Why My Sites Failed... - Page 2

123ecart · #16 (**permalink**) 01-15-2008, 11:16 PM

Hi Lisa,

I don't see any of my website ventures as failures. Just projects with unexpected results LOL. At the very least, though, they were learning experiences.

I guess that the site with the most unexpected results, though, (was also a business with unexpected results) was my 12dollars.net venture.

At the time, local dialup was being sold for $20 avg, and my reasoning was that if I could offer it for $12, and use the name of the company to promote the business by incorporating the price right into the domain name.

Great idea, except that Net Zero started a huge ad buy 3 months later, offering $9.95 dialup.

I couldn't compete on price, and the price was incorporated into the name, so we ended up putting our weakest attribute...price...right out in prospective customers faces before we could toot our horn about our strong points.

I even got so desperate as to dress up in a clown suit with a billboard and stand on the busiest intersection in town for several dozen mornings, but to no avail.

Unexpected results, yes. Failure, no. I learned a lot and had a blast as Popo The Clown.

Warm regards,

lisa · #17 (**permalink**) 01-15-2008, 11:32 PM

Very good point and great way of looking at it, 123ecart. I am definitely grateful for every site whether it succeeded or failed 'cause I learned something in the process. I think the biggest thing is to not get discouraged and keep going.

foong · #18 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 12:01 AM

Hi Larry,

Good point, read the book 'blue ocean strategies' sometime back and that inspire me a lot, there is just not going to be any area that is without competition, if you can go head to head with the giants that is good, if you can't then it is definitely a need to swim out of the red ocean.

Success largely depends on how much you have learn a long the process.

webman · #19 (**permalink**) 03-24-2008, 01:02 AM

O.K. just last year I started a blog after reading Joel Comm's free E-book, Adsense and Blogging. I signed up for Blogger and started a health blog based on Keven Trudeau's books.

Lesson learned...Despite the well-documented evidence I couldn't(and still can't) afford what he recommends. Plus I have a medical condition myself. So who was I to give advice on good health! After several weeks I just thought "what on Earth am I thinking!"

Silly me. But when I do get the money, this will certainly be one of my niches!

So I started a weather blog . I was just crusin' along until one day I realized I didn't have the proper tools. Thus, it became drudgery.

Lesson learned...I need to to walk not run.

Now I've shut down those blogs to focus on not only what I like but also be engaged in. Online Gaming and Michael Jackson.

By the way. I've also jumped on the Adsense bandwagon to fast(I don't even got 100 average uniques a day for either blog). Plus my bouncing rate is just over 75%(but slightly dropping).

Lesson learned... Don't even think about monetizing until you've got loyal targeted traffic.

One question should I close my Adsense account until I'm established or try to wade it out?

I've only accumulated $30-$50 bucks thus far.

Now, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to succeed online! Despite being disabled.

eagleswingwis · #20 (**permalink**) 07-26-2008, 06:24 PM

Webman...

Sorry to jump on your statement here but it really upsets me to hear the word diabled...

Dis to me means NOT, and am sure you are able...

Hustlehard · #21 (**permalink**) 08-28-2008, 12:49 PM

Oh Lisa,

I've just read this thread you posted back in March 2007.

This is lovely. A lot of people dwell on success, success, success. But what I've realised is that you can't succeed without analysing your failures and other peoples failures.

This is great. I'm going to dwell more on failures that way you learn a lot.
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lisa · #22 (**permalink**) 08-28-2008, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hustlehard

This is great. I'm going to dwell more on failures that way you learn a lot.

Interesting that you bring this up. A lot of my recent videos and articles tend to focus on "why people fail at X, Y and Z". I do that because I think you can learn a lot from what NOT to do sometimes even better than someone telling you what to do. I think it makes for a stronger message. Thanks Hustlehard.

ramone_johnny · #23 (**permalink**) 08-28-2008, 09:14 PM

Wow, great thread. Sure beats those "How I made a million dollars in one weekend" BS threads.

However I have so many that Id like to work through them and post them up properly. Like yourself I have been involved in web design, ecommerce and just about everything else since 2001 - and boy, have I had some heart wrenching moments. I still do!

Ill be back on later to post them up.

psjerzyboy · #24 (**permalink**) 11-24-2008, 05:33 PM

Hi folks. This is a great thread. I started out with a "how to make money site" which doesn't make money but the traffic grows each month. I'll give it till January before I give up on it. My second site is about computers and gaming. Computers are my passion and I hope this site makes more than the small amount that it is now because it is my main interest and my lifetime work. Getting more than one to two hundred visits per day has been hard. I'm trying adsense again for holiday sales. Here's hoping.

sgtmac66 · #25 (**permalink**) 02-21-2009, 08:26 PM

I have probably posted my thoughts on this several times already but here goes again...

My first site was at Tripod years ago. It was a miltary site. I had some descent content, but half was special to me, and the other half boiler plate. I really didn't have the unique content then, nor the marketing skills.

