“Build it, and they will come.”
As far as most small business owners are concerned, that is probably everything they could hope for with their plans on starting a website to reach end-users.
Or perhaps “build it, spend some money on online advertising, and they will come” is a bit more accurate in some cases.
Either way, both of these wishful thinkings couldn’t be more further away from the truth.
Here are some hard facts about the online world:
#1) Advertising online isn’t the same as advertising on TV years ago. You don’t necessarily get the best placement even if you spend the most money. For example, arguably the best place for your online ad is on the Google’s homepage, except you will never get on there.
#2) Even when you have traffic, hits, views or whatever, they don’t always turn into revenue. You can make a funny video with a cat playing piano in your backyard, post it on Youtube.com and get millions of views. Are you going to make any money from it? Highly doubtful.
#3) People don’t oppose mediocrity online; they don’t talk about it either. In fact, they will simply ignore. That means, if your website is just like your competitors, you will be ignored.
#4) If you are just starting your website, chances are, there are already thousands of people who have done the same thing. Out of those, a handful have been really good at it. Understand that they are already years ahead of you. And you will never catch someone ahead of you if both of you are moving at the same speed. Translation: do the same things as your “favorite” competitor, and lose.
The conclusions:
- Don’t start a website unless you plan on doing things differently — a lot different from everybody else in your industry. If you are to “steal” an idea, steal from someone outside of your industry.
- Don’t sell yet. Start by creating conversations. Turn conversations into attention into interest into fandom, and finally into sales. Money might buy you some attention so you can skip the conversation stage, but bear in mind that it’s also much more difficult to turn those attention into interest.
- Lower your expectations, start small and act small. But think big.
- Once you start, don’t ever stop. You can yank the project altogether. But as long as the project is still going, do something to it everyday. Yes, that includes weekends and/or off hours.
Build it, spend thousands of hours on it, and maybe eventually they will come.
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