• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • The Famous Blog
    • Blogging
    • Social Media
    • SEO
    • Marketing
    • Design

Famous Bloggers

How To Blog and Start a Business

  • Contribute
    • Submit News
  • Login

Home » The Famous Blog » 6 Errors To Avoid When Starting An Online Business

6 Errors To Avoid When Starting An Online Business

December 27, 2010 - Last Modified: December 27, 2010 by Caleb 2,560

Starting Online Business

My online business has experienced several ups and downs over the past couple of years and as we wind down to the end of 2010 I thought it would be a good idea to analyze the main errors I made in efforts to ensure you don’t make the same mistakes as well as to gauge if I truly did learn anything.

I have managed to narrow down these errors into the following six “Don’ts“:

  1. Don’t quit your job until you have made high-end four figures or more consistently for at least 3-6 months
  2. Trust me, you will forever regret the day you quit your job just because you had your first thousand dollar day thinking you’ve finally found the Holy Grail of online profits only to go the next several weeks without making a single dime! So please make sure you truly have a winning strategy..

  3. Don’t hand out business cards until you have made high-end four figures or more consistently for at least 3-6 months
  4. Similar to the first error with added damage to your reputation as people will definitely see you as scamming hoax. “How dare he hand out business cards for a business he knows nothing about and even worse doesn’t even exist!”

  5. Don’t switch to WP self hosting unless your site can consistently pay its own rent
  6. What if you managed to get lots of readers only for them to visit one day and find nothing there? It’s like throwing a party when right in the middle of it your lights get disconnected by the electric company which is not a good look so make sure your site can at least pay its main bill which is the hosting and just use Blogger until profits are earned consistently as they now have some seriously awesome looking blog designs enabling you to have a professional look and feel..

  7. Don’t review products for a fee unless the product owner gives you a free copy for reviewing regardless of how much they are willing to pay for the review
  8. If that owner trusts you enough to do an honest review, then why would they not be willing to give you a copy? In fact, they should feel obliged to do so or at the very least give you a free trial period depending on the type of product/service..

  9. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
  10. I was once making a decent salary from Ebay’s early affiliate program (when they were still on Commission Junction) so much that I didn’t bother promoting anything else until they canned me out of nowhere citing some lame reason of me not driving the type of traffic they were seeking although I was making them and me higher earnings which I thought was my duty as an affiliate! Needless to say I was S.O.L. for a while. So always remember to promote several different programs as well as utilize several different traffic sources so you don’t get stuck in a sinking ship without a life jacket..

  11. PERHAPS THE BIGGEST DON’T – Don’t start out in the internet marketing niche!
  12. There’s too many doing it, but mainly because you need to have a proven track record of decent consistent earnings for credibility. I stuck with it because others have benefited from some of the tips I have passed along and I have built up too much content to quit. It’s like the old saying of “being in too deep already” plus my internet marketing site strongly reflects a sharing while learning theme, but still I had enough sense to start other projects that have nothing to do with the internet marketing niche as this only further adds to credibility showing a successfully diverse online money making portfolio..

For some of you these things may be no-brainers, but it is funny how when you are first starting out the eagerness and extreme desire for success can sometimes cause one to overlook the obvious. Plus all the hype associated with so-called “one click solution” programs can easily cause you to seek the nearest shortcut when having patience is the only way you will see your online business succeed. And the one operative word you probably noticed repeating throughout this list is “consistently” which only comes about through patient hard work.

Now I would be very remiss if I did not at least give a strong “Do” to focus on in the oncoming year. The biggest thing I see that needs attention is learning as much as you can on utilizing FaceBook pages for the fact that there is no other advertising source that has such an extreme targeting abilities. Not many other mediums can match the type of  consumer engagement you can achieve with facebook.

Think about it: FaceBook is the one sure place where people voluntarily provide their true personal info with their likes, dislikes, and other life intricacies. And although FaceBook does not give out info on specific users, it does provide a breakdown of the total statistical demographic data compiled from what their users have shared allowing companies to zero in on the exact clientele for their products and services. Add this to the fact that users on FaceBook spend more time there than on any other site and you get the biggest potential for mega sales known in marketing history so make sure you set up a FaceBook fanpage for your business today!

Now tell me what are your thoughts about these 6 errors as well as any you might have made along with what you learned from them ❓

ShareTweet

Filed Under: Online Business

About Caleb

Follow @marketsecrets

Join William "Caleb" Rodgers the MarketSecretsBlogger as he continues sharing How People Make Money Online at marketsecrets.biz ... and if you hurry right NOW you can get instant access to the top money making Clickbank products for FREE!

