It’s important to get good advice when you’re starting a business. Unfortunately with everyone and anyone able to publish their opinions online there is no guarantee that what you will find is always the best advice.
Here are some of the worst pieces of advice I’ve seen in recent years together with what I believe is the truth.
1. “You must have a certain keyword density in your text.”
No one knows the exact figure or even if there is one. If you are obsessed with keyword density look at the highest listed results in the search engines and follow their lead. It may help, but there are so many other factors there’s no guarantee.
2. “Buy lists to build your email list quickly.”
There’s no guarantee the addresses are still active and they won’t have a history with you. If they don’t remember subscribing to a sellable list or don’t even know their details are being sold they’ll probably suspect you’re spam.
3. “You need to be on every social media network.”
This advice can waste your efforts and leave you exhausted. Discover where the majority of your marketplace is and go there. (See my post from a couple of weeks ago: Don’t be Everywhere Now…)
4. “The best time/colour/size for this is definitely …”
Test. Don’t just accept that there is a best time to tweet your followers, or a perfect colour for your headline or buy button. Learn how to split test and start with the recommended settings, but react to the results you get. Your prospects are not necessarily the same as the prospects that produced the results that have been recommended to you.
5. “Buy the latest push button software to solve all your problems.”
If this really worked the richest would have already cleaned up. They would have bought multiple licenses, hired a hundred outsourced virtual assistants and be amassing a billion dollar fortune 24/7. Software can do some tasks, but it’s nowhere near good enough to run all the tasks that will have your bank account filling with money on autopilot. You have to put in the effort. Don’t believe the hype.
What terrible advice have you been given or seen? Share your examples with us in the comments below.