Internet marketing is a field as old as the concept of doing business online (that is, a few years, to be frank). Doing business on the Internet is all about getting targeted, relevant traffic to your website (or your blog if you do business from your blog) and in many cases it involves a long drawn Internet marketing strategy.
Just like in the brick and mortar world, when you open up shop on the Internet, you need to make it easier for people to find your place on the web just when they are looking for something you can offer. Whether it is a service, a product or a piece of advice, the most crucial aspect of Internet marketing is, getting found for the right stuff. But in order to get lots of traffic in a little time and with little or no effort, either knowingly or unknowingly many online entrepreneurs commit Internet marketing mistakes that cost them big time. Listed below are the top Internet marketing mistakes that you should avoid in order to create a long-lasting and profitable business online.
Don’t make unbelievable promises
The Internet is full of quick-rich schemes and most people have burned their fingers and hence lost total faith in many online businesses. It doesn’t mean there are no trustworthy businesses on the Internet, it’s just that, it is so easy for people to start a business online that you can easily con people without having to invest much. So avoid making the same old cliched promises used by “shady” entrepreneurs like “become a millionaire while being lazy”, or “earn $ 10,000 within a couple of months of downloading this incredible report”, and such.
Avoid black hat SEO strategies
This is one of the most common Internet marketing mistakes people commit simply because the “imagined” result seems incredible. Black hat SEO strategies promise quick results with little effort — you can rank incredibly well for all your major keywords and search terms. In reality it only gets you labelled as an insincere, conniving and lazy person who doesn’t want to work hard and enhance his or her presence naturally. If you don’t know what is “black hat” SEO it is a technique to trick search engines into believing that you deserve better rankings compared to those who actually do. Practising black hat SEO might get you instant results but search engine companies are perpetually working to curb such practices and hence sooner or later you get penalised.
Don’t spam people
Spamming is as old as e-mail marketing itself – it means sending unsolicited e-mail messages to unsuspecting recipients. The only strength of spamming is its sheer number: 100s of 1000s of e-mail messages are sent hoping that a small percentage will generate business. Of course it works in many cases and that is why people are still indulging in it, but spamming is not a sustainable technique for serious businesses and most of the businesses indulging in spamming don’t survive for much longer. Yes, for spammers (people that provides spamming services to unsuspecting clients) it is a goldmine.
Don’t use free web hosting services to host your business website
Just imagine, why should I do business with you if you don’t even have enough confidence to invest in a legitimate dot com website? In fact you’re so unsure that even to host a single web page, you are using some free hosting service. Using a free hosting service means you can abandon your business at any moment because moneywise you have no stake although you might have invested lots of time (that you might have because you have got nothing else to do). Genuine and serious business people have their own websites.
Don’t have crappy content on your website
Almost all websites do business on the strength of the content they have. Your content is your dialogue with your visitors. In order to strike a rapport you need to use compelling, engaging and well-written content on your website, not hastily-prepared content that appears like an afterthought. Most of the people will do business with you after reading content on your website.
Don’t have a crappy-looking website
Although your web design doesn’t have to win any webby award your design and layout must be decent, pleasing to the eye and easily accessible. All the information that a person may need in order to do business with you must be available within 2-3 clicks.
These are a few top Internet marketing mistakes that you can avoid in order to have a successful online business.
