I define a robotic Webmaster as one who goes through the motions of managing and updating a website, without a clear understanding for what it takes to succeed online.

They haphazardly throw up content without much regard to how their target audience will interpret it. They’re more concerned with quantity of tasks than measuring the results and seeing the big picture.

Instead of developing their own voice and personality, they often mimic other successful sites. So they end up re-inventing the wheel instead of redefining themselves as a credible Webmaster of niche XYZ.

Robotic Webmasters Focus on Quantity Over Quality

One of the most common questions I receive is “How much content do I need to make money?”

As if there is some golden rule out there that says “Build 150 pages of content and you will begin seeing $3 per visitor.”

Or someone will say, “I created 45 pages but I haven’t made any money yet. How much more content do I need to write?”

First of all, you could build 400 pages of content and never see a dime. Making money online goes far beyond robotically putting up content.

You have to define an audience, understand how your content impacts them, and do your best to meet their needs.

In addition, you have to build credibility by showing you are a trusted source and that you are providing information that can’t be found anywhere else.

Finally, you have to find where your audience is and market to these people. Where you go may depend on your niche, talents, etc.

Social Networking sites may work well for one Webmaster while another may find a gold mine in writing guest articles for another site or blog.

You may be clever enough to master pay per click marketing and someone else may find success building relationships through a newsletter.

Not every Webmaster takes the same approach to marketing. You have to think outside of the box, experiment and find what’s best for you and your site.

Don’t feel you have to take the same approach as those who’ve come before you. The Net is changing fast. What worked in 2006 may not work as well today. You have to discover what works with your talents, site goals, etc.

It’s your job to stay abreast of the latest marketing strategies and discover ways to apply them to your site or blog. Remember, this is a business, so these are things you must do if you want to thrive online.

Robotic Webmasters Have Trouble Coming Up With Content

This often happens when a Webmaster is not passionate enough about their topic. They find similar articles on the Web and paraphrase them into their own words.

This may be OK for the first 5-10 articles, but this gets boring after awhile because the person is obviously not into the topic.

So they end up with another personality-less site with no voice and no unique spin because they don’t have a personal attachment to the topic.

Another reason robotic Webmasters have trouble coming with content is they don’t take the time to define a specific audience, or they try to appeal to everyone and end up appealing to no one.

When you’ve defined who your site is directed to, you shouldn’t have to wonder what to write about. Anytime someone asks me to give them advice on what to write about I know they are taking a backward approach.

You don’t write content and then hope people will find it useful. You define who you are trying to reach with your site and make sure it meets their needs based on what you’ve defined.

As you develop traffic, you’ll begin getting feedback from your readers and that will further define the questions, problems and issues you may want to address. This will help you produce even more useful content down the road.

You may discover along the way (as I did) that your content is off-target. That’s OK. That’s all part of the process, my friend. Take what you’ve learned and work to make your site better.

Robotic Webmasters are Overly Obsessed With Small Details

When people don’t understand the big picture of Internet marketing, it’s easy to get sidetracked on little things that don’t matter as much. For example…

How long do my articles need to be?

Perhaps the important question to ask here is, “What is the goal of this article and how much do I need to write to get my point across and make it useful?”

An article should be as long as it needs to be. And of course that will vary depending on the situation, goal of the article, etc.

Some articles need to be longer to get the point across. Others can be shorter. But the point is, don’t stress over size or character length. Focus on the usefulness in relation to your audience.

While there are certain steps you must follow as a Webmaster, if you find that you performing the same tasks over and over again with no results, perhaps you need to step back and look at the big picture.

1. Have you clearly defined an audience?

2. Is your audience definition narrow enough?

3. Will your content have a direct impact on your audience’s needs?

4. Does your site look as if it wants to inform/help or are you bombarding your visitors with ads?

5. What can you do to set your site apart from the competition?

6. Are you focusing more on quantity than quality?

7. Are you trying to mimic someone else’s successful idea or do you have your own path?

8. Are you interested enough in this topic to remain creative and motivated?

9. Do you challenge yourself to think outside the box in terms of marketing your site?

When you can answer these questions precisely, developing a useful site and writing content becomes much easier and less robotic.

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While there are some repetitive tasks involved with owning a website, it’s the creativity and thinking outside of the box that is going to set you apart from your competition and make you successful.

If your site is a year old with 150 pages of content and you still only have 10 visitors per day, something needs to be adjusted. Step back and answer the 9 questions above and see which ones need attention.

Robotic Webmasters have short lives because their batteries die quickly. They start out full-speed ahead completing task after task, writing article after article, submitting to directories and social networking sites as if on queue.

If you want success out here, you cannot be a robot. Robotic Webmasters have no emotional attachment to their sites and often perform tasks as if they were programmed, while not seeing the big picture.

Step outside your box. Make sure the goals of your site are clearly defined and look for creative ways to market. Remember there several ways to make it to the top, so if your methods aren’t working don’t be afraid to try something new.

Being successful online takes more than robotically publishing content, submitting to various sites and waiting for results.

You have to be proactive, creative, take risks and you can’t be afraid to fail. And last but certainly not least…

Enjoy yourself.

One of the common mistakes Webmasters make is they don’t define who they are targeting.

Now that everyone is learning you can profit online by writing about any topic and adding Google ads, people are often mislead.

It’s not just about publishing as much content as you can on one subject and waiting for the money to roll in.

Your site needs to have a focus, voice and personality. You should talk to a specific group and meet their needs.

I got an email yesterday from someone looking to do an information site on football.

