mistakes

[essexboy]

Anyone had anything major they have learnt over the years doing websites which they regret not having learnt earlier?

An example is for years I would churn out mini sites and never do any link building or seo. I would get short term money but it would soon disappear.
I would also jump between projects, moving on to a new one before finishing the last.

 

[doodlebug]

Mine is just the fact that I got into domains in 2005 and still haven't made much money.

Reasons > I put virtually no effort into contacting end users and I've only just started putting my effort into aff commissions when I could have done this years ago

Better to learn from your mistakes and instead of thinking what you could have done in the past or what you have done in the past, just look at the presence and think in 5 years time do I look back and think damn why didn't i do this and that

Project your mind forward by 5 years, have a guess at where you will be in 5 years and think what you might have done to get there and go do it

 

[Edwin]

1. Better to have something half-decent launched and ageing nicely than keep working and working and working at something until it's "perfect" - Google (and to an extent the other search engines too) factors in longevity as one of the "ranking factors" and that's something you can't fake...

2. Get the page title (in the TITLE tag I mean) "right first time" if at all possible. Google doesn't seem to take too kindly to TITLE tag changes, especially if they're made on a large number of pages or even sitewide. Best way to do it I've found is to finish working on that page first, then read it through a couple of times and summarise it in the "TITLE" (and in the "DESCRIPTION" meta-tag too; TITLE+DESCRIPTION should provide a brief, appealing summary of what a web visitor can expect to find on that page). Big SEO no-no is to have duplicate TITLE tags across different pages of the site.

 

[retired_member32]

Anyone had anything major they have learnt over the years doing websites which they regret not having learnt earlier?

An example is for years I would churn out mini sites and never do any link building or seo. I would get short term money but it would soon disappear.
I would also jump between projects, moving on to a new one before finishing the last.

guilty as charged...i am still in the same boat,i get highly motivated on building a new site and when i log back in the morning i lose all motivation and start something new...so i have about thirty sites sitting half complete

 

[doodlebug]

guilty as charged...i am still in the same boat,i get highly motivated on building a new site and when i log back in the morning i lose all motivation and start something new...so i have about thirty sites sitting half complete

Come on Mark > pull your finger out , says me who has a had a bowl and cup sat on my table from 8am because I can't be a**ed moving them :lol:

 

[Lucky Luke]

My bowl and cup are still there at 10:38am :shock:

Time for another cuppa methinks

 

[doodlebug]

Time for another cuppa methinks

I'll join you, got any cookies, I ran out, eat my last 20 after tea last night and a 3 minute walk to Sainsbury's is just to much

 

[retired_member32]

you know what though...my missus cleaned up my desk and filed all my paperwork and now i cannot find a thing...it was organised mess

ooooh.....cup ,back of my monitor with fur in the bottom (all in the name of science)

 

[doodlebug]

ooooh.....cup ,back of my monitor with fur in the bottom (all in the name of science)

Nice

 

[crabfoot]

Beyond the microbial horror stories -

I've done the bit with minisites that prosper initially and die. Has anyone found a program to keep them thriving? Or, perhaps, developed a minisite into something bigger, just a little at a time, after it has died?

I have sites that I have put extra work into which have gone backwards. I have a couple of sites that have unique material. These would sell the "subject matter" (electronic parts) quite well. if they got the right ads on them. When I noticed they were "going down", I took a look and found they were targeting the audience (Stannah stairlifts and so on). Went into Adsense and turned that off - it worked for a couple of weeks, then it went back to the irrelevant ads again. No wonder they don't make money.

I'm sure there are little things that can revive them. Golddiggerguy came up with something about explicitly re-labelling Adsense channels a while back - that worked for a week or so.

WTH it is obvious I'm still making mistakes...

 

[accelerator]

OK, group therapy session :

- You have to focus on a handful of sites, it's impossible to go after every niche out there.

- Conversion optimisation is important.

- Expansion into foreign markets takes a lot of additional effort. Wait until you're ready for it.

- Look at your stats, they will tell you which new pages to build.

- Don't forget that it's important to sleep too.

Another new rule for me is that I should start putting some effort into selling some of my domains before I buy too many new ones.

Rgds

 

[crabfoot]

I should have said this before. It is a bit obvious, but ...

Pictures. People will not visit sites that have no pics. Spiders ignore sites that are low on pics. Put half a dozen totally irrelevant pics on your site and your traffic doubles.

Frankly, it upsets me greatly that they have such a great influence on traffic.

Proverbially, a picture is worth a thousand words. It really annoys me that in SEO terms. all those words are "rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb ..."

 

[Edwin]

One more thing: play to your strengths!

I know it's often more fun to start working on a new site, a new niche... but if you come up with something that's really starting to draw a decent amount of traffic and attention, you're probably far better off putting more effort into that instead of starting something else new.

(Now if only I was able to take my own advice!)

 

[wb]

Pictures. People will not visit sites that have no pics. Spiders ignore sites that are low on pics. Put half a dozen totally irrelevant pics on your site and your traffic doubles.

Never knew that, one of my sites has just one picture and gets good traffic/converts well. Keep meaning to add more pictures though so will be giving it a try and see the difference it makes (like many on here, it's easy to get distracted by new projects ).

 

[accelerator]

Pictures. People will not visit sites that have no pics. Spiders ignore sites that are low on pics. Put half a dozen totally irrelevant pics on your site and your traffic doubles.

Yes, good advice. Although I haven't scientifically tested it, I believe that pictures are good for both site traffic (including from Google images), increasing site stickiness and good for conversion rates. A nice picture will draw the visitor's eye in to key areas on the site.

Where before I had merchant text links, I am trying to use their logos too to add interest to the site. It takes a while to implement though!

Rgds