The most common mistakes people make when starting a website
Starting a website and not taking it seriously
This is probably the #1 reason why most web pages fail. You NEED to keep updating your website with content if you want it to be successful. Nobody wants to visit a blog with only two posts.
Update content regularly
If you're starting a blog, it's extremely important that you update your content on a regular basis. If you provide a post structure for your readers, the're more likely to return. If you're going on vacation or will be breaking your regular posting schedule let your readers know. Just make a small post letting your readers know when you'll be returning.
The adsense black hole
Whenever a new website owner gets accepted into adsense they tend to go a bit crazy with placing ads and obsess over optimising their CTR (click through rate). The best advice I can offer for this is to avoid applying for the adsense program until you build up your traffic. A good place to start is ~400 visitors per day.
SEO
While SEO is important, it isn't the most important thing. Do not obsess about SEO if you don't have any content. Your webpage may be lubed and ready for Google to crawl, but if there isn't any content to index you're not going anywhere.
Focus on trafic, not pagerank or backlinks
This is extremely important to remember. Never ever rate the success of your website by your pagerank or how many backlinks you have. Those are meaningless if your unique visitor count doesn't increase. The unique visitors are the best indication of how much your website is growing.
Content is key!
So many people who start new websites just re-post random bits they find on the internet thinking that it's good enough. Let me tell you now, it's not. If your content isn't original, or at least has your own unique take on the subject, nobody's want to read your content.
I'll be adding things as I think of them.
If you want to add your own tips of discuss the tips I listed, feel free to do so in the replies.
