There isn’t a shortage of webmaster blogs out there. This isn’t a bad thing - they have many good thoughts on running a successful website, gaining traffic, and making money online. So Instead of rehashing old material, I thought I would present it in a different manner. Most people tell you what to do, I’m going to tell you what NOT to do. If you follow these tips, you will be sure to end up with a barren website, free of visitors and traffic, where you can be alone with your thoughts. If, however, you would prefer to have a thriving community, use these ideas as a basis to learn from.

1. Stay away from any statements about what you do or sell. Keep it a total mystery why they decided to visit your website in the first place. It’s like a secret club - keep your visitors in the dark. Have you been to websites like this? Where you end up thinking “What the hell is this site about?” If you are not presenting a clear and concise reason about why your visitors should stick around (and spend some money), then they won’t.

2. Drown your visitors with way too much information. Almost as bad as the “What is this site about?” problem, are the “Holy page of text Batman!” type of websites. I’m sure you all know exactly what I’m talking about. The page opens and your jaw drops. It may feel like you’ve gone back in time, to a website from 1995. Where do I go? What do I click? I’ll tell you wheer to click, it’s that big back arrow pointing left.

3. Ensure your order process is overly complicated. Wouldn’t you love to fill your shopping cart and then spend 20 minutes trying to figure out how to pay? No? Me neither. Instead of looking, I clicked the “x” in the tope right corner. You have succeeded in getting rid of another client who wanted to spend their money.

4. Fill your website with broken links. While you may not realize that they are broken, or maybe they were working when you first put them up. It still isn’t reason enough to have a website with broken links. There are plenty of tools out there that can help you ensure that all links actually go somewhere - the easiest of which to use (and which you should be using) is Google Webmaster Central.

5. Make sure it’s impossible for a client or business partner to get in contact with you. They probably wouldn’t have a good reason to talk to you anyway…

And that’s it. If you keep those five steps in mind you can be sure to drive away any potential visitors, customers, or readers. You won’t have to worry about what to do with your earnings (you won’t have any), or what to write about tomorrow (nobody will read it).

Now, while you may think this is a little absurd, you have seen these websites before. Websites like this are not uncommon. They may not actually TRY to drive away visitors, but they do. By avoiding these pitfalls, you can be that little bit ahead of your competition - and every little bit helps in the long run.