What I wish I knew before I started my website!!!

When you get that initial inspiration that you want to open a business online by creating a website, there is a magical excitement that can be intoxicating. You can’t stop thinking of all of the money that you’ll make and how you will have the freedom to set your own schedules and all of the perks that accompany being the boss. It’s truly an electrifying feeling that you should hold on to throughout the life of your business to keep yourself motivated to push through challenging times.

Sometimes our focus can be so fixated on the joys of business ownership, that we can easily overlook the realities that come with it and make huge avoidable mistakes. Running a business is hard work that requires focus and commitment and to be successful, you have to limit your mistakes so that you don’t shoot your business in the foot. Mistakes will be made because that’s the nature of business. Some mistakes even need to be made in order to provide you with an insight that can only come from experience. Many mistakes however can be avoided simply by putting good habits and practices in place from day one.

To help you avoid some of the more common missteps and to learn some insightful good habits and practices, we at BlackWebSuccess asked over 20 successful black website owners a simple question: What do you wish you knew before you started your blog/website? Boy, did they sure provide us with some powerful advice. If you are an aspiring web entrepreneur, then you want to pay close attention because these gems of wisdom can help you achieve great success of your own.

Cassandre Beccai with CassandreBeccai.com

I feel lucky that I had a mentor to help me from the start. I think that as much as possible, those who want to start a blogging business should be persistent about looking for mentors- whether in person or distant mentors who may not even know that you receive mentorship from them. Looking around to see what others with more success than you do will always give you more insight then just starting based on what you think will work.

Elizabeth Hall with Smart Office Help

I wish I would have started capturing email address and building my list from the very beginning. Having your list set up is so important.

Rob Wilson with RobWilson.TV

Before I started my website, I wish I had been clear that blogging, in and of itself, is not a business for most people. You have to have massive traffic to attract sponsors, advertising etc.  Most entrepreneurs should have a plan on how to use the blog to generate business for their products and services.

Samori Camara with KamaliAcademy

I wish I would have known the opposite of the old saying, “give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day…”  The opposite of that idea is important for business. Here is the new saying, “If you can provide the fish, you have a business. Unfortunately, most folks don’t want to learn how to fish and are willing to pay others for their fishing skills.”

Chris De La Rosa with CarribeanPot

The importance and ‘power’ of social media and branding said social media. If you’re now starting off I would recommend branding your name/business across all your social media platforms, so people can recognize you easily. When I started off Twitter was just fun for me and was never meant to be a tool to drive interest and traffic to my website, so I wasn’t strategic when I used “Obzokee” as my handle. It should have been like my FB, Instagram and Pinterest handle – CaribbeanPot.  The other tip in regards to Social Media is to keep your audience engaged through regular updates and post with some level of substance.

Be prepared for lots of work and since people think they are anonymous online, it gives them the feeling that they can say whatever they want, so be prepared for hate and other ridiculous comments.

LaShanda Henry with SistaSense

When I started my blog, I wish that I truly understood the importance of list building. Eventually I figured it out, but at first I didn’t have a sign up form or opt in offer on my space, which cost me months of building a community. I often here entrepreneurial bloggers talk about emails and lists as things they will get to eventually, but often times put on the back burner. The truth is, when you have a community of thousands of people engaged with you, you then have a strong customer base that are interested in your offers and sharing your brand with their circle. I work very hard to maintain and build my list, but I definitely wish it was something I better understood when I started my first website 15 years ago. Click here to review some of my articles on list building.

Dymeata Burum with DymeataB.com

What I wish I knew before I started my website was that I don’t need money to “start”. I allowed the lack of money to deter me from starting my website.

Nicole Nared with BSugarMama

I wish I knew that having a blog was going to take a lot of work and could work out to be a potential career opportunity. When I started blogging I didn’t know you could make money from it. I simply did it to share my passion for food and personal thoughts about love and relationships. I also wish I would’ve known how powerful and helpful social media was going to grow to be. I probably would’ve spent more time on it in the beginning.

Serena Appiah with ThriftDiving

I’ve been blogging for 10 years, but for the first seven years, I had no idea that people made money with blogs. I wish I had known that when I started. For years I fantasized about leaving my “day job” and being able to do something creative, but I didn’t know what, all the while blogging was sitting right under my nose. If I had known, I could have saved myself years of agonizing over what I “wanted to be” when I grew up. Thank God I realized sooner rather than later!

Angela Freeman with AuthorAngelaFreeman

I wish I had known to expect success. When I first started blogging, I didn’t expect anyone to read it. When I released my first book, I didn’t think anyone would buy it. When success came, I was unprepared. This caused me to miss out on a lot of opportunities. Had I visualized success, I would’ve been more ready when it came.

Jeremiah Camara with JeremiahCamara.com

More information about how to reach a wider audience!

Ileane Smith with BasicBlogTips

When I started blogging back in 2009 I wish I knew more about the power of social media. At the time I thought that Twitter was odd and probably a big waste of time. These days, Twitter is one of my favorite social networks and it is the one that sends my site the most traffic. Also Twitter makes it easy to sign up for other services like Blab.im and tools like Buffer.  You can follow my tweets@ileane

Daniel Freeman with RiseandGrind

I actually glad I didn’t know anything because I didn’t have a model to follow. The R&G is a full uncut expression of my ideas, angles and personality. It’s one of a kind because no one can be me!