Reader Interactions

Related Posts

  • Invest in Content Marketing More than Paid AdvertisingWhy You Should Invest in Content Marketing More than Paid Advertising
  • Social Media Makes Sales Enablement Easy By Showing How Smart Business Can Be
  • Marketing WordPress Site14 Tips To Help You In Marketing Your WordPress Site
  • Email marketing servicesComparing GetResponse and Infusionsoft: What They Have to Offer for Marketing Your Blog

{ 49 Responses }

  1. Saksham says:
    even the great sethgodin hosted his blog on so there's nothing wrong in the 3rd point
    • Caleb says:
      Good point, some of the most highly trafficked blogs are hosted on Blogger's free service :!: ..I only mentioned this particular point because if you cannot pay for the monthly hosting fee you'd be looking foolish to your visitors once "the lights get cut off"!
  2. Val says:
    Great points and very true. I made at least several of these mistakes myself. For one thing, now I'm also "stuck too deep" in Internet marketing, and it's something of a mental block to build something in a different market. The problem with such lists is that people who can benefit the most from them, don't take them seriously. They are all enthusiastic about all the instant 6-figure success stories, and perceive such advice as a conservative rant, when in reality for 1 instant success there are 1,000 boring failures. Well, the world needs wannabes! If you are young and ambitious, at least stick with #1 and don't quit your day job. Learn to manage your business in a few hours that you have - you'll be glad you did! After all, you don't want to quit your job to get another one, with longer hours and smaller pay, right?
    • Caleb says:
      The problem with such lists is that people who can benefit the most from them, don’t take them seriously. They are all enthusiastic about all the instant 6-figure success stories, and perceive such advice as a conservative rant,
      ..and this is what makes it so difficult for the real lessons to be taught :roll:
  3. Braxton Miller says:
    I like your last point. All the make money online blogs out there are pretty redundant for the most part. I like what Shawn Collins has started with the unguru website. And I find it pretty crazy when one of the internet marketers comes out and says they have been lying and they don't make tons of money online (Tyrone).
  4. Chris Hamilton says:
    Hilarious. I love this post. So many people jump into being an entrepreneur but forget that there is hard work that is associated with running a business. One thing that I also think sad is that people do quit a job without thinking about it. The rule of thumb is that you should be consistently be making at least 70% of what you currently make before you pull the plug. Hopefully someone will take your advice and use it. Regards, Chris Hamilton
    • Caleb says:
      After many trials and errors, I'd say 100+% of what you currently make
  5. Mani Viswanathan says:
    Nicely crafted article Caleb. Loved reading it. Perhaps the first three points are most vital in my view.
  6. chandan says:
    The important things to success in online business is the continuity. The more we involve in our work, the more we can learn and also implement new things on our business.
  7. Pritam Nagrale says:
    Yes, very true. You don't need to quit the job until you get the complete freedom through your online business. You need to be patient till you complete big earnings for the next 6 months. You need to work very hard at that stage to get the realistic results and if you think you are stable, you can take a descision. Other points are equally imp.
    • Caleb says:
      So many do not know what"realistic" truly is in this business and most who end up finding out either quit or lie and cover up whats real :!:
  8. Kerry says:
    William - You've given out some great advice for people just beginning their journey in internet marketing. I think the biggest advice you gave was not putting all your eggs in one basket and have diversity in your business. Depending on one traffic source or one program isn't a smart move but I think it's a mistake most beginners make. There are a lot of other little errors you will want to avoid if you're a beginner, but the ones you have listed here are definitely the most common ones.
    • Caleb says:
      It's always wise to diversify ;)
  9. Alex says:
    Hey Caleb, Not quitting your job until you know you have an alternate income is common sense. You will be very upset not to mention broke if all goes down. Using multiple traffic sources and types of revenue is also a great advice, don't put all your eggs in one basket because if you drop that basket it will break all the eggs. But you should definitely make yourself known by handing out business cards, or promoting your blog/business because it will help you no matter if you fail or win. Because if you fail, that's it, you won't have any contacts with that people, but if you win those relations you created will help you!
    • Caleb says:
      I just noticed that when the "chips are down" those who have been given business cards start "talking down" thus damaging your reputation..then when things "are good", they give speeches on how they "wish they could" :rolleyes:
  10. John McNally says:
    Caleb, Your main theme seems to be 'don't fake it until you make it', and that's the problem for any newbie trying to enter the Internet Marketing niche. This is where 'don't put all your eggs in one basket' comes in. You can make money in other areas, and then if you want to attack Internet Marketing, you are no longer faking it, with proven income from different sources. John
