What would you have done differently?

[allaboutthebets]

We have just swapped one of our sites over to a new domain and made a few adjustments and it made me think, what would we have done differently to the site in the first place.

Optimize images, different site name, different/shorter URLs, different headings etc etc

What would you have done if you could go back and start again?

[drifter8]

I would say :

- optimize images.

- chosing shorter and killing domains.

Just a mind-storm game, just imagine what you have and could done with a domain 7bet.com or 32red.com or cc. Such domains will bring you value in future. I love combinations of letters and numbers i.e bet365 and 1xbet. 1x is pretty smart as they give an outcome of a game.

The rest we do 365 days a year

Cheers, mate. Very nice tread

[Sherlock]

I had to start earlier. Not only with affiliate marketing but with everything. With all other businesses. Also being more serious about relationships. Leaving my parents and so on.

Then also completely adversely I had to have more patience. To wait longer for fruits of the work. Not to stress about people who are hurting everybody and themselves in the business and life.

How exactly to do the job is not that important, but still one thing: I would not underestimate the privacy as I did it in the past.

[sweetbet]

What would you have done if you could go back and start again?

I would've listened when 95% of the affiliate community claimed that a certain sponsor is rogue.
I would've promoted a wider range of properties.
I wouldn't have purchased exact match domains.
I wouldn't have spent zillions of dollars on useless advertising.

[Aidan90]

Start a good 5 years earlier!

[newcustomeroffer]

Start a good 5 years earlier!

Yeah or maybe 10 years for me!

An old boss of mine used to regularly say 'why wasn't the wheel invented earlier than it was' when someone questioned why something hadn't happened sooner, I guess that kind of applies

[Aidan90]

That's a good way of looking at it. Hindsight!

[RacingJim]

Start a good 5 years earlier!

Definitely this. I thought it was some magic that I wouldn't be able to do, I made it in my mind that the people doing affiliation/websites must be REALLY clever and must know some great secrets that I didn't.

Turns out they were firing a couple of hundred keyword links at a page and getting high up in Google and making good money with mediocre sites, whilst I was grafting my tits off in low-paid office jobs, talking myself out of getting involved.

[DanHorvat]

Without going into details:

• I'd spend more time building the backbone of the business, and less time building the front end and trying to find the best color combination, the best font etc.
• I'd act as if I can dominate the world and wouldn't hide in my niche like a rat.
• I'd be less arrogant and would listen more. It took me a while to accept that link building is a thing and that content isn't everything.
• I'd abandon dead end projects much faster and would let myself be carried towards things that work, as opposed to being stuck with things because I want them to work.

In short, lose the ego and focus on what's real and what works. I guess that's a recipe for life in general. Ego is the great enemy of making the right decision.

But I have no regrets. It took a while to learn everything, and I'm sure there's much more to be learned in the next 20+ years of my career. I've only just been here for 10.

I wouldn't want to be back on the starting line. No way.

[feedinco]

I'll spend more time on better seo titles and better backlink building!

[allfreechips]

I would have spent a lot more money earlier when it really made a giant impact. Those days are long gone now

[offyourface]

The biggest mistake I've made is using .html extension on pages instead of using /pagename/. I didn't take the time to really understand how to structure a website properly early on, and it really bit me down the road when I wanted to continue growing out a website with well structured silos. And it became an even bigger pain when I decided to convert those html sites over to wordpress.


It probably isn't such a big deal nowadays though as most use wordpress from the start. So the above scenario probably doesn't come into play. But it's easily been the biggest headache for someone like me who had a large network of static .html websites.

[drifter8]

Maybe would have bought many domains, which now I know do have a lot of value. We can not turn back time, but can enjoy amazing company of intelligent people.

Time is the biggest value ot Earth + love of the people around us and the love we can give. All the rest is just dust in the wind.

[allaboutthebets]

This is the kind of info I was hoping to get from members.

I am sure we all would have bought more domains and all started earlier if possible.

Also more generic things like use different titles, page urls, images, menu, content, missed niches, bad hosting, banners everywhere etc.

Keep them coming guys and hopefully newbies can read these and not make the same (I don't want to say mistakes as no one has all the answers) paths (beat word I can think of at 6.30am)

[bitzgg]

I used a .network domain and today I probably would use a .com domain instead

[newcustomeroffer]

One thing that I was far too slow to react to was adapting sites to be mobile-friendly and more recently being fully responsive. As google moved towards mobile-first indexing, the way non-mobile sites plummeted was alarming.

I was also far too defensive after Penguin shook up the link-building world, it's clear that those who really prospered post-Penguin took clever, calculated risks rather than shut up shop to links.

[Aidan90]

Take advantage of your traffic while it's there. Things can change so fast - your rankings can drop or your social accounts can be banned.

Build email lists so you can still get value out of this traffic once it stops coming in.

[stimyco]

I quit for 6 years and now i'm back, i would never have quit, i think by now i would have a steady income