Top 10 newbie errors

Shiny new object syndrome
Procrastination
Lack of focus
Lack of investing in marketing budget
Those are just a few...

It's sounds promising but I hope you'll include some advise on how to avoid / prevent / fix those errors.

My first mistake was using the Google keyword tool and not changing the match type from broad to exact. I bought two domains on the strength of bad keyword research.

Not building a list.

Not getting the right mind set first. People all want to have money right now, they don't even bother or come to the idea to work on their own thought patterns first. And yet, this is critically important.

Allen

Jumping into it without a full understanding of what you are doing. When I first started I only had bits and pieces, so excited to start making money I didn't sit down and brainstorm. Needless to say, was highly unsuccessful. Also, find a mentor for sure. Luckily I had a family member in the field who slapped some sense into me.

Lack of focus and not enough will to continue when things get tough.

Lack of focus being jumping from project to project, idea to idea and never seeing anything through. It's important to stick with what you start, because most things in IM work if you just see them through.

And that's the thing with IM, it all takes take time, effort and work. Stick with it and keep at it. Do whatever it takes to keep motivated, and just keep working. You'll succeed eventually!

1. Reading lists with noob-mistakes on them. LOL!!

TRUE #1 - Not focusing on one tactic at a time & Buying everything in site.

Simple Stan

Here are some new company errors:
1) Create a company website without a dot com name.
For example, they have a .org name. A competitor with the .com name steals much of their traffic.
People are morons. They can forget your .org name. Dot com is necessary.

2) Advertise on Google Adwords when most of your customers are less than seven miles away. Oh yes seven.
That number is like magic. Ask dry cleaners and other services.

3) Have a flash heavy site that takes forever to load for most users.
This one is now common. Google penalizes slow loading sites in their search engine.

4) Get an ad in a newspaper. People are lazy and will not type in your URL anymore.
For some reason newspapers stopped making my URL clickable in their on line version.
Sadly, as a result my sales crashed, I asked why - they told me Google orders em to get rid of links.

5) TV ads are another loser for me. People are too lazy to type in a URL now.
I use to do great with small 3 letter .com names. Those were GOLD to me. Those days are over.

6) Hoping that freebies can get you consumers.
That use to work for me. I had 10% conversion. Another strategy that does not work anymore.

7) Offering free shipping to consumers.
That use to work ages ago. Shipping is now very expensive.

8) Internet only discounts - a former winner.
People now call up the 800 number and demand the internet discount and refuse to pay more.

9) Adding products similar to a proven winner.
This is like a lime coke, and is known as line extension. It use to work ages ago.

10) Getting celebs to promote your products or services.
I liked using this one in the 90's - good luck trying it now. People are cynics.

Do you have any of your own that you'd like to possibly start us off with?

I would say mine are:

1. Procrastination.
2. Not treating it like a business.
3. Lack of follow-through.
4. Putting all your eggs in one basket.
5. Expecting to see success overnight.
6. Shiny object syndrome.
7. Not building a list from the beginning.
8. Picking a niche to market in that they don't enjoy.
9. Trying to learn too much at once without taking action.
10. Spending too much time in forums and not enough working

Hopefully that is at least somewhat helpful to you and your newbies!

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, guys. I have to say I think you've hit the nail on them. But do keep your suggestions coming.....
Cheers
Marcs

Not creating goals is a big one. If you don't create something to shoot for how will you know if you are making progress.

The second is not having a business mindset. Many people think IM is the magic bullet to making money. What they fail to realize is that IM is merely just a tool that is to be used in a larger business model.

- Procrastination
- Being stuck in "read only" mode vs. using what you learn and taking action
- Giving up when immediate results aren't reached
- Not learning at least the basics of something before diving into it
- Cheapening your image by using a poor domain for your site (or not using a domain at all and relying on only a Facebook page or blogspot)
- Not acting professional with people or providing good service
- Starting out with something you have no passion in (which causes getting bored or tired of doing it and giving up eventually)
- Not planning or setting goals
- Not evaluating what's working for you and what isn't
- Undervaluing your own time and not taking advantage of outsourcing menial recurring tasks

Great list to read for all us newbies!!

