A few days ago I had a phone call with my accountant.
He was telling me that it was time for me to start preparing my accounts for company year end and so I needed to prepare a list of expenses and revenues that matched the transactions in my business bank accountant.
As you can imagine, I was elated at this news and couldn’t wait to get started.
Yeah, right! 😉
But that wasn’t the interesting part… Without revealing names, he went on to tell me about a couple of other web-businesses that he looks after which were still making losses even though they were in their second or third year of trading.
Intrigued by this I enquired what he thought their problem was. Â
He explained that these companies had spent a lot of money on hiring designers and programmers to create “amazing” looking websites.
One company, had spent tens of thousands building a custom site that was designed to sell books. Yes, books! I’m not sure if they’d considered Amazon’s strength in this area.
Trouble was they were now finding that very few people were visiting their site.
And of course this is the real problem -> The real value is in the marketing NOT creating fancy web properties.
It’s called Internet Marketing for a reason!
At this point I have to hold my hands up and admit that I was very guilty of this when I started out in early 2010. In fact it didn’t even cross my mind that you had to do anything to get visitors or traffic. I thought you just created a great offering on the web and people would come.
How naive I was.
But more widely, I’ve seen this time and time again where people put so much energy into their sites and products before they even think about marketing.
Shiny websites and a lovely customer experience doesn’t count for anything if you haven’t got any traffic!
So what’s the answer?
Educate yourself on marketing and in particular traffic strategies.
In my experience, beginners usually think of just 2 things when it comes to traffic:
1. Ranking high in Google (Search Engine Optimization or SEO)
2. Placing ads in Google which you pay for every time someone clicks and visits your site (Pay Per Click or PPC)
In the vast majority (but not all) cases these are usually the wrong ways to promote your website. There are easier, faster and cheaper ways to get traffic (see other posts on this site for more on this).
So it’s vitally important to study marketing and educate yourself.
It’s just a skill. YOU can learn it. There’s no magic involved. AND it’s a lot of fun too!
Once people take this on board they really start to progress. Just as I did from spinning my wheels for many months in 2010 to making money and having a real web-business.
Have you spent too much time worry about your website? Have you purchased products that promise lots of mini “done for you” websites and products to sell only to find you can’t make money? Agree, disagree? Please hit the LIKE button if you enjoyed this and post your thoughts below… 🙂
Hi Rob, great site,I look forward a lot of reading…
Hi Ward,
Welcome to Gain Higher Ground!
It’s a pleasure to see you here, thanks for saying hello and do let us know if we can help you with anything 🙂
Rob
Hi Rob! Thanks for the quick reply, I really appreciate it. Which leads me to this question. How many comments do you average in a week? I am just curious, because after 8 months of work on my wordpress blog ,inspiringmediasolutions.com, all of a sudden comments on the blog have literally exploded. Just wondering what a good number is? Thanks a lot!
Best regards, Ward.
Hi Ward,
Thanks for your email!
You can see the number of comments below each post if you scroll down on the home page of this site.
It really varies but around 15-20 on average. Remember half those are me though publishing replies. The more the better in general but in my experience only about 1% of people actually comment. Be careful not to approved Spam comments either. If you sign up for free use of the Akismet plugin this will catch most of the spam comments automatically for you.
Hope this helps Ward – thanks again for being a subscriber!
Talk soon I’m sure,
Rob
I have a lot of websites no traffic no profits. john
Hi John,
Great to see you here – thanks for your comment.
It’s a VERY common problem and you are certainly no alone!
Some solid traffic strategies (free or paid your choice) should be your first step, then try to capture the email addresses of as much of those visitors as possible. This list will be the biggest asset in your business and once you have it YOU control the traffic (just be sending out emails with links in them).
Too much too go into in this blog comment but I hope you’ll fin the other resources on the site useful to help you progress!
Please comment again in future too, it’s great to have you here 🙂
Rob
When I first started out online with MLM it was all about fancy site building, and the MLM companies were guilty of selling their web sites filled in with whistles and bells. Of course, the MLM marketers lost out to do bad marketing, little or no instruction from MLM companies. I learned the hard way.
Great to see you here on the blog Mike, I hope things are good for you right now…
That’s very interesting what you say about MLM. I have no direct experience with networking marketing but I guess this issue spreads far and wide across many industries!
