The beginner's challenge in the digital world is a common predicament faced by many newcomers to the online business scene. This challenge is primarily centered around not owning a piece of digital real estate, in other words, not owning your own domain. The lack of a personal domain can significantly hinder your chances of achieving long-term success on the internet.
If you don't own a domain, you risk losing all the time, effort, and resources you've invested in promoting and advertising your business. This is because without a domain, you can't fully leverage the time and money you've spent on traffic and lead generation.
Let's illustrate this with a comparison. Consider two individuals, Joe, a beginner who has worked with numerous affiliate programs for three years, and Jane, a seasoned webmaster. Both join a popular multi-level marketing (MLM) program.
Joe, without a domain or an in-house contact list, has to start from scratch in generating traffic and leads for the new MLM program. Jane, on the other hand, has spent the last three years driving traffic to her domain and building her newsletter. She has consistently worked on getting her domain listed in search engines, ezine directories, link swaps with other webmasters, and banner exchanges.
As a result, Jane now receives a steady flow of 500-1000 visitors per day to her domain and has built an in-house list of over 5000 subscribers. When it comes to gaining market share before the company reaches the stability stage, Jane has a significant advantage over Joe. She can instantly put her offer in front of 5000 people at once and 500-1000 people every day.
To overcome the beginner's challenge, you need to follow what I call the "Internet Model". This model consists of four essential elements for long-term online success:
Your own domain: This allows you to build traffic for life and promote whatever you want by creating entry pages on your domain for your replicated websites or for your unique products.
Professional design: Especially for your homepage. First impressions matter, and your site must be client-centered and have prospect capture forms. This allows your visitors to tell you what they want and join your in-house list(s).
Listserver: Your in-house list or ezine to communicate your offers, products, and services to list members. Follow-up is mandatory.
Traffic generating tools: Leverage your time and build a steady flow of thousands of visitors per month to your domain.
Without these four elements, you're wasting your time and won't be able to compete with those who are taking these steps. By following this model, you'll have the ability to effectively sell or promote whatever products and programs you want. Plus, your time, effort, and energy will never be wasted if something happens beyond your control and one of your affiliate or MLM programs fails.
Following this model is not an easy task. It requires hard work, determination, an operating budget, a certain level of technical skills, and as much training as needed depending on your level of skills and abilities. However, it's a necessary step to overcome the beginner's challenge and achieve long-term success in the digital world.
