Instant Online Success Is Rare

[Ghost]

Many new webmasters start a forum, blog, or another website hoping to achieve instant fame, success, and fortune. Whether they’re attempting to earn money or just bring in new community members or subscribers, some web administrators make the mistake of thinking they will be successful quickly. That is not the case, at least not for most websites. Instant online success isn’t a total myth because hundreds, if not thousands, of websites have gone viral within days of opening. However, this should not be expected by everyone. Having your site go viral on Reddit or Facebook, or achieving other forms of instant success online is extremely rare. Keep reading to learn how you can adjust your expectations, follow reasonable guidelines for long-term success, and ultimately be a better webmaster.



The Long Game



Part of being a long-term thinker means focusing on something we call “the long game”. In other words, it means striving to achieve goals over a set period of time without...

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[Cam!]

Another fantastic article @Ghost!

 

[Lämmchen]

This really resonates with me and one way of looking at success could be whether you enjoy doing what you do and having the site you have. I'm not saying don't strive for better! I started a new forum recently and mainly it's for ME because it's about crafts and it's what I love to do so even if it doesn't take off I'll still have a place that I can fill up with projects I've done, projects I want to do and whatever.

My point is that I find the OP to be encouraging

 

[ProEleven]

Great article..

 

[Cumulus]

Great article - would love to see more of these around!

 

[TopSilver]

I find this to be a very powerful and encouraging article. I want to simply say well done. I feel the same way. My sites traffic has gotten a boost after not giving up and making sure we had content (over 5.6K posts now). The job still isn't done and I still need to get us to our next goal of 2K threads and 15K posts but I don't think it will be as hard and should be much easier. I appreciate you taking the time to share your views. I agree with them completely. Quitting one of my other sites in the past was actually the right decision as I also agree with the last part of the article. I had worked on it for 3 years straight and it was online that whole time but only had 1.2K posts by the end and realized it was bar none impossible for me to get it going because the genre was Xbox modding and I just couldn't manage to get people interested. I inevitably realized I could do so much better if I focused my energy on discussions themselves and not simple threads with download links. I recently made 2 styles for my site, a light and dark one and I have never been more satisfied with a theme in my entire life.

We have a long ways to go and still need to get more people but what matters is at the very least we've got off the ground and onto our feet with a fairly decent start. Great job ~TopSilver

 

[johnthan]

Yes, very true.

I personally experienced quitting too early is very often we do. Even I did the same with my money-making forum, where I inspired by some of the top forums and quit when seeing no success and scared of spam posts.

But now I see, I could wait for a few months. As a forum where I am registered is doing the same job and I have seen how he started and now his site appears on the first page on google.

 

[gamestoenjoy]

I totally agree - you should quit too early. It takes time till your website will get traffic and appear high on Google.