The Top 7 Internet Marketing Newbie Mistakes
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In today’s podcast, I talk about why internet marketing is not as easy for newbie’s as you might hear from over hyped markers. No I’m not saying that you should never try, rather I’m saying I want you to have a realistic picture of what goes on. I’m talking from my own experience here. I’m going to discuss the top seven mistakes that not only I have made, but I have no doubt others have as well.
Overall, I think the most important thing that we have to understand is regardless of all the marketing hype that is out there, online businesses and internet marketing will not make you money overnight.
It is just like an offline business in terms of it requiring a lot of research and a lot of planning. It does require an investment of your money as well, but, obviously a far, far less amount.
Let’s look at the top seven mistakes:
1) People buy knowledge, but don’t implement it. What I mean by this is that it’s often all too tempting to follow all the latest news, and all the product launches, and to get excited all the new opportunities out there. Too much hype can lead to too much use of the credit card! I’m implementing a new rule. If I buy an information product, I’m doing my best to implement the knowledge before I go on another buying spree. Implementation is the key word!
2) Not enough research. We’re often told that you need to do lots of research, and then you launch your own product. Sounds simple enough, but actually sticking to this basic rule can be difficult. We think everyone wants what we’ve come up with. We don’t want to prove it, because we have already convinced ourself! So, it’s like inventing something and not testing the market first before spending millions of dollars. Bottom line: until you know your audience agrees with you, don’t invest all your money!
3) Getting bogged down with information overload. If you’re subscribed to all the main internet marketers then you probably have received 20 emails just promoting the one thing on any single given day. Throw in a good mix of many different ideas from other marketers and all of a sudden you’re bombarded! This can be very daunting. In many cases, it might make us want to simply give up. I’ve found the best solution is to take some time out, refocus and review your key goals. This process helps identify all irrelevant content – ready for you to delete… DELETE DELETE DELETE!
4) Trying to do everything ourselves. Yes, I’m a perfectionist. I will often feel like I will never meet my own expectations, so therefore, I’ll never get to the point of distributing my work. So, what I’ve been learning to do is to tell myself “look Joel… things don’t have to be necessarily perfect”. I keep hearing that consistency is far more important than perfection. I agree! I also have decided that I don’t need to be an expert in everything, and have learnt the value of seeking help in our areas of weakness.
5) Not having a consistent routine. I often look at my emails before I action anything else. Big mistake! I’ve realised that I need to start developing a consistent routine (especially if you’re a blogger). The problem is, there are always so many distractions popping up all the time. I’m learning to work around them and schedule — I think the keyword here is ‘schedule, schedule, schedule’. For example – every Tuesday night I produce new content for my blog, whether that be a new video or new podcast, etc. etc. This gets entered into Outlook as a reminder. Trick is – don’t be hard on yourself. If you try and give yourself too much to work on, then you’ll just flip out and won’t get anything completed, which I have known to do in the past.
6) Not having a business plan. Winston Churchill once said “He who fails to plan is planning to fail”. It’s an old saying, but very true. If you don’t have that overall view of where you’re going, you are really going to chase your tail. Think about the example of an offline business. What are your chances of success if you open a corner store without doing prior research? Will you attract the right customers? Will you be in the right location? Unless you strike it lucky, you will need to know your audience and know the numbers. Just like an offline business, do yourself a business plan. What strategies are you gonna implement? How you gonna do it?
7) Letting procrastination rule. Procrastination obviously is a major issue that we all encounter at some form. I think one of the big issues especially for me is to look at one of the reasons as to why I’m procrastinating over something. If you don’t work this out, then you are going to continue the same pattern over and over again (despite your grand intentions). Take a good look at the cause of your procrastion. Am I procrastinating because at the end of the day, I’m too tired and I don’t have any energy left, so I put it off for a rainy day? Is it because I’m not enjoying the task I’m working on and I would rather do something else? Is it a combination of many other factors? A problem stated a problem half solved, right?
I’d love to get your options and your experiences. Please feel free to comment below.
Author: Joel Annesley
Facebook comments:
I absolutely agree with your points. For every newbie to start seeing their first sale, they must take actions. Most of the time, newbies tend to jump from one course to another. I have no idea of why they do it this way. Maybe they are always looking for the magic pill that promise them getting rich overnight. Also, it is the habit of jumping from one product to another that cause them never take any actions and thus getting no results.