Complete newbie

**rogsmith** · January 12th, 2012, 01:24 AM

Hello,
I joined the forum last night and have already found what i feel to be useful links to learn about all this.If I were to say this is all completely new to me but I get the basics but thats about it for now so I wondered can I ask,when most of you were starting out where did you find the most useful information.Obviously this site seems to have a wealth of info but I really am starting from the I havnt got a clue.Many thanks to all and hopefully in time I will be able to add more useful info to this forum.

**Kay** · January 12th, 2012, 02:46 AM

This forum didn't exist when I started out - I wish it had! Back then I just took a scatter-gun approach and used different search engines to find tutorials about the various things I wanted to learn. In some ways you have an advantage over us oldies, as forums like this one make the whole process easier.

**golles** · January 12th, 2012, 02:54 AM

hi rogsmith and welcome

perhaps you could give us an idea of your goals? are you looking to develop sites or buy sites or run an ecommerce operation selling products etc? do you need technical help or guidance on purchases / due diligence etc? that will help the members here point you to articles and information that maybe more specific to your requirements.

i know all of us here are happy to help whereever we can but the information is available is so vast that it would be helpful to narrow things down a little.

all the best.

**ScottJ** · January 12th, 2012, 03:22 AM

The most useful information for me has been trial and error, nothing wrong with making mistakes as those lessons tend to stick with you more, I read forums but it was clear 10 years ago and is probably the same today that a lot of people (this forum excluded) love to talk about things and act knowledgeably without ever doing half the stuff they preach or pass on as fact, they value domains and talk seo tactics without ever actually buying or trying it themselves and regurgitate stories and supposed facts which in reality are sometimes untrue. Don't believe everything you read whether that's from a self claimed expert or from Google themselves.

**golles** · January 12th, 2012, 04:37 AM

Originally Posted by ScottJ

The most useful information for me has been trial and error, nothing wrong with making mistakes as those lessons tend to stick with you more, I read forums but it was clear 10 years ago and is probably the same today that a lot of people (this forum excluded) love to talk about things and act knowledgeably without ever doing half the stuff they preach or pass on as fact, they value domains and talk seo tactics without ever actually buying or trying it themselves and regurgitate stories and supposed facts which in reality are sometimes untrue. Don't believe everything you read whether that's from a self claimed expert or from Google themselves.

couldn't agree more infact it was this very issue that caused us to dive off the beaten track and we found ScottJ's (+ al carltons) self made minds blog. that site quite literally changed my life. i would recommend anyone starting out do what i did and read every single post on SMM. You can be assured that all the information on that site is pure gold with no BS (some elements maybe a little outdated, but fundamentals are there). sadly the blog is not updated now - but I can fully understand the reasonsing for that.

In addition to SMM - read all the stickies on all parts of this forum - wade through the beginners articles, look for posts by the seasoned members - it takes time but the hunt is well worth it - bookmark useful pages for future reading. keep notes.

I like this forum as there is a lot less 'noise' - just good solid information and q&a to help. other forums will get you down in the long term.

Dig out anything clinton has written on this site and others.

and above all as scott pointed out - get going - nothing like learning by doing.

that will be a good start anyway. imo.

**XenosSoft** · January 12th, 2012, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by ScottJ

The most useful information for me has been trial and error, nothing wrong with making mistakes as those lessons tend to stick with you more, I read forums but it was clear 10 years ago and is probably the same today that a lot of people (this forum excluded) love to talk about things and act knowledgeably without ever doing half the stuff they preach or pass on as fact, they value domains and talk seo tactics without ever actually buying or trying it themselves and regurgitate stories and supposed facts which in reality are sometimes untrue. Don't believe everything you read whether that's from a self claimed expert or from Google themselves.

This is definitely great advice.

One thing I am personally guilty of is paralysis by analysis, which is something I have to consciously work on to protect myself from.

You can't know for sure what will be successful (no matter how much you analyze the data) unless you give it a shot. It is important to analyze an opportunity but don't get too bogged down with it. There is definitely a happy medium there.

One other piece of advice I can give is don't fall in love with a losing idea. Try to set some kind of limit on time, money, and/or other resources spent on an idea up front. After that you should take a long hard look to see whether you still think the idea can be successful. On the flip side you need to give the idea enough of a chance. As I mentioned above there is a happy medium here as well.

Over time you will get better with your predictions, but you (or anyone else) can never be 100%, so don't be discouraged if you fail.

Best of luck!

Dana

**rogsmith** · January 12th, 2012, 03:32 PM

Wow what a great start ,many thanks for all the replies.First off to golles now i hope this dosnt come across as naive,daft but at the moment im not really sure how i would like to got about this.I really am open to anything as i mentioned i dont have a clue how any of this works so i really am in the dark so to speak.I want to get stuck in but i really do need to do a fair amount of reading,learning so i can at least give myself some sort of idea about what im doing.I hope im not coming across as some kind of idiot its just this appeals to me and i think i could make a go of it but when your starting something new that you have no idea about it is all a little daunting thats why im very appreciated of the replies so far and im sure the rest of the help i will get from the good folk on this fourm.

**Kay** · January 12th, 2012, 11:33 PM

Quite a few people find the vast amount of information available here quite daunting. So, to get a bit more specific than saying "read what's here on the forum", I'd suggest "start by reading the various stickies on this forum".

Here is a great one from the Make Money Online forum to be getting on with:
http://experienced-people.net/forums...at-should-I-do

Not only is that a great thread in itself, but within that thread Clinton has compiled a list of other excellent reference threads which are essential reading.

As you go through it, think about each point that's being discussed. Is there something you didn't understand, need clarified, or would like to discuss further? Then start a new thread on the appropriate forum raising the specific question you have or issue you want to discuss.

When you've worked through that lot (see you in a week's time, lol) then try this one about how to get traffic:
http://experienced-people.net/forums...etting-traffic

And here is a very recent thread where people talk about how they make money online. It's not so much a reference-standard thread as the ones mentioned above, but it's an interesting overview of how people view business and MMO.
http://experienced-people.net/forums...-money-on-line

Have fun!