After starting my online journey 3 years ago, if I knew then what I know now, I would probably be 10 times richer and 10 times more successful.
I’m not upset or angry though, the mistakes I’ve made have lead to me to where I am today. Running a number of successful websites, authoring eBooks and doing what I enjoy most, writing about Internet marketing.
In this article, I am going to reveal the biggest mistakes I made when starting my online journey and hopefully stop you from making the same mistakes.

1. Not willing to spend money

The biggest hindrance in the beginning was my fear of spending money.
My first lead generation campaign was to direct people to a landing page where they would opt-in to my Top 5 Foods To Gain Must Fast eBook. I was reluctant to spend any money at the time because I hadn’t made any. I wanted to invest as little as possible while making as much as possible, great plan, right?
I created the landing page myself using a basic WordPress theme and even wrote the lead magnet, all two pages of it. Someone how I managed to get quite a few opt-ins after spamming my URL on a number of forums and thought to myself:

“Wow this online marketing is really easy.”

Then I sent my first email campaign and it all went downhill. I received an extremely high amount of unsubscribes (over 70%), and in the end my Mailchimp account got banned for violating their spamming polices.
At the time I didn’t understand why, but now I realize it was because my eBook was incredibly poor value, my first email was a sales pitch which annoyed my leads and my traffic methods were of low quality.
I decided to do it all on the cheap and it backfired. If I cannot invest in myself, how can I expect others to trust and buy from me? I used to regard spending money as a cost rather than an investment back then.

2. Being scared of taking action

I truly believe the number one reason why many people fail to make money online is due to the inability to take action. We all know that person (or maybe you’re guilty of it yourself) who says they will start working on their project when they have more money, when they can find free time or next year when they finally ‘quit their job’.
There are two types of people:

1. Those that do
2. Those that say they will do

I’m not a lifestyle marketer, but I often post pictures on Facebook showing friends back home of my current lifestyle. They often private message me asking how they can do the same, but after I provide them with all the information, they make an excuse for never taking action.

I knew nothing when I started 3 years ago, I could barely write or use WordPress. Now I earn more money doing less work than in my last full-time job.
I wonder how much potential is lost every day by people reading Internet marketing content but never taking action?

3. Be around like minded people (join a mastermind group)

There’s been big increase in co-working spaces in Asia (I live in Thailand), and the idea of visiting a place to network with hippy online marketers is my idea of hell on earth. But I’m a short-sighted and miserable person who spends most of the day working in my room barely seeing daylight.
But a few months ago, I joined a Skype group with several other Internet marketers who were doing similar things as I was. If I be honest with myself, I’ve been pretty stagnant when I work alone and my motivation is close to zero.
I found that being around like minded people dramatically increased my motivation levels and work flow. Within 3 weeks of being part of that group, I launched two new websites and wrote an eBook.
If you’re someone who lacks motivation or drive, you should seriously consider joining a mastermind group, there are hundreds out there if you look for them. The money invested will almost certainly yield a positive ROI and push you in the right direction assuming you find a good group.
Summary
I’ve learned a lot of things during my journey through online marketing, things which I’ve only learned because I decided to take action. The vast majority of people are stuck in neutral and can’t seem to find the missing piece of the jigsaw to make their first $1, $100 or $1,000 online.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned through your online journey? Leave a comment below.