A business needs a business plan.
Your web site needs one, too.
Even the smallest business needs a plan. I see it demonstrated again
and again. My main line of work is marketing
communications. Been doing
it for more than 20 years, for companies huge and tiny.
Part of that is
Internet marketing. I've been building and advising websites for almost a decade.
Most have involved an e-commerce web solution of one kind or another. They've followed a number of
web site marketing strategies, but all good strategies start in the same place...
Looking first for an HTML programmer? A site
designer?
You're looking for the wrong thing.
There are some really talented designers and programmers around. But
a website builder is not where to start. Because the old saying is truer
that ever -- "Content is King." And, if you want traffic
to your site, even content is not enough.
Where does traffic come from? Planning.
For your site to draw visitors, you need up-front research and market
planning. Find out what people are really looking for, and what other
sites, if any, provide it. In other words, you need content of real
value to people who are searching for it on the Web. Otherwise, you
have a nice site, one that you can refer clients, friends and your mother
to, but that's about it.
How NOT to use my services.
If you're a very small business, I'm not suggesting you hire me to research and build your site for you.
For one thing, that gets pretty expensive. (If you're a larger business, click here.)
After all, I'm not you. I'd have to interview you, do the research, give
you reports, discuss, fine tune and do it all again, till we identify
a potentially lucrative search engine market niche. And that's before
we've chosen a domain name.
And then, to maximize your traffic, I'd recommend you add more pages
to your site regularly, until it's really robust. Submit them to search
engines and track the results. Refer to a library of traffic-building
ideas and implement some of them. Maybe even offer a simple newsletter
(automate the mailing list, of course), or some sort of emailed "course,"
to encourage visitor loyalty. That's how you build traffic and
produce results.
To hire me, anyone, to do all this for you would be fairly expensive, even
at minimum wage.
UNLESS...
Here's how you can use my services: Let me coach you, only as
needed.
I'll direct you to the right industry-standard tools, ones that any amateur
can use. (If you have an employee with spare time, I can show him or her
how to do it.)
I'll guide you in pulling together all these efforts yourself, in a logical
step-by-step fashion. You decide how fast or slow to go. Just so you do
it all in the proper order. If you need a technical tip, thought starters,
or help with a specific task, that's when to call on me.
IN
FACT, LET'S START NOW...
Where do
you start? Define your niche... There are some good tools for researching
this, one is free, one has a free limited version, and one is part of
a much larger, yet relatively inexpensive package.
The principal with all of these is to determine what words people are
searching for on the Internet's major search engines. You start by typing
in whatever phrases you want, and the tool tells you how popular they
are. The results might surprise you.
That's all the Overture page will do. But the other two will tell you
something just as important -- For each phrase, you'll learn how many
sites supply it. Keep trying different combinations of words until you
find a phrase that is both popular and under-served on the Web.
(The Site Build It! program takes the report even further.)
It takes
some thinking, about what you want to do with your site, and what others
want to get from their searches.
If you're already rooted in a specific industry or service (such as,
say, clothing retailing), you may not benefit by researching an unrelated
phrase like "cake recipes", but think outside your brick-and-mortar
box. Maybe you can generate clothing-related traffic by researching
"dry cleaning" or "outdoor activities" or other subjects that touch on
your specialty. (TIP: Be specific. In March 2005, four times as many people
searched for "hiking shoes" as did for "outdoor clothing".)
Remember,
the object is to build a site that gets traffic.
If the site is also going to represent your existing business or interest,
then, yes, you are obviously limited in how far you can take this exploration
(unless you start another business on the side). But the process will
be instructive nevertheless (it might even give you insights into
new business opportunities). Many online entrepreneurs build one site,
valuable to people in itself, which funnels visitors to the "monetized"
site.
On the other hand, if you're starting with a blank slate, if you're open
to exploring any likely subject, then take as much time as necessary.
Find a popular, under-served niche in a subject area that you can get
really excited about. Then pursue that subject and that site with
a passion.