Kesha Brown with Uncommon Chick

Wow, there are lots of things I wish I knew! There are some things that one must learn by trial and error and by taking action while others can be learned from others to cut down on headaches. For instance, I wish someone would have called me out on my procrastination and perfectionistic ways. It took me almost nine months to start my blog because I wanted it to be “perfect” out of the gate. Ha! Little did I know that I’d be tweaking and changing and updating so much that it wouldn’t even look like the original afterwards. So my advice to those who are not yet recovering perfectionists, JUST START! Doing something now is better than doing nothing at all! Bonus: Oh and for those who are waiting until you know exactly who your target audience is, don’t. Your audience will become clearer the more you go, share, and create.

LaNee Javet with Culsire

I wish I knew that it was going to be more than a time commitment. When you start operating your own business you’re expecting it to take time. What you’re not expecting is the financial commitment, the emotional commitment, the spiritual commitment, and commitment to sacrifice. You have to be SOLD ON your venture to stay committed to it. Time is the one thing you can give to it that almost seems free and easy. When you run out of money, staying committed becomes harder. When things don’t go your way, they get bad, and you’re feeling down, your emotions can betray you. You have to be committed, in your soul and spirit, to the fact that you are living in your purpose, doing the work that you were born to do. Finally, you have to be committed to sacrificing. You’re going to give up a lot. You’re not going to make it to all the kids’ games, events with your friends, traveling, or things that folks with regular 9 – 5 jobs get to attend. This life takes a commitment. It looks fun from the outside, but on the inside it’s rough!

Michael Chilbuzor with ContentMarketingUp

I wish I learned a particular marketing skill (e.g., writing, market research, copywriting, search engine optimization, outsourcing, content promotion, product creation and launch). And because when I started out online, I didn’t have any of these important skills. I struggled. I had opportunities to expand my business, but I couldn’t because I didn’t know what else to do, or how to get it. If I were to start from scratch, I’ll first take courses on writing for the web, and launching online courses.

Erika Nicole Kendall with BlackGirlsGuideToWeightLoss

I wish I knew I didn’t have to do it for free at first, and I wish I knew I didn’t need to rely on ads to make my blog a profitable full time business!

Obadele Kambon with Abibitumi Kasa

How to design a website with the end-user in mind!

Melinda Emerson with SucceedAsYourOwnBoss

I had a plan for my blog from the beginning. I always treated it like a business. The more you publish the more traffic you get. Make sure your content is always focused on your target customer. It’s always about them.

John Lewis with BadAssVegan

To be honest I think that experience is the best teacher.  I would say that I wish I would have had more of an open mind when starting my blog. Sometimes we can be so jaded by our goals that we forget to realize that others actually have great advice.

Atuya Obare Cornwell with Power In One Clothing

The amount of time that must be put in to effectively keep your website relevant, fresh, and enticing to your target audience!

Norm Bond with BlackEconomicDevelopment

Where all the content was that would go viral within my target audience! To do this you’ve got to be up on the trends and really engaged with your audience and topic. It’s still difficult because sometime what we think is hot is not validated by audience engagement and shares.

Taylor Jones with TheSugarDaddyFormula

When I first started I wish I knew more about copywriting and how to use it effectively within my business. In my opinion copywriting is the most underrated skill you need to master, but nobody tells you that. Most people focus on driving traffic, or creating a product… but what good are these skills if you can’t convert your prospects into buyers. The power of your words will determine your success. That’s why I believe copywriting is the most important skill you can learn to immediately start making more money in your business.

Ray Cornelius with RayCornelius.com

I wish I would have known the amount of DISCIPLINE it would take to stay on top of stories/news. Because we live in a digital world, news—good or bad—travels fast. I learned that anyone can “blog” simply by taking a photo or a selfie and posting it on his or her social media page along with a caption. In other words, you never really get to break news because selfies or personal pics will always be posted before your nice, professional, glossy story.

Secondly, news (celebrity news in particular) is 24/7 so you can never really take a break. This includes holidays too.

I didn’t know the amount of work required. As your brand grows, so will the demand and you realize that you can’t do this alone. A lot of successful websites have teams of writers, photographers, editors and such and rightfully so!!!

I highly recommend reading “Angel’s Laws of Blogging” before starting. She offers valuable information regarding this business and it has helped me out in more ways than one. I distinctly remember her saying three things you need to really be successful at this—CONSISTENCY, MOTIVATION AND ORGANIZATION. I would also add PATIENCE to this as well. It takes time to develop your groove, your niche, your voice. You also learn through trial and error because most people are not willing to sit down and show you how to do this. Remember, you are essentially their competition.

Abiola Abrams with AbiolaAbrams.com

I wish I would’ve known to build on my own platform and not rely on other people [like Facebook, and Instagram]… because you are really at the whim of someone else if all of your eggs are in their basket…because when other people change their algorithms, you are still solid with your blog. Number 2, along those same lines, you want to build an email list, you want to make sure to do that, oh my god, I wish I would have been doing that since day one… and not just by having something in your sidebar that says “here sign up for my site,” you need to give to get…so you give what’s called an ethical bribe…set up an opt in, give away an ebook, an audio, a video, something that is relevant to your tribe and your audience so that you can start to build your email list so that you can then be able to create a viable business aimed at your audience that is not solely relying on social media. Number 3, know who you’re talking to [and] be very defined in your own voice in who your tribe is…have your demographic very solid so that you can speak to them in a powerful way. The last thing that I wish I would have known at the beginning is just to be myself and trying to fit in with other people.

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