    • Caleb says:
      You caught on to that, huh? These are just things I learned from my own errors, although admitting to them may be a bit damaging..
  11. Daniel Sharkov says:
    Hey Caleb, Quitting a job, just because you were able to make some dollars is definitely a bad decision. The problem when it comes to online businesses is that at a certain point you might be making hundreds a month and then after a while the flow just stops. Had a similar problem with an opportunity I was working on some months ago. This might be as a consequence to your fifth point though. It is better to find several different earning sources than to put all your efforts into a single one. Good job! Definitely an useful read for novices! ;)
  12. Randy Pickard says:
    I would add another error to avoid, be very conservative in estimating how much time you will spend on business start up related issues. I definitley did not plan on spending over two hours yesterday morning getting a thermal printer set up to print shipping labels. This is just one of the dozens of time consuming start up issues that have required a lot more time than expected.
    • Caleb says:
      This is where the wonderful lessons of outsourcing would come in to play :)
  13. Aakash says:
    If you are not collecting email from very first day than you are doing a big mistake and you should also avoid that. Do not go for high paid niche. Go for those niche in which you are interested or semi interested but yes they should and they must help you to make money. My 2 cents.
  14. Dennis Edell says:
    Nice overall, but I must agree with some above, 2 & 3 are way off base; especially 3. Far too many people are shying away from anything done on free hosts, the general consensus, and rightfully so is, why would I take advice from someone who can't or won't afford a few dollars per month?
    • Caleb says:
      I see your point on that, but most ppl(other than internet marketing folks) don't know whether you're paying for hosting or not!
      • Dennis Edell says:
        Quite true, and that should be stipulated within the post. Any IM'er dealing with other IM'ers (the majority of readers on this blog in fact) should not use free. ;-)
  15. Dean Saliba says:
    Am I the only one who is sitting at their PC/laptop shaking their head at what Caleb has written? Don't self host your blog? Don't mention your site or product until you are earning 4 figures? Don't review anything unless you are given the product first? My reply would be DON'T write anymore rubbish like this.
    • Caleb says:
      These are things that I have actually experienced as oppossed to things others have merely memorized then wrote about.. ..and you may self-host only when you can afford to do so consistently. You are missing some key points here as this stuff is real and not the ordinary fluff designed to make readers believe that which isn't ACTUAL FACTUAL! Happy New Years to you :)
  16. Erik Eitel says:
    I agree with most of the points. I don't however agree with the business card post. What's a better way to spread the news of your business then with business cards? It also shows you are legitimate business and not just a one time whim.
  17. Nasrul Hanis says:
    I agree with most of your points excluding the business cards and self hosting where I think sending business cards and using self hosting is a good way to start even you are from zero.. btw it's true where we have to be very careful when choosing on how to start doing business.. because it will determine our future steps!
  18. Karan says:
    I guess I'm lucky to still be a high school student as then I have ample time to experiment and no fear of job and stuff.
  19. TJ McDowell says:
    As far as not reviewing products if they don't give you the product, I would say that would make sense for software, but I'm not sure it makes sense for everything. I know of one blog where a lady reviewed a vehicle, and she definitely had to return it. I'm sure they paid her well enough for the job, but they weren't willing to also give her a brand new vehicle for the review. What do you think about situations like that where it's not software?
    • Caleb says:
      That's why I included:
      depending on the type of product/service..
      ..so the only thing I could say in that case is to report the entire incident honestly exactly as it happened!
  20. Shaukat Ameen says:
    Point # 1 is the best. A lot of people feel compelled to quit their jobs as soon as they make some money online. There are a lot of niches where your income can never be consistent. You make money during a few months and then during the rest of the months you just sit idle. Thus, a person must spend a year or so, see the trends and then take this big step. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience.
  21. Pritam says:
    Good 6 points. Really one has to consider this before starting an online business. When eBay was on CJ, I was also making a good 4 figure from eBay itself but when suddenly eBay left CJ, I was nowhere because I have never tried any other product on CJ. Soon I realized the mistake and corrected this. There are many things people learn by experience rather then reading somewhere.
    • Caleb says:
      There are many things people learn by experience rather then reading somewhere..
