If you started today...

For me it would me having a bigger reason why I'm doing all this.
2. Not diving into the tech side of things because all the tech is just a means which can be outsourced.
3. It's not the idea, it's the execution that matters.
4. It’s all about profit not revenue

Actually, this explains it quite well:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgqXio11arU]YouTube - TWiST #46 with David Heinemeier Hansson[/ame]
 


dreamache said:
I'm also regretful that with a few of my sites, I neglected building traffic via SEO for years. If I had focused on building 1 piece of quality content per month, and pushing it to build bl's, I'd probably be making at least 5x what I do now..
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This.

All of the mistakes I've made have been great learning lessons to get me to the point where I am now (about ready to go full-time... I can pay cost-of-living expenses).

But the ENTIRE time, I knew that I needed to keep content flowing on my main site's blog. I already knew that part! But laziness and procrastination kept me from consistently making good content that would have driven traffic.

And I still do it to this day. When create content, even if it's over-the-top-salesy, IT WORKS. So why don't I do it more? I don't know :(
 
I would have made plans to save money better. And hired an accountant when my business started taking off. I guess it's never too late to get on the right track in this industry though.
 
Everything I was told when just starting out was wrong. I would have the gumption to dismiss what the "expert" said and learn for myself. The expert meant well, but I was sold on a lot of stuff that wasted time and money.

I always advise a beginner to learn the foundations of the Internet first, especially HTML, and understand how sites are put together. When I learned about Wordpress it changed everything because it has all a noob needs to get started.

A coder who explains things is good to know. Ask questions relentlessly. (Thank you, Karl and Fixie.)

Learn about SEO, and then apply. Learn more, then profit.

Once you're set up, write sales copy that digs deep - or find somebody who can write that for you. You need to properly motivate your visitor to whip out the plastic and hand over their money.

I would try not to love Adsense as much. It gets you started making some small, easy cash, but robs you of your visitor. This is counterproductive in the end.
 
I had a successful ecommerce site before and basically got bored of running it, so I sold it and started traveling.

When returning to work, AM seemed like the best way to sustain a nomad lifestyle, however it has proven to not be stable enough(for me anyway).

So now I'm back in the ecommerce game, but with the skills I learnt in AM, it has been so much easier to start making profits earlier.

If i was to start today, I would continue in ecommerce where advertising on Adwords, FB etc isn't a problem. In some ways its not as lucrative as CPA can be, but I don't have to worry about being banned and have a much more stable income.
 
Octane said:
For me it would me having a bigger reason why I'm doing all this.
2. Not diving into the tech side of things because all the tech is just a means which can be outsourced.
3. It's not the idea, it's the execution that matters.
4. It’s all about profit not revenue

Actually, this explains it quite well:
YouTube - TWiST #46 with David Heinemeier Hansson
Click to expand...

This is painful to watch because David is a genius and Calacanis is a complete idiot and moron.
 
This is what I would do differently and am still working on getting better at:

1) Take Action - Quit Spending so much time reading forums and other materials. Yes you need the basics, but get busy. It is so easy for "US Procrastinators" to think we just need to learn this or read that. Then we get one of those emails with that tool we just have to learn how to use, or a new strategy or a twist on a old strategy to make it appear new. Too many time wasters that are easy distractions.

2) Outsource - By far one of my biggest hurdles. I've been doing this for several years and am now finally starting to outsource more and more. In the past I've been way to worried that someone is going to steel my 'brilliant idea' which of course some things work and many don't work as well as I thought they would.

3) Work On Smaller Projects - Some of my ideas are way over my head because I make them too complicated and therefore they never get completed before I move on to the next. Yes I do come back to them from time to time so maybe someday they will 'be completed'. But for me, I need to focus on smaller projects also so I can have a sense of completion. Or at least break my bigger projects into smaller ones. But that gets into planning which if it is a big idea I get lost in. Smaller projects, that's what I need to focus on.
 
guerilla said:
3. K.I.S.S. We all get caught up and excited by complex ideas that have too many points of failure and too many prerequisites to execute effectively. Complicated plans and processes are inefficient and encourage procrastination. Dreaming big is no substitute for acting now.
Click to expand...

Stop outing me! :)
 
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