1. Directions - They do not read the manual thoroughly. There is a ton of things and common questions answered right on your own hard drive. I bet not many of you have even printed it out. Print it and keep it next to you as quick reference.
2. Hosting - Most new users ignore the fact that Hostgator is the suggested host for BANS. They suggest this for a reason. Many go through Godaddy and some other budget hosting companies only to discover problems or much worse down time. Once you have a better grasp of everything, then you can mess with different host.
3. Niche Research - Most do not know how to do it or what they are even looking to do. All they know is they want an xBox or iPod store and that is all they know. Dig around in the blog or the BANS forums. There is tons of info on researching niches.
4. Broad Stores - Even if you have researched your niche, most set up too broad of stores. There is no reason to have 100 pages if you are just starting out. Going back and optimizing the 100 pages for a newbie almost always takes the wind right out of their sail. Start small and narrow as it is easy to add to later and you will not feel so overwhelmed.
5. Default Meta Tags - Just because it is set up out of the box that way, does not mean that is the way it is meant to stay. I just posted yesterday on meta tags and I suggest you apply it too EVERY store and content page.
6. Default Store Navigation Text - See #5 on this as well. If at all possibly, rename the page anchor text to better accommodate your store.
7. No Unique Content - If you hate writing or do not have the money or resources to add ORIGINAL UNIQUE CONTENT, you better learn to like it or have a rich uncle. This is probably the most ignored tip I give. Spinning articles or Wiki pages is not the same either. Make you store the authority on what it sells and you will reap the benefits.
8. No Daily Plan - If you have no plan to succeed daily or weekly at different task, you have then planned to fail. If you only have 1 hour a week to dedicate to your site, you better know ahead of time what you are going to do with that hour.
9. Poor SEO/Traffic Generation - You can have the fanciest well designed website on the web with great graphics and headers, but if it is not optimized well and gets very little traffic it will not succeed. Too many people worry about building a web masterpiece for the eyes instead of focusing on SEO, traffic generation and link building. Pretty websites with no traffic only end up getting seen by you.
10. You Quit - I hate to tell you this, but if you mark this date a year from now on the calender. I am willing to bet only 2 or 3 of every 10 that read this blog will still be active. It is the facts. Most of you will blame BANS, EPN, me or something else for you quiting as well. Affiliate Marketing has a steep, steep learning curve. Once you get past that curve and the light comes on, it all slowly starts falling into place. When you do quit, please sell or give the stores to someone who will use them.
3 comments:
Good post!
And some valuable information.
Lets hope number 10 is not me!
Hey soggy, If someone only had one hour per day to work on a BANS project (assuming they read the manual and installed) where in your opinion should that hour be spent? Also, regarding HostGator, I agree. It's a BANS-must for new users. Thanks.
@chuck,
backlink building without a doubt.
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