Spent too much but achieved nothing

[Jason1]

I spent around 250$ for hosting, domains and themes but i haven't achieved big or a good mark. Do you think i am stupid that i learnt nothing. But keep worrying that i spent 250$ for webmaster stuffs?

 

[Rihtar]

You learned a valuable lesson; Don't spend massive amounts on money on projects you don't plan to stick with or are unsure if they'll be successful/bring income.

 

[xpl0iter]

You learned a lot, but a hard lesson may be. Anyway you should try to spend considerably less.
I mean when I started out in online stuffs, I had only one rule. Use the money I made from online for online expenses! That way the expenses will never be higher than what you earn.

Of course as you get more experience you can spend a lot at once and then earn much more. But until you get that kind of experience, I say don't spend much!

 

[JLogan]

Just because you invest a lot of money it doesn't mean you are going to see returns. Most successful entrepreneurs go into thousands of dollars worth of debt before they get their first "big win". Even the most successful businesses can fail and send a person back into debt. Still, you should try to keep your costs at a minimum.

Also, I don't at all think you're stupid ... you invested into something that you thought was worth it ... How does that make you stupid?

or are unsure if they'll be successful/bring income.

I would ignore this piece of advice. If you are unwilling to take risks, then you will see everything pass you by. Reach out and grab whatever opportunity you think is worth it. Not everything in life is going to be clear-cut safe option. Part of working online is taking risks and seeing what happens. Reach for the fuckin sky man.

Note: I'm not saying that you should take every risk/risk everything, but taking small risks can be a very good thing.

 

[Pierre E. (Lancer)]

You still have to learn! If you invest $250, it means you have a long term project! Revenue also will be long time revenue! You'll learn the patience online success require; by example, it takes 3 months to a new site to get enough authority to rank well on searches engines!

The best thing to do is to create strategies that work to change the situation!

 

[Matthew]

You should look at websites as you would a restoration project. Chances are your going to go into this and not get back nearly what you put into it. I also feel websites should at first be considered a hobbyist thing and revenue should be an eventual goal, not the number 1 priority. When all your hoping for is money, fate plays against your success rates a lot of the times.

 

[wasi90lk]

$250 is a huge amount of money. Maybe you did not get success because you did not know what you were doing.

 

[lludawg]

At least you gained experience! Do not worry if one project fails. There are always others you can work on which may work out better in the future. Good luck and keep up with it. Patience is key.

 

[iPhonefreak]

I has hardly spent anything on my forums. I wonder if that is good or bad. Because perhaps it's money that brings people to the forums? But, it's not like my forum does not have a bunch of unique features! It does.

 

[Alexis]

I don't like spending so much money at once. I like system where you can upgrade when your site takes level! If you keep following your goal, i think you can get your investment back. You did not invest in advertising where money is lost if you don't get immediate results. You spent in one year hosting and a theme that you may use for as long as you want, it is not recurring expenses, so, you can get it back!

 

[wasi90lk]

I don't like spending so much money at once. I like system where you can upgrade when your site takes level! If you keep following your goal, i think you can get your investment back. You did not invest in advertising where money is lost if you don't get immediate results. You spent in one year hosting and a theme that you may use for as long as you want, it is not recurring expenses, so, you can get it back!

I completely agree with you. One does not really have to spend a lot of money, unless a person knows what he/she is doing.

 

[JohnSword]

You learn more from your mistakes than your successes. It's important to take some time to work out what went wrong.

So yes, stop worrying about that $250.

 

[milksheikh]

You learned a valuable lesson; Don't spend massive amounts on money on projects you don't plan to stick with or are unsure if they'll be successful/bring income.

I agree with Rihtar on this one, you basically learned a great lesson to not spend a lot of money something that you won't stick with.

 

[Alexis]

You learn more from your mistakes than your successes. It's important to take some time to work out what went wrong.

So yes, stop worrying about that $250.

I agree with John! It is time to move on... it is time to go forward. We will not forget that expense because we have to keep it in mind to act smarter but we must not let the failure discourage us!

 

[Shortie]

I would say that if you have spent that much money on a project and still do not seem to be getting anywhere it's a lesson you can take from that and learn from not to spend much on things until you know it may be a success or is a success. I myself only spend money on hosting and domain and that is it, if it ever becomes really successful I would consider putting more money into it for a unique theme and maybe even better advertising but until I know it's worth it I just stick to small amounts.

 

[Ed321]

Too many people concentrate on the back-end of the website and forget that it is a PEOPLE business. You can have fancy servers and a team of designers and technicians, but if you don't attract the people to your site... it doesn't matter.

Don't worry about the money you spent and the content of your site. Take a step back and come at it from another direction. What are the people who would use your website looking for and have you fulfilled their needs?

Once you define their needs and can meet them, find one person to use your site. Great. Now find another. Eventually you will reach what is known as "critical mass". I have seen too many projects aborted when on the very cusp of achieving critical mass. You can help things along with good SEO techniques, but it still takes time for a new site to rise in the ranks to get more people aware of it. You need to work hard to recruit each and every new user and keep in constant contact with them to retain them. Eventually you have enough people that they generate the growth and you can move on to what you THOUGHT being a webmaster is all about.

You are never stupid for pursuing a dream... only for abandoning one for the wrong reasons!

 

[AresBlade]

Well said across the board Ed! Loads of great advice. I would also like to stress that even though $250 seems like a lot of money now, when you think back about it in a few years you won't be thinking about the money, it's not that big of a deal. You'll be thinking about what you learned and how that made your next ventures more successful.

 

[xTinx]

I wonder what gave you the idea that spending more will give you better results. People should do away with this "expensive is productive" mentality. It's not healthy. Productivity means spending less and still getting a lot of results. I just saw a site offering web hosting services for as low as $.01. You should try to explore your options before jumping the gun.

 

[Goat of Departure]

$250? That's a lot of money is you ask me. I mean sure you have to invest a lot but when I first launched my site I only spent $10 for everything no lie. But I think it's early for you to say that it failed. Starting a website doesn't automatically grant you a return, it happens ovetime and you really have to invest some serious work and time for it to be able to pay you back.

In some cases your $250 is nothing compared to what others have spent in order to make their site work and by doing so the return was far more than expected and it paid up a lot.

 

[Soulwatcher]

I have thrown away thousands of dollars on a website. I invested $1,800 into a website and sold it for $480. My current project I have $600 invested and its a long term investment. And I did learn from the past, I learned that you do not need to go all out to have a successful website. So in the end if you learned something from your experience then it was not a waste of money.

P.S. the biggest mistake you can make is invest money and think you are going to get a return.

Greg