Common Internet Marketing Mistakes
Mistake #1: Not Having a Strategic Plan
The lack of a basic business plan is really the primary cause for so many struggling online businesses. It’s the real reason why so many hard working, smart people never make any significant income online.
Just ask yourself… Do you have a long-term plan for your business or are being an opportunity seeker?
Opportunity seekers constantly wonder if they can make money from this or that. Yesterday it was e-books, today its affiliates, tomorrow its Adsense and so on.
Successful business owners have a clear vision of what they want their business to look like. They put a plan and strategy in place based on their strengths. They stick to their strategy and build a business based on solid fundamentals – not this week’s hot product.
If your website and other Internet marketing activities are created to build long-term, trusting relationships with your clients, you'll make money on the web. But if you send your message out to anyone who will listen, aiming for a quick profit, the web won't bring you any more business than standing on a street corner with a megaphone.
Make sure you have a clear vision and a written plan. It doesn’t have to be a long document, but the more you think through every detail the better your chances for success.
Mistake #2: Paying For A Guaranteed Top 10 Ranking
 By now you have seen the ads that claim to get you a #1 position in the major search engines. Have you ever wondered how they can do it but you have been trying for months and can’t crack the top 200 search results?
Well in almost every case that "#1 ranking" will be for a phrase that very few people will be searching for!
For example, you can setup a web page using the phrase "secret blue fish". After you get your site indexed by Google, MSN or Yahoo, go and run a search for "secret blue fish" … guess what? You're #1!
Unfortunately you are probably the only one who made that search today or even this year. And the end result? No new visitors to your web site.
Most of these Top Ranking services are a waste of your time and money. Typically these services over promise and under deliver. They will probably get you a high ranking for a phrase no one is searching for.
So as they say… “If it seems too good to be true it probably is”
Instead, take the money you were ready to spend on their services and buy some pay-per-click ads. At least you will get some guaranteed traffic so you can measure the results in order to put together a solid marketing plan.
Mistake #3: Believing Your Site Will Get 2 Million Guaranteed Hits For Only £29.95
 This is THE worst website traffic scam of them all.
What these services do is load your website on a pop-up window on a bunch of their high-traffic websites. So your website ad is popping up in a window when users visit other sites.
Even though your site technically registers a "hit" each time it pops up, there's still a couple of big problems... the ad will either immediately be closed by the user -- you have done it hundreds of times. Or be stopped by pop-up blocking software… some industry experts report that 70% of pop-ups are blocked before you ever see them.
Sure, your web logs might show an increase of thousands of hits for a few days, but the vast majority of your ads will be totally blocked or ignored…heck you may even be annoying your potential customers!
What you really want are visitors actually coming to your website… not "hits." You want people... good quality prospects and leads that are potentially worth money to you. So do you and me a favour – don’t buy these millions of hits for a few bucks – they’re just not worth it.
Mistake #4: Sending An Email Blast to 15 Million People… For Any Price
Please! I don’t want to see your junk email ad and neither do the other 15 million people.
You probably receive junk mail in your email inbox everyday. Some how your email address was illegally “harvested” from the Internet or otherwise made it on to some mass mailing list.
If you use one of these services you will probably get your very own email in your junk email box. Which means you will most likely delete it without ever looking at it. Just like the other 15 million are going to do. And, if they do open it, not only will they not visit your website and buy your products or services, but they just might forward it to the “spam authorities” thus making matters worse for your website.
Do yourself a favour. Don’t even consider emailing an ad to some huge list of email addresses.
However, real "opt-in" email lists can send a lot of traffic to your site and can result in substantial sales. An opt-in list is when people have given their permission to receive your emails. Handled properly and professionally, email marketing can work – especially when it’s to a list YOU have built.
Find an email expert and follow their advice.
Mistake #5: Submitting Your Site To 150,000 Search Engines
Another popular advertisement that can be seen online is one that promises to submit your site to some huge number of search engines and directories on the Internet for a super low price.
Paying for these services is a mistake 95% of online marketers have made!
The overwhelming majority of those search engines and directories are totally obscure and unknown, which means they aren't being found by most Internet users.
