If You Could Do It All Over Again, What Would You Do?

I focused on LOTS of different ways to make money online and have over 100+ websites.
But, if I was just starting with marketing online, with what I learned now, I would find a niche I am interested in, build a website around it and promote it (social bookmarks, backlinks, etc) for atleast 5 years. I would stick to that 1 website only.

 

I went through the too many website syndrom myself. Got rid of most of them. I still manage 3 sites.

 

I would've started building a website and opt-in list a few years earlier.

Stephanie

 

If I could do it all over:

I'd make the same sites I own now but get them online when I was 8yrs old when the internet was not spammed with billions of internet trash and people with millions of low quality sites.........

 

If I could start over again, I would create one website for a niche I'm passionate about, and I would build an opt-in list from day 1.

 

Who knew about optin lists when they just got started?
But you're right MIC510... the best piece of advice I ever received was six short words "decide on your niche and FOCUS!" Thanks Mike Filsaime.
Even having understood this, it was still really hard to pull out of the "but what if I just try this!?" Still tempted occasionally too.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with having lots of sites as long as they are of good quality, but what would be needed in this case would be to outsource, outsource, outsource!! That's what I would do so that I'm not stuck on labor intensive ...

 

would have started doing IM earlier for sure, much earlier;
oh and also would have created google/fb/youtube

 

I would have started earlier and invested more time in the beginning.

 

true long term success consists of many lessons from many failures in the past. So no matter you was made 3 or 100 websites you still did not was avoided mistakes !

 

I would build a list from the beginning..

 

eCommerce is where I started a long time ago and it is still my big money maker so I probably wouldn't change a thing. Although I wish I would have toyed around in affiliate marketing a little bit more since many people seem to be doing quite well in it.

 

I would pick a niche I'm passionate about and devote my extra time to creating a big authority site, create a list early and serve my readers like crazy.

 

This question is hard to answer. If I could do it all over again with the knowledge that I know now, I would outsource most of my work to scale up pretty quickly.

However, if I didn't have the knowledge I knew now, I would STICK TO ONE THING that I'm good at and keep working on it. DO NOT try everything people tell you about. Just stick to one thing and be the best and you'll see results soon enough.

 

Invest on Google or Facebook and yeah outsourcing as much as possible and only manage what I like on the website I am passionate about.

 

Ah, my first post on this forum on what seems like the perfect thread. First off, I look forward to getting to know many of you.

I would've done a ton of things differently. I've been making websites for about 8 years now, and throughout these years I've developed at least 20 full-fledged websites; each with very different intentions.

My first couple of sites were just developed for fun. I was a bored yet curious 15 year old (I'll be 23 in a month) who loved being on my computer all day long, so this wasn't seen as work. Eventually, as time progressed, my little just for fun/random idea "projects" began gaining traction. I launched a website and shortly after posting a link to a forum I was once addicted to, 10 people visited the site. I was amazed!

Hours later it was 30. 50. 200. I scrambled in excitement. First thoughts were: I should expand this one-of-a-kind site, and maybe make some money from it. After some research, I decided to sign up for AdSense. I was approved days later made my first dollar ever with that site.

First regret: Lack of focus. My site became pretty large as people spread it throughout the web. There was a very active community on the forum, and it was making a decent amount of profit. Magazines would contact me for content but I would take days to reply. I received visits from Microsoft employees every day. My site ended up in 3 nationally published (2 in the US, 1 in the UK) magazines in a prominent spot. For some reason or another, I stopped updating the site and started working on a brand new one. Magazines (such as the Official Xbox Magazine) would send emails, but I was too "busy" with other things to reply.

So I started a brand new site. It was one of the first MySpace resource sites on the web. It started out humble but then blew up into this huge website. I had fun working on it, and decided to spread it via the MySpace Forums (not spamming it, though). This was pretty much my life for the next 5 months; I would work on the site as soon as I woke up, and would sleep at 5am sometimes. After several link exchanges, partnerships (one with a backstabber), and gaining a great spot on Google (the domain name helped a lot) I was making $1,000 a day on some days. I got extremely comfortable with the checks to the point where I only updated the site on minor holidays.

Second regret: Thinking your property is too big to fail. At 17, it's hard to fathom that you're making so much money from something you created. It got to the point where I just stopped going to school thinking this would last forever. Interestingly enough, my teachers would still pass me with 80-90's after I wouldn't come to their class for a month. Some even called me personally to give me financial advice. They knew how much I was making due to the excuses I had to make for missing class, and it was a shame that some teachers would favor me because of it.

