My CyberSpace Journey : By Franco Yong
My Roller Coaster CyberSpace Journey So Far
It is now just over 10 months since I have embarked on this journey of mine into cyberspace. For many individuals, these 10 months were far too long. That journey might be very lonely and frustrating. It could be extremely disheartening especially if the key objective was to make instant money online.
For me, these 10 months have been a roller coaster of thrills, fun, new friendship, burning candles, loneliness, reading like I never did before, blogging and lots more excitement.
Regrets? Yes, I have a few. And all to be viewed by me personally as a learning curve. I will share these regrets later part of this article. In so doing, I the hope that if you will avoid the pitfalls during along your path if you were also taking on a cyberspace journey like I am.
There are too many lessons. I will shared some here now and keep some for later. Well, here I go.
Learning #1 - There is no such thing as Instant Success!! Forget the promises most speakers and organizers made of their workshops and seminars. They are just marketers, and very good ones too. They play on our lack of knowledge and momentarily, of our weakness to believe in anything.Frankly, from my experience of all those whom I know who attended the workshops with me, 95% were disillusioned a month later after completion of their course. Enthusiasm and hope are absolutely fast diminishing phenomenons. Most of such workshops are too superficial and too general in providing necessary knowledge and SECRETS (most of them are too selfish to share the real secrets) for individuals to gain enough confidence for a breakthrough over the threshold to gain a glimmer of light of hope and maintenance of that enthusiasm.
Learning #2 - Such workshops are mostly very expensive and does not equate to the promised value a participant is able derived from it. For certain, my first workshop looking hindsight is far too expensive. On the contrary, the recent Stephen Pierce Event that I participated was great value for money. However, that Event was meant more for those who are familiar with some basics and jargons related to Internet Marketing . For those who have not attended a workshop, I recommend that you research forums and ask people who had attended before, the quality of promises. Never jump into a decision immediately without doing this research. There is not hurry, really.
Learning #3 - Assuming you have attended a quality workshop, what immediately need to be done, if to form a small support group amongst the participants whom you are comfortable with. These individuals must share the same passion and are able to sacrifice time for the journey. Time is certainly a resource to success. Many have too many excuses and reasons for not having enough time. Most importantly and most preferred, each member of the group share more or less a similar level of Internet savvy competency. Finally, strong Positive energy amongst members to drive the group to its Internet Marketing success.
I have a group since the end of my 1st ever workshop on Internet Marketing. A great group of individuals whom over time I get to know and respect. We have since met almost once every week. At the beginning, we met online once over Skype and once face-to-face. At stages, a couple of members came and went. Now, this group of ebizwizards are solidly determined and gung-ho to make dreams come true. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each one of these ebizwizards for their support and belief in me.
Jang Bok Jae
Joseph Yap
Sonny Thoo
Phileas Kong
Vas
Chang Heng Fook
Anrhony Fred
Kelvin Kau - a new ebizwizard since October 11 and a very old friend of mine determined to get involved with online marketing
Lesson #4 - Commit to Action immediately. Never leave things undone. Procrastination merely dilute your dreams. The longer you put away taking the baby steps, the more likely you are going to put on hold your dreams. Your negative mind and other around you will always distracted you away from your goal. Once you are set to chase your dreams in Internet Marketing, let that passion build up. Fire up yourself constantly. Take action consistently and persevere. Never give up even though the journey could be very lonely and testing. Gather, gain knowledge and speed . Spend a committed certain amount of time daily in front of your computer, in pursuit of your first dollar. Once you can get the first dollar, go forward can get the next few dollars. The journey gets absolutely interesting and rewarding as you gain momentum in your effort.
I have made a fistful of dollars now. I will do more in due course. And lots more when I break the sound barrier!!
Lesson #5 - For those without a blog, start one up immediately even though you might not have the best writing skills. You get better over time. And most articles need not be very long. You can get tips on creating your blog with Blogger or WordPress on Chapter 1, 2 & 3 of this current blog site you are reading. Writing and visit blogs written by others. By seeing what others do, you will be able to get ides how you can design your blog step-by-step as you progress along. Be patient and learn. Once you are able to maneuver around the blog, understand and do a bit of html copying, pasting and editing, getting the hang of writing, you will be getting yourself to be able to explore the do-it-yourself website for your Internet Marketing business. While you are at blogging, build up a relationship with a list of people you met when they come and visit and vice-versa. I have enjoyed this immensely and have got to know some really wonderful people from all over the world. I have picked up some many good things from them in their blogs that they shared. A couple of these friends I have come to know very well although we might not have met. Who says that friendship can be made over long distance and in cyberspace?
Next thing to do is join communities that you have common interests. Also establish a group and invite others who share the same passion to join you.
Lesson #6 - Use your blog to build a list of subscribers. Offer them some suitable and attractive gifts for them when they opt-in to signing up with you. There is a whole video on this List Building and generating traffic to your blog and keeping a database of your valuable visitors on my blog article,“Myths About Making Money Online”. The article and video is self-explanatory.
This is the number 1 regret I have on my blog and especially on my teddy bear website. My teddy bear website has thousands of visitors via PPC (Pay Per Click) and yet I did not capture these visitors’ names and email addresses. I am now getting it done to my blogs and that website. I am sourcing for suitable gifts to give away and opt-in tools. I have another website, about hair and scalp wellness, that I will also have to do the same.
The above although I mentioned that it something I regretted not doing, it might not really be strictly in my perspective, a regret. It is more a learning and an opportunity for me once I knew I have not been doing it. This knowledge I gained as I prowl the books, other people’s blogs, my ebizwizards friend for more knowledge.
Lesson #7 - Start branding yourself. Commence doing this from day 1. This can be a valuable intellectual property that could be worth lots of money in time to come. Got to either www.register.com or www.godaddycom to check and register your own name. It has to be a .com. Never compromise on this.
I have registered a .com domain name under my very own personal name. I have been using www.register.com for years as I have found them very reliable. Slightly more expensive and worth it.
Other learnings - Now I learned about Squeeze Page, the importance of article writing and submission to syndication sites, writing a book to gain credibility, how to due ghostwriters, MySpace, methods to generating traffic to your website and blog, keywords, SEO, niche marketing online, what is html and how to do simple editing, eBay, affiliate marketing, drop-shipping, opt-in tools, web-creation and design, photoshop tools for photo editing, video editing, and lots lots more.
Just imagine. Prior to 10 months ago, I didn’t know any of these terms, let alone working on these tools. Great wonderful stuff. And my friendship list is getting longer. I am enjoying every minute of it.
Best of all, it is never too later to start. I am 52, I am certain that I am miles apart from some young individuals who are still in the dark about Marketing Online and Blog Monetization. 
This is all from me for now. More to come later. Meanwhile, visit my websites and blogs.
www.100teddybear.com
www.ekaeke.com
www.lspglobal.com
http://francoyong.com
http://ebizuni.com
http://ekaeke.wordpress.com
While you are at my blogs, take time to browse around my buddy list. These are very good blogs that share and offer lots of knowledge and tips about anything, everything.
Thanks for reading.
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