're interested in, but you also have to make sure there's a demand for it. There's a tendency to look around in Clickbank, pick something with a nice commission, and they try to promote it without bothering to check if anyone else is interested in buying the product. Second, not paying attention to if the product actually is a good seller. If it doesn't sell, there's probably a problem with the ad copy, it's spanking brand new, the merchant doesn't pay on time or it's just a crappy product. Third, not willing to learn PPC advertising properly. If you hit 50 bucks, getting clicks and don't sell - STOP! Check your ad copy. Readjust your campaign. As long as you're in the positive and making money, you're doing well. Find ways to multiply that. DOn't stop with article-marketing and other, but definitely don't rule out PPC because that is the most targeted form of traffic you can get. Fourth, assuming that google search engine is the end all be all. If you type in "books", and google produces results of 3 billion websites with the word "books", that doesn't mean you're in competition with all of them because not all of those websites are in the business of books. Grandma's blog post could have been talking about "books" that happened to show up in the result. There are other search engines like Yahoo and Miva.
i confess, i'm in it for the money! what ever little cents i can earn go towards my flying fund to help me achive my ambitions!
Thinking you know everything...leading to not learning more... Although newbies (like me) don't think they know everything yet (obviously, they're new). Maybe someone should start a thread about Mistakes Oldies make Just joking...kind of...
The best thing you can do if you are in it for the money: Look at what the successful sites are doing. Questions to know the answer of: 1.Why are people visiting the website?(usually because their interested in it) 2.How does the site attract visitors?(look at the services their offering, why would so many people want to use it?) (__the difference between 1&2 is that 1 what would make a person go to that site? 2 what was used to pull them into the site__) 3.Why are they coming back to the site?(they found something useful and easy to use - people are lazy so you need to make things easier for them) 4.How do you use the site?(signup? get information?, basically what actions do you take on the site) 5.What features does it have to make it so succesful(just breaking down #3, look at individual features) Dont analyze the site in too much detail. 6. Ask yourself how a certain feature or function can be applied to any website. Don't mimic the idea, just the concept.
Augra made some great points. I'll typically think long-tail and local. Never underestimate the power of local targeting. I found a cool geo-tool on DP just by asking around. Think outside the box! Following the herd is a huge mistake, one I'd put near the top of the list here.
Great lists you guys are coming up with. I believe that giving up or not putting in enough effort are the biggest mistakes.
Wow, sounds like you're a real trooper. Not sure I agree with pushing the envelope that far...I don't want to face bankruptcy, but get what you're saying.
Point well spoken. If you're in it for the money, you're in it for the wrong reason...does that make sense??? Sounds crazy, but it's true. You HAVE to put your customers before you, focus on meeting their needs and you'll be content with what you make
should wait a little longer. be different. and always remember "Late to bed early to rise, work like heck and advertise"
We all like to have a bit of fun and do crazy unexplained things. Well I've set the good webmasters of digital point a challenge. Let me explain! I've just looked up on Digg and the highest Digg amount in the last year is: 3 5 7 0 7 This Digg's about if you voted for the new president digg this. Well we are going to beat this amount and set a new record. To be apart of this new record, all you have to do is Digg a post about Digital Point Forum. This posts title is: If you Think Digital Point Is In TOP 10 Forums DIGG THIS!!! and can be found at this link: If you Think Digital Point Is In TOP 10 Forums DIGG THIS!!! Thank You for participating, this post will be updated every 24 hours to see how we are doing.
hmmm...really? I would think one Quality Landing page will be much more profitable than 300 shitty ones? Anyone else? ...
sounds good just not to give up if some method is not working try another one until you get the good one as long as it is not getting you broke... itzik
- thinking that you have to know it all first and not take action - expect instant results (yes it can be easy, but you have to set it up, no magic button here)
I think this is sooo true. Because there is so much to learn in IM you tend to think you have to know it all before you can begin. My advice is to choose a direction and strategy and just start
Great list of mistakes. Here are a few more (a few are rewordings of the above): 1. Cheap tacky design - worth spending a bit to make things look splendid! 2. Ignoring basic SEO rules (page titles, URLs, content) 3. Failing to understand "NO FOLLOW" means no link juice 4. Expecting quick results 5. Failing to keep going at the promotion and marketing (6, 12, 18, 24 months later) 6. Failing to spend enough on PPC marketing. Adwords is worth trying at a low rate to simply understand the demand out in your marketplace 7. Failing to study your competitors 8. Failing to manage expectations (your clients, your family, your friends) 9. Forgetting about customer service 10. Allowing your site to fall into disrepair - make sure it looks loved. Jonathan
6. Not targetting long tail keywords 7. Focusing too much on himself and his blog and not reaching out to other people. 8. Give up when money doesn't come in as quick as he think it will And for semi-newbies 9. Not utilizing traffic and letting people go away and never come back.