I’ve seen my share of internet marketing blogs, and many of my clients are internet marketers. After I help them, they no longer make these mistakes, of course. 
So, here’s how not to do an internet marketing blog:
- Have no internet marketing experience.
- Have no cornerstone product of your own.
- Put up tons of skeezy-looking ads for selling text links.
- Have no clue about how to write copy that sells.
- Demonstrate you don’t understand social proof by showing a FeedBurner chicklet that displays less than a thousand subscribers.
- Have no point to your content other than “me-too” posts about blogging and making money online that clearly show your lack of experience and results.
- Have a lot of “your ad here” graphics.
- Have a badly implemented blog design that looks like it doesn’t fit together right.
- Look like a blog instead of a real business with a blog.
- Offer to do paid review posts even though nobody reads your blog.
LOL – Michael, those are bad, especially #1.
That sounds like something a newbie might do who believes they can run a business from home sitting in their PJs. If they relate to anything on that list, they should definitely contact you.
It’s important for entrepreneurs to know (both online and offline) that running a business is real work and requires knowledge, time, dedication, hard work, and often times – spending money.
Don’t be cheap. My experience as an entrepreneur is that everyone wants something for nothing. The worst is when I see would-be entrepreneurs asking questions on sites like Yahoo! Answers like this:
“I want to start a business online. Does anyone know where I can find free web hosting and a free blog?”
Need I even comment on that?
hi Michael… re “Demonstrate you don’t understand social proof by showing a FeedBurner chicklet that displays less than a thousand subscribers”…
I saw one a few days ago proudly displaying 25 or so subscribers, sort of like saying “hey look, almost no one reads me”.
Why don’t people see the obvious??? Later…
Hi,
Indeed you should not try to sell when you have no readers or display stats that show that you have few visitors. This is what I do now : I have few visitors but I try to cover it up. Well after this post everyone would know because your blog has high traffic volume.
Thank you
Spot on comments! I’m no guru myself, but even as a freelance designer these all seem like common sense. And, yet, I think we can all agree, there are seemingly infinite sites run by people would try to prove you wrong. The beauty of the Internet lies in where we choose to take it, and posts like this will keep us laughing while we learn. Great list!
@John – Yes, especially #1. Duh.
@Marti – I think some people put that there for themselves. Certainly they’re not thinking about what it really says to their visitors.
@Toma – It depends on what you’re doing (for example, a blog on an ecommerce site), but yes, with no audience yet to buy, there’s not much point.
@Tyler – Greed pushes common sense right out the window.
Great points. Well said.
Michael
Your comment about the burner stats displayed (as well as several of your other comments) really sums up the challenge any beginning entrepreneur has – moving outside of their own desires and viewpoint to think about what they look like from the outside.
Marketing is about being able to see how others see and feel, not just their needs but also perceptions, attitudes, and alas, limitations. By working to understand what your target client feels and perceives, you will be miles ahead of the average non-marketing focused individual. That mindset alone – what I call social kinesthetic sense – will serve you in making all the decisions about your website and your business.
As always, great insight Michael.
Together, we are stronger!
Vicki Flaugh, the original SmartWoman
LOL most people surely hate ads, i dunno why, but how can we make money blogging from PPC if they respond like this an dfor #9 i know what that means, yea its really hard how to set up your blog into real business one
Michael,
All very good and valid points.
At one time or the other, I have been guilty of these infractions and some other ones also.
It’s great that you point these mistakes out to future bloggers and for current ones also. I see alot of people still making the same mistakes and I just hope they get some insight on what to do.
They would do good to subscribe to your blog, I did!
Thanks,
Larry
Thanks for the advice, I’ll try NOT TO implement those rules on my blogs.
best regards,
Sudirdjo Widjaja