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It's amazing how many business owners make each of the mistakes listed below. Making these mistakes could cost a company thousands of dollars initially, and take away from tens of thousands of potential dollars they should be earning monthly from their website.

1. Get their website done too early.
2. Pay way too much or too little for their website.
3. Focus on making it too pretty and flashy.
4. Do not get any traffic to their website.
5. Never make any money off their website.

The biggest mistake most businesses owners make is getting their website done too early. A smart business owner will first research their target audience in their specific Internet market, and only then build their website around their research.

A business owner needs to get training on how to find a target web audience in a specific niche market. They need to determine which keywords their website needs to be designed around, in order to bring in customers from search engines and other sources. A huge mistake made by business owners is they get their website formed around very broad keywords which have too much competition.

Rushing web design without proper planning could also very well hurt your wallet. Most web development companies quote very high prices on web and graphic design, and most business owners make the mistake of going with those companies. They charge for flashy features that will never bring in traffic and will never make the website any money.

You may also get a very low quote from an offshore company, but beware - there are many problems with offshore designers: their English isn*t great, you can*t reach them on the phone, the time-zone difference becomes a huge problem * while you*re awake they are sleeping, payment is a problem because you have to wire them money, trust and legal issues can be a huge mess, their marketing knowledge is very limited to their country because they have no knowledge of the marketing techniques and economics of your country.

The key, is to find a web design company that doesn*t spend too much or any money on advertising. This way, they can keep their costs down because they don*t have one of the biggest expenses in the industry. A web design company can be extremely successful just through word of mouth. Now they may be hard to find because they don*t actually advertise, but if you ask your friends and co-workers they may have someone great they can refer.

Once you*ve done your keyword and market research, and found the right design company, you have to know what to ask for. One of the biggest mistakes a business owner makes is they ask and pay for a website that is all looks and no sales, no marketing. They spend thousands of dollars on a 'pretty' website full of flashy effects which brings in $0 in revenue. You have to ask yourself, what good is a flashy website when no one comes to it?

Sure major companies spend a lot of money on making their website extravagant, flashy, and interactive, but they already have traffic because of their name, that's called branding. The last thing a smart business owner would do is copy the idea of having an expensive flashy website like those of Fortune 500 companies. A smart business owner understands that for a website to sell it's main focus needs to be copywriting and marketing, and will put design second. You will rarely find a design company that tells you to put content, copywriting, and marketing AHEAD of the look, layout, and design. You must understand that for a company to be successful on the Internet, that company must direct their focus on marketing their website and worry about how it looks last.

By avoiding the 5 mistakes discussed above, a business owner may actually be very successful on the web. If one does not follow all the rules it could not only hurt their wallet, but their potential to succeed. If you want to be successful in the online game, you have to play your cards right. With proper research, planning, and copywriting, a business owner will be able to dominate their niche market and grow their online business which has unlimited potential.