Everyday I see struggling e-commerce hopefuls try and build their online empire and achieve their financial dreams. Whether they are selling wallets, lures, skateboard wheels or clothing, I constantly see similar problems with everyone who is starting an e-commerce website. Here are the ten biggest mistakes made by the struggling e-commerce entrepreneur.

1. Trying to build / design the site yourself

This has to be the biggest and most frequent mistake I see. For some reason people think that building a website is easy and they can just do it themselves or pay their neighbor's kid $10 an hour to build a full e-commerce website – he took a class on HTML right? Wrong. If you choose to build the website yourself, not only will it take you ten times as long as a professional, but it also won't look good, and it will drive customers away.

I have been doing this for years. I can immediately determine which sites were done professionally and which ones the owners tired to create themselves. You are not a programmer, and you are not a designer, you are a business owner. You need to focus on what really matters to your company, and learning HTML is definitely not one of them. People go to school for years to learn good design and programming practices, it is worth every penny to hire a good web company / individual to build your site. On the web, people are more confident in buying from a site that looks legit and not like it was built by a third grader. The investment you put out up front will pay for itself in the long run with higher conversion rates and more products sold. Skip the HTML for Dummies books and hire a professional.

2. Not willing / able to put money into your site

This has a direct correlation with number one above. If you are not willing or just not able to put a significant amount of investment into your new e-commerce store then you are doomed to fail. Most people try to build the site themselves because they want to save some money in startup costs. As I mentioned above, this is a bad idea. You are going to get out of your site what you put into it. This means that if you put a part time effort into building and running your site, you will get part time results – You will be constantly struggling to make a profit every month.

Here is a good rule of thumb that I like to tell my clients: If you aren't willing to put at least $10,000 into building and starting your new e-commerce website, then you shouldn't be starting at all. Treat your e-commerce store as a business, not a hobby.

3. Choosing the wrong e-commerce platform

This is a crucial decision you must make early on, and most often if you are new to e-commerce you have no idea of where to even begin. Make sure you do your research. There are hundreds of shopping cart platforms out there. Read the forums, read reviews ask others their opinions, do not just blindly choose something because it is free. Write a list of features you would like in you site, and look for a shopping cart platform which has most, if not all of those features built in. Doing your research before hand, will save you a lot of time and money down the road. You do not want to get 6 months or a year into your new e-commerce business just to find out you have to redo your entire site because the features you want are not possible with you current shopping cart platform.

This is also another reason you should have a professional create your site. Most likely they have been doing this for years and they know the ins and outs of e-commerce. They can suggest a good shopping cart platform for you to use, based on your needs.

4. Not doing market research / competitor research

This is a very important step that is often overlooked by new e-commerce entrepreneurs. Before you even sell your first product, you have to know the field you are playing against. Research your competitors – look at their sites. See what you like, see what you don't like and see what you can do better. You need to get a clear picture of what it’s going to take to compete in your online niche. You do not want to get in the situation where you build your entire site and later come to find out that your product simply does not sell well online. The more prepared you are before hand, the better your chances to succeed.

5. Bad Product Photography

Most people do not give their product photography a second thought. The cheapest method is what they are going to use. This usually means that they take out their digital camera and take the pictures themselves. This is a very bad idea. Why this might be cheap, you are going to end up with terrible photographs that are dark, poorly lit and overall just bad. When you are selling products online the two most important selling tools you have are the product photography and the product description. This is what sells your product. Having good looking pictures and multiple views of each product increases your conversion rate greatly. Spend the money on professional photography. It will pay for itself in the long run. Again, if you aren’t willing to put money into your site it will show.