Hello Digital Pointers, Happy Father's Day! I trust that everyone is having a great weekend. As promised from my previous post, today, I will be sharing about my painful mistakes. As painful as it sounds, I have learned some valuable lessons from my mistakes. I'm sure that some of you guys are already very good at avoiding these mistakes, but for me, I had to learn through the hard way. Expensive Mistakes Common Mistake #1: Building sites on empty land I had NO IDEA what I was doing (obviously). Maybe some people could agree with me on this. I thought it was all about just building sites with nice domains. I just never realized that there was zero demand (of course from the advertisers) on my domain. I based everything on assumption (ouch). Even 3 days of research could have saved me 3 months of my work. Common Mistake #2: Asking friends for advice - What do you think about this domain name? - Do you think this URL is catchy? I'm gonna say this now. I made mistakes by asking friends about what they thought about Google AdSense sites. The truth is that they really don't know if not care. When I asked my friends, well... their first genuine answer was 'dude, get a real job.' In some way, it's true. Why? Pizza delivery man probably makes more money I did before. If I divide my hours, I was getting paid around 5 cents per hour. I wouldn't really say this was a mistake, but it's always good to surround yourself with positive and successful people. Having mentors really help a lot. Now, my friends are asking how they can start the Google AdSense after seeing my multiple checks coming in every month. Think twice before asking your friends. Based your strategy on numbers and facts. I have previously shared it here. Common Mistake #3: Purchasing websites I'm not saying that this is completely bad. Just be double cautious about what you're getting in to. When I was first purchasing sites, I knew what I was getting in to. I knew that I would probably get scammed, but there was no way of finding out if I don't give it a try. As curious person as I was, I spent over $1k on buying niche sites. Here are some stuff that you should know: a) sellers will not always tell you everything (eg. specific targeted traffic, full analytics, live proof of AdSense or Google Analytics, etc..) b) 90% of the time, sellers have hidden agendas (you need to find out what they are) c) sellers' reasons are usually very similar. "I need quick cash to work on my other projects." (I'll let you decide on that) d) Most of these niche AdSense sites are established less than 3~5 months, and they are claiming to make over $300+ a month. Danger. Although some cases might be true, I would just walk away. e) IMPORTANT: Most of the niche sites are 'Turn-key websites.' Any automated content generators, I would stay away. Let me explain. There are 3 types of websites (I'm sure there are more.. but for now): 1) Authority websites (eg. Amazon, Squidoo, Sony, LG, etc..) 2) Niche websites (valuable keywords that are on 1st page Google) 3) Turn-key sites (auto-generated content sites that usually use RSS or mRSS feed) I would stay away from #3. It might do well for short period of time, but not in a long term. Here is a tricky part. If the site is an authority site, and it is generating RSS or MRSS feed, this is an acceptable case. Authority sites use mRSS and RSS all the time. In fact, content syndication is very powerful. Their ultimate goal is not an AdSense. These authority sites usually have more than 100K and above traffic per month. Common Mistake #4: Trying to quit your real job I have briefly shared this before, but quitting your job for Google AdSense is a very dangerous move. I'll say it again, it's a BAD move (at least for me). I'm currently generating over $10k a month online (of course not all of them are Google AdSense). Even to that, I still work 9-5. I hear people saying, 'I can't wait until I quit my job.' But for me, it teaches me work ethic. My work is tough. I'm currently working as CIO at XXXXX company, and it gives me room to grow and also help me to work with closely with my CEO. My CEO can be little nuts, but I'm learning some valuable lessons from this man. He's generating well over... 8 figures for the company. I do admire his passion and his work. So, with that said, why am I still working when I'm generating enough cash? 1) I still think that I am not even close to good 2) I still suck at what I do 3) I still need to learn more about Entrepreneurship 4) Cultivating my IT management skills and the list goes on. Long story short, if you have a job, stick with it. Take care of your bread and butter first. Especially, if you have family to take care of, it's not all about you anymore. I hope this makes sense. Make sure that your finance is covered. Common Mistake #5: Losing passion At one point, there was a time when I just wanted to dump everything. To be more specific, I wanted to dump everything multiple times. Waiting after waiting... I kept on asking, when can I start earning some serious cash. Out of all the mistakes, I would have to say that this is the hardest one. One simple word, "BELIEVE." You can make all other mistakes, but I would highly recommend to stay away from this mistake. Other mistakes, you can just brush them off, and move on. But losing passion, you can't just brush it off, and move on, because this would mean to quit. Make sure to stay with positive community like DP or other forums sites. Read others' successful stories. Get out of your comfort zone, and start moving forward. Keep yourself involved in the community. Encourage, share, and help other people. My Final Thought: I'm sure that there are a lot more than these 5 common mistakes, but I hope that there were some what helpful. As of now, my passion is to invest my 30's (10 years) into online residual income. I think it's really exciting. People can try to stop me, but I really see this as my destination. And I want to help others as much as I can. Why? I remember when I was first starting up, and I really really wish that I could have gotten some help from others. I was completely just clueless. Unfortunately, I didn't really have that opportunity. I feel that AdSense and other cash generation is possible for everyone. That's the beauty about it. Think Possible!! I can I can I can I can I can! If you are reading up to this point, thanks guys. My Previous Postings at DP: - Earning your first $100 check from Google Adsense - Generating your first niche site - Live Demonstration - 3 IMPORTANT POINTS for AdSense Beginners Moving forward! Jino
Please be mine Jino, sent you a PM. Again this is a good stuff, I'm following your post to find this thread.
Nice post, thanks, may I turn it into a top 5 list on my site, please? I know it's not in the point of your thread, but I would add an advice, which could be inserted in point 5, it is to consider this online money earning as a video game (it works for those who enjoy video games of course) where the money you earn and your traffic can be seen as the score of the game. The game is a type of online persistent world, like Wow (I don't play that game, I enjoy action games in 3D) and also strategy games such as ages of empire/ starcraft, etc. Of course to see it as a game, it helps when you've already reach a minimum of $1,500 a month earnings, so that the basis are covered, then it can be turned into a video game, where your monthly earnings, daily/wekkly traffic is your score. Anyway, that was my input and please let me know if I can copy & paste your post on my site. thanks.
There are some honest people selling sites. But the scammers do make it difficult for everyone. As with most things here if it seems too good to be true it probably is.
Not too much tips of actually moneytizing Adsense... BUT Some very good tips, about generally getting self employed on adsense. Great job. Learning should never stop and be a growing experience.
wow this is fantastic. I agree with you in that we should all find positive friends who support us in the Internet Marketing arena as I've friends who really do not believe in making money off the Internet AT ALL. But i strongly believe, it's only when we have utmost faith in ourselves, work very hard and smart, then IM will generate great benefits for us all. Passion!!! Let's all work hard