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Common Reasons Online Business Startups Fail

9 Replies Debra Johnson

It seems like starting a website should be easy enough – there are almost unlimited free online resources spouting off advice, it can be relatively cheap to launch a website, and, naturally, you have the best business idea for your website. So why is it that so many website startups fail?

1. Low Quality Web Design

One of the biggest mistakes that web startups make is having poor web design. Your website is the most important aspect of you company so why would you skimp on that? The overall design of your site is what initially draws people in, it’s what their first impression of you as a company is, so having a solid website design is crucial to your success.

2. Poor Content

In the same respect as low quality web design, having poor content on your site will be a huge turn off to people. To retain visitors you need to be able to provide content that wows them. You want to show anyone and everyone that visits your site the best you have to offer, so why would you fill your site with uninteresting or poorly written content?

3. Poor Marketing

Google SEO Chart

Google is one of the best places to start your online marketing – both simple SEO and paid ads are are good place to start.

You can have the best website and the best content in the world, but if no one ever sees it then it won’t really matter, will it? You can never retain a customer if you can’t even catch their eye to begin with. This is why it’s imperative to spend ample time marketing on social media, through email campaigns, and through traditional marketing routes. You have to be willing to put time and money into your marketing scheme to achieve the best possible outcome – after all, you reap what you sow.

4. No Passion

Picking a niche market just because you think it will be profitable is one of the worst reasons to start a business. You have to actually be passionate about what you’re trying to make money off of, otherwise it’s going to be a lost cause and people will be able to see right through you.

5. Not Enough Funds

When you don’t allocate enough money for a startup company, you run the risk of forcing the company to fizzle out because you lack the proper funds to keep it going – or worse, you risk driving yourself into debt.

Get rich quick schemes rarely work in life and the same holds true for web startups. The road to success can only be reached by hard work, dedication, and money. So if you’re contemplating launching a startup business, make sure that it’s something you really want to do, otherwise you’ll be doing your potential customers and yourself a disservice.

Google in 2013

11 Replies Amanda Smith

Google is of course a tech giant and a company everyone who’s touched a computer knows of. Google first introduced themselves with their simple search engine in 1998, they have very rapidly and significant progressed, by the year, into the giant they are today. From Google Maps to Google phones, tablets and OS systems, Google is now everywhere! Here’s what we can expect from Google in 2013.

Google-X Division

There is set to be a lot of development at Google in the next year and the first thing that warrants a mention is their futuristic Google-X Division. Google are working on two things that you’ve probably already heard about.

The first is Google Glasses, which are wearable computers which give you a heads up display of the word around you. In the first part of 2013, developers who have pre-ordered them will get their hands on them, and therefore be able to write their own software for them and more. The chances are that we won’t see Google Glasses on the market in 2013, but we’ll certainly come a lot closer to knowing fully what they’ll bring.

The Google-X Division is also working on self-driving cars. Google has received a lot of legislation passes that allows them to drive such cars on roads in various US States such as Nevada, and so you can expect to see a lot more developments in regards to this.

Android

Androids market share has soared in the last few years. It is the fastest growing operating system in the world and this poses some interesting questions on how it will develop and progress in 2013.

Historically developers have been building for iOS first, and thus historically the best apps available were for iDevices through iTunes. However as more and more people buy Android devices, the question is are developers going to start developing for Android first more commonly.

Hardware Division

Google only recently refreshed its line-up of Google Nexus products, which are of course Google branded tablets and smartphones that it develops with other manufacturers. There are however, questions at the moment of how much traction on the market these devices are going to get. Is the new 10-inch Google Nexus tablet going to be competitive enough to make you sell your iPad or at the very least choose it over an iPad?

Nonetheless, expect to see Google release new versions of their Nexus products this year and continue to try and compete with its many competitors in 2013.

Knowledge Graphs

A Google Knowledge Graph example

An example of a Google Knowledge Graph – Albert Einstein.

Google did two really interesting things last year with search. One is that they created the Knowledge Graph which is their effort to map out connections with all sorts of different things.

Now if you start to search for something, like for example, if you search for a famous actor, on the right of the screen you will see a box that’ll tell you about other actors that person may have worked with, films they featured in, as well as basic details such as their age and education.

