The top mistakes all online marketers make when setting up an online business

You can’t interview 20 of Australia’s top online entrepreneurs and not pick up a few practical tips and tricks along the way about how to make an online business more successful.

I recently did just that for my new online series “Secrets of Aussie Online Entrepreneurs”. Here are some of the common mistakes they said they’d made; ones they see novice entrepreneurs make all the time.

Being overly protective of your idea

The concept of only telling a chosen few about your idea is self-defeating. No one likes to think their idea is going to be stolen, but we all know that ideas are a dime a dozen – it’s the implementation that matters. And besides, it’s unlikely that just because you share an idea with someone they’re suddenly going to dedicate the next four years of their life to making it happen. Moral of the story? Tell everyone about your idea and ask for their feedback.

Being too afraid to ask for feedback

Speaking of feedback, when we have an idea we’re passionate about, we can be reluctant to ask for feedback for fear we’ll get a negative response. But negative responses are good! It means there’s room for improvement. However, if you do share your idea around, share it with people who can help you, and then ask them good questions that will help you generate some helpful ideas – questions like:

Have you heard of this before?
Is anyone else doing it?
Can you try it out for me?
Can you think of anything to add to it?
Does it work?
What would you do differently?
Can you share it with some friends and ask them to try it?

What would be the maximum you’d pay for this?
What would be the minimum you’d pay?
How can I make it better?
Do you know anyone who is in this target market?
Do you have any spare cash you’d like to invest? No? What about your mother? Your grandma? Okay. I get it. You don’t like my idea.