Cheers – Rob
Yes, I agree with you Rob … thanks for this reminder – just what I need to think about… I like to set the sites up myself but then probably spend too much time trying to get them perfect … ie with all the right keywords, all the legal policies in there – structure the blog posts correctly – from the trainings I have received, then submit an article … by which time half the day is gone .. Thanks for the advice to concentrate on traffic generation more..
Moira
Hi Moira,
Thanks for sharing your experiences so honestly. I think a lot of people will relate to that (myself included).
Cheers! – Rob
Hi Rob
I would also like to make another suggestion that is not really related to your article except for being another area in which a lot of businesses encounter problems.
I have had many years of experience in helping people set up book-keeping systems for their businesses.
In many cases this has been after they have been trading for quite some time. I can tell you that it’s one heck of a job to set up a retroactive book-keeping system working with bank statements and a pile of dog-eared and coffee stained receipts which have been stuffed into a shoe-box !
Running your business like this just does not work – it’s a recipe for disaster and for getting into trouble with the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise (both of which now come under the banner of the HMRC – Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs)
If someone starts a business, even if it’s just for a few hours a week and only brings in a few quid – they should ensure that they have some form of record keeping from the start – there are many ready made accounts books/solutions available at high street stationery retailers.
Alternatively – you could set up your own record keeping system using a spreadsheet (I know of several business, mine included, that use Excel as a book-keeping system)
Even if in the beginning it’s just, as you say in your article, a simple list of all that’s coming in and going out of your business – it’s still more than many business owners start out doing in the beginning.
AND file your bank statements and business receipts in one of the many filing systems available from the same high street retailers (these shops are generally excellent – especially the ones designed for small business owners)
And it will give you a set of figures to give to your book-keeper or accountant or to help you fill in your tax-returns/business returns at year end.
Hi Kevin,
EXCELLENT advice there. Thanks a lot for this.
You have far more experience in this area than me but I can really imagine that a lot of small businesses are in a complete mess with their accounting.
My system is probably not the best but I do have one. In a spreadsheet. My accountant was really just asking me to make sure all of the revnue and expense entries matched up to the bank account transactions.
Got to be done but I’m getting tired just thinking about it 😕
Cheers! Rob
Very true. This is a great instance to emphasize the importance of “marketing” whatever one has to offer,educate or help through his website (platform) rather than spending time making the website (platform) fancy.
Thanks Rob.
Yep, you got it Any.
Marketing it is and like I mentioned in the post (worth repeating I think) – it’s called internet marketing for a reason!
All learnable, all doable but go to take that all important action.
Rob.
Nice post Rob, with some timely advice. Have a good weekend!
Colin (bercolini)
Cheers Colin, glad you liked it.
You too 🙂
Rob
Good evening Rob …
with regard to accounts and you don’t like doing it online, for UK members, I’ve always found the Simplex ‘D’ system the best. Ask for this accounting ”book” at any good stationer. I would suggest its ideal for any Internet business.
Ironic you should post this subject today as I was up until the early hours of the morning just trying to get the basics right on my new site. Yes, it is first time I’ve built a website but no chance of my website being being like a Christmas tree with a fairy on the top!
Didn’t you quote Bill Gates … ”Content Is King”? I’m sure you did Rob … For myself personally, if I’m not prepared to get my hands ”dirty” and learn the ”nuts and bolts” of all aspects of creating an Internet business then I’ll feel I’ll never be in control of my Internet site and my Internet site will be in control of me. And I honestly believe that is one of the fears many people share but very few admit. I like to know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.
The main criteria for my website is that it is warm and friendly to every visitor. The layout may not be perfect but as long as people feel in their comfort zone and at home in this two person run business, I believe that will increase my list not lose me potential buyers because the site is too glib, too sharp, too glitzy.
You talked about talking to people when writing posts using the word ”you”, I like to think my website has that ”you” feeling with you the visitor in mind. Nothing fancy, just a cozy space to relax and enjoy. Get the content on your website right and the SEO ranking will follow! Surely? Must have gadgets seriously damage your website’s health and your wallet and only the foolhardy fail to pay attention to the importance of traffic?
In reply to your final questions, ”no” not worried about the website, more like how to get a website together in the past and ”yes” I’ve brought products thinking they were the bee’s knees only to feel I’ve been completely stitched up like a kipper!
