Top 5 Mistakes Online Business Owners Make

Every business owner makes mistakes. Even the likes of Warren Buffett, Richard Marx, and Elon Musk have made mistakes in their businesses. The quintessential need is not perfect and averting every mistake but to avoid those ones that will cost your business dearly. Here are the five mistakes online business owners make.

Cheap Infrastructure

An online business must always stay sustainable as well as for that, you ought to remain affordable with all expenditures or repeating financial debts. However, the value should not force a business owner making decisions that will not augur well intended for the business. For instance, choosing inexpensive web host plans could save you money however the real price has to be evaluated. Hosting programs that expense very little each month will have seriously capped bandwidth, there will be almost no worthwhile to safeguard the website, the internet presence will probably be compromised because the uptime will not be one hundred percent or even close and any type of scaling will probably be dealt with extremely slowly. Infrastructure is the spine of any kind of industry or perhaps business. Internet business owners frequently opt for cheap infrastructure...

Outsourcing Everything

Globalization has ushered in an era when you can find people to do everything at a fraction of a cost than what you would have paid in the pre-globalization days. It is not fair to state that the quality of professionals or their skills has waned but it is true that outsourcing has its pitfalls. You can and should outsource anything that you are not very good at. From website designing to accounting, you
can and must hire experts. Also, note that outsourcing is not necessarily off-shoring. You can hire contractors or companies based in your city, state or country. The trouble lies in outsourcing everything. When online business owners don’t have complete control over any of the assets of the company or the day-to-day affairs affecting one or all existential aspects of the enterprise, then the business is bound to suffer sooner or later.

Lack of Diversification

Many business owners are content with their zeroed in focus on one or a few niches. It is perfectly acceptable to focus on one or a few niches but you need to diversify to sustain your overall empire through the years. Every niche goes through upswings and downswings. You can always enjoy the upswings but you need to plan for the downswings.

Cease in Upgrading

Many online business owners launch their enterprises with state of the art propositions and then stop upgrading. It is not just the technological infrastructure that needs to be upgraded but also the quality of products and services, the manner in which the business is managed and how the clients are dealt with.

Ignoring Competition

Digital enterprises can spring up in no time and usurp the market share of a major brand in a brisk few weeks. Ignoring competition is a surefire way to ring the death knell for the business.

Also Read: Why You Can Fail To Be Successful?

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Why You Can Fail To Be Successful?



Humans, in general, it is in our nature to be scared of failure and failing, most people can’t afford to fail just once, it will seem that the whole world came crashing down, but do we really need to be scared of failure?

Failure or failing doesn’t mean it is over for us!

If we fail or let's say when we fail at something, be it business, plans, dreams or in the desired lifestyle, we should know it is a lesson to learn, we just learn the wrong way to do business, make a plan or probably we’ve taken the wrong measures to achieve our dreams or lifestyle.

If we didn’t fail at the first, second, third or fourth try, not everybody is lucky to make it the first try, many will say there is no luck in business, true but you having the right plan that works out for you in the first try is the greatest luck you have, if you didn’t fail you’ll never know the wrong way of doing it.

How many times did Thomas Alva Edison fail exactly?

According to Rutgers, Myth Buster: Edison's thousands of attempts, "The source of the story about Edison trying thousands of experiments or materials is probably an 1890 interview in Harper's Monthly Magazine."
 I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed three thousand different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them reasonable and appears to be true. Yet only in two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory. My chief difficulty, as perhaps you know, was in constructing the carbon filament, the incandescence of which is the source of the light.                                        Thomas A Edison
I said: 'Isn't it a shame that with the tremendous amount of work you have done you haven't been able to get any results?' Edison turned on me like a flash, and with a smile replied: 'Results! Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! I know several thousand things that won't work!                                                                                  Thomas A Edison
            
We will never experience the pain of failure, which many seems to be okay with, what if everything turns sideways after it’s been good for a while? Is it a lack of planning? why do so many successful companies who seem to be doing pretty okay at first shut down in no time and most never to be heard of again?