Not dedicating time into it.
Expecting money to fall in their lap
No plan or vision

It is absolutely critical that you take the Im seriously and actually put into action everything you've learned. Some of it may seem simple, and some might seem a bit complex, but just take everything one step at a time.

Don't be more than 99.99% of online marketers that are too lazy to actually do anything with that they learn and get at there and start dominating your Business and your competitors.

The first step is the hardest, believe me it is... making the first will help you with the rest of the steps. And once you start, the rest falls in place.

- Not taking action on anything
- Expecting the world to be handed to them
- Focusing on too many things at once
- Not getting enough practice
- Giving up too easily
- Not finding what they actually like doing
- Looking for quick cash
- They've already heard that before and hense know it
- Asking too many questions before getting the experience.
- Fear
- Lack of motivation

Focus
Persistence
Dedication
Action
Vision

-Trying to make the website a supermarket (Selling all kinds or stuff), if they build any.
-Start with poor quality traffic sources (T.Es, etc)
-Lack of focus.
-Choosing one of the most competitive niches (You know where they all want to be )

-Downloading each and every stuff they find. They end up being over loaded.
-Trying so hard to get rich overnight. They end up frustrated.

And lots more.

Expecting too big results too quickly, and then quitting when they are not achieved.

I like your depth of information very much,I would like to say many thanks to you for share it with all newbie on forums.

Picking niches that they think will make money without doing the proper research to see if there's money to be made there.

-constantly looking for "push button" solution.
-procrastination.
-lack of focus.
-information overloaded.
-negative mindset.
-lost faith easily.
-.......

1. Mindset
2. Mindset
3. Mindset
4. Mindset
5. Mindset
6. Mindset
7. Mindset
8. Mindset
9. Mindset
10. Mindset

Sounds like a new WSO...or Free Product offering coming..!

Expecting make-money methods to be handed over on a plate. Giving up after attempting a saturated method. Not being creative enough to add their own *twists* to existing ideas to beat the saturation.

I'm gonna say the best Top 10 list for this topic is Steve Pavlina's list which is located here.

I pretty much agree with all of his points and if I were to make a list from scratch, my list would contain several of his points anyways.

Of course, that doesn't really help you if you're trying to come up with an original list. Then again, Steve recently released all of his copyrights on all of his blog material, so if you wanted to, you could just copy his!

I've been messing about with the net for about 2 years with not much success...YET.
Mindset
Focus
Action
The money is in the list!

I think an early affliction for me was biting off more than I could chew, instead of gradually ramping up - I would try to do everything all at once.

I agree with all the other points as well. I'll also say to diversify and choose things that scale!

1. Be a jack of all trades- Do everything from SEO to SMO to facebook applications to website design to making links... Newbies wanna do everything not just because they are fools but because they tend to talk with fellow people who all are in different niches and end up confusing the newbie.

2. Investing in free domain and free hosting- yes, most of the newbies hesitate to get a .com domain as well as a good hosting coz they are afraid to invest their money.

3. Think IMKT is a rocket science and they will be able to make $2000 every month easily without lifting too many fingers and using automated softwares.
4. Read too many free Books- yes if we search Google, we can find tons of free books, that eventually ask you to purchase the book for more info or even upsells to the free books.
4. downloading every free internet marketing software on the planet.

Well I can go all day, coz I tried to do all this when I was also a junior a cpl of years back :-)

Making false claims. I just left a thread where someone was asking for help making 1K a month, and was advertising a one on one coaching program in his sig! needless to say, he got eaten alive.

The lack of a clear goal and then a plan to help them reach that goal.

It has to be written down with some old school pen & paper and then they have to join the dots so that they have a roadmap to success.

Once I got a handle on this I saw my progress come on in leaps and bounds. It's so simple but it really does help.

Trying to take shortcuts. This game requires patience and there should be no shortcuts. That's the mindset to have.

I know you are just generating a list to help you develop areas to focus on in your project, but reading these suggestions has already helped this warrior newbie. Thanks.

