With so many blogs revolving around the theme of “make money online”, John Robinson of JWRmedia focuses on ways you can improve your blog through branding, marketing and optimization which will allow you to establish a name for yourself and gain Internet success.
Why are there so many unsuccessful websites when others continue to flourish? Much of the reason has to do with poor marketing. This article explains five of the most popular marketing mistakes made by new website owners trying promote themselves. Usually with tight time constraints and even tighter budgets, the margin for error is very slim. Keep these points in mind before starting your next marketing campaign and you’re sure to see much better results.
1. A little of this, a little of that
This mistake is often made by those who want to take on the whole world with a tiny budget. They advertise a little bit on one website, a little bit on another, they try a little bit of email marketing and so on. However, with limited budgets, they only accomplish a small presence in each. To maximize results, narrow your choices and regularly run ads that will get noticed on a constant basis. One known marketing illustration is as follows:
The first time people look at an advertisement, they don’t see it. The second time they look at and ad, they don’t notice it. The third time, they become conscious of the ad’s existence. The fourth time, they vaguely remember seeing the ad somewhere before. The tenth time, they think ‘someday I am going to buy that’. The 20th time they see the ad, they finally execute the “call to action”. Establishing a well known presence in just one area will work much better than scattering yourself all over the web.
2. Ignoring statistics
If you’re one of many who dislike mathematics, this can be a hard avenue for you to overcome. However, in any marketing campaign, it is essential that you regularly measure results. Know which aspects of your marketing campaign are working best for you. Where do your visitors come from? How many unique visitors do you receive each day? How many of them are repeat visitors? Which pages on your website are viewed most often? How long does the average visitor stay on your website? On which page do they usually leave your site? What is your conversion rate? Which pages convert the most? Keep a spreadsheet to track this information on a weekly basis, and measure the trends. Doing so will allow you to cut out ineffective marketing efforts and focus more on those that work.
To help track these statistics on your website, you can use tools such as Google Analytics or Statcounter.
3. Tweaking things that aren’t broken
Here we remember the rule “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. If you have a web page that ranks well in Google and brings you a fairly decent amount of targeted traffic, don’t go modifying the page contents, images and META tags. Doing so will most likely penalize its search engine ranking. Constantly changing other aspects of your website will also confuse your regular readers and make it much more difficult to build up your “branding”. Find something that works for you and stick with it.
4. Jumping the gun
Many website owners make the mistake of pumping out a massive advertising campaign too soon. Don’t take action just to meet a certain date you have in mind. Be sure everything on your website functions properly and is cross-browser compliant. Nothing screams “unprofessional” more than a broken website. If you require more time than anticipated to have your site up and running, you may have to push your planned release date back a while. Correct the kinks, finish your design, and fully test your website’s functionality before inviting everyone to visit.
Browsershots is a free online utility that will allow you to see how your website appears on dozens of different Internet browsers.
5. “Flying solo”
Without a very hefty advertising budget, it will be next to impossible for you to take on the whole world without any help. Build relationships with other website owners and arrange a way for them to help you promote your site or product. Word of mouth continues to rule as the champion of advertising methods. Generate a buzz amongst the online community about what you have to offer by doing something for other site owners in return. With practically every aspect of business, it’s all about who you know. By creating a strong, positive relationship with others, you can help spread the word about what each of you are offering.
The vast majority of us don’t build our website merely as a hobby- we are usually working toward earning some sort of income online. With careful planning and by giving attention to detail, your time and money can be used to the best of its ability, thereby allowing you to gain the highest return possible.
A day too late… I just launched my new site yesterday. However, my readers seem to love it, so I think that it should be fine.
Thanks,
Nate
I think a common mistake is not having a strategy or plan. A lot of people just put a bit into stumbleupon and a bit into an ad without really thinking about how it will help their site. (Clearly by “a lot of people” I’m referring to me.) In any case, great tips.
Nice to see you writing articles on Problogger John, an excellent article here and some great tips.
I think spreading your marketing activities too thin can be a massive time wasting activity. It is best to stick at one type of marketing or one place to market your blog and stay there until you see that place converting well.
A marketing activity I focused on for a while and still do is social media marketing and marketing especially on SU. Building my brand up on SU is starting to have great affects and I noticed today that within the last month I have received just under the same amount of traffic from SU as I receive from Google.
This is just one area to look at, its definitely worth your time focusing on one area and becoming a respected authority in that area first than being a nobody in 100 areas.
Will.
Your first tip is really helpful. I never knew that bit about how many times someone sees an ad. Nice post.
Very nice tips for all bloggers or webmasters.