He asked me if 3 pages on a certain football subject was enough for an article on his site. Right away I could tell he was missing the point.

That’s not something I can answer because I don’t know who he’s targeting or his site’s main focus (other than football). Clearly he wasn’t sure either.

Know Your Intended Audience

If you have not clearly defined who your site is for, then you run the risk of building pages and pages of content with no direction.

On the flip side, when you know exactly who your site is for, writing content becomes much easier because you can write about the things your audience has experienced, questions they may have, problems they’ve faced, etc.

For example, if you are building a self esteem help site for female girls between the ages of 13 and 19, that begins your site’s roadmap. You now have a clearly defined group and subject matter you can focus on.

Knowing who your site is for should begin giving you ideas for the kind of topics you will cover.

You should never have to ask someone what should you write about. If you are passionate and knowledgeable enough about the subject and understand how your information will appeal to a specific group… that’s half the battle and your content will begin writing itself.

Remember, don’t write for yourself. Write for your audience. Make sure the goals for your site are beyond “I want to make money.”

Don’t we all.

Your first order of business, however, is to appeal to a specific group. Focus on what will interest them, and the content generation won’t be a chore.

And the real scary thing is you may actually enjoy yourself and make a little money in the process.

How you communicate with your audience is a critical component of having a successful website.

And it’s an aspect of website development that is highly overlooked.

If your audience doesn’t feel that all-important connection with you, the chances of them buying products from you (or products you recommend) are slim to none.

Don’t underestimate the power of your written words and your writing style. It can make all the difference in how much money you make, or if you make any at all.

1. Use Active Voice

This has always been my achilles heel, but I’ve improved with practice. I have a habit of using filler words and write with long sentences.

Not only does this make your writing difficult to follow at times, but it makes your content wordier than it needs to be.

What is Active Voice?

OK, I’m going to take you back to grammar school for a sec so bear with me. Active voice simply means the subject performs the action expressed in the verb. For example…

The speaker will make his points at the debate.

In passive voice, the subject receives the action and often adds unnecessary words.

Points will be made by the speaker at the debate.

These two sentences may not sound drastically different, but when your writing includes several of these passive sentences, it makes for a difficult read. Passive voice tends to add extra words and can get confusing.

Save yourself some keystrokes and give your site a breath of simplicity. Remember to keep your writing as active as possible.

2. Write for Skimming, Not Reading

As much as you’d like to believe every visitor reads every word on your page, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Most people skim. They may read certain paragraphs in their entirety, but for the most part, people skim over your articles and only read 10 percent of your entire site (on average).

That being said, you should always break up your paragraphs into 4-5 lines at the most and make use of sub-titles to make your content easier to follow.

There’s nothing more overwhelming than an article with 15-line paragraphs that seem to go on forever. Your eyes get crossed because you’re trying to keep your place and follow the words.

That’s why books and newspapers are published with small paragraphs. The articles are much easier to read this way.

3. It’s Not About You!

This is a common mistake I see often. People open their websites talking about themselves…

Welcome to my website. This is my first site and it receives about 45 visits per day. I am working hard to make this the best site possible and it’s been fun.

My goal is to quit my job full-time so I can become self employed. I work about 25 hours a week on my site and I taught myself how to use FrontPage… yada, yada, yada….

If I may be blunt…

Who cares!

People don’t care about you until you tell them what your site is going to do for them. They did a search in Google for some kind of information (not your bio) and found your site, so they expect to get what they searched for.

So give it to them!

Your homepage should quickly and concisely tell them what your site is going to do for them. How is it different from the other 10 billion sites out there on this topic? Keep it benefit-rich.

When people arrive at a new site, their attention span is short and that Back button is never too far from the mouse pointer. So make a good first impression… and do it quickly.

Remember what you learned in point #2. People only read a small percentage of your site. And a big part of that is because people haven’t learned to write for their audience’s needs and desires.

If you want to tell your audience about you, that’s fine. Just save it for an “About Me” page. If people want to learn more about you, they’ll read it.

4. Use a Conversational Tone & Relax.

When people read my site, I want them to feel that I am talking directly to them and they’re in the same room with me.

So many sites are cold, distant and leave their visitors feeling disconnected. The writing lacks personality and the author talks AT their audience instead of TO them.

The Web can be impersonal enough in so many cases. No need to make it worse with your writing.

This is another reason I believe it’s so important to have a passion about the topic of your site. When you enjoy your topic, you are naturally more relaxed as a writer and your personality begins to flow through your words.

When you aren’t as familiar or comfortable with the subject matter, this is much harder to accomplish.

5. Download Make Your Content PREsell

I’ve learned many of my writing techniques from this book. Even though it was written a few years ago, the content is still very relevant for today’s online world.

Every Webmaster should go through this free book at least once.

6. Inform Before You Sell

If you have an information site that refers products (through affiliate programs), then it’s key you build up credibility through your useful content before you can expect to see any sales.

When you can help or teach someone through your content you develop credibility. This causes the visitor to trust you and they are more likely to buy products you recommend.

A classic mistake made by Webmasters is they launch their site with more ads than content and then wonder why they aren’t making anything.

Content drives traffic and credibility, not ads. So work on building that up first before you monetize your site.

Also, buy the products you refer on your site and write reviews. It makes people feel more comfortable if they know you actually use the products you push. There are very few products I promote that I do not use myself.

It’s also important to make your review believable. Show screenshots, results you’ve generated, etc. Saying “the product is great” does not make for a compelling or convincing review.