8 Excruciating Mistakes To Avoid in Your Online Business

When you were getting started with your online business, you most likely were so excited! You were told that you will have no boss, work at your own hours, make a lot of money and buy that car that you have always dreamed of.

Immediately you started making money online, you realize that it is business as usual.

You may have sleepless nights. Some clients may con you. And worst of all you may be bored and frustrated after doing the same types of jobs for 6 months straight. I remember once writing about “Getting Rid of Acne” daily for 3 months. Imagine.

On the other hand, earning online can change your life. You can actually work for less hours, get paid more, avoid the traffic jams and actually live the life you’ve always wanted.

In short, there are guys living their dreams online while there are some who are extremely frustrated.

How do you join the happy group?

Simply avoid the mistakes below.

1. Delivering poor quality

Haraka haraka haina baraka. Don’t let your lack of planning and discipline cost you a job. Always deliver quality. Over-deliver!

Over the last few months, I have been called by all sorts of people being told that Kenyans are not up to par when it comes to quality. I didn’t believe them due to the “Kenyans” bit. I hate generalization.

But unfortunately, there are many of us who do not deliver quality stuff.

Whether you are doing academic writing, transcription, academic writing, article writing, web design or whatever else online, you need to make sure that you deliver quality.

Sorry to say this but if your quality is not good, you cannot survive this business. Unless of course you hire people who can deliver good quality.

I repeat, submit high quality work or hire someone who will give you high quality work that you can submit.

2. Late deliveries

Last month I was called for an interview at the Homeboyz Foundation. Hopefully it will be put up on YouTube soon.

One of the guys there said he keeps giving work to Indians instead of Kenyans.

In his words, he said, “I am fed up with these Kenyans who promise heaven but they do not deliver. Delivery is a big problem here man. Please send this message out there. I would give a lot of work to Kenyans if they can deliver good quality work in good time!”

Imagine. We are losing opportunities because of lack of delivery.

So here is the message – ALWAYS DELIVER ON TIME!

I hope that’s loud enough. On to the next point…

3. Do not assume it’s an easy game

This will get you out the fastest. Many people see a post on Facebook as below:

Making money online has changed my life. I am now driving my first Toyota NZE. I can help you.

Below the post, they see lots of comments on how online income is great. Due to that, many sign up for some trainnig without thinking. Just because they saw the “Toyota NZE” part.

Once they start the training they realize that they need to do a lot of stuff before they get the NZE. A few remain while many fizzle out slowly – having parted with the training fees.

Do you want to sign up for any training? If yes, please note that you will have to work hard to make money. No two ways about that.

4. Thinking it’s too hard

The word easy and hard are relative.

By saying that it’s not too easy, I don’t mean that it’s too hard. It is just like any other business. It requires passion and determination. And a backbone.

This point means that you should not be afraid to start. However, you should take time to understand what it is before you start. If you have a passion for what you do, you will make it.

If you are just joining because of a fad, then drop it immediately.

Give yourself time to grow. Don’t join today and expect 100k next month. However, take your time to learn, implement and grow and soon you will be making that good income.

5. Trusting too much

When earning online, you will deal with a lot of people who you don’t know. When starting, you may come across people who promise you heavens but are wolves in sheepskin. They may pay for a while then pull a fast one on you.

Yes, there are many good people out there. However you need to be careful at all times. Each type of online job has its own security measures. Take your time and research on how to protect yourself from online scams.

6. Not getting any training for your online business

There are plenty of free and paid online trainings. I always advise people to get some form of training every few months. Remember even corporates and NGOs take their staff for trainings. Any good business does.

Let me explain.

When starting I wrote about getting rid of acne for 3 months. Imagine how boring that can be. My client was on Freelancer. He was in fact one of the best clients I ever had to date.

After a few months of doing purely article writing, I took up a training on affiliate marketing called AffiloBlueprint. This training helped me learn a lot about how I can become an affiliate. I still earn affiliate commissions to this date. The course also has a lot of material on blogging, advertising and email marketing. Later I did another course on Fiverr Sales and another one on blog post promotion.

Currently I am not on any paid training but I still train myself different things on internet marketing. This helps me enjoy the business more and of course earn more!

7. Depending on one stream of income

I always mention the saying I once heard.

Even the garden of Eden had four streams. Everyone should ensure they have at least four streams of income. This way, when one runs out, the supply of cash doesn’t totally run out.

Let me tell you a story.

At some point in 2013, my wife got really sick. While running up and down taking care of her, admitting her, staying by her bedside, praying for her and raising funds (it was serious) I wasn’t able to work online for a whole month.

Guess what! I still earned $300 through my affiliate income and about Sh. 8,000 from my eBook (I had only one eBook then).

I had some little savings that helped me get by but from this point on, I decided to create so many streams of income so that my income is never heavily affected in case of a tragedy.

As of now, below are some of the things that I do to earn money online.

• eBook sales
• Freelance writing
• Affiliate marketing
• Online services
• PayPal withdrawal
• Seminars (I have postponed these indefinitely. Planning for a huge one much later)
• Article writing and blogging training
• Miscellaneous jobs e.g. someone hiring me to create for them a Zidisha profile.

I am still learning stuff and adding to the list. Through this, I am able to heavily increase my income every few weeks. For this reason I was even named one of the 5 fastest rising entrepreneurs in Kenya by Kuza Biashara.

You can do that too. Once you master one skill, go ahead and learn another one and add it to your portfolio.

8. Not having a blog

Take a look around.

Almost all big sites you know have a blog. Right now celebrities are also going into blogging and so are many consultants and professionals.

Blogging is a huge part of content marketing that cannot be ignored. It helps you build a name, give back information to society and at the same time build a list of leads and prospects. Eventually you end up making repeat sales, especially if you do email marketing in addition to blogging.

For this reason I always give out my blogging eBook for free so that as many of us as possible can learn how to blog – in whatever industry.

However, note that there is a difference between blogging for cash and blogging for fun. Blogs like “Walter’s opinions on daily life” cannot go as far as blogs such as FreelancerKenya.

Therefore, it is high time you started a blog. Remember to grab the free eBook on blogging here. Please read it.

Conclusion

It is my absolute passion to see you making it big online. I would love to visit you on your beach house one day. I would love to see you on TV driving your dream car. It would be great to hear that you pay all your bills purely from online business, and that you still have enough to go for a family vacation once a year. All this is possible if you avoid the deadly mistakes above.

What mistakes have you made in your online business? How did you correct them? What can you add to the list above? Let’s talk on the comments 🙂