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Webmasters - Are You Making This Fatal Mistake?

Almost daily, I have people contact me, saying they have ten or twenty web sites, yet they rarely make more than a few hundred bucks a month.

This is what they are doing wrong. 

They have a prairie business, when what they really need to make big money is a mine. So what's the difference?

The difference is width versus depth.  Sure, they have plenty of web sites, but none of these have any depth. You see, a web site without depth and substance is just that -- a web site. It is not a proper business, built on solid foundation with a definite marketing plan to attract visitors, keep them coming back and turn them into loyal repeat customers. Oh, and yes, when they are visiting your web site on a regular basis you can be quite relaxed about them clicking an AdSense ad as they leave, giving you a few extra cents of income, because you know they will be back.

But if you haven't already built in reasons for your visitors, prospects and customers to keep on returning to your site, you are mad to offer AdSense ads that encourage them to leave your site prematurely, probably never to return!

That's where the depth of web site comes in. Think of it as the furnace and generator in your basement that keeps the whole house going. It brings in the visitors, already warming to you. It convinces them you know what you are talking about. It demonstrates you are a trusted expert on the subject. It turns them into first loyal visitors and then customers and then loyal repeat customers. How close do you want to get to heaven without dying?

So here's the drastic solution.

I tell them to pick just one web site from their menagerie. But not just any old web site, because it must conform to certain strict criteria:

It must be a web site that addresses a definite market. This is because the other fatal mistake people make is thinking of a product/web site without researching the market to establish if there is a viable market that will pay them money.

It must be a web site built around a subject the owner is interested in.

It must be a web site built around a subject about which the owner feels they have some input.

Realize once and for all those myths about getting rich quick are peddled by people trying to sell you the latest software or other widget. Instead, resolve to set out on a deliberate path to get rich slowly and sustainably.

Then we take a in-depth look at their web site. Often, it's just a mini-site with a sales page. Sometimes the owner has jumped on the AdSense bandwagon and churned out a few pages of content with some ill-matching AdSense ads on a style that's like being poked in the eye with a stick!

Invariably there is notable absence of traffic coming to the web site.

So then I give them my six point plan for success on the internet:

Stop jumping on the latest bandwagon that rolls by and instead start to think like a proper business entrepreneur.

Start to build your chosen web site with quality content, to turn it into a resource that people will want to come back to, again and again.

Start to build traffic streams that predispose your visitors favorably towards you by demonstrating -- even before they arrive at your site -- you have something of value to offer. One of the best ways to do this is to post articles on web sites called article banks. These are then taken by other webmasters looking for good content. Either way, they get sprinkled around the internet and readers will be alerted to the existence of your site, realize you might have some more good information and come to your site eager to read what you have to say. All this costs you is a bit of time, but the results feed through for many months -- years even.

Focus like a laser on building a single web site that works. This means:

Visitors arriving at one end and a high percentage of loyal repeat customers coming out the other end.

The whole operation running pretty much on autopilot with only minimal attention required.

Once this has been achieved with the first web site, it is then okay to move on to the second one, following exactly the same strict criteria and procedures as the first.

That's the only way to build solid, streams of multiple income that pretty much work on autopilot.

© Copyright 2006 Paul Hooper-Kelly and InternetMarketingMagician.com

KEYWORDS: web sites, proper business, attract visitors, loyal repeat customers, AdSense, drastic solution, researching the market, viable market that will pay them money, get rich slowly and sustainably, mini-site, traffic coming to the web site, six point plan for success on the internet, quality content, build traffic streams, post articles, web site that works, solid streams of multiple income

WORDS: 782

SUMMARY: Almost daily, I have people contact me, saying they have ten or twenty web sites, yet they rarely make more than a few hundred bucks a month. This is what they are doing wrong.