"I've Just Designed My First Website... Now What?"  Now that you've designed your first website, you may be asking some of the same questions I did.  My first website was an online marketing site to help business owners promote their website. The site was complete, designed in a neat, easy-to-navigate fashion, and was specifically targeted to online business owners, but it lacked one thing -- the right start-up promotion.  I tried everything I could think of to promote the website, but it just didn't seem to soar. Months went by, and I still saw very little results. As a matter of fact, I got discouraged with the online marketing site, and designed this website http://owenslink.tripod.com (Yes, the one you're visiting right now.)  By this time I had learned a little more about the internet, and what will and will not work online. I found that a website will only work if you have the right product, target the right visitors, and have an effective presentation. These three factors working together result in a successful website (with a little hard work on your part of course.)  muyis_co@yahoo.co.uk. Why Do My Trials and Errors Benefit You?  You have the opportunity to benefit from the many, many mistakes I made while learning how to build an effective website, get targeted visitors, and find the right product. As a result of trial and error, my second website (this one) has taken off like a rocket and is still soaring with increased visitors each week (some weeks in the thousands) - absolutely the opposite of my first website.  Because you are just starting out with your first website, I can help you to avoid many of the pitfalls that hindered me the first six months of my internet experience.  Since I've already been through the trial and error of wasting money on advertising that didn't work, offering the wrong kind of product to the wrong market, and attracting visitors that in no way would ever become paying customers, you don't have to. Instead of experiencing lots of heartaches only to be disappointed, you can start out on the right track... and begin seeing results right away!  Here Are Just a Few Disappointing Website Disasters That Happened to Me That You Can Avoid 1. I really asserted myself and was able to get an article published in tripod! Newsletter and brought almost 400 people to my website in one day.  Result: Made 17 cents!  Why? The article brought the people, but I didn't have the right product to offer, nor a compelling presentation.  2. Discovered a way to get my site listed in the search engines.  Result: My site got listed; traffic increased some, but still not enough visitors to bring sales.  Why? I only offered products through affiliate links at the time, and found that you have to have a "ton" of visitors to make an affiliate-only site work. I didn't have my own product to offer at the time, so I sent my visitors to other websites hoping they would buy something there, giving me a huge commission. But, "hope" doesn't pay the bills!  In order to use affiliates as your main source of sales, you must consider these factors:  a) You have to first gain the trust of your visitors so they will go to your affiliate site with a ready-to-buy attitude.  b) In order to make sales, you have to instruct your visitors to click through to the affiliate site (and give them a reason to click).  c) Once your visitor gets to the affiliate site, that company must offer an effective sales presentation.  ...And there are hundreds of other factors to consider! Bottom line ... It's best to offer your own product!  3. Published an online newsletter about online marketing to target internet business owners.  Result: Only had approximately 100 subscribers after six months!  Why? The ezine was targeting an already saturated market, and I failed to promote the ezine using the right principles. My current web design ezine, "Web Design Weekly", had 100 subscribers after just the first month - WOW!  4. Spent hours and hours submitting my website to those "free" sites, such as free classifieds, free-for-all links, free directory listings, etc. I found a place that offered "1,000 Free Places to List Your Website", and I remember thinking, "Finally, I'm going to get traffic, and sales. :-)"  Result: Nothing to report. No substantial amount of increased traffic, no sales.  Why? I believe the reason may be that so many other people are using the "free" sites too, and it saturates the market with all kinds of different websites, and it's almost impossible to reach your targeted visitors using this method.  I could go on and on with the mistakes I made with my first website, but I think you probably get the picture by now. To sum it up, I eventually realized that, after six months of frustration, something just wasn't quite right, either with my promotions or the website itself.  What was keeping me from success? I was concentrating on worthless promotions, and my website had all the wrong ingredients for what I wanted to accomplish. So, you can see how owning a business website can become discouraging fast. That's why I developed a promotion-training package that will help you to avoid these pitfalls on the internet because I truly desire for you to succeed online.  So, how do you, as a beginner, beat the frustration of online business?