Where would you begin.

[Eternal]

A question for you more established at this sort of thing. Given your time again, having all the knowledge you have gained, where would you start if you had that time again.

Obviously this is of interest to me as i am starting out, and whilst i can and will take lots of information from the various threads on here already, i thought it might be useful to have it here in your own words, rather than peicing together a picture from various snippets dotted around the forum.

It is quite often a lot easier to come up with ideal scenarios in retrospect, so what would you have done different?

[Kay]

It's a crazy question because you'd need a time machine to implement most of the ideas and plans. I would get in my time machine and go back to the early 1990s to register lots of luvverly generic dot coms. Then I would make a fortune by selling these domains to people.

That's where I would start, with hindsight. But history isn't much use to anyone starting now. Is it?

[Eternal]

Sorry, I probably didn't word it the best way. Maybe i should have said if you were starting from fresh today with the knowledge you have accumulated. Just trying to get a few heads up on mistakes or regrets that you guys may avoid if starting again. I'm sure i'll make a few of my own, but anything that can minimise them must be good.

I will give my posts slightly more thought in the future, and read to make sure they convey what i should be asking, clearly.

Sorry miss, it won't happen again, honest.

[crabfoot]

Mistakes and regrets a-plenty to be found as asides in many threads. Big mistakes include spending money on information you don't have the knowledge to use, and not getting started into actually doing something because you are trying to absorb too much information at one time. The biggest mistake you can make is not to read this forum.

[KenW3]

Maybe i should have said if you were starting from fresh today with the knowledge you have accumulated.

Please know this reply is not meant to be a play on words, or to convey any level of sarcasm. Question: What would I do if I 'were starting from fresh today' with the knowledge I have accumulated? Answer: I would apply the knowledge accumulated for the items tested that work well, and avoid those processes I have learned do not work well.

This query reminds me of two threads. One asked what members would do if we were starting over titled If You Went Broke Tomorrow... and the other is from a recent new member asking members 'Why' we were doing the things we do in business. This second query was quite different, as invariably people who want to learn processes ask How and not Why. I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that query, and I'm not quite certain how to reply here.

My first products sold were mail order through magazine ads, and that start was 1970-71. My first services were a lawn and landscaping company (started with a Chevy truck and a trailer) in 1972. I made money with both of those first businesses. If I were starting again today, I would find a product or service that I knew well, start a business, then market it for profit.

Mistakes and regrets a-plenty to be found as asides in many threads. Big mistakes include spending money on information you don't have the knowledge to use, and not getting started into actually doing something because you are trying to absorb too much information at one time. The biggest mistake you can make is not to read this forum.

Sage advice!

[Clinton]

I'll have you know that the below answer isn't frivolous. I've thought it over carefully. In fact, I didn't post in this thread yesterday because I was pondering the question of what I'd do if I were starting today with my current level of experience.

My answer:
I wouldn't try to make money online.

I realise now - which I didn't realise a decade or two ago - that if you do the right things the money will just happen. I'd work less on making money. I'd work more on finding the right things to do.

[ScottJ]

A lot of the techniques and methods I use which are successful today are only born out of trial and error so looking back it appears I have needed to go on the long journey and learn and adapt, the things that work today wouldn't work 10 years ago and things that worked 10 years ago don't work today, adapt and survive, trial and error, there is no short cut to experience. However to try and answer the question I'd buy or build the best and most informative/useful site that I could in one chosen niche, as Clinton alluded a lot of the other concerns like making money, building backlinks and ranking tend to then take care of themselves.

[tke71709]

A question for you more established at this sort of thing. Given your time again, having all the knowledge you have gained, where would you start if you had that time again.

Honestly, and I still struggle with this even today, I would just get started.

Stop with the over analyzing, stop with the reasons why it won't work. Just get started and move forward.

Procrastination and analysis by paralysis are killers for me. One gets complacent with their life and doesn't want to take chances.

[Chabrenas]

I'd buy or build the best and most informative/useful site that I could in one chosen niche, as Clinton alluded a lot of the other concerns like making money, building backlinks and ranking tend to then take care of themselves.

That's got to be the logical thing to do for long term success. But how long it takes for your site to get the reputation it deserves will depend on what means are at your disposal for informing the world about it - and how effectively you use them. I have two strong reasons for participating in this forum:

1. It's populated by a bunch of intelligent and helpful people with whom I'd happily spend hours in coffee bars or anywhere else where you can hear yourself talk
2. They are willing to guide me as I try to work out how to tell the world about my clever, entertaining and informative sites - and to tell me why they aren't as clever, entertaining and informative as their creator believes

[Clinton]

But how long it takes for your site to get the reputation it deserves will depend on what means are at your disposal for informing the world about it - and how effectively you use them.

That is a valid argument, but there are other ways too making money that don't involve building sites....don't involve sites at all. You could create an app, an ebook or a script. You could invest in sites other people have developed. You could develop an algorithm for spreadbetting. You could invent a product and use affiliates or PPC to sell it. You could open an ebay store. The list really is limited only by one's imagination.

Not that there's anything wrong with a clever and entertaining site of course.