Wasting Webmaster Income - What Are The Biggest Ways?

[Lee]

I know we've spoken about how to generate income in the past for our businesses along with how much each of us saves and re-invests back in to our companies however, im wondering what some of the biggest ways a webmaster/company are to actually lose money?

One of the big mistakes i think a lot of people make that can cost them a bunch of $$$ is to not have anti-hotlinking enabled on their domains, over the space of a year hotlinking could literally cost a webmaster thousands of dollars in additional expense.

Also i think the shows are another way webmasters can lose a lot of money, especially if they go to them with no solid gameplan about what they want to acheive at the shows.

What other common ways are there for webmasters to actually lose money on their sites or with their business that you folks can think of?

Regards,

Lee

[chadknowslaw]

Paying models too much [often done by new producers or producers that used to be or still should be - models themselves] Also, spending too much on employees, designers, and other contractors. There is a fine line between paying fair amounts and stupidly overpaying.

Going to a tradeshow but spending the entire show drunk and/or high. Not only was the cost of attendance wasted, but that impression hurt future business.

Spending money on the owner. With any new business, the first year the owner should be the lowest paid person. Can't afford to buy traffic or advertising because you are paying yourself enough to make the payments on the new car? You fucked yourself just for a new ride!!
Living a very modest life when the business in its infancy will give you a better chance at success and will pay off in the long run.

Not getting a good bookkeeper or tax preparer. Skimping here will cost you.

It does not take much to get into this business. It takes hard work, dedication, and real financial investment to STAY in this business.

[Bec]

Buying scripts that say they do such and such, and finding out they don't, and all of a sudden support is non-existant.

[Xstr8guy]

So many sites I see don't use a password protection script. Those folks are just essentially giving away memberships and burning tons of extra bandwidth.

[Jasun]

starting a site without a real concept or having anything to set you apart.

What's the point?

[Alex_Manifest_M]

"I got some naked pics of clowns jackin off in ballons while playing with their crusty toes...I think I will buy a years worth of print ads in a national publication"

[mickey]

"I got some naked pics of clowns jackin off in ballons while playing with their crusty toes...I think I will buy a years worth of print ads in a national publication"

hmm, bad example.. i think people would pay to look at that , if not for the erotic value then for the bizarreness of it.. :bananacock:

[Alex_Manifest_M]

It is actually a pretty good example. Expensive print ads for a site with limited content in a micro niche....not a good idea.

[marcjacob]

"I got some naked pics of clowns jackin off in ballons while playing with their crusty toes...I think I will buy a years worth of print ads in a national publication"

HAHAHA that made me laugh!

One of the big mistakes i think a lot of people make that can cost them a bunch of $$$ is to not have anti-hotlinking enabled on their domains, over the space of a year hotlinking could literally cost a webmaster thousands of dollars in additional expense.

Ive been caught by this, its those bloody awefull Japanese boards. You learn your lesson real quick on that one!

[pierrefitch]

Lee can you explain more about anti-hotlinking enabled .. why is it good to have enable and costing webmaster allot if disabled

[DEVELISH]

Lee can you explain more about anti-hotlinking enabled .. why is it good to have enable and costing webmaster allot if disabled

just imagine somebody links to a free picture of your site from a well visited board/forum and every view of that image causes a download of it (duh )... now imagine the traffic it costs if 1000s of people view the image... expand this to more free pics, video or flashfiles as well and you will get why having hotlinking disabled its traffic wasted - just like when a password being traded on boards

To disable the ability to include an image from domain A on domain B you must use apaches .htaccess rules to do it (will look for rules if you want)

[Bec]

You can generate one here and test it once you have it ftp'd --
http://www.htmlbasix.com/disablehotlinking.shtml

[Lee]

Lee can you explain more about anti-hotlinking enabled .. why is it good to have enable and costing webmaster allot if disabled

Because if you dont have anti-linking in place, you can waste thousands of dollars in bandwdith.

Id figure that would be reason enough

Regards,

Lee