I couldn’t agree more with you!
Excellent post, John. I enjoyed all of these tips, but #5 is my favorite.
The “build it and they will come” days are definitely over. Even if your blog or website is filled with great content, you’re going to have a hard time finding success if you don’t build relationships.
Many new marketers tend to think that all they have to do is create a great product or website and pitch it to high-profile marketers, and the money will start pouring in. While it would be great to immediately benefit from the succes of other bloggers and marketers, it’s more important to connect with lower-profile people and establish real, mutually beneficial relationships. Though they don’t bring instant riches, these relationships are the building blogs of a solid, steadily path to success.
Well done!
I’ve seen all too many people “jumping the gun”.
In their excitement they prematurely start telling others about their broken blog, all the while still working on it while others are browsing.
It drive readers away when they think your blog looks unprofessional. And they may never return.
First impressions are everything.
Perhaps it would be wise for the affiliates, also, to stay away from the “a little bit of this and a little bit of that”.
Just my 2 cents
John,that is very helpful.
I was a unsuccessful marketer and I made these mistakes.Well,the experience of marketing has helped me improve my methods.
Your first point can go either ways.I can also think that- The first time anyone sees the ad,they do an action and if they notice that to be unworthy,they keep on avoiding your product.
great post, i agree with just about everything you covered.. def had to learn most of it on my own as i went along though
Hi John,
thanks for this excellent post! All of the points are currently very relevant to my blog. I’ve noticed some things I forgot to do and some other things I shouldn’t be doing!
Cheers,
Oliver
Love #1 with the ad analysis. I’m trying to do all of these, as my site builds traction.
Thanks.
Tip number 1 is a bit surprising (for me). I have never thought that it would take 20 times before a visitor/reader to execute the “call to action”. Is this a general idea?
Thanks!
Sometimes, people think that they can do everything without any help. But the case is the environment is getting complicated nowadays and it will be better if you can partner with somebody else to market your products and services towards a more successful launch.
Word of mouth marketing always but always trumps just about anything else out there (with the possible exception of the big boys networking). Good advice.
Great post, with valuable tips. #4 is so important. Nothing turns away readers more quickly than a website with broken links. I think the issue of monitoring statistics is vital, too. We need to know where to focus our efforts and which tactics are paying off the most. Thanks for pointing out these avoidable mistakes.
Thanks for the tips. I am always seeing the statistics and i feel bad when i dont get the expected stats. I will try my best to follow your points
Some advice I’d add: think carefully about who you are competing with. I work for a large scale commercial operation that deals with consumer comparison in the UK. Out marketing budgets extend into the tens on millions. I actually feel a kind of pain when I hear beginners spending money on buying in eg credit card traffic or similar. Try not to learn the hard way if you can!
Hi Darren,
Excellent tips. The first 12 months and beyond must be devoted to developing relationships with other bloggers.
Relationship are very important, communicate and network. It is the same as any other business.
Thanks for the post. All five of these tips are great. As a previous poster stated, I did not know that bit about the times people look at an advertisement (#1). I think that is really interesting.
Tweaking is definitely important for marketers. However, tweaing when not necessary is just overanalyzing. Keep up the solid work.
Yep I totally agree with you. Whenever I saw that my website or blog is doing good in particular keyword for a page. I stopped doing any modification in that page.
But however I do not like this as well. As it sounds like you do not have the control, so I do some changes and see what is the effect ? Sometime these things teach you a lot :)
“To maximize results, narrow your choices and regularly run ads that will get noticed on a constant basis.” I really like this idea. Instead of spreading myself thin in lots of places I need to focus on one or two markets (or social sites) and be there a lot. Then relationships are built and word of mouth can happen. Great ideas!
I am disappointed that there is not much mention about the pitfalls to avoid in email marketing. It has become an integral part of the internet marketing portfolio.
I’ve been Learning Lesson one the hard way for about a year and a half now. By focusing on one site, and one marketing aspect at a time, I’m finally starting to see some results.
Great post and I totally agree with you. I really think that concentrating on one place is a great idea and that’s what I am planning to work on. I never ignore that stats and I really look at them carefully.
Thank you for such great a post.
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Mohammad Afaq
Nice post.
Good reminder on ad frequency and the myth of the “one man show”.
Anthony Curtis
http://MKTG-101.COM
Hi Darren,
I used to get 90,000 ad-impressions and just 22 clicks daily for my website using google adwords. I discontinued the advertising on google adwords after a month since the response was not clear.
Now, i sincerely feel that i should have continued with the advertising on google a little more.