Giving up.
I gave up when I first started because I wasn't getting results. The truth is I wish I had just stuck at it since 2006 when I began. I'd be a lot further along.

Great list. There are some gems here.

My list:

1) Mindset (Sorry John Romain, you said it much better than I ever could)
2) Not having a plan (Who said: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail?)
3) Thinking you will be able to sell your stuff to other Information Marketers
4) Not choosing the proper niche
5) Thinking that if you build it (website or blog), they will come. Believe me, they won't.
6) Not investing in yourself and business
7) Chasing the next "big thing"
8) Not realizing that everything you do on-line is based on sound business practices.
(Read the masters to learn about copywriting ie Claude Hopkins)

1) NOT TAKING ACTION!!!!!! <---- this one is the absolute killer
2) Giving up
3) Not building a list
4) Not having a mentor (You must have someone to learn from)
5) Not creating clearly defined goals
6) Afraid of outsourcing (you can't do everything)
7) Shiny new object syndrome (Stick with 1 plan until it works)
8) Treating IM like a hobby rather than a business
9) Chasing money rather than positioning themselves to have money come to them
10) General lack of focus just like everyone else stated


Hmmm, maybe I should make a blog post about that.

1. Mindset.
2. Not taking action.
3. Not treating online business as a serious business.
4. Believing that you can make a million bucks with just few clicks with some magic software.
5. Not having a website or a blog.
6. Not building a list.
7. Buying to many coaching programs or products which will overwhelm you.
8. Focusing on wrong things.
9. Using to many services. Technology will not make you a better marketer.
10. Not researching the market and type of costumers that buy in that market.

Not taking the time to learn the fundamentals.

Can anyone name a wildly successful Internet Marketer, who is making huge amounts of money without utilizing the fundamentals of IM?

Most people are so anxious to make money they don't take the time in the beginning to really learn the basics, they figure they can learn on the fly. Then they wonder why they aren't making any money.

Losing focus! There are so much information out there and a million things you have to learn and do. It can be overwhelming and you can lose sight of the most important task at hand.

Focus on 1 thing at a time; master it and then move on. Put in into action and learn as you go.

#1 Newbie Error= trying to learn everything at once instead of slooooowing down, and focusing on one aspect at a time.

Lack of keyword research.

Jason

Information overload.
Not having a plan.
Spending too much time surfing.
Unable to get traffic of right variety.

John

I will list the Top 10 of my mistakes. I wish there were only 10 to choose from.

1) Starting IM out of desperation and not setting up a solid business plan in the beginning.
2) Buying domains without having a plan for them already established.
3) Getting caught up in "get rich quick" schemes.
4) Forgetting that it takes time to be good at a new career.
5) Allowing myself to be discouraged at my failures.
6) Not getting a "mentor."
7) Lack of focus.
8) Getting "information overload" to often.
9) Spending to much money with quick decisions on bad products.
10) Taking too much time thinking about the work I need to do rather than doing the work that I need to do.

These are a few of the many mistakes that I have made.

Buying too many WSOs and information products without clear direction. Many of these are really not newbie friendly, and if too advanced or specialized, can cause great frustration and stopping dead in your tracks.

Waiting till gaining the perfect knowledge before taking the action. Should take the action when things are not perfect!

One common error I've seen is when new affiliates learn a method from a mentor or coaching program, but then follow the method literally step-by-step without adding their own twists or tweaks.

Take all that amazing information you just found but add your own skills, knowledge, and talents to the mix, ending with something more unique (and hopefully less competive)!

I would say mindset and lack of focus are 2 of the biggies!
Getting distracted and overwhelmed is very easy when you are new to internet marketing. When I started out 2 years ago after buying loads of products promising a quick fix or magic button it can be very easy to go chasing after the next great product.

Remaining focussed and routine I believe it very important.

Looking for instant traffic from classified ad sites.

There have been some great posts, but where's your advice for Newbies?
You started the thread but have not contributed yourself, people often do this when they are looking for WSO/product ideas.
Am i right?