Those questions I’ll leave to All folks readers to leave a comment to.

SO SHOULD WE ACCEPT FAILURE???

The simplest answer to this question is NO! But most people would easily accept defeat and take it as a YES in action, When will fail at something be it academics, business, dreams, plans or lifestyle the biggest most make is they GIVE UP!
We are afraid to fail again so we don’t try again, we totally forgot we’ve gotten an experience already, we know what to do and what not to do, We already have a first-class VIP experience seat on how to do it wrong, so don’t do it that way again!!!

Most people simply because they fail at some point in life will give up their dreams and try to chase new adventures, leaving out something they are extremely good at because they didn’t get the desired results or because they failed after trying a few times.

My Own Example:

In 2013, I created a news and entertainment blog with Blogger, it was with the Blogspot.com extension and no custom domain, wrote some articles about 15 and I tried monetizing immediately, don’t laugh at me, back then all I cared about is to make money with my blog, but 15 articles for about 4 months the income was $0.00, I Got frustrated and I decided to quit and try new things. Tried CPA, Affiliate marketing and Micro jobbing, made few bucks from micro jobbing but CPA and affiliate marketing I wasn’t doping pretty well, I decided to QUIT.

I started to learn and work on a new trade and I spent too much time focusing on that, I made money a bit from my new business and at first, it seems like it will be like this forever, I forgot I had a blog that I’ve worked on, my new business got no guarantee, no salary involves, just mere luck and lots of sleepless nights, but because I was getting snack fees I kept doing it, putting all my hope in a business that has no future.

I totally forgot my passion for the internet and marketing, it was profit over a passion for me! Nothing wrong in profit over passion, but as long you’re passionate about something it should bring you money, if it’s not bringing money, it’s not a good thing to be passionate about I think.

Learning My Lesson The Hard Way

A few months ago, a news was trending in my country about a Nollywood actor, it generated a lot of internet buzz and a lot of people was trying to search about him, I was trying to confirm the trending news so I Googled the man’s name to my greatest surprise I saw a familiar link in PR3 (Page Rank 3 ) on Google results.

My old news and entertainment blog under blogger, got ranked number 3 in search terms related to that actor, I was indeed curious of what happened and how tried getting back the Gmail I created the blog with and took me about 2 weeks to get it back, cos I already lost the number on the account, had to go through extra verification process and when I logged in on Blogger and checked my stats, I almost burst in tears! That single post got 43,876 views and reads and 95% of the traffic directly from Google search! Woahhh Now let's calculate how much I lost!!!

If I had 3 ad units on the article page and I got 43,876 already, despite the fact that it is not a rich nor paying keyword I'll be making at worst  $260 CPM {Revenue earned: cost per 1000 impressions} on just a single blog post. If the blog was updated regularly and with quality content, I will definitely earn more and I would have gotten the exposure I need.



Looking at my example, if my blog wasn't on the Blogger platform I might have never gotten the opportunity to learn from my mistake, many websites and blog owners like me have quit or are about to quit after trying so hard with no results, this experience got me back in blogging, If I kept the blog active and manage to even update with a post every week, I'll know about the buzz period and would have made the best use of the free traffic, converting those free traffic to cash would have been no problem.

Assuming that my blog was on WordPress or probably hosted with a Webhosting service and after the first year I didn't renew, site will be terminated and I might never get to know what I've missed, but I was lucky to be able to learn from my mistake, a blog I gave up 4 years ago, would have given me the extra financial freedom I so much desired after 4 years, So many blogs and websites shuts down regularly every day not every one of them is offline because the owner is "dud and buried" most shuts down after experiencing failure in the first year or two. They'll say I'm not making money and they will give up.

Regardless of what you dream, plan or fantasize about, failure isn't an option for anyone. But

What to do after failure?