So time went by and I was comfortably living life. I looked at user stats as they continued to dip. I would spend an entire day every few weeks adding content to the site, but by that point there were a hundreds of other sites with even more content. Several million unique visitors later, the money also continued to dip. $900 a day, $500, $300, $100, $40, $20. My focus came back in a big way as debt began to pile up, but at this point it was too little too late. I completely lost focus after the money started piling in. Never ever do that, life lesson learned.

Third regret: Lack of knowledge; not taking risks. I've received direct emails from the CEO's of Photobucket, Break Inc, and even MySpace. The CEO of Break Media wanted to acquire my site. He would send me emails asking about the site and eventually wanted to get into serious talks about a buyout. He asked how I felt about moving to California (I'm an East-coaster) and working for him after high school, asked me to call him, and even sent a NDA that I didn't even open until last year -- a couple of years later.

I was making good money at the time, and thought I'd be on my feet forever. My family would tell me not to sell, but then again they knew nothing about my site. Eventually, after the site went bust I decided to contact him again. He was no longer interested in a buyout, and instead wanted to discuss a partnership. That never fell through after the site lost so much of its traffic. I wish I took more time to research the company, and actually consider a buyout instead of just shrugging it off.

I also had a girlfriend at the time that I did not want to leave behind (I really should have gone to California), friends, and family. Looking back at it, life would've been completely different if I took that risk. Maybe more positive, possibly more negative. It still bothers me to this day just thinking about the opportunity.

Fourth regret: Age is just a number, networking gets you far: In the process of creating a ton of sites, you meet a lot of great people. Some sketchy ones as well. I decided to help a random 15 year old kid from Australia with a favor that ended up backfiring and led to my content being splattered all over the web and there was nothing I could do about it (or so I believed). After this day, my trust in helping unknown developers on the web dwindled.

And then came a second 15 year old. He'd ask me if I could make a layout, graphic, or complete site for him. I would either ignore his IM's or be very suspicious of him during out conversations. Eventually I told him that I wouldn't be able to help him out due to my work load. Two years later, he's making millions of dollars a year and owns one of the largest affiliate networks on the web. I realized he wasn't a fraud after Googling his name, and it's something else I would've done differently. Now-a-days (many years later) I'm all about helping those in need if they are truly trustworthy.

Fifth regret: Not knowing how to manage money. I was 17, making a lot of money, and spending it as it came. I've been through debt, massive tax take-backs, and other crazy financial predicaments. On the bright side, I bought my parents their first home and I feel like I purchased 99% of the material items I've wanted. So yeah, if you're making a decent amount of income on the web learn how to manage it.

Sixth regret: "Working" on too many sites at once. You learn a lot about SEO and marketing after making more than 20 sites. Some fail, some live temporarily. I developed a website for Capcom several years ago, and it was my duty to maintain it. Again, the prospect of a newer and bigger project was more alluring at the time. The site eventually died off months after a major game release and I canceled the domain. It wasn't making a ton of money, but it was great exposure for me.

I went from owning 20 domains at once, to now owning no more than 6. The focus is just on one right now, but that one site is growing at a pretty good rate. It goes to show how far a site can get if you simply focus on it (a lesson I learned the first time around). I simply write my new ideas down on paper when they come.

Seventh regret: Not putting long-time ideas into motion. Yeah, the perfect thing to mention after writing about staying focused. There have been several site ideas I've had for years, some that would've been moderately easy to implement. Most of these ideas are still locked up on paper, or have been implemented by other developers. I wish I prioritized more in the beginning.

Eighth regret: Having regrets. As you observe, I've had a lot of opportunities during my time as a web developer; some that I haven't disclosed. On one hand, I regret not taking chances and not doing my best when the time was right. On the other, I've learned from these mistakes and I believe anyone is capable of replicating or exceeding their accomplishments with enough effort.

Much luck to everyone; keep on pushing!

 

yes , you must focus on one website only because no one is going to pay you for all your websites with no traffic and maintenance cost will be also higher instead go for one and promote it fully ...

 

Thanks for the advice you guys. One web site, my niche, focus, and learn how to generate traffic. My eyes are opening!

 

Stick to the things I'm good at, instead of "chasing methods." This killed me in the beginning. Now I focus on 3 or 4 things and am much more productive.

 

Without a doubt, build a list. For some reason (myself included here) building a list seems to get put off by a lot of people. I am sure that there are a variety of reasons. Those of you that now have a list though would probably agree with me that if you knew then what you know now you would have started a list way sooner than you did.