We didn't have Ad Sense, or those other really great marketing tools they have today. The first thing was a PAY PER CLICK, thing I recall as Commission Junction. You placed a widget on your site and hoped visitors clicked on it. It was a total waste of time.

The other tool, was some sort of banner ad. Again a sort of PAY PER CLICK thing. All it did was clutter up the site and make it look like a used car lot!

Several years later, I revamped the military site, but this time, with a lot of niche content. It eventually grew to 150 pages or more. Commission Junction had folded and I got tired of the banner ads. I eventually added a BOOKSTORE, of my own making. I posted a note on the site, that said someone had a book and they sent it to me free of charge, I would read it, then post the review on my site. I actually received about 6 offers.

Next up was that online merchandise thing...uh...can't think of the name,...Cafe Press ? whereby you produce a design, then open your own store. If someone comes to it, they can purchase one item or a hundred..Antything from hats, Tee's to Coffee Mugs. A great idea, but another waste of time.

Later on I quit all marketing, except for my own bookstore idea. I concentrated on good, unique content and focused on keywords and SEO.

After some time, several people came to me wanting to advertise on the site. I actually made a few hundred bucks every six months, enough to pay for hosting and SEO.Unfortunatel I took on a partner to help with site, but he failed to hold up his end. Ieventually got fed up and quit the site, even though I had a high Google ranking and advertisers were starting to come by.

I am now working on revamping the site for a third time, but hoping to enhance it with Lisa's good advice and the new marketing stratagies now available.

askthetrainer · #26 (**permalink**) 03-08-2009, 11:43 PM

This may not be the biggest mistake but it is notable.

I used Site Build it to plan my site but I didn't follow their recommendations when designing it.

I had flash and scrollers on the left, top drop down navigation and I let the site stretch to fit the whole screen horizontally.

I was happy just to be making a few bucks on adsense a day but I decided to test out a new design.

I switched my site to SBI's recommended style, with left navigation and my adsense tripled right away.

Another thing I didn't listen to is SBI's "turtle it" approach. I went too fast often times and just like they said, I had to go back and waste tons of time tweaking my site instead of creating new content which is what I should be doing now so toot-a-loo

lisa · #27 (**permalink**) 03-09-2009, 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by askthetrainer

This may not be the biggest mistake but it is notable.

I used Site Build it to plan my site but I didn't follow their recommendations when designing it.

I had flash and scrollers on the left, top drop down navigation and I let the site stretch to fit the whole screen horizontally.

I was happy just to be making a few bucks on adsense a day but I decided to test out a new design.

I switched my site to SBI's recommended style, with left navigation and my adsense tripled right away.

Another thing I didn't listen to is SBI's "turtle it" approach. I went too fast often times and just like they said, I had to go back and waste tons of time tweaking my site instead of creating new content which is what I should be doing now so toot-a-loo

That's great you were able to turn it around and some good lessons.

ToddG · #28 (**permalink**) 03-12-2009, 04:02 PM

Great post Lisa,

When I first started out online, my biggest mistake was trying to do too many projects at once. I read somewhere that it was best to create multiple streams of income in case one fails, then others would be there to make up the difference.

Problem is, when you work on 10 different websites at once, none of them end up making anything, so it doesn't matter if one fails when none are worth anything in the first place!

Kato · #29 (**permalink**) 03-15-2009, 05:20 PM

I would have to say that my biggest mistake was probably quitting my job before it was time to do so. I have always had the same one site that
I have today (never really had the desire to create another). But with this particular site, I had spend so many man hours on it that I was basically getting little to know sleep... basically falling to sleep at work during the day (lol). It had gotten to the point where I had to make a choice... either the website or the job. Well... I chose the website, and without a doubt, have paid dearly for it. Because the site wasn't at the point where I was really ready to do that yet.

James · #30 (**permalink**) 03-15-2009, 06:02 PM

Quote:

It had gotten to the point where I had to make a choice... either the website or the job.

I couldn't help but note this line. Many people get to thinking like this and end up in trouble so this experience is not unusual. It reminds me of a lesson I was fortunate enough to learn long ago, one that has helped me greatly to avoid a lot of problems in every area.

When I was in grad school I had enlisted an advisor who taught me one of the most important lessons in life. He was very successful and I learned from him that common beliefs and reality are often different.

Case in point here. He taught me that really successful people never work themselves into a box of any kind. In other words, they rarely take risks. They laugh at the idea so many profess that you have to take a lot of risks to do well. They may risk a little but only what they can afford to risk when the potential gain is great and usually when you ask them they say, "I never take chances. Not everything works out as well as expected, but I never do anything without knowing what I am doing."

The option not mentioned, instead of choosing between work and website, would have been to set and limit oneself to some reasonable time each day to work on the site, relax and enjoy it until the right time to go full time. If we get enough sleep and other relaxation, we will actually do better with less time.

I have made many mistakes, too, with my computer projects and in all of life. But I have learned to make many fewer as I have learned to think through first and then follow through second.

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