The Biggest Mistakes People Make When Starting Their Online Business

Starting an online business can be a fun, nerve-racking, exciting, frustrating, profitable experience.  And yes, some days, you’ll feel ALL of those things!  But when people first get started with their online business, there are some common mistakes you see them make over and over and OVER again…trust me, I’ve been there too.  Here are a few of the biggest mistakes you should avoid as you get your online business going.

Thinking they don’t know anything someone else would be willing to pay for

You know, it’s a shame that most of us don’t have the confidence that we should.  And I think that’s what this mistake boils down to…a lack of confidence.  I’d be willing to bet that there’s something just about EVERYONE knows that someone else would be willing to pay for.  Will it be a $1000 product?  Well, maybe not.  But one of the goals is to get out of the mode of trading hours for dollars.  So if your idea, know-how or product only ends up being a $47 product instead, no big deal.  That’s just a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

Setting prices too low

Some people are way too price sensitive and end up transferring their ideas about price to their customers.  As longs as you can honestly say that you’re able to provide $x amount of value with a certain product, you should be totally comfortable charging (and being paid) that amount.  Also, keep in mind that the larger the transaction size, the fewer transactions you need in order to hit your target goals.  So if you can do just a little bit extra or add just one more thing to your product to give it a bump in value…do it, then RAISE YOUR PRICES.

Not aggressively testing and tracking

This ties in with the last item somewhat and with just about everything you do to market your business online.  If you’re not testing and tracking your results, you have no baseline to compare to and no measure for how much you’re improving (or getting worse) over time.  Simple things like split testing Adwords ads or headlines can lead to huge leaps in performance and take close to ZERO time to setup.  So why not setup a quick test for one of your sites today? 

Moving from one strategy to the next

There’s no lack of ideas for making money online or starting an online business, that’s for sure.  But you can never get good at them all if you’re doing everything at the same time.  Sure, there’s something to be said for having infoproduts in a market, being an affiliate for other products in that market, having content sites in that market and so forth.  But you can’t work on your products, affiliate offers and content sites all at once.  Get one thing working, then roll out the rest.  But don’t bounce from one "latest, greatest idea" to the next just because you think the grass will be greener on the other side.

Buying product after product with ZERO implementation

This ties in with the last one because if you bounce from one thing to the next, it almost certainly leads to wanting more information about your newfound moneymaker of the week.  And in the end, you end up with a shelf full of products and a lighter wallet.  Again, the key is FOCUS.

Spending too much time studying, in forums, on blogs, etc.

I was only guilty of this one for a couple of months and then I realized how futile it was.  You simply can’t spend all your time reading posts in forums, bouncing from blog to blog, or doing other so-called "research".  That’s why I only post to this blog a couple of times a week and hopefully, you’re just getting an email notification when it’s updated rather than popping back by just because.  Get out there and work, don’t spend hours on some IM forum – which is probably feeding you doubt, negativity and confusion more than answers.  Granted, you can find good info and the occasional good deal, but keep it to a minimum.  Get an egg timer or something and keep the forum stuff under control.

Taking someone’s opinion, test results or other opinions as fact

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone say "such and such" doesn’t work, or "x" is a bad market.  Unless you test it for yourself, you’re never really going to know.  Just because something didn’t work for one person doesn’t mean YOUR results will be the same.  I went to college and was an engineering student.  I was horrible at it…but I finished.  But would I discourage someone from pursuing the same degree?  Nope.  Different strokes and all that.  Same holds true for info you get from forums and elsewhere.  Trust but verify.

Not building a list

I’m definitely guilty of this one.  If you’re going to be working in a particular market, do yourself a favor and head over to AWeber right now and start building a list.  There’s no reason not to and that’s where a lot of the value in a business is stored.  Imagine having a list of 5000 people that have visited your site.  You find out about a really great, free service that they could benefit from – maybe a new website or something.  So you send it to them…no pitch, just a good recommendation for something they can all use.  Then let’s say you’re providing them with good content periodically, again information they can use.  If you do happen to come across an affiliate offer or some other type of thing that can make you money (but it still USEFUL to your list), why not send it to them.  You want to build a responsive group of online partners in your market rather than just a bunch of names on a list.  That’s the key.

Staying on lists where they only get pitched

Directly related to building a list, if you’re on a list where you’re continuously gettin pitched, time to pull the plug.  I do this at least once a year, sometimes more often, and IMMEDIATELY if I start getting too many hyped up emails from any particular person.  The best ones, the ones I model and the ones I’d never unsubscribe from send an enormous amount of free, "just thought you should know" type info when compared to the number of offers I get.  I’d have to take a look to know for sure, but I’d bet it’s something like 3-to-1 or 5-to-1.  As they say, success leaves clues.

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