For an example, see the Albert Einstein Knowledge Graph to the right. For Einstein, Google displays images of the scientist, a brief synopses of his life/works and family, as well as books relating to him, and also similar people you might want to read about – in this case for other scientists, like the physicists Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking.

Google wants to bring its Knowledge Graph to a lot more different parts of the search experience. You’ll thus you will soon start to see more and more of those type of connections when you are Googling.

Google Now

The other major development the search giant was working on in the search area was Google Now.

Google Now is a sort of predictive search. For example, when you take out your phone it might say you have to leave to make it to your appointment because there’s traffic right now, or you might want to go down an alternative road because a specific one is closed. This is only available on devices that run the latest version of Android right now, but Google are preparing to invest a lot more resources into developing this kind of new world of search where you don’t even have to type a query.

So, like in previous years, it seems there is a lot we can expect a lot from Google in 2013.

What did you Wiki search for in 2012?

6 Replies Christopher Roberts

Did you use Wikipedia in 2012? Probably a silly question, as according to Alexa, 12.80% of all web users yesterday visited the online encyclopaedia, as part of their online day. The 3 month average reach of Wikipedia.org is 12.575%, so yesterday’s figure was no anomaly.

I usually visit Wikipedia multiple times a week.

Wikipedia logoThe fact that Wikipedia is open source is good, as it enables it to use the help of millions of people around the world to build its massive online encyclopaedia. Open source does however also leave it open to vandalism, as on most articles, nobody needs to verify your changes. Many Wikipedia articles are very accurate though, and they are getting better year on year.

In 2012, what was it you Wikied? A few days ago, Wikipedia released a list of the most popular pages visited on its site, segmented by country. The statistics make interesting reading, if you get some time.

With 32,647,942 views in 2012, Facebook topped Wikipedia’s list for the most visited English page. Wiki came in second with 29,613,759 views. Deaths in 2012, One Direction, The Avengers (2012 film), Fifty Shades of Grey and the 2012 phenomenon all had over 20 million views. The Dark Knight Rises, Google and The Hunger Games (all with 18+ million views) made up the rest of the English top 10 list.

For all of the top 10, I think you can understand why they were such popular searches. As Facebook becomes evermore a global brand, more and more people want to know what it is, and those using it, want to know more about it. A logical big winner.

With Wikipedia the 6th most visited site on the net, searching for what Wiki means, is probably not unexpected. One Direction, the 2012 phenomenon, The Hunger Games, Fifty Shades of Grey, The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers were all popular 2012 trends online and off, hence their Wikipedia fame. Like Facebook, with growing web usage, and Google’s top spot on the web, that page you would naturally expect top have a big viewing.

The list isn’t limited to 10 pages though, Wikipedia have released the top 100 pages for many of the languages the site is published in.

Stephen Hawking - Photo from WikipediaThe 100th most visited English page is Stephen Hawking, the page about the British scientist, which had just over 7 million views in 2012.

Theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author, lecturer, defier of motor neurone disease and now 100th most visited English Wikipedia page 2012, what a career the 70 year old (71 tomorrow) has had!

With an extra 53,106 views, Albert Einstein just beat Hawking, claiming 98th place. That said, neither of the scientists had anything on Psy, who saw the page for Gangnam Style hit the 21st spot, with over 13 million views!

Many of the top 100 spots were claimed by websites (e.g. Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Google etc.), countries (United States, United Kingdom, India, Australia etc.) and trends (Katy Perry, 2012 Summer Olympics, Skyfall, Downton Abbey etc.).


The stats for other languages are also interesting to look at. Facebook appeared in most of the lists, topping the Spanish list, claiming 10th place in the German list, 3rd in the French and Turkish, 4th in the Portuguese etc. Wiki was also very popular, appearing in the top 10 list for eight languages, as was Google, appearing in three languages.

What did you Wiki search for in 2012? Can you even remember? I know I searched far too many pages to recall them all, but looking down the English list, I recall visiting most of the top 100.

Do the amazing figures behind this list (Facebook getting 30+ million on its English page alone) worry you sightly? Do we trust Wikipedia, which is potentially a very unreliable site too much?