3 Steps for Improving Your Marketing Efforts

Even the most successful online marketers have made their share of mistakes, and looking back, they might find these quite funny. While such things may be funny to look back on, when they occur they can seem like catastrophes.

You just have to realize that you're bound to make certain mistakes as you learn a new skill. Some mistakes are innocent ones, based on your own lack of knowledge; others may be the results of deception on somebody's part. However, for now just read the following and find out early about some fairly perpetual myths concerning online marketing.

When you don't have much experience with internet marketing, you may approach it with a certain naivete that can be dangerous. Some new marketers, for example, are fairly gullible when reading the claims found in ads for various products. You can spend many hundreds of dollars, not to mention hours of wasted effort if you simply believe everything you read or hear. In fact, it really is much better if you did not read any sales letters at all for some time, but that is not something realistic for you to do. Check out some internet marketing forums and focus on absorbing as much information as you can. You can read helpful threads, ask your own questions and do searches on any subjects you're curious about. Anytime you see a sales letter for something you just have to buy or you will die, then exercise restraint and research it first and thoroughly.

Along with a laundry list of cautions for IM newbies to take, pay attention to your state of mind and learn to slow down. You really have to learn how to resist buying every new bright, shiny object you see. One criterion you should use is to not buy a product simply because you think you might use it someday. One useful criterion you can use is the "24 hour rule" -any item you're not going to use in the next 24 hours is one you can live without. The notion that you might use this amazing product sometime in the future is a trap you should learn to avoid. You can waste many hundreds or even thousands of dollars if you buy everything that looks cool.

Before you make the following mistake, you can learn about it and avoid it. You may find yourself pulled in a hundred different paths and feel like you can follow all of them. If this describes you, it's important that you learn how to focus and concentrate your efforts in one or two areas. You have a few basic choices about what to focus on -affiliate marketing, product creation, building a list, etc. It's best to start out with a single focus at first, and gather as much useful information as you can about it. Use whatever tools and knowledge you can find to make this strategy work for you. At a certain point, you can then decide whether to make this your specialty or to try something else -but give it a chance first.

The fear of making any mistake is itself a mistake, so learn to relax a little. You have to come to terms with the reality that mistakes are part of being human, and certainly a part of online marketing. This is part of what testing and experimenting are all about -you never fail, you just learn what not to do in the future. Furthermore, read this SEO Niche Detective review to learn how to initiate a lucrative online business.