      Exactly and this is the point some seem to be missing from this article ;)
  22. Kevin says:
    There's no way I'm quitting my job. My online business is not ready to handle all that responsibility which means I'm not ready. I have a long ways to go before I can afford to quit my job. I wish I can but too much bills :( I definitely agree about NOT putting all your eggs in the same basket. The IM niche is a tough one to crack. I'm actually venturing out to other niches as well. Good Post Caleb!
  23. Marlee says:
    Hey Caleb! I'm loving the solid advice here. I think you make some very important point that people often overlook. Thanks for providing a voice of reason! ;)
    • Caleb says:
      Thanks for your comment of understanding.. ..so many have unrealistic expectations and really need to know the "REAL"
  24. Thomas says:
    I love your first point. So many people start to see a result in their online business and instantly quit their jobs to focus on their online business full-time. For me personally, I love having the two separate incomes. Not only does it allow me to save a lot more money, but it give me the security as I continue to build on the online earnings that I am getting.
  25. Adam Mello says:
    Great sharing Caleb, I think you made very important points here, I especially like your 5th point: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. People like to stick with the things that work however the problem of today's world is that it is changing enormously in very short time. So it does not matter whether you were successful yesterday, this will not guarantee you tomorrow's success. So focusing on one thing only might be a great risk.
    • Rahul says:
      "Don’t quit your job" this is very important as long as you can manage your job and online business never stop your work.
  26. John says:
    Man Caleb, I agree with you! Especially about the internet marketing niche. When I see someone new starting out I always think about the massive uphill battle they have ahead of them. With all the big-name gurus out there it's gotta be tough to make yourself known for your own techniques instead of regurgitating all the stuff the big names have put out already. As much as want to quit my day job, I'm not quite ready yet and I'm not looking to move back into my momma's basement so the plan must continue, lol! When it comes to WP self-hosting, I agree that most people will be fine with Blogger or Wp.com for awhile, especially if you don't need all the bells & whistles. I'm a web developer myself so I always want more control that a hosted solution. You've made some very important cautionary points here. I hope they are heeded by those coming up in the game!
  27. Ileane says:
    Hi Caleb, I'm so glad you shared your story with us. I think you have learned some important lessons that are very valuable ones for us to pick up on. The article you linked to about Facebook Fan pages has really got my interest, since I just helped launch one for my day job. It's not that the organization is looking for the exposure but in fact upper-management has come to realize that we must establish a presence on social media. There's just no getting around it. Thanks for all of the advice, I will take it in good stride.
    • Caleb says:
      It’s not that the organization is looking for the exposure but in fact upper-management has come to realize that we must establish a presence on social media. Both equal out to the same result and assuming you're talking about the fanpage Templates link, it only makes sense to use a template that stands out ;) Hey Ileane, you know I'm with you..thanks for commenting and have a Happy New Years :!:
  28. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi Caleb, #4 is a no-brainer. If you don't use a product how can you review it, and if someone asking for a review of their product won't offer it to you for free they are after money and nothing else. Never associate with money-hungry people as they don't know how to do business; too busy worrying about money. Thanks for sharing your insight. RB
  29. rob says:
    nice post. i would have to disagree with you on the concept of not handing out business cards until you earn thousands/month; to speculate the opinion of the recipient is short sighted. I don't hand them out wildly to anyone that will accept one, but I certainly hand them out to contacts in which I've started to build a relationship with. other than than, well done.
    • Caleb says:
      I'm only speaking from personal experiences and definitely not tryin to "speculate the opinion of the recipient". It's just nice to have a pure professional appearance first and foremost ;)

Primary Sidebar

Our Newsletter

Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our blog.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Popular Articles

  1. Top 10 Sites Where You Can Get Paid to Write 115,648 views
  2. How to Get Targeted Twitter Followers Fast 92,036 views
  3. How to Set Half Rating Scale 1-5 (Poor to Excellent) by Words 86,628 views
  4. 66 Awesome Social Media Quotes 78,368 views
  5. 50 Traffic Sources You Should Milk Like Crazy 75,080 views
Schema Structured Data for wordPress
  • Blog
  • Contribute
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclosure Policy

Copyright ©2020 · FamousBloggers - All Rights Are Reserved · Powered by Genesis Framework

  • Login
Forgot Password?
Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.
Go to mobile version