A Watch-Website Never Boils
A watch-website never boils (based on the analogy that a watch-pot never boils). What does this mean? From our perspective, it means two things: For one, you need to work on your website instead of look at it all the time, or focus on the tiniest of details; Secondly, you need to occasionally separate yourself from your website in order to advance towards your online objectives.
Gone are the days of registering a great domain name (which previously represented a single-word/keyword .com), and watching whatever website attached to it thrive as a result of its perceived value. Today, it's all about content, marketing, branding, and service.
Content is what's displayed on the front-side of your site, along with in password-protected/membership areas of your site. It's the meat and bones of your online business; It's your best product and the first one that visitors usually see or hear about. Content truly is king, and it always will be. Through innovative content, your site begins to market itself.
Marketing is traffic-generation; Not simply spreading the word about your site across various channels (like the various social media platforms available, for instance). It's getting targeted visitors to come to you. You can, of course, use social media to accomplish this, but it's not enough to post a few links around the Net. You have to master the unseeable art of inbound marketing, which changes from year to year. Content is a big part of this, and good branding reinforces it.
Branding is the individual or company behind a website; It's both the face and the mission. What does your site represent? This should be reflected through your branding efforts. If you're an entrepreneur marketing to other entrepreneurs, does your online image convey this? Is your audience aware of what you're all about? You get the point, which brings us to our next one regarding service.
Service is the single most important element of a website, or specifically, building a sustainable online presence. It's the follow-up between the time your customer and/or site visitor buys and... well... remains a paying customer. The end-user wants results, yes, but especially wants to be treated with respect. Good customer service can be implemented at any level; You can be a blogger or representing a Fortune 500 company, it doesn't matter. The value in your products and services must exceed the cost, but it's even more important to deliver value in your interactions with clients. People want to know that they're being taken care of, it's as simple as that. And because word of mouth is as powerful as it ever was (even online), happy customers translates to more happy customers.
Keep in mind that this goes for affiliate/network marketers as much as for merchants selling their own goods and services; You may not be a merchant at this present time but you're still the reason why someone will buy, and very often, the reason they'll buy again in the future. All you really need to do is be share-worthy.