First thing first, no wallowing in pain! Simple and efficient solutions should be the next act of plan, like me I replan, restarted and decided never to give up until I can say I was a noob now I'm a pro, regardless of whatever you failed at,  it isn't over yet, you can start over, continue from where you failed or with a new and easy plan, try to adjust your time schedules, seek advice and work 3x harder than you've ever done. Don't be afraid to ask for help and don't ever let failure affect your self-confidence.

You're not a failure cos you're failing, You'll only be a failure when you give up.                                                                                                                                      Richard Omisore
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65 Articles Marketing Tips and Secrets Revealed






1. Keep the headline interesting. Once you start writing an article to market yourself, it is
important to concentrate on the content and the heading as well. You should write a click
worthy heading that captures the interest of users and makes them read your article.
2. Keeping the readers interested while reading your article is a subject of prime importance. You
should provide relevant information about your business not just concentrate on selling
yourself. Reader should feel that there is something in your business for them.
3. While deciding the content for your article, you have to decide what purpose are you writing for
and your main goal. Select the quantity and quality of words accordingly. High quality articles
impress the readers while lengthy articles makes them lose their interest in your article and
consequently in your business.
4. Writing and posting an article on your blog is not enough. You have to promote your article so
that it can reach out to maximum number of readers. Social networking will do that for you but
you have to socially active and reactive.
5. Another effective way of article marketing is to publish an eBook which contains the best
articles written by you and excerpts about your business profile. You can offer this free to the
interested users.
6. Research is a very important phase of article marketing. Thorough analyses should be carried out
and high traffic keywords should be used frequently. This makes sure that whenever a user
types a phrase that you have already researched for and used it in your article, your article will
be displayed as one of the top results.
7. The article that you write should be completely original. It should not be copied from any source
such as the internet. Researching and finding out the content is fine but you should use your
own words. Entirely copied articles can lead to the readers drifting from your business.
8. One easy way to get your articles written well is to outsource them. It is a cheap way and you
get good results quickly. But the main problem with outsourcing is that you don’t know if your
idea has been conveyed well in the article or not.
9. Once you are ready with your article, you have to find a place to post it. This is very critical as
the place you post it will decide the number of users it brings to you. If you don’t have a blog,
you can post it on a web page that has a high rank or you can post it to high traffic websites
relevant to your business.
10. Place a back link of your webpage beneath every article you post on other sites. This back link
will point to your web page and can draw much traffic. You can also leave your contact details
with every article so that the readers can contact you directly.
11. It is advisable to post all your articles on your blog. You can keep complete control of the
content this way. You can optimize your article whenever you want and post new articles
without much hassle. This saves advertising and hosting costs.
12. Do not write extra long articles. A small paragraph with some points will do just fine. Provide
bullets and numbering in your article so that the reader doesn’t have to go deep into your
article to know what you want to say. You should give him prior idea of what the article is all
13. If have a blog and would also like to promote you’re article on authority sites, you can do it in a
very shallow manner. Just post the article with semi unique content whit a back link on the site.
Post the original article on your blog. So, this makes traffic to redirect to your blog from these
sites.
14. Article Spinning has become common these days and it a very effective way to modify your
articles. The articles written by you can be passed through the article spinning software and it
provides you another influential article from the original one. You can make a variety of
synonymous articles through the spinning software and post it on the chosen sites.
15. When you post an article and provide a back link, you have two options. One option is, your
back link points to your blog which is a repository of all your blogs. The second option is to make
your back link point to a collection of you most successful and highly rated articles. You are free
to proceed either way.

16. Various tools like Article Marketing Robot and Unique Article Wizard help you in the posting
process. You can automate the article spinning and posting process with the use of these tools.
The article is posted to every directory that you want it to be posted at.
17. Always remember at the back of your head that what the purpose of posting this article is. So,
be accurate, provide relevant and accurate details and write precisely about your business goals.
Your business will improve when you have a dedicated piece of writing.
18. Post the articles to directory site which first check the aptness of the article and then approve it
to be posted on their site or not. If the article is approved, you have taken a big leap. But if the
site does not approve of your article, this means that your article is not apt and lacks something.
So, this gives you an opportunity to improve your article.
19. Always try to write an article that solves the issues of the readers that you are writing for. It
should address and answer their concerns. Once you publish your newsletter or e magazine, it
becomes very important to address the reader’s questions and should write back to him your
response.
20. You should provide accurate information about your resource box i.e. where the reader can find
more information if he wants to. Lead the reader to your blog or your website and try to satisfy
him.

