Get Over It!

Your website is never going to be perfect. Don't let the pursuit of perfection get in the way of you making money.

I constantly get phone calls from potential customers that tell me there are spelling and grammar mistakes on my website and that they are not sure they want to use us because of that. I just chuckle and tell them "OK", "WHATEVER".

The fact is, we have 2 people that do 95% of the work from unix system administration, website programing, graphics, legal, book keeping and customer support. We build everything, we write everything and we keep a full datacenter running 24-7 to run the network. We have at times more than 500 websites totaling tens of millions of pages to support our sales and marketing efforts and thousands of pages alone just on pageBuzz.com. Most of the pages are built dynamically meaning we use only a plain text editor with no spell checking to create almost every page. Some pages take 10 or 20 hours to build and to get every detail perfect will add even more time that we just don't have.

Just like almost all of the small businesses out there, it is just not possible to get every "i" dotted and every "t" crossed with the limited time that we have to run the entire business.

I am told, that it makes us look unprofessional. And in response I say, if unprofessional is a multi million dollar network with nearly 100% uptime, 2000+ website construction programs and tools that rival even our biggest competitor, then so be it, we are unprofessional.

Those people just don't understand running a business and that there is more to a software system and hosting network than some words typed on a page.

At some point you have to sacrifice some spelling mistakes in the interest of getting pages and programs built.

Even companies like Microsoft have thousands of updates each year on a product that is marketed as perfect to get you to buy it in the first place. Even with their resources, it is never perfect and there are always mistakes.

So just get over it!

If you are sitting there without a website, without any income as a result of the Internet because it has to be perfect before you open, then you will be left in the dust wile others have made millions because they did it while you watched.

Anyone that runs a business has said, "it's good enough". At some point there is a value to everything and nothing is going to be show quality perfect every time. But that does not mean you can't use it or it has no value.

While we all try to reach perfection it is not always possible to do that and still make money. For us to give up help pages, videos, programs or customer support to correct grammar is just not acceptable or cost effective.

I am not trying to defend our mistakes, because I wish we did not have any, but rather I am trying to explain that your self built website is not going to be perfect and does not have to be to work well and make you money.

I see customers spend weeks trying to get their design just right. I know those customers will be gone next month, because they do not understand the importance of just being in the game.

While you are obsessing over my spelling mistakes, I just made more money than you did all last month with my mispelled pages.

So what is more important, making money or being perfect?

If I am shopping for a bird house, I am looking for the quality of the product, not how well the person spells on their website. At "Bob's Bird Houses" I don't expect Bob to build ebay.com or amazon.com, and I won't hold that against him. If the product looks good I will buy it. That means Bob's website works in spite of not being perfect.

I have to say that the biggest reason for failure of executing a successful website is the owner just can't "GET OVER IT". They often spend hours positioning a photo in a page to get it just right or rewriting text on a page over and over and over and over. Even when they do reach perfection in their eyes, others do not see it as perfect at all.

No matter how much I preach that you need content, website owners just don't get it. They have a paragraph or two and a message to buy from them! People want information about your business, how long have you been in business, what you have done and so on. The Internet is about information and not perfection. If you don't provide it, a website that will is just one click away.

If you need your website to be perfect, you will never succeed. If you can live with it, market it and sell, then you stand a good chance of success.

I would never condone spelling mistakes and urge you to do better than we have done on some of our pages. But it is far better to have 10 million pages with some mistakes than 5 pages that are perfect. There should be a compromise in there somewhere. A point where the income potential and the level of perfection meet in the middle.

You know you are not a professional webmaster, so don't expect to build a design that is at that level. Keep in mind instead, you know your business and you can write about your business without being Mark Twain or William Shakespeare. You can draw a picture even if you are not Vincent Van Gogh. You can sing a song even if you are not Whitney Huston.

The fact is, whatever you do, someone else will do it better, but that does not mean you have to avoid the game.

You have to be in it to win it and sometimes you have to accept less than perfect to make money.

If you want to make money, get a simple design up, running and get you business working then worry about upgrading the design later.

I see many businesses spend a fortune on their storefront, buying the right decor, spending money on paint and carpet and lighting and when they open they are broke and usually fail months after. While the guy that opened with nothing and built on it as he can afford it often becomes a millionaire.

Start simple, make money and grow. Don't try to compete with the top dogs from day one.

I am sure there are a load of people that disagree with me, so in closing to them I say. I have made millions of dollars online, I have a Mercedes in my driveway and a Rolls Royce in the garage, how much have you made online while seeking perfection?

The fact is, my money and success speaks for itself. You can take it or leave it, but be careful what advice you take and don't be a bone head that can't open until the website is perfect.