Building a Website? Don’t Bother, Just Give Up Now
I’m a webmaster and I own a lot of websites. I own coupon code sites, I own payday loan sites and I own “webmaster advice websites” – I have a lot of experience and I know what it takes to succeed online. However, my question is this: do you?It’s easy to get carried away by the possibility of making millions online but the people who are doing so, the people who are making a significant amount of money doing what you want to be doing, know what they are doing. They work hard, they develop interesting content, they build links to their website religiously and they market their property through every conceivable channel. They know what they want and they treat their website like a business.You see, that’s the key to succeeding online – it’s not about having a great idea, it’s not about positioning yourself in a profitable niche; it’s about having a passion for the information you are promoting and treating your website as it deserves to be treated: like a business.So, what do you need to do to make sure you’re not one of the 90% of people who give up on their website in its first year of operation?Write about what you know: This is the key ingredient to succeeding online, and it’s what will keep you going. If we know about something then the odds are we’ve gone out of our way to actually research it, to learn it and to apply our knowledge in a practical environment; what’s more, we will also likely have a passion for it.Don’t worry about the money: It’s true, some websites have a great deal of difficulty finding a solid monetization strategy, however I can say with experience that whenever I’ve developed a website about something I’m passionate about and started driving traffic, I’ve always managed to come up with a successful way to monetize the site and start generating a return.Money should be an afterthought, the first thing you need to do is build your site up, develop a reputation and then keep going – the money will typically always follow.Form partnerships: Don’t try and go it alone. You need to strike up relationships with people in your niche, particularly people who own high traffic websites. Put your content in front of them, link to them, guest blog on their website and plant a seed in their mind that you are someone who knows what you’re talking about, that you are someone who he or she could eventually develop a working and profitable partnership with.It’s going to take time: Anything and everything takes time but unfortunately, it’s something we all have to go through. The best thing you could do for your own profitability is to completely ignore any idea that you will generate revenue in the first few months of operation – focus on what you need to be focussed on, creating content, forming partnerships and building trust in your brand.