This post was guest blogged by Alan Johnson, who teaches you how to build a profitable website in 10 days over at The Rating Blog.
So you think you’ve got it all figured out don’t you? From business plan to implementing it, everything seems just flawless as far as your approach to making money online is concerned, doesn’t it? Well guess what, while you may not yet realize it, you could actually be in for quite an unpleasant surprise as far as the final outcome is concerned.
Let’s look into 10 of the most common ways to turn your website into a flop and see if any of them sound familiar:
1 – Working on something you are not passionate about
One of the common mistakes people tend to make is not working on something they are passionate about to begin with. Sure, everyone wants to make money and some niches tend to be more profitable than others, at least on paper. But do you actually think that you will be able to tap your true potential if you don’t even like what you’re doing?
2 – Diving right in
Did you stumble upon what you think represents a great business idea? If so, then it’s only natural that you are eager to get started right away, but that doesn’t mean that acting on impulse is the way to go. Never forget to establish a solid foundation for your project since otherwise, it is doomed to fail. Being enthusiastic is great, but letting that affect your judgment is simply not an option
3 – Expecting momentum to last
Aside from diving right in, another huge mistake you need to avoid after each idea you think has potential is expecting momentum to last. Of course, you will be excited about everything at first and that will do wonders as far as your personal productivity is concerned, but are you committed to giving it 110% after you inevitably start losing momentum as well?
4 – Expecting results overnight
You may be investing time and efforts into your website, but that doesn’t mean that you should expect results overnight. Such a way of thinking will only make you feel discouraged after finding out that not everything which looks great of paper performed all that great in reality.
5 – Not promoting your website
Do you think that, if you add value to the Web through your content, people will come? Sorry to burst your bubble there, but so do millions of other webmasters and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that most of them are not what one would call successful. While having great content is indeed the most important aspect, people won’t visit your website if they don’t even know that you’re out there, make no mistake about that
6 – Using website promotion as an excuse to ignore content
While promoting your website is definitely a must, it doesn’t mean that you should use it as an excuse and end up ignoring content. In the end, you can only achieve so much by promoting a bad product. And guess what, that will also be the case with your website if you don’t keep on publishing quality content on a regular basis.
7 – Doing a bad job of monetizing your website
Let’s assume that your website is receiving 100k monthly impressions and that you are not satisfied with your current eCPM of let’s say $4. Make no mistake, in situations such as this one, bringing your eCPM to $40, for example, will be a far easier task than trying to generate a ten-fold increase in traffic/sticking with your current website monetization methods and the results in terms of income will be similar. Never be afraid to play the trial and error game, never be afraid to experiment until you find something which works best for you. The possibilities are virtually endless and if you don’t know where to start, I’d suggest looking into a great article of mine, where I have suggested 123 ways to monetize your website and I’m sure that you will start seeing things differently.
8 – Putting all of your eggs in one basket
Have you found a traffic source which seems to work wonders? Have you found that website monetization method you were always looking for? That’s great, but what if one of them stops performing well, will it have a devastating negative impact as far as your business model is concerned? If that is the case then you are walking on thin ice and it’s clearly time to change your way of thinking.
9 – Spreading yourself too thin
On the other hand, spreading yourself too thin is not an option either. While playing it safe and not putting all of your eggs in one basket is always recommended, it doesn’t mean that you should over-do it, since some traffic sources and/or website monetization methods are simply not worth your time.
10 – Not maximizing results
Nowadays, there is a lot of competition out there, no matter what niche you are targeting and, as such, maximizing results is a must. Is your website profitable? Is your website receiving a decent amount of traffic? Excellent, but are you sure that it doesn’t have a lot more potential than that? If you want to be on top, if you are serious about long-term success and about not letting your website become just another flop down the road, maximizing results is something you can simply not afford to ignore.
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