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Is your website the best thing in the world?
July 22nd, 2008Do you strongly believe in the potential of your website? How does it compare to your competitors’ websites? Is your website the best thing in the world? We’ll try to go through the importance of believing that what you are doing is great.
John has something to say
There’s a quote from John Lennon I always think about and it’s still driving me to make quality stuff. John Lennon said in his 1980 Playboy interview: “When I was a Beatle, I thought we were the best fucking group in the god-damned world. And believing that is what made us what we were…”.
I think there’s a lot we can learn from that quote and it’s plain simple: believe in what you do. If yourself don’t think your website is great, who will? I’m not talking about design, graphic, logo or whatever, I’m talking about content. The design is something that can be easily changed or something you can pay for, but on the opposite, content is you. Especially if you run a blog, your readers have to feel your passion and also that your website is great. If you don’t believe your content is good, you won’t be able to talk positively about your website and if you can’t, probably no one will be able to.
Also, don’t let critics kill your passion. There will always be people to turn you down and tell you how much your website suck. There will always be people to tell you your vision isn’t good enough and you’re never going to make it. I think it’s Sergei from Google who once said he didn’t think Wikipedia would work and look what Wikipedia has become. Vision is something that can’t be shared with everyone. If you really believe in what you do, do it and you will probably make something out of it.
I know this sounds a lot like a ‘motivation’ post and not a real SEO/Internet Marketing article, but it is essential to be confident about your web projects. What’s the point of spending a couple of hours a day for something you don’t believe in and will abandon after a month? Your website visitors are just like you, they don’t like average stuff, they like good stuff. Do you subscribe to average blogs with average articles that don’t bring you anything? Would you link to an average article? I don’t think so.
Believing is not everything
Now comes the part where believing is not everything. Take the John Lennon example for instance: even if I strongly believe I’m the best singer/musician in the world, there’s no way I can achieve what John Lennon achieved. This is because I’m probably the worst singer in the world. So, falsely believing you’re the best won’t get you anywhere. There are a lot of people falsely believing they are great and it is really annoying so it’s important not to fall into that category. You have to believe what you do is great, but be sure it’s at least good from most people’s point of view!
It comes down to make good stuff
All in all, it comes down to make a quality website. With a quality website, you’ll have no problems telling others how good it is and others will feel the same way. Now, how to know if you’re making good stuff? It’s really simple: would you visit your own site? If your website/blog doesn’t fulfill a need or has no purpose, then why would someone visit it? If it’s a blog and you write 500 words posts in five minutes everyday thinking people will enjoy, you’re wrong. Are your writing skills OK? When you read your articles a couple of days later, are you surprised you actually wrote that stuff? Are you receiving more positive than bad comments? Do you offer something your competitors don’t offer? Basically, why would someone visit your website more than your competitors’ websites?
Always reconsider what you are doing. Are you falling into a routine? Are you posting articles or filling your website just because you have to do it? I personally always reconsider what I’m doing and I think it helps me a lot. For example, if you own a blog, always ask yourself: “Am I writing crap or it’s actually a good article?”, “Am I writing a filler post right now or I really have something interesting to write about?”, “Would it be interesting for someone to link to that article?”, “would it be interesting for someone to spread the word about this article?”. Always ask yourself that kind of questions, it will help you not to fall into a daily boring routine.
Can you?
Now, can you imagine yourself say: “I thought we had the best fucking website in the god-damned world. And believing that is what made us what we were…”?
On a more serious note, without saying you own the absolute best website in the world, would you feel condfident to say you run ONE of the best website in your niche? I’m not saying popular here because best and popular isn’t always equivalent.
14 Responses to “Is your website the best thing in the world?”
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Hi Ben,
What a great post. And your post is completely relevant to Internet Marketing, it’s these kind of reminders and reality checks that propel us forward to success. If you don’t believe in your website, who else would? And asking the questions you mention are concrete ways to prevent yourself from becoming just another website.
Thanks,
JR
Hi again Ben,
I wanted to tell you that I twittered this post and I will link to it in my next post as it was very relevant to my topic!
Thanks,
JR
You have to love your website and truly believe it has the potential to be the best in order to have any success at all. If you want your site to be the best, it may eventually actually become the best. I don’t want to be cliche, but “If you set your mind to it, anything is possible”.
I feel like my websites are the most important thing on the web and I spend a lot of time looking at them, reviewing the code, looking at the analytics, tracking it’s progress. Sometimes the progress is more than I expected but most of the time it’s not… you just have to provide good content and believe in it!
Heh, I am newbie as “serious” blogger so reading plenty of articles, tips, advices and such. This stuff may be so contradicting and overcomplicated that I made simple rule for sorting:
If it sounds like down-to-earth common sense – it is most probably good advice.
Your posts certainly fit.
JR: Thanks a lot mate, I subscribed to your rss feed!
Pittsburg News: You have a nice pligg based website!
Rarst: Thanks mate!
[...] Here is a great post, from Ben at SEO Horror that can help you determine if your website is ready for a review: Is your Website the Best Thing in the World? [...]
After a longer time I look by and read myself this very interesting and well written contribution again once here. Really very informatively! Greetings from Germany!
Thanks Bernhard!
Here’s an unrelated question to your recent blog post, my apologies. Since your blog is about how to not make money online, what is up with all of those “Rich Jerk” ads that have flooded the internet? I’ve heard that you get a “free” $150.00 (actual cost) website… What are your thoughts on this?
Cheers,
Jarret
Hey Jarret, I’m pretty sure it’s a scam. It has every characteristics to be. I mean, one of the first thing you read on the website is:
“I make several million dollars every year on the internet, doing almost nothing.”
Nobody makes million dollars every year on the internet doing almost nothing. You also have “satisfied customers” comment like:
“I was skeptical at first, and then once I put the Rich Jerk techniques to use and actually saw them work, I was able to make some phenomenal money very quickly $5,600.00 in less than 20 hours…”
Please! 5,600$ in less than 20 hours…! It all sounds like a scam. I will do some research and try to get some feedback from people who actually tried it and maybe post a little something.
Unless you have a dominant list, there is NO way to make 5,600 in less than 20 hours.
yer that stupid rich jerk advertisement is driving me mad, not only that but i also write content as a side job and you would not believe how many people want review articles for that site -.-
If he could make 5,000 in 20 hours why the hell make a website? why proomote it, heck with million in the bank why even use the computer, its a joke, and a bad one too.
Tyrone create as last blog post..Traffic Tips For 2008 Part 1
@jarret – there are plenty of sites there trying to boast their monetary rewards in an instance or without an effort. i say, if you are earning that much, you wont be boasting about it. You’ll settle in a low-profile manner. there are 2 purposes of advertisements,
1. to have MORE income – (business still growing)
2. to save your business – (meaning it is on its downfall)
my thoughts only.
regards,
j
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