Owning a website design company for almost 9 years has taught me a lot of things about people, business and life in general but one common thing I see day after day are people with grave misconceptions about getting a website and that website being successful.

Creating a website and putting it online then stopping there is like buying a shiny new corvette and not ever putting gas in it. It’s great if you just want a pretty car in your garage or driveway so you can look at it but like a sports car a website is a vehicle that is meant to be used to its full potential.

I will go out on a limb and say that over 80% of would be website owners think that they will put up a site and people are going to flock to it overnight and they will become wealthy. Let me stress, THIS IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Picking the right design company, the right colors, the great logo, the right layout are all very important for your website but the most important thing is your website marketing. You can have the best website in the world and if nobody ever visits your site you have wasted your money. On the flip side you can take a mediocre website, market the whiz out of it and be pretty successful.

Marketing a website takes time and money; don’t let anyone lie to you. I wish I had a magic bullet but if I did I would not be writing this article, I would be on the patio of my 10,000 sq ft beach house right now eating breakfast that my executive chef prepared for me. (By the way I’m not doing that)

You need to think long and hard about how you will market your website once it’s live, will you learn to market it or will you have someone do it for you? Do you have the time to do it your self? Do you have money in your budget to have someone take care of your marketing?

I don’t want to discourage anyone to not put up a website, I just want you to have a clear picture that your website is only the vehicle; the marketing is the fuel to run that vehicle.