So you probably have read it everywhere. A lot of people are really open into sharing their mistakes and faults with their business. Why? Because it takes so much interest from the readers. Readers are usually interested about these things and so I think I need to create my list as well. 🙂
But with a twist. I think if I would put a general list then it would quickly grow up to over 200 major failures. And so I would limit it to this specific blog known as melvin blog. Here they are (no order):
- Putting a pop-up ad on this blog –> Not a lot of you might have noticed it but I actually did it about 2-3 months after I started. The pop-up geographically targets US, canada visitors so traffic outside those countries wouldn’t experience it. After 2 months it drew over $10 before I learned the company actually is on hiatus for about 1 year. sucks!
- Putting an incentives page –> The page was actually still active and is found on /incentives of the blog. The initial thought was I would present incentivizable offers and have people sign to it and get paid (like gpt sites). It’s only at the end that I learned that merchants were scrubbing most of the leads and actually bots taking over the chatbox. 🙁 In the end I’ve spent $20 and barely made $5.
- WidgetSucks Experiment –> Well I thought this one is gonna be successful but its not. I implemented it for 2 months and never barely made a dollar with it. I am getting the impressions but for some reasons its not matching with the Widgetbucks stats. Failed!
- Thinking this blog was popular –> When the blog was on its peak during September and October, I almost neglected it. I thought “oh wow, my blog is now popular like a rockstar!” I am getting great number of responses and sold out ad spots as well. It wasn’t until November that I realized I lost 2/4 of my readers (for not posting useful stuffs) and 3/4 advertisers…
- Selling the blog on DP –> I’ll tell you what, the reason I actually had thoughts of selling the blog was because I eagerly want to have macbook Air before january this year.. Because I am idiot I listed it in DP instead of Sitepoint. The maximum bid I got there is a lil over $100! wtf!
- Not Canonicalizing –> It wasn’t until last month that I found out my url isn’t canonicalized. Hmm, thats why my pr is 0!
Well they say you learn from mistakes and failures. But I say I enjoy mistakes and failures after I actually realized how pointless those mistakes are. Sure it could be fun but I guess sometimes we have to be wary because it could hurt us sometimes not just financially. How about you and your blog, maybe you can tell your own story as well!
I learned my lesson!
The good thing here is that you have recognized what hasn’t worked with this blog! Now you just have to keep working to find the things that do!
Tom – StandOutBlogger.com’s last blog post..Killer Blog Posts – 10 Simple Steps!
For #6, I also have my experience with that. If I may spam your blog, I made a blog post about it at http://www.blogsnd.com/2009/01/should-you-use-www-in-your-domain-name/
Dalirin’s last blog post..How to increase Your Page Rank
Your blog is looking good Melvin. Keep it up!
Blog Expert’s last blog post..What is Twitter and Why Join Twitter?
“I say I enjoy mistakes and failures” . Thats a nice line.
I am also sometime amazed to see these nonsense mistakes.
Agent 001’s last blog post..Open Season for Guest Post
how can I make sure I wouldn’t make those canonicalizations mistakes too?
well i can’t believe you’re actually shallow to sell your blog just to have a macbook air. 🙂 i thought youre earning that good to have one.. selling it in DP is a funnier part!
royle’s last blog post..Having Sex On The First Date
It is interesting that the majority of “failures” you had are related to making money and monetization. Many bloggers try to force it too much and end up devaluating their own blog and alienating their visitors… sometimes is better to take it a bit slower, and let it come with the flow and the growth of the blog.
Marko Saric’s last blog post..How Gary Vaynerchuk built a multi-million dollar empire around a video blog
Agreed. The first step to solving a problem is not only acknowledging there is a problem, but also identifying what the problem(s) is/are.
Great blog by the way. 🙂
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Destiny Decisions
well i guess, you could add accepting spam trackbacks in most of your posts, wht do you think?
Affiliatehat’s last blog post..Utilizing Coupons and Vouchers
just go to your google webmasters account and set your preferred domain. you could either go with non-www or www. Canonicalizing helps prevent duplicate content and we all know search engine hates it…
yep. its a misconception that I’m earning big.. I make good revenues but not really superb profit… Very lil profit margin. 🙂
I know I am actually stupid by selling a site on digitalpoint…
yep because i thought they were genuine trackbacks, until i myself checked the posts and found out they were just scraping mine…
The day you think you have achieved everything that will be the day of your demise… I say stay foolish and stay hungry. Never think that you know everything because there is always twice as much to know more.
no worries Syed, I have never ever think I have achieved anything. Day in and day out I always try to light my butts up to work harder and harder. But anyway, many thanks for the advice