Online Business Owners: Why Success is Your Enemy

Google Panda and Penguin updates are hot topics in the webmaster world today. The reason why they are much talked about is simple, really: They are impacting the online business world quite heavily.

I remember when Panda was released for the first time, there were major sites slumping in traffic – Ezinearticles.com, eHow.com, etc. When the dust was yet to settle, Google launch yet another killer algorithm update, known as the Penguin updates. They are also websites killer, kicking over-optimized sites in the @ss. More big sites were falling from the sky.

How about the rest of us? It’s pretty simple, really. We were crushed over and over again after the updates. Sure, most of us whose websites were crushed by Google are due to our effort in competing with the big guys.

We don’t have the budget like those biggies – so, many of us use grey hat – even black hat techniques to get more traffic and rank better on search engine, particularly Google. That’s why many of us were hit by the algo updates.

But it’s not that something Google hasn’t warned numerous time in the past: Create quality content, do responsible linking, etc. – all in all, Google is saying to you, “Don’t use dirty tricks!”

Well, let me put it this way. No matter which techniques you are using in SEO – white hat, grey hat, or black hat, the thing is, if Google doesn’t like what they see, you will get penalized.

Now, many of us are successful in doing things in the borderline. Quite a few of us even successful in getting things our way doing things against Google (and other search engines) TOS.

But now – it’s all over; the ‘Reset’ button has been pushed, and online businesses – both big and small – are suffering the consequences. Some need to downsize hundreds of employees; some just go out of business.

So, what gives?

Instead of pointing your fingers on others, you might want to evaluate why the whole things happen in the first place.

We enjoy our success. Too much.

As we have successfully achieved our milestones, we tend to procrastinate. We tend to slow down and compromise on quality. I know I procrastinate, thus my sites were hit by either Panda or Penguin.

You know what, the success you enjoy today is due to long and tedious work in the past. Your online business runs like a car. When you step on the gas, you accelerate. When you are not, you are slowing down. And due to inertia (geeky stuff!) your car will keep on moving until it finally stopped moving, even without you hitting the brake.

You see, that’s what happening in my situation. I enjoy a web publishing success, so I started to procrastinate. I stopped creating great content, and start to hire people who produced so-so content for me; I accept so-so guest posts on my blogs; I publish a short blurb on my blogs; I even use autoblogging script to get my blogs updated automatically – with other people’s content.

All in all, I was using grey hat techniques – because I am procrastinating. I was lazy to maintain my web properties the way I was when starting up.

Today, I need to step on the gas again, and learn that I need to do so if I want to accelerate my car. I need to do things right and do the right thing days in and days out – even when I consider my business as a success. Why? Because success can kill you slowly, and I don’t want to be a victim!

So, here’s the takeaway for you: If you are starting to enjoy online business success, making thousands of dollar a month, hear this: Don’t stop. Keep on working on your business to make it better and don’t procrastinate. Procrastination is your number one enemy.

If you are yet to make your first $100 online, don’t lose hope reading all the scary stuffs about Google and its playing-God policies. Keep on improving your online business, and find the right mentor. Don’t focus on SEO – focus on your visitors.

Good luck, guys!

Image by Mattox