If anyone ever learned the true meaning of what mistakes to avoid in order to succeed, it would be Thomas Edison. According to historical accounts, Thomas Edison made many mistakes before he finally produced a reliable, long lasting source of light in 1879. When Edison first set out to improve upon the 50-year-old idea that had attracted his attention, he had absolutely no idea of the magnitude of mistakes he would ultimately make before finally producing a commercially reliable and long lasting incandescent, electric light. But according to Edison, not any of his many experiments were mistakes; To him, each mistake (experiment) was a step closer to the realization of his goal.
If Edison had of known beforehand what experiments would work, he could have eliminated much trial and error. By avoiding the many mistakes or experiments that didn't work, Edison could have focused on the ones that did work and could have reached his coveted goal of producing a commercially reliable and long- lasting- incandescent electric light much sooner. Likewise, if you read this article, you will know beforehand how to succeed by avoiding the 4 most common web hosting mistakes that don't work.
Mistake #1: Irrelevant Information
Those who are new to the Internet understandably want to jump in and get going right away in their own money making website business. This is good because “Enthusiasm” is one of the personality traits that will help you hang in there for the long haul. The problem is that newbies in their zeal to get started, rush to create a website; Not knowing how to make it SEO compatible, they cram it full of irrelevant information consisting of an over abundance of images, photographs and all kinds of other stuff, as much as the page will hold.
Not only is “irrelevant information” frowned upon by the search engines, too much information on a single page can cause it to load too slowly. What little, if any traffic you get, is going to click away. The fact is potential customers are not going to hang around long waiting for an overstuffed page to load. They are going to click away without ever seeing your page. And those who do hang around are going to feel frustrated when the page finally loads, and even more frustrated when they try to muddle through all the irrelevant, disorganized information on your page. And if you think they'll be back, forget it. This can hurt because it usually takes several exposures to an offer before a potential customer will purchase, and the fact that they won't be back is not going to result in a purchase.
If the information displayed on your website is mostly irrelevant to the actual product or service you're trying to promote or sell, then the search engines can't classify your site's relevance to a particular search term. Since the search engines can't determine what your site is about, they are not going to pull your site up when a search is made for the “product or service you're trying to promote or sell”, so you are not going to get traffic from the search engines. No traffic means no sales which means no income. Unless corrective steps are taken, the trend of making no money will eventually force you out of business.
Mistake #2: Using the wrong criteria to choose a hosting company.
Most newbies to the Internet choose the cheapest hosting company in their haste to get stated. Now it's good to practice thrift, but the problem is that choosing a hosting company solely based on the cheapest price may not always be your best option. There are other factors to be considered that are crucial to the long term success of your business. For example, having adequate storage and bandwidth – especially important when your website business begins to grow in popularity and attracts more traffic (Click Here to see my article "Four Steps To Choose The Best Host Website Service" for what you need in a hosting company).
Mistake #3: Not having a clearly defined major purpose or premise.
Most newbies to the Internet fail to define a business purpose when starting their Internet Business. If you don't have any idea what the product, service, or idea is that you are trying to promote, how do you expect the search engines or visitors (potential customers) to know.
When you start a business you need to clearly define your product, service or idea, and don't you dare to keep it a secret. You say ridiculous, why would I want to keep it a secret. Of course you would not. The point here is that unless you clearly define your product, service or idea, it will appear to be a secret to the search engines and visitors (potential customers), if you ever get any.
When it comes to choosing and defining a product, service or idea to promote, remember this! If someone wants to buy an assortment of goods, they can always go to Wal Mart or a similar store, so don't try to sell or promote everything on one single website. If you do you are going to fail. Instead, you need to focus on one particular product, service or idea, and let the product, service or idea that you are promoting resound throughout the fabric of your website. If anything on your website obscures this, you should consider removing it or accept a loss of revenue.
Now I'm not saying that you can't include ads on your site -- there are pros and cons to these. And I'm not saying you can't include links to other sites -- there are pros and cons to these also. What I am saying is this: Your website should be about one major premise. For example, if you decided to visit a pet shop, chances are good that you would be going to buy a pet or pet supplies, or at least to look them over for comparative pricing in consideration of a future purchase. When you got to the pet shop, you would expect to find other items associated with pets that are for sell in addition to the pets, such as pet food and an assortment of pet supplies. Similarly, when visitors visit your website they expect to find what they are searching for along with other associative items. You need to design and maintain your website premise so that search engines and visitors (potential customers) know exactly what you are about. And if you do decide to display ads or have links to other websites, make sure the links and ads are relevant to the product, service or idea that you are promoting, and steer clear of all others.
Once you choose and define your product, service or idea for a particular website business, stick with it. Just as the pet shop example would not suddenly stop selling pets and supplies and start selling guns and ammo, you would not change the product, service or idea you are promoting. When you have once chosen your target product/market, you need to stick with it. If you eventually do want to branch out into other areas that is good and the way to make more money, but do it on another website.
Mistake #3: Ineffective Advertising.
Once you have clearly defined your product, service or idea, you thus have identified and chosen your target market. Now this is important: Just as you wouldn't advertise automobiles for sale inside a McDonald or other Restaurant, you wouldn't advertise your particular product, service or idea just anywhere. Some people inside the McDonald Restaurant may be in the market and want to buy an automobile; However, the fact is that the advertiser would undoubtedly sell more automobiles by offering them in a place where people gathered that wanted to buy automobiles. Where they gather would be the advertisers target market. Similarly, when you advertise your product, service or idea, you need to advertise in places where your target market will see your advertisements. This will bring more visitors (potential customers) to your website, and since they are targeted, more will convert to customers who make purchases.
Mistake #4: Becoming an emulator.
Any business that's making money is going to have competition, and this is good. Competition keeps you striving to be your best, and it drives you stay abreast of what your competition is doing. Staying alert to changes in the market trend by examining the actions of your competitors is exercising sound business practice. However, the old saying that too much of anything can lead to problems couldn't be truer than in the arena of competition. You see, if you allow yourself to become too wrapped up in what your competitors are doing you will lose sight of your purpose and become nothing more than an emulator of one or more of your competitors. While this can bring success and increase earnings in some instances, when used in moderation, the ever-present danger is allowing yourself to give in to the temptation of becoming overly indulgence. Overindulgence in emulation is an insidious culprit that stifles your creativity and stunts your business growth.
The key word is moderation. Yes! By all means go ahead and stay abreast of what your competition is doing, but don't ever allow yourself to become nothing more than an imitator of one are more of your competitors. Encourage your on creativity and, I'm borrowing a phrase from Zig Ziglar, "I'll see you at the top".
To your online success,
Richard Driver
http://www.hostbuydomain.com
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
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