That's easy to say, but not so easy to do a lot of the time.
One of the most common mistakes it just not have a marketing plan. No goals, no idea how you're going to market your business. You've probably had plenty of ideas as to how you would like to market your website. How many have you followed through on?
A marketing plan doesn't have to be complex. You should write it by what you really want to do and can follow through on. Include your forum activities, blog commenting, article marketing, advertising and so forth. Have daily, weekly, and/or monthly goals to achieve and track them. Track how successful they are when possible.
Writing it out can help. This helps you to keep track of what you mean to do and can inspire new ideas. It's not an absolute must, but most people find it helpful.
Another mistake is to stick with only one strategy. It may be your preference to market in a particular way, but if you can expand into other areas you may have more luck with your marketing. Try to use multiple strategies.
At the same time, don't get stuck on analyzing which strategy is the best. Taking action is better than overanalyzing in most cases.
Then there's the mistake of not testing your marketing. Trying different ads, different websites to market on, different audiences can make the difference. Test over time. What works when you start marketing may not be as effective two months later. There's no one right answer for all time.
Perhaps most important is to test your message. Your marketing message is the first impression people have of your business. This needs to be consistent not only with what you say in ads and on other sites, and on your own. Having an inconsistent and/or ineffective marketing message will greatly hamper your efforts.
This doesn't mean you don't tailor your message to your audience. You do, but you have to keep the message consistent overall.
And of course there are the people who ignore marketing almost altogether. The "build it and they will come" crowd. Not doing any marketing at all of your home business means that no one will know about it. How can anyone do business with you if they've never heard of you?
Whatever mistakes you've made with your marketing you need to learn to get past. Figure out how to do better in the future. You can improve your marketing when you work at it.
