A few mistakes I've seen with website owners!

I travel the web alot...and have noticed some mistakes that people who own websites to sell their items make! I'm not a professional, mind you, but I notice things and just want to make some of you aware of these!



#1 - Don't give up...whether you've got your own website to sell or a store on one of the auctions sites. Some will tell you it takes a few years and yes it does! People expect instant success and it just doesn't happen that often! So, expect it to take about 5 years! But stick with it! The web is huge...but you need to get your store name out there or no one will know it's around!



#2 - SELF PROMOTION! If you're in with a hosting company, DO NOT expect them to do all your promoting of your site! If you have a brick and morter store...the owner that you rent from doesn't advertise for you, why expect your store hosting company to do the same. Though they do advertise you need to get out there and "pound the web pavement" yourself! Promote YOUR site!



#3 - Keep that banner, for banner exchanges, in one place and leave it alone! I handle the approval for the banner exchange here at CC and a couple of months ago..I went through and checked each one to make sure they were still around. I'd say about a 3rd of them had the dreaded red X in their banner! The changed it and didn't go back and fix the link to it! If I go to a banner page on a site and see a red X I don't bother going to that site, because I think it's not around any longer!



#4 - If you are posting about your website in a forum, like Crafter's Community, make the link clickable. All forum have that option, USE IT! Most times people don't want to have to copy and paste the link and open a new browser! Yup...we're a lazy bunch!


#5 - Though you may have broadband, there are still alot of people out there who do not, either due to, it's not available or it's just too expensive for them. Minimal graphics on your website is good. Those little cursers are cute, but they slow down the loading. And I find when I use to have dial-up, if it took to long...I got outta there! Yup...we're lazy and impatinet!


#6 - If you hae an e-bay store....have the newsletter option available. Send out one when you get new items to let customers know you've got new items! I have two different newsletters, one for each type of item I sell!



I'm adding as I see new things!



#7 - If you're in a banner exchange that requires you to get credits to have your banner on another site (like the one here at Crafters Community), put that banner on your main page! I see the same websites coming up on our Banner Exchange and was wondering why I'm not seeing others, so I took a peek and noticed...all those that were showing up all the time, were on their main page...easy and quick for someone to find. It's to your benefit to do this, if no one gets to that banner, you don't get credits! In other words...don't bury those banners on page 6 of your banner/links page!



That's just a few things I've noticed on my web travels and thought I'd share them with you! And hey, if you have any suggestions to add....share them...we could all use all the help we can get!

<font color="royalblue">Great Advice! [img]images/smiley_icons/oh yes.gif[/img] I'm guilty of some of those. [img]images/smiley_icons/oops!.gif[/img] </font>

music... unless you are selling it, why have it. First on dial up it SLOWS it down! Second (when I HAD sound) if I didn't like the song, I would go elsewere... it didn't really matter if they had exactly what I was looking for, I found it annoying that I had to listen. Also, it can get people who surf at work not to visit