Beginners Advice

Read this and Youll be “Rich”!

The title of this post is kinda mocking every post or book out there that promises some great bit of knowledge to be rich if only you buy their latest product for 4 payments of $49.99, Ive written this post to pass on what Ive learned over the past months in my quest to make money online.

Its been one month since Ive started webmastering for money,Ive been doing it as a hobby for 4 years, and heres the breakdown. I’ve built 3 proxies, 1 diretory, 2 forums, 5 blogs and a few miscalaneous sites. I’ve advertised by Pay-Per-Click, Search Engine Optimisiation and Link Exchange. Ive tried out a ton of different ways to monetize each site from CPC to Affiliates. After all this, Ive learned a lot about how to be successful on the web and more importantly what not to do.

First, the most important nugget of knowledge I found out has been, Just start. Too many wanna be webmasters end up quitting or not doing as good as they could because they spend too much time “researching” . Webmastering for the most part is not brain surgery, you dont have to research for a decade to be good at it. Its almost all on the job training.

Second, Dont get caught up in the numbers, I’ve found Ive wasted a lot of time checking on my earnings or figuring out what other webmasters make on their sites. While it is important to watch statistics carefully to see if your latest campaign is working, checking your earnings every minute is counter-productive. Also with my proxies mainly, I have been asked many times if $#/day was good earnings for a proxy(the point crosses into any type of site). And my reply is always if your happy with those earnings than its good, but do you want good or better. There is always something you can do to make your site better and thus earn more, So instead of asking someone if your earnings are good, ask what you could do to make your site better.

Third, Dont Waste Your Money, This may seem obvious but Ive seen so many people waste money buying things albeit links or a report advertising a secret tip that is actually available on every forum and blog on the web. I wish there was some secret way to know what to spend your money on but I guess thats kinda the point of this, there is no secret forumla. So before you hand over your hard earned money do yourself a favor and do a quick search and make sure you cant get it for free or theres not a coupon to get it for cheaper.

Fourth, Learn by doing, You can spend a lot of time reading about how best to run say a ppc campaign but the only way your really going to know how is to make all the mistakes that most people make, the key is doing it in a controlled environment where a lot fo money isnt at sake. Keeping with the PPC example, a lot of ad networks offer free money to just sign up(bidvertiser) or vouchers that you can get for less than their value since you need a new account to use them, I personally have bough a $25 adwords voucher for $2, getting back on topic, with offers like this you can learn from your mistakes without actually having to pay for them. Kinda on the same note, teaching someone is even better than learning by doing, so if someone asks for advice, give them it. Not only will you help someone out and gain a friend, Youll also find youll be better at what you do with each person you teach.

I hope this has urged you to finally take the plunge and just start your idea. Its certainly given me some perspective on my time spent over the past month and has given me the motivation to continue and do even better in July and each month after that.