Great post bcoz it helps in identifying the mistakes that marketers mostly forget.
http://talk-english.blogspot.com
I don’t realized that keep modifying contents and images will effect the page ranking. Thanks for the great tips!
Excellent tips Darren.. Instead of counting down tips like others did, you have detailed each one of them.
I wanted a statistics service apart from Google Analytics. Google Analytics was useful for my blogs on blogger. But I wanted one for the community blogs on a different platform that does not allow me to edit the main page. Thanks for giving statcounter. I will check it if it allows the code to be put only on the single post I want to track.
I agree with other things as well..
Many good ideas. I have constantly broken against the rule four. I usually publish the blog before I have decided the design etc.
Combination of tips 1 and tips 5 is what make me “blink and say”yes.my advertising budget is limited but I have a lot tweet follower that I can announced to,and about tips number I got one small point.that with only rely on “a freelance newbie surprise do happen,this what I should focus now I think since hire him is a lot effective then spending more budget to buy huge banner spot
Vishal, I certainly wouldn’t discontinue running Adwords, due to low click through. The way I look at it, since we usually only pay per click with Adwords. Non-click impressions are like free ads. They still make you more recognizable in the future and people tend to see sites that are recognizable to them as more reputable. Heck, no click, no pay. You can’t really lose.
On the 2nd tip, if you are a stat addict like some of us are, there also comes a time to step alway from analytics & get down to business. I am guilty of checking stats too frequently, while I could be better using my time writing or promoting.
I think I have to work more on #5, thanks for reminding us that for a blogger to succeed we need to have connections..
nice post, but i think this is worth for bloggers who have some experience, but people like me who are new to blogging, what is the best and sure shot way of marketing and that too cheap
thanks
Many Internet marketers have to maintain a traditional job for at least two years while building their business
Sylvia
http://freemoneytalk.blogspot.com
I know John and I must say he knows alot about SEO. Big or small, all bloggers need to build relationships with other bloggers.
I noticed that beginner bloggers forget that they’re part of a SOCIAL network and they think they can get far by simply flying solo. The most important part of blogging and marketing as well IMO is learning to build relationships with other bloggers. It’s funny how I have my friends in the real world and then when it comes to the internet I have a totally different friendbase that I got from blogging.
Some really great advice there John!
Not tweaking things that aren’t broken, is an excellent reminder +_+
Great post with some good advice. I think it’s a hard first step for new bloggers to reach out and interact with the community. Especially if they feel that they don’t really know a lot about what they’re doing and are still learning.
Well I think it is not possible for anyone to follow all the tips for marketing, one may definitely skip any of the step.
Good post.
Beyond Ad frequency, I would even say reliance on Ads, whereas content, articles, linkbacks, guest-blogging and tweets should bring a healthy dose of free traffic.
If that’s not enough, there’s JV, affiliates and other initiatives that only expend with an attached ROI.
Greg Churilov
http://wootheweb.com @}~`~,~~~
“Marketing is a courtship, not a battle”
Thanks John for the post. I do agree with you for the point #2. Without analytics, we’ll never know where when and how our readers come from, and we’re not able to decide what our readers like to read.
I think SEO is very important for a blog and I’m on the way of learning process.
Regards,
Lee
A little of this and a little of that. I think this is the best advice. Everyone is trying to be everywhere and nothing is getting done. Great point.
I have changed the design 3 times at least, tryin to get the best to go with the theme and subject of the blog…ya, and one thing at a time wud be the right approach.
John you did a great job !
Perfect tips for people to develop their sense and concentrate on right direction. The point i liked the most is the functionality of the website must be proper.
Thanx
I particularly agree with the bullet about flying solo. Online, like in a store, joint ventures are your most profitable methods of gaining customers and targeted website visitors.
I’ve made all of these mistakes, even being warned ahead of time. Another challenge that I see bloggers make is when they try to find their voice vs. just speaking to the needs of their viewers. It is also much easier when you have a niche blog with a well defined purpose and target audience.
For now really i’m flying solo. *sigh. but really as of now, this is nothing professional or something but maybe in the future. we’ll see… we’ll see…
Great points in the article! Word of mouth advertising is great for a small budget. I would consider low cost viral videos created through crowdsourcing. Several companies like GeniusRocket are using crowdsourcing to develop various forms of media. Great results on a smaller budget.
Hi Darren,
I started reading about 1 post a day from this blog but I have to say its grown on me im now reading 3-4 posts a day and have created a few blogs of my own.
Thank you
Ian Taylor
http://technopreviews.blogspot.com/2009/04/worlds-smallest-camcorder-samsung-hmx.html
Feedback would be appreciated, Thanks