There, is that a provocative enough title for this blog post? I hope so, because I want to address something that is killing brands across the world: Ego.

In order to make it big with your online brand, your ego needs to be put in an old shoebox in the back of your closet. You are of course entitled to your personal likes and dislikes, but that is not a guarantee that everyone will share your opinions. It's certainly not going to insure that your customers will love the website that you take such immense pride in.

You may have uttered or overheard these words before: "If I don't love it, there's no way I can expect my customers to love it."

I hear this all the time in art and design social circles. The conceit is that if you have enough passion for a personal vision, it will attract enough people to that passionate vision. There's a term for that sort of passion: Starving Artist. You can believe that if you want. Me? I like to eat.

See, my passion comes in designing for others, not myself. In my industry, however, my client is not the ultimate goal for me. It's their customers that I have in mind.

Is it possible to have passion for something that ultimately doesn't excite you personally? Absolutely. When I design a website that sells diaper cakes, do you think I'm jumping up and down over here? (Yes, guys, these are real products. They're big packages full of diapers and baby stuff.). Nope. The thing that lights my fire is creating a website that engages my client's diaper-cake-buying customers. I like making my clients money, not satisfying their egos.

You'd think this would be a no-brainer, but it's not. Clients fight me over stuff like colors all the time. If their favorite color is red, or they saw red on Target.com, somehow huge areas of red on their dental hygiene products website should be a good idea. It's not.

Why is it worth me fighting a client over something that seems so inconsequential? Because these things really do matter, and I have an ethical responsibility to point out what's going to affect a customer. What good is just taking my clients' money for something that I know won't make them any money in return?

Fortunately, there are clients that really get it. They put aside their own desires, except one: Making money. To make money, you have to appeal to the people that can give you money.

In other words, it's not about people liking what you do. It's about you doing what they like.

Let's take it offline for a second. I've just found a house I really like in the Atlanta area that I'm moving to. Finding the house has been a tough process. We went to one house that looked absolutely beautiful on the outside. My wife turned to me and said, "Eric, this could be it!" We walked inside and immediately I wanted to run back out. Most families leave the house when it's being shown. Not this owner. She was content to keep cleaning her dirty kitchen while her four kids ran between the nine televisions that were on throughout the house. She had painted her entire house black, dark brown, and red. Creepy abstract paintings and drawings hung on every wall. The only selling point was a cute chocolate Labrador puppy, that I swore was asking to leave even though my Realtor told me he did not come with the house.

Yes, the lady owned the house, and she had the right to paint and decorate it however she pleased. However, the dynamic changed when she decided she wanted to sell it. At that point, it ceased being about her. Her house will either appeal to prospective buyers or it won't. I hope there's a family out there that loves this lady's personal style as much as she does, but that family sure isn't the Yonges.

The point I am making is, if you want to sell something, your customer has always got to be at the forefront of your strategic planning. You may or may not love the brand aesthetic that is designed to appeal to them. Your entire staff and your family may share your opinions, but your customer's opinion is the only one that matters. Despite your best intentions, your customers are the ones that decide if your brand is successful.