» Autor: Irfan Khairi

A lot of companies started their online presence as soon as the Internet revolution started. Some made huge profits, many others failed. Some rose to great heights like Amazon.com and Dell.com, which made their founders billionaires. On the other side of the story, Boo.com and Go.com did not share the same fate. Millions of dollars were lost.

Here are some of the reasons of dot com failures which also applies to small Internet businesses.

1. Insufficient planning

You should not run before you can walk. That holds true to brick and mortar businesses as well as an Internet business. A proper plan should be made beforehand.

Never rush into things when starting an Internet business – take it one step at a time. You should know that there is always time and space to expand your business in the future.

You should also create appropriate plans and set goals for your online business. For example, a weekly plan should be a good idea. What do you plan to do for your business within a week? Maybe add more information on your product or add more useful articles for your visitors.

Planning is important to ensure that everything runs smoothly and systematically. By working on your site bit by bit, you will have a great site in the near future.

For example, if you’re building a website containing sewing and knitting tips, your plan could be to spend two hours a day to write a one page article containing a useful tip. If you follow through the plan, in three months, your website will have 100 pages of useful information! This site will be a great resource for those who like to knit!

2. Trying to do everything yourself

Not many people can setup an online business by themselves. At times, you may need to delegate jobs with other business partners or outsource certain jobs to professionals.

By doing this, you will be able to reduce your workload and ensure your online business runs smoothly. While you may be able to prepare the contents for your website, you might, however, need to hire professional help to design your website for the artistic flair.

Delegating jobs is important to help in your weak areas.

3. Passive website

A website that is not well taken care of or not promoted properly will be not good. Promoting your business, is the most important aspect to make your online business a success. You have to keep in mind that there are millions of websites on the Internet. Without the proper promotion plan, how on earth will Internet users find your site?

Time and energy (not necessarily money) have to be spent in promoting your site. Think of your site like a brick and mortar business. It is obvious that you will go all out to promote your business to get customers. Unfortunately, too many people think that once their website is up on the Internet, all the work is done.

Building your website is the first step, but it is not the last. Promoting your website is a continuous job and is the number one PRIORITY for your Internet business.

In short, building your business website is just 10% of the job. 90% of the job lies in promoting your business.

4. Ignoring the law and Internet ethics

There are still grey areas where the law is concerned on the Internet. However, ignoring web ethics will ruin your business.

An activity such as sending unsolicited e-mails to promote your business is called spamming. Spamming is very dangerous for your business – other than annoying web users, you may also be black-listed by your web hosting company and merchant account provider.

5. Selling the wrong product or service

You must choose the product or service carefully before making an online presence. The truth is not all products or services can be sold successfully over the Internet. For example, even though items that have a long life span (such as books or clothes) can be sold successfully online, you may face problems when selling fresh items such shipping fresh fish from Terengganu to Switzerland!

Also, don’t forget that the best way to find a product or service to sell on the Internet is by searching for a gap in the market by tracking the demand closely. Selling an item that is not demanded is a sure recipe for failure!

Irfan Khairi is a Malaysian Internet business coach who specializes in Small & Home based Internet business. He is the best selling author of "Perniagaan Internet: Rahsia Jutawan-Jutawan Internet Terbongkar" (Secrets of Internet Millionaires Revealed). For more information, visit http://www.rahsiainternet.com and http://www.irfankhairi.com