With best wishes for the weekend Rob …
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for these excellent thoughts, appreciate your input 🙂
Here are a few random thoughts of my own…
Bill Gates was right content is indeed king and I’m a huge advocate of raising your game to the maximum level when it comes to this. But keep in mind that quote was from a time a few years ago when content creation was hard on the internet and traffic was easy ($0.05 clicks from Pay Per Click and Google rankings were easy to obtain). But nowadays this has been flipped on its head, traffic is much much harder and creating content is actually pretty simple!
I think you’re absolutely right about learning the nuts and bolts. This is exactly what I teach inside the GHG membership site. But I do emphasize also that once you’ve learnt the basics, start working on traffic. I can’t tell you how many people around the internet I’ve met that have spend hours and hours tweaking their sites but still have no visitors. It’s crazy!
On your comment, “Get the content on your website right and the SEO ranking will follow! Surely?” I would be a bit brutal here and ask is this your direct experience or just your expectation? If it’s the former then your experience is very different from mine. SEO ranking does follow but it can take at least 3-6 months before you even start to see 10-20 targeted visitors per day in some cases. It’s a long term game and to do it right you need paid tools to build backlinks which can make it more expensive and time consuming than many other traffic methods. There’s always exceptions to the rule of course but really SEO is vastly overrated for someone working at home hoping to generate a residual income, in my experience.
Thanks again Andrew, hope to see you back here on the blog again soon!
Rob
Good afternoon Rob,
Great Post buddy as usual. I would like to ad that yes marketing is a skill that anybody CAN master if they learned the RIGHT way and that involves a few different strategies on Traffic , Backlinking , Seo ….etc but also when visitors get
to the site you Have to “convert” them as well into Op-tins , Sales or whatever
you’re trying to do .So in other words put up a ” decent”-looking site ,good content , focus on 4 or 5 traffic tactics and finally convertions. Happy-friday Rob.
Hi Napoles,
That’s great advice made in a very concise way. Conversion is indeed very important (need to write a post on this in future I think!).
Having a “decent” site is a great way to think about it. Getting it “perfect” (which it will never be anyway) is really a mistake before you’ve worked on at least some traffic.
Wise words – thanks for your input as always!
Rob
So true! Following you and a few others, I’m beginning to see its not so much the product as the marketing. I plan to expand beyond my expertise by making Marketing my expertise.
Hi Mike,
Lot’s of people make lot’s of money with crappy products and loads of traffic. But there are many more people with excellent products and no traffic who make a big fat ZERO!
Don’t get me wrong I always advocate massively over delivering on the product side but this does show how crucially important traffic is.
Cheers,
Rob
Hi Rob
What must be remembered, particularly for the small solo marketer, is that a website is NOT the FINISHED PRODUCT but merely a means to an end.
Originally I was led to believe that a ‘wordy fabricated insincere’ sales page was a must for success. It certainly would never work for me in a million years!!! I’d like to hear your take on this with particular reference to testimonials which since you could write your own, are of doubtful worth.
The end has to be a swollen bank account and a growing list of friends who you have made because of your wonderful products. To get there Traffic is king as you so rightly point out. Bells and whistles might look good but are more in keeping with the major commercial marketers who spend millions getting their messages across and a bit of flashy can pull a prospect to a specific product or page.
I think it’s important for the smaller site proprietor to have a simple easily navigable website where there are buttons to spread your message via blogs and social media sites. I’m struggling to find out how to do all this but I won’t give up and I’m sure you will have covered it somewhere in your GHG publications!
Great post Rob
All the best
Ken
Hi Ken,
Thanks so much for your great questions here.
My take on them is this:
1. Just be yourself on your sales page. Sure “hype” sells but you just need to be real and tell the truth. When you’ve got a great product just do everything you can to explain the benefits and features. Being shy definitely doesn’t work but you certainly don’t need to make things up to be successful. Take a look at my sales page for an example (this converts pretty well).
2. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US have clamped does on the use of testimonials as you’re right people were making them up and using ones which have ridiculous claims in them. Testimonials provide social proof which is VERY powerful but nowadays tesimonials aren’t absolutely essential. This is because of Social Media. You may have notice a lot of sales video around where there is a video and below it lots of Facebook comments. In a way this is more real I suppose. Although I personally do like to gather genuine experiences from my customers and use them on my sales page (see here for example).
Top tips there on the simple navigation Ken, you’re really spot on I think. This is why WordPress is so great and incredibly popular. Yes, I do cover social media buttons in the Kick-Start Profits newsletter Ken – here’s a link for you: How To Add Facebook And Twitter Icons To Your Site
Cheers!
Rob