Everyone makes mistakes, and I actually look at them as blessings: they offer an opportunity to see what isn’t working in your technique and adjust accordingly. I know I made plenty of mistakes when I was starting out trying to make money on the Internet.. and so has every other successful marketer! It’s ironic that because of some little missteps, people actually make the BIGGEST mistake of all: giving up on themselves and quitting. Yes, that is the surest path to failure, and here are some others:

1) Expecting support from the “wrong people” : those negative people that don’t offer the enthusiasm about your efforts that you had thought would be automatic, most often your friends and family. You start to see who your true friends are when you start doing things differently, taking control of your own life and skirting the expectations of others that “know” you. Just forget about any accolades from your friends and relatives… they probably won’t come unless you buy them all cars. Remember, it’s not about them. Its YOUR life. Make new friends in the industry who can actually help you, collaborate and partner with you, and are in love with the field as much as you are. You will become a different person on this journey, so embrace the changes in your relationships that will inevitably come as a result.

2) Not building a list. If you are sending traffic directly to an affiliate link without capturing the lead into YOUR system, you are making a mistake. You need to capture leads and then begin to communicate with prospects on a regular basis, establishing credibility, building rapport, and offering related products and services that they are looking for. At the end of the day, you will have a LIST of prospects that can get to know and like you and will be able to generate income by sending an email.

3) Not knowing what you want or where you’re going. You need to sit down with yourself and be very specific with what you want. Don’t say “I want to have a great life” without first defining exactly WHAT a “great life” means to YOU. Once you know what you want, you will have greater clarity in finding how you can reach any goal that you set for yourself.

4) Becoming a robot. Automation is a wonderful thing, but don’t let it become all that you do. Don’t have a computer generated article feed into automatic blog posting software and think that you’re marketing effectively. Write your own original articles and blog posts, answer inquires personally and follow up with your customers offering your help and guidance should they ever require assistance in the future. Just make sure your wonderful personality shines through.. think about it, do you prefer receiving personal emails or nameless spam advertising? You actually need to sell yourself as well as your product or opportunity, so you must learn how to put yourself out there and interact with your colleagues and customers in a confident, open, and HUMAN way.

5) Being greedy. Here is the difference between a greedy marketer and a giving one.

A greedy marketer wants to take as much from their customer as possible while giving as little value as possible in return. Even if they make initial sales, they will not create the necessary relationships nor inspire trust with their desperate behavior.

A giving marketer may want to make money just as much, but knows that in order for them to get what they want, they need to first give value to others and help them get what they want… in doing so, they “just know” that they will receive returns multiplied exponentially to the amount of value they gave. It’s the Law of Attraction at work, and trust me when I say: it always works.

Be self-motivated and confident, create authentic relationships, create quality products and resources, help others without expectation, and give of yourself, and you will shortly find yourself on the right path to making your dreams of success a reality.