21. Back links should be laid most stress upon. It is through these links that you can get traffic. What if
a reader who has read your article and wants to find more information about you and your
business. What is he to do in that case if you don’t provide any back link with your article?
22. If you don’t attach a back link with your writing, you lose an opportunity to attract a potential
customer and that is a great loss. Back links are simple implementation e.g.” Read more about”,
“Complete article here” links that redirect the readers to your own blog and give them access to
all the information you want them to know.
23. Link the additional articles you write directly back to the article on your newsletter of e
magazine. Doing this can deliver the added bonus of back links. Since all the articles you’re
distributing are all on a similar topic, this can be a huge benefit.
24. Your articles should be brief and descriptive i.e. strictly 300 to 600 words. A lengthy article will
make the user drift away to more interesting things while a shorter article which is less than 300 words
will make the user feel that you are not serious about your business.
25. Title of an article decides whether a user will read it or not. It’s just like the movies, if you like the
title of the movie, you will definitely see it but if the title is bland, you will not wish to see it
despite how interesting the movie may be. Top it off with a compelling title that uses a number,
such as “6 Tips for maximizing…” or “My Top 10…”
26. Writing templates can help you in structuring your articles and even write them quickly. If you are
naïve, you can use writing templates to make your writing painless and fast. You will be able to
write your thought better while using templates. Once you have written some articles, you can
give up the templates eventually.
27. Make a blog with the name of your business. Develop an internet marketing strategy and plan
your blog accordingly. Maintain a collection of all the good articles that you have already
written. This will educate potential clients about your business and services.
28. Article writing does not necessarily mean that you have to write a paragraph. Make things
interesting. You can chose various formats depending upon the the topic you want to write
about. You can write in a role play format or a Q&A format. Such formats help you write
effectively and are also easier for the reader to grasp.
29. Write your articles in such a way that the reader feels compelled to check if there are any new
articles submitted by you. Choose the content to be displayed carefully. The reader should get
what the title of the article describes, not some random advertisement page.
30. Try packing your articles with appropriate information. Research the internet for quality content
and write down the good ideas that strike you. Add information based on your research that a
reader can easily understand.
31. Businesses marketing through writing pieces, especially article marketing can make you stand
out. It has great promotional capabilities and can bless your business with a visibility and an
image that you have been looking for.
32. Forum profiles can offer you back link response but are considered as the ultimate spam. They
are easy to create and can be created in mass quantities without much effort. You can build
your profiles on such forums but most readers do not trust them.
33. If your business demands many mass promotional activities, you can manually write the articles
and spin them with the spinning tools. You can publish these synonymous articles in large
numbers on the directory sites of your choice
34. Also you can decide to spin the articles already present on the internet. This gives you new
articles to post and can seen as web recycling. Also if you are in need of more and more articles,
it’s better to outsource them.
35. Blog comments are an effective way to attract more readers to your blog. The views of the
readers should be given top priority. Readers feel attracted to other reader’s comments and this
can help you a lot.
36. Word press has developed as an eminent blogging tool. Readers are drifting from blogger to
word press because of its simple and easy layout and for blog writers; it gives the relaxation to
customize the blog design as well. So, articles posted on word press sites can fetch higher
ratings.
37. You can publish your own newsletter if you are quite serious about article marketing and also
about your business. You can build an e magazine using a simple template and write in all the
articles you have written and also your business descriptions.
38. Such an e magazine can be sent on a weekly or monthly basis depending on how often you write
new articles. You can build a email contact directory and also a reader community through regular
newsletters.
39. E magazines and newsletters prevent you from the hassle of posting on many authority sites.
Once the email directory has been built and readers start liking your articles, just post a link to
register for the newsletter on the blog. You will see that more readers will join in.
40. The most important perk of publishing the newsletter Is that it is been sent directly to the people
