I want a website! - A Starting Guide

I get this all the time: I have someone approach me with this killer idea that will take the Internet by storm. They are very excited about how much money they are going to make and how many users are going to visit. They are going to have the best website EVER. I smile, nod, and think to myself about how many times I used to think the same thing. Then I ask the following questions, to which the answers are almost always "I don't know".

Q: What are you hoping to accomplish with your site?

"To make money" is not an acceptable answer. Of course it's something that you are probably going to need to do, but it is a side detail. A very important side detail, but one nonetheless. The real question is this: "What are you going to offer your customers so that they will use your site?" You've got to think about this. Even if you are giving away everything for free, why should anyone even care to spend time on your site instead of Facebook or even with their friends? You have to compete with all the other things out there in people's lives. Provide something of value, something that they value or will value.

Q: Why are you wanting to do this?

How is this fitting into your overall plan? Do you even have an overall plan? How is this going to support what you want to get out of all the work, time, and money that you are pouring or are going to pour into a site? The question "why" is the most important. If you have a strong enough reason why, the how will take care of itself. Most people have no sense of direction in their planning, other than what they feel they "should" be doing. Neither I nor anyone else can give you the motivational drive to see something through. You need to find it and keep the fire alive yourself.

Q: Who is your target audience?

If you are trying to appeal to everyone, you'll appeal to no one. You have to be specific. It's so much easier to be vague and get people excited about your idea, but when push comes to shove, it's the specifics that move people. Making a decision can be hard because it pushes some people away. When you decide to go in a certain direction, some people will be attracted to what you are doing and others will be repulsed. If you don't go anywhere, no one will stay with you. Even if your target audience is "people suffering from anxiety", which is a huge potential market, it still makes for a specific target. Do not make the mistake of thinking that just because you like something that it will work: you have to get in the minds of the customers that you are hoping to attract.

Q: How long do you think this will take?

I love the blank stares I get from this question. Usually they want me to tell them. For any major custom project, figure on at least three months. At least. Even if you don't need a whole lot of fancy design work or hardcore programming action, you still need to spend time on your message(s). What you say and how you say it (by word and picture) is important, but this is where most people give the least amount of attention.

Q: Where are your calls to action?

What are you going to ask people to do on your site? You can't just supply the tools, you have to show them how they can use them. You have to get them excited about the possibilities. One thing that I have noticed is that we each desperately want to be involved in making things and in relationships. How is your site building a relationship with your customer? Your webiste should be asking users to do things. As a rule, though, it shouldn't be demanding them to do things that they don't want to do. Sometimes such things are unavoidable (such as putting in a CAPTCHA), but you'll want to minimize them.

Q: How are you going to make money?

The money probably shouldn't be your main reason for starting a site, but you'll need for it to be financially viable. Unless you're making tons of bank somewhere else (or even if you are), you need to be thinking about how you can make money with your site. You can make money with ads, selling upgraded services on the site, selling products, using affiliate links, or to establish credibility for further services... you'd be surprised what people are willing to pay for once you show (not tell) them how valuable something is. You probably won't have the luxury of getting investors to pump millions of dollars into your business - at least not at first. Generally you will want to start off small and build from there. No sense in spending a lot of money on a project only to find that users absolutely hate what you've done. Begin with the absolute minimum amount of features required to accomplish your goals, and then add as users request or you think of good ones. Always test and ask for feedback.

Q: How are you going to get people to visit?

Getting a website is like getting a cell phone. People aren't going to just start calling you simply because you have one... unless they are telemarketers. People have to become aware of its existence. You can't just rely on the search engines to start sending you traffic because you put in a few tags on your pages. That may have worked in the early 90's, but that system got gamed and the search engines wised up. Other sites need to link to you, you need to advertise on other sites. You need to tell people about it "in the real world" in one way or another. I'm not going to go into detail here, but I will talk about it in another post.

You can't treat your website like a side to your business or life - it has to be a part of them. A website has to be furthering you along to what you desire. Otherwise why bother even putting one up?

Share this article on: Facebook Twitter Digg Reddit

Related Posts

Moving Up!

PhotoOp: My New App

Creating Facebook IFrame Applications with Merb

Twitterpated

Commments

This post is just waiting for you to make a comment!