X-Ray Specs, Turning 30, and Achieving Website Success

I was writing the final chapter of my book on website marketing a few weeks ago and was wondering how far I'd progressed with it in the past nine months so I ran a word count. 44559 words.

And you know what this told me? Precisely nothing. Nothing of the tips and advice contained in the book or its likelihood of becoming the next global Bestseller.

Last week I looked in the mirror at the 30 year old staring back at me and thought:

"30? What does this number actually mean though?"

Precisely nothing.

Hey Numb Nuts! Do You Know The Number Of Numbers That Are Numbing Your Thinking?

You do this Numb Nuts Number Obsessing with your website, I know you do. In fact - YOU know you do but guess what - the numbers tell you precisely nothing! Here's some numbers you might be numbing your thinking with:

• The number of pages viewed on your website every month

• The number of visitors coming to your website every day

• The number of your ranking in Google for your most important key phrase

• The number of your global traffic ranking according to Alexa.com

• The number of people that signed up to your mailing list yesterday

• The number of people that visited your website using a Mongolian Internet Service Provider

These numbers mean precisely nothing. On their own they are worthless. Accumulatively they mean slightly more than nothing. Why? Because none of them put cash in your bank account.

Enough Is Enough!

Next time you share war stories with another website owner ask them the question:

"How is your website performing?"

I bet you that not one single person will respond with a comment relating to the most important number of all - PROFIT! I see this all the time in business:

Michael: "How's business going?" Anon: "Yeah, good. Quite good, we're doing okay."

What?! Have these people lost their minds?! Let us consider some better responses:

Michael: "How's business going?" Anon: "Brilliant - we are now operating at twice the level of profitability of last year"

or

Anon: "Last month we made more profit than we made the whole of the first quarter!"

Start to do this with your website - I dare you. Forget the statistics. Bin the hit counters. Throw out the mailing list numbers.

How much profit has your website made you this year? Scared to answer? Don't know the answer? Then surely you're just throwing money away by having one aren't you? You're steering your ship blind-folded.

In fact - you are running on guesswork - the world's most ineffective business fuel.

No Matter How Old You Are You Need To Wear Glasses

Have I finally lost my marbles on this one? No siree. It's true. You need to wear glasses the whole time you conduct business and when you make any decision relating to your website.

You need to wear PROFIT-TINTED spectacles that enable you to focus constantly on whether what you are doing will generate profit for your business.

Wearing your profit-tinted spectacles means that playing the little animated game an associate sent you when you're supposed to be completing that marketing project will be impossible.

Your profit-tinted spectacles work just like X-Ray specs - the only difference is that it's your daily To Do List that gets stripped down to the bare essentials and not the person you look at whilst wearing them.

Pick a number, any number? No, pick profit - it's the best number there is.

Michael Cheney

Author of The Website Marketing BibleTM

About The Author

Download Your FREE Sampler Of The Website Marketing BibleTM Now And Get FREE Bonuses Worth £159 ($288): http://www.websitemarketingbible.com

More Site Promotion Articles

Get Listed at DMOZ
When you are deciding on the major search engine directories that you want your website to be listed in, you should not overlook one of the most important ones: the DMOZ (short form for Directory Mozilla). DMOZ is just another name for the Open Directory Project, one of the human-powered submission directories.

Your Internet Marketing - What It Could Be Missing
How would like to have an email list of thousands of people who are looking to buy products related to your website. Do you think could make money with that list? Of course you could.

SEO - How Fast Do You Want To Get To The Top?
Search engine optimization by some is considered a science and by others is a game. Recently working on many sites and promoting them for over six months now has made me realize some of the basic techniques.

Building Online Visibility: A Three-Point Plan For Any Business
The latest trend in online marketing focuses on local search. While there are plenty of business site directories that act like online telephone directories, local search is more than a telephone directory or classified ad site.

So You Have A New Website But The Phone Isnt Ringing Off The Hook?
So you have a new website but the phone isn't ringing off the hook? Were you expecting an overnight success with your website?Having a website professionally designed ensures you have a good looking site that is optimised for the search engines. This article is not about web design or search engine optimisation but outlines some suggestions that you, the site owner, can take to help boost genuine visitors to your site once it has been professionally designed.

4 Steps to a Robot?s Tea Party
Creating a new website is only the first stage in what is a long, arduous process to internet success. Millions of new websites, many of them intended to be commercial, are created every year and then????nothing happens.

Why Running Contests Can Help You Attract and Retain Quality Community Members
Assuming that it is legal to do so in your state or province, running a contest on your website or forum is a wise idea. Contests can promote goodwill, stimulate interest in your site, and bring quality visitors back to your site time and again.

The ON World of OFFline marketing
Ok, now if you've started reading this article thinking that its going to be the same story about the business cards carrying your logo and company name, you are right. Hey, dont reach for that back button already.

Tips to Maintain your Website to Keep Visitors Coming Back
When you design a website you should create it so that your visitors are constantly coming back for more. In order for you to keep your visitors coming back you need to keep up with maintaining your website, and offering things that will keep your visitors busy.

How To Get Your Visitors To Tell A Friend
Does your website offer visitors a quick and easy way to recommend it to a friend? If not, you're missing out on a potential gold mine of free traffic.The benefits:Automated website promotion.