who are interested in your business. They can be potential customers and can ultimately benefit
your business.
41. You will ultimately end up being in direct contact with customers important to your business.
They can be in touch with you any moment they want and also the updated information is sent
to them periodically.
42. Article marketing through e magazines and newsletters is a way of gaining trust among the
readers because your article reaches periodically in the target market and you yourself publish it
rather that someone else does it on your behalf.
43. Your regular readers will forward the newsletter to their relatives and friends and appreciate
your business. This creates an unending chain and consequently more and more readers are
added to your customer base.
44. Article marketing can work as a blessing to your business if done in a correct way and playing by
the rules. Newsletters can work wonders by attracting readers to your blogs, sometimes even
hundred and thousands overnight.
45. If a thousand readers are reading your blogs and newsletters, it can be very easily estimated
that about 30-50% of the readers will actually contact you and ask for the services.
46. Keeping an e magazine fresh is your responsibility. Every time you publish a newsletter, it should
contain something different, something that attracts the reader. This can be done by simple
modifications to your newsletter.
47. You can often change the design and vary the content and writing style of your articles
differently. The main aim is to keep a reader waiting for you newsletter. The wait increases the
anxiety of the user and is quite beneficial for your business.
48. Article marketing is generally a long term strategy for building a customer base. You should not
get restless if fewer readers are reading about your business and you should not expect the
customers to increase overnight.
49. Take a long range view of the things. Stay calm and build your reader base first. Article
marketing requires a lot of patience and feel encouraged on achieving milestones.
50. Internet grows everyday and lot of new potential customers join in large numbers. But also the
competition grows with it. Many business providers like you will be competing for a customer’s
attention. So, it is quite important to devise a unique selling plan for yourself and your business.
51. Another feature of article marketing through newsletters is that they are limited in length. The
articles written in them are to the point and are just enough. If a reader likes your article and is
interested in your business, he will definitely access your business details by the link provided in
the newsletter or by the email id mentioned in it.
52. Article marketing can be an extremely strenuous task. After you start getting your articles
published, you have to make the process periodic. So, eventually the ideas seem less and the
writing task seems hectic.
53. It’s better to jot down the ideas as they come to your mind and recollect them when you start
writing. Divide the task into frames and complete the writing frame by frame. Take breaks in
between and think. Once you start writing again, you will be more effective.
54. Choose a time when you are most comfortable while writing. You can start early in the day or
late at night. Time and writing hours don’t matter if the quality of the written article is superb.
55. Do not write about yourself and yourself only. Select the content that the readers will be
interested in. Give them a reason to read your article and your newsletter every time. Well, you
are writing for attracting customers to your business, so keeping the readers interested should
be a key thing.
56. After writing a quality article, you will have to make a critical decision of where to post your
article. You should publish to blogs frequently as they are easily trusted and push more link
juice. Also, the blogs have a higher ranking in search engine results as compared to other
directories.
57. Create a twitter account for your business profile and for the niche in which you publish your
articles. Use real profile pictures for your account and tweet about the articles you have written.
This increases your credibility.
58. Most of the articles that you spin and distribute do not go to higher quality websites and there is
no use of landing your article on such a website. The only way that these articles can click is to
back link each of those articles to a higher quality repository of your articles.
59. The more unique article you write, the easier it will be to get Google to index it. Sentence and
word levels should be decided prior to start writing. Higher word levels will make it challenging
for a reader to understand but can surely get you some links.
60. Do not let your articles read like one very long advertisement. Make sure that you’re supplying
good quality content and info for your readers or you won’t keep them for very long. People will
continue to return to a writer who they know will give them one thing fascinating to read which is
of value.
61. Track your postings on a spreadsheet or whichever way you like it thereby creating a tracking
system. Also maintain a directory of good websites where you can publish your article in future.
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