In 2009, chances are you made quite a few mistakes that you wish you could take back. Don’t beat yourself up too hard – just learn from what went wrong and vow to make things different for the coming year.

Let’s go over some common problems Internet Marketers face – see if you’ve made any of these mistakes and then read how to solve it for 2010:

·    Tried black hat tactics – You may have invested in a guide that taught you how to sneak around the rules and make a lot of money, fast. Problem is, you got banned along the way – and all of your hard work went down the drain.
In 2010, stay above the board with everything that you do. Why try building a business on quick sand? That’s not the smart entrepreneur’s way of achieving financial security for the long haul!
·    Ignored trends and opportunities – Did you even try to do any market research? Or did you only do it once in January and then never check back to see how the market was trending in March, June or November? You have the stay on top of these things and although it’s a tedious process, it’s something you must do if you want your business in good health.
In 2010, make it a part of your monthly routine to conduct new keyword research for your niche. See if anything has changed in how they’re searching. See what competitors you have now or if there are some additional, new affiliate opportunities you can jump on.
·    Trusted too easily – Did you sign up for a marketer’s list and buy everything he advised you to buy, only to be sorely disappointed with the money you wasted? In 2010, don’t be afraid to click that unsubscribe button if you don’t feel you’re getting any value for your investment of time and money. And from now on, vet each purchase with thorough research into non-biased reviews of both the product and the marketer selling it to you.
·    Bought things you couldn’t afford – Who hasn’t been there, done that? It sounds like you can get your money back in 24 hours, so you forego paying a bill to buy a how to guide and then regret it later. Promise yourself that in 2010, you’ll save up an allowance for your Internet Marketing education – and not dip into essential finances that could cost your family its utilities or even its home.
·    Failed to map out a blueprint for your business – No more jumping from this task to the next without any forethought. In 2010, you’re going to have a plan, Stan! Know what’s coming up for January, February, March and so on – and stick to it, allowing for a little bit of flexibility that’s a perk of being a work at homer.
·    Procrastinated too much – Is procrastinate your middle name? Are you caught up in playing online games or checking in with Facebook friends too much? Commit to your career in 2010. Pretend you have a boss and you have to answer to that person at the end of every day with a list of your accomplishments. Force yourself to work first and play later.

In 2010, you can set aside all of your previous Internet Marketing mistakes and treat your business like a freshly planted garden that you’ve just weeded to make room for new growth.

Hashim Kamal

Technorati Tags: 2010 Predictions

Have you heard the one about the guru who said he was retiring? Yes, it’s starting to sound like a joke to many marketers who learn from those who have paved the way for our success.

It seems like it’s the trending thing to do – send out an email that says you’re leaving Internet Marketing, followed by an email that gives a last chance to buy sale, ending with a “let me clarify” email.

Why is this happening? For some, who follow in the footsteps of their competitors, it’s just a case of mimicking others to be part of the same crowd. For the rest, it’s an opportunity to make a large sum of sales right before switching gears into something else.

Growth of your business means you’ll frequently be reassessing your opportunities and pursing things that make you more money, with less effort. Some marketers have speculated that these retiring gurus are just burned out, or have made enough money already.

Make no mistake about it – they don’t believe they can ever make enough money. That’s why they run these last ditch sales and make widespread announcements that they’re going to now be doing something else.

It’s the start of a new phase of branding for them. Some of the gurus are moving away from instructional teaching because the expectations have risen by consumers and they now have to work harder to keep refund rates low and meet the needs of those who purchase their products.

When you have more marketers entering this niche to teach, it cuts away at their income – and more people expect freebies and hand holding than they did five years ago. So if a marketer finds a way to outsource the development of technical tools that help marketers, like a keyword research tool they can sell, it makes sense to cash in on something like that where they retain their reputation as a leader in the IM niche, but not as much is required of them to succeed.

If a favorite guru of yours has announced that he or she is retiring, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It’s highly unlikely that their leave of absence will be as final as you might believe from the wording of the last email they sent out.

It’s also highly probable that the next trend you’ll see in 2010 is the “I’m coming out of retirement just for this one quick guide because it’s something you must see” trend. And you can laugh when it happens because you’ll have known it was coming all along.

By the way, my good friend John Dalevera is retiring and here’s his one in the life time offer, the Turbo Farewell.  Be sure to check this out!

If you might be interested to join the Affiliate Program,  CLICK HERE.

Hashim Kamal

“This niche seems so saturated – I might as well not even try to go into that one.” This is a common complaint that’s uttered by newer Internet Marketers who come into this business wet behind the ears and intimidated by their existing competition.

There’s a saying that you should adopt when you decide whether or not to get into a niche – “Everything that can be done has been done before.” Business is all about reinvention.

It’s about putting your own stamp on a product or topic and making people understand that yours is better than the rest. If it didn’t work this way, then we’d all be resigned to accepting only one hamburger brand, one brand of jeans, one movie with the same theme.

Think of how many Internet Marketing guides you’ve read to date. There are a wide variety of styles in teaching this business. Some will give a methodical, step-by-step technical accounting of AdWords, while others will deliver a more theory-based approach based on gut instinct and trend forecasting.

In the dating niche for men – there are those who teach you the traditional, seemingly common knowledge strategies and some who tell you to throw caution to the wind, forget everything you’ve ever known and use some tactic that would seem to get you slapped rather than score with a woman.

There will be plenty of room for you as an Internet Marketer in 2010. It doesn’t matter what niche you want to enter. There’s a spot with your name reserved on it, and here’s why:

If you want to succeed, then you should be going into this business truly believing that you can do it better than any of your competitors. That you can provide something no one else can – whether it’s secret knowledge of a trick used to make more money (or pick up women) or it’s in the way you teach – that helps people learn better from you than others.

Don’t go into Internet Marketing with a mindset that you’ll throw darts against the wall and hope something sticks. There’s room for you in this industry – but only if you’re willing to do the research and map out a plan of attack before you haphazardly jump in and waste time, money and patience on something you don’t really grasp.

There may not be an Internet Marketing degree you can earn at a college near you, but there is a wealth of information that can prepare you to succeed as an online marketer in any niche market you want to tap. All you have to do is generate enough interest, determination and motivation to get you from point A to point Z.

Hashim Kamal

A Blog of An Obsessed Internet Marketer

Internet Marketing Blog

Technorati Tags: 2010 Predictions, Trend 2010