Plus, you are probably adding your website to a database of millions of web pages. So even if people did surf that site, the odds of them finding your site are pretty small.
The only real benefit might come from the links you get back to your website. This ultimately can help your search engine optimization efforts. But as far as a pure Internet marketing play, where you are trying to get more visitors to your site – mass search engine submissions are not the way to go.
Instead, go to the biggest search engines and directories and manually submit your own site. You can get 10 or 20 done in an hour and they will be done the way you want them to be done.
Mistake #6: Not Conducting Thorough Keyword Research
It is estimated that 91,000,000 Keyword searches are conducted each day on Google and 213,000,000 total on the web (as of August 2006).
Which leads to the million-dollar question – have you done your keyword research? In all honesty, keywords can make you… or break you. Good keyword research is the foundation of any website.
Without the appropriate keyword implementation, no one will find your site. Even if you spent thousands of pounds to make it look snazzy; even if you conducted months of research to get your online business going; and even if you’re offering the best product in the history of mankind.
The effective use of keyword research can mean the difference between a website that climbs the search engine rankings, has thousands of visitors each day and generates an excellent revenue stream and a website that goes unnoticed.
Most Internet marketing experts will tell you that keyword research and proper usage means more to your website’s success than almost any other aspect. So take your time and do the research.
Mistake #7: Banking on Joint Ventures
All of us have heard about doing joint ventures on the Internet. Heck, there are dozens of books and entire courses written on the subject. In fact, most Internet superstars owe their success to joint ventures.
What is a joint venture? Well in the Internet world it basically means getting some partners with good size email lists to market your product to their subscribers. But here’s the catch… these people are getting more offers than they can possible act on. So you need to have something truly unique, compelling and rewarding to get their attention.
My true confession? I worked for three months to line up several JV partners to market one of my products. All together my product was going to be promoted to hundreds of thousands of their subscribers. In the end, I made two sales after one JV partner sent my ad buried in one of his emails. All the others never sent my promotion to their lists. Even after I was told things like “its going out tomorrow”, “can’t wait to make a bunch of money on this”, and so on.
So never depend on someone else to do your selling for you – most of the time it never happens.
Now that’s not to say JV’s don’t work and that I won’t try it again. The point is that they are not always a sure thing – so make sure you have a plan B (and C!).
Mistake #8: Not Building A Prospect List
The mere fact that you are viewing this right now proves the value of building a list. You came to my site, provided your email address - to get our free course - and we are now delivering it. Our goal? We want to build a long lasting relationship with you so that eventually you become a paying customer.
How are we going to do that? By always over-delivering on our promise. I don’t know about you, but I have been sold the “swampland in Florida” more than once on the Internet. Those long sales pages almost always promise more than they deliver. But once in a while I find a genuine website delivering genuine value. They go right into my favorites and I do business with them whenever I can. That’s what you want your visitors to do too.
You see, someone came to your website, and maybe even hit a few different pages. This a victory for you so why let them click away? You probably have a WEALTH of information about your niche that your visitor would gladly provide their email address to receive. This will make your Internet marketing investments worth their weight in gold.
It is 7 to 10 times easier to sell a product to an existing customer than it is to sell a new customer. Are you building long-term relationships with your prospects?
If not, you should start creating a plan today to provide valuable information to each and every visitor through an opt-in feature on your site.
Mistake #9: Believing you will make a fortune with Google Adsense
There seems an endless supply of guaranteed formulas for Internet wealth and an endless supply of people willing to try them all. Some of the hottest selling products are those that have to do with Google’s Adsense program.
It seems all you have to do is build niche sites and you too will make $40,000 per month without advertising. While it is true that there are many people making a VERY nice living from their Adsense sites, it is not as easy as it looks.
Remember most of these people started their sites years ago, probably did some questionable tactics to get traffic to their sites, and are selling their magic formulas for a reason.
In my estimation, for every one person truly making money with Adsense, there are 100’s of people who are not. And they are all junking up the Internet with terrible websites.
Do I use Adsense? Yes. Do I believe you can make money with Adsense? Yes. But do I believe you should build an Internet business based solely on Adsense revenue? No way! Build your online business with a clear customer focus. If Adsense fits on your site – great. If not, don’t do it.
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