5 Reasons Why You Fail At Generating Income

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Updated 4 years ago

I have been at this for the last 6 years now. I have encountered many obstacles and invested a ridiculous amount of time doing things that were not directly related to generating income knowing that it was still crucial for the website to work properly.

I felt like a champion and (more often than I would have thought) like a failure along the way.

I haven't given up. Up to now.

I think failure, the reason behind it, is the best instrument in our possession to achieve success.

Note that everyone's experience is different and I would love to know how you see things.

Reason Number 1:

Relying On Search Engines To Stand Out of The Masses

The first mistake we all make is thinking that once you are online, people will find you. Because your content is lengthy, well researched, and authentic.

the reality is somewhat different. Having a website on the World Wide Web is like having a storefront on a busy commercial street that's the size of a matchbox.

At the best it will be noticed and kicked to the side at worst people will walk over it without noticing.

Search engines made it easier the last couple of years to find local stores nearby but honestly that' not something they are good at. What they are excessively good at is to show in their search engine results the biggest players.

Those that have money to pay for marketing resources.

These companies inject a lot of money into ads campaign.

Well-established brand names hire writers to create hundred of content pages a week. Period.

Not the most useful content, not the most well written, and not even the best-documented stuff.

That's why we come across so much garbage while searching for information to make a wise purchase.

Reason Number 2:

Hurrying to find Affiliate Links

We are taught that to generate income Affiliate Links are key. Although there is no good reason not to use this specific method it may end up being a lot of work to maintain.

Take this specific example. You just found interesting products for the brand XYZ.

You've chosen a retailer that has a large spectrum of products in a catalog and quality pictures for you to promote on your website. You've looked at their website, their social pages, assessed their customer service quality looking at past buyers' comments. Their commission rate is reasonable, they provide a competitive incentive for publishers and they have been established for years now.

Side note: Inevitably Google catches that new interest of yours for brand XYZ and starts to fill all your personal researches online with paid ads from this company. This is annoying... but at least you get to see how their corporate image looks from a potential buyer's perspective.

So, you start adding a few different links for different products that you think are valuable for your readers and wait. As you write new posts about fashion (or recipes, lawnmowers, high tech security gear depending on your niche) you keep adding links to new relevant posts you write with their corresponding alluring pictures all provided by brand XYZ.

A few months went by and then... boom! You get a first sale or significant traffic to a given post. You are getting more appreciation from readers in the form of likes, shares, or comments. Your audience is growing as you were told it would. Life's good.

And then silence.

Suddenly those pages you've added links to are being less and less visited. The images to which affiliate links are attached to are not showing.

Worst, the links are redirecting you and your visitors to an awkward page that states that the site has been shut down due to it being prosecuted in court by company ABC!?

Sometimes it's not that dramatic your images stop showing simply because the brand XYZ stopped selling it and forgot to tell their affiliates. Who cares really... You of course because you will need to change those links at least remove them so that your clients don't end up redirected to a dead-end page and leave to never come back.

The bottom line it doesn't matter what happened to the XYZ brand site, what matters is that those things make your website look lame and not trustworthy by association.

Reason Number 3:

Spending more time reworking the old than working on the new

This happens on several occasions. Here are a few examples.

- removing broken links

- updating product descriptions or reviews;

- adding more content to existing post like referencing to the information source

- merging post's content to create more dense and better quality content

- adding internal links

- adding relevant pictures

- Enhancing the text layout

These can be seen as maintenance tasks that need to be performed. However, if these start to take more time than you have it means that you've waited too long to take action.

Reason Number 4:

Promoting Stuff Before Promoting Your Vision

Potential and valuable customers will, in time, want to know about you. The way you see things, your values. They want to know if they can relate to you.

Remember that once your content is written it will be there to represent you.

In the beginning, you are getting only a few visits a day and a high bounce rate says that they haven't yet connected with your website essence.

But they will in time, as you become a reference.

In a few years, unique visitors will turn into regulars and follow you on social media. Whatever you write about yourself do it knowing that they will eventually want to read it.

The about me page is a good example of how important the person behind the website is to visitors.

In fact, all blogger websites have a page where they describe their personality, lifestyle, the vision of life. Usually, this page has nothing to do with affiliate links and is often free of ads. It's only there to create this precious relationship with the reader.

Reason Number 5:

Looking for wealth at the wrong place

Caution: the following involves weird dharma and true happiness stuff...

I feel that the way we make money is strongly related to our purpose in life. You should feel enthusiastic when working on your website or another platform.

There are myriads of ways to generate income online. Some will make you carry a constant burden on your shoulders. You will feel like you need to push harder and harder to see the faintest sign of progress.

But some will feel surprisingly easy to get from one milestone to another. This is a sign that you are walking on the right path.