LOOKING
AHEAD: The next steps
After you've defined your niche, determine your PRIMARY keyword or key
phrase, and devise a short domain name that contains it. Search
engines look for this sort of thing. But the name should also fit on your
business card, in advertising and such, and be easy to type, so be sensible.
Exception: If you're an existing, well known business, use that name
for your domain. And also reserve similar and shorter versions that people
might guess at, or that your competitors might use. Don't go crazy --
names cost as much as $10/yr each. But it's cheaper to do it now than
wishing you had.
Then choose a hosting service. (Note that registering a domain
name is not the same as hosting it. The domain is like your license plate.
Hosting is like your car.)
In choosing a host, there are a number of features and support services
to consider. I can recommend a few services, ranging in cost from about
$50/yr to $350 a year, depending on the features you need and the amount
of traffic you anticipate. (An actual online store that is able to take
credit cards, etc., would cost more. But there are some other options.)
Next, plan your site's "architecture," so you know how many pages
you'll need to start with, how much text will be on them, and how people
should navigate from one page to another. A site that's confusing or and
interface that's not immediately usable is the kiss of death.
For a small site, this planning is relatively simple. Stick to a popular
layout format. And remember that you want to be able to add pages later
-- at this stage you should already have an idea of where they will fit.
And finally, it's time to start building your site. (Yaayyy!!!)
You can do the graphic designing from scratch, or can use a low-cost template
available from a number of services.
There's a lot more to cover, but we're already quite a ways into the
process.
The
"Aha" Moment
And see? All
this, and I haven't even gotten to the graphic design or HTML programming
part. I can refer you to sources for these services (in some cases, I can
provide them myself). But with some approaches, you may not need to deal
with HTML code or a graphic designer at all.
Other things I can coach you through include:
- Submitting
your site to the major search engines
- Submitting
your site to the major directories (and how to save time and
money
- doing
it)
Generating site-usage and keyword reports from your logs
- Creating
a simple e-newsletter
- Obtaining
subscribers for a newsletter and maintaining the list
- How
to check your rankings in search engines (without going overboard)
- Search
Engine Optimization ("natural" SEO) and Search Engine
Marketing (SEM, although if you do this right, you may not need to use
much or any paid search engine advertising)
- How
to get other sites to link to yours (without useless reciprocal
links)
- Integrating
the ability to take credit cards
- Giving
information and news to your visitors via forms and autoresponders
- Monetizing
your site, through advertising, referral fees and marketing support
To cover
the rest of the process would take a book (I can recommend some of those,
too, if you like), so I'm going to end this here.
One
more bit of FREE ADVICE...
Look into
the Site
Build It! program. It's not a free website builder,
but if you have the time or personnel, it's close to free. Because it
enables you do all of the above, within a unified framework, including
domain name registration and hosting, for about what you'd pay for
hosting alone.
I'm a Certified
Webmaster for this program, so I can coach you in using it, too.
(Pardon
me if I go on a bit here... it is a unique approach, based on sound
marketing principles, not anything like the "free" site-building
package you might have seen from your phone company or Internet provider...
and since we've been talking about the importance of marketing
in ecommerce website design, this approach is worth special attention
here.)
About
Site Build It!
Thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs are using this program
now, with remarkable traffic success. Out of millions of sites on the
web, 35% of SBI! sites rank within the top 1% of all sites. Its traffic-building
methods are proven
to work.
Take a few more minutes to learn how...
• To research your most profitable market
niche
• To build your own site without knowing HTML
• To build a site that search engines l-o-v-e
• To build MORE than a site -- build the foundation
of a true business
• Or to build a site that truly enhances your
existing business
...all because you can do the advance research,
the content, the newsletter thing, everything, without having to hire
anyone if you don't want to. (Many people have started entirely new businesses
based on their research, but I recognize that you probably have a "main"
business to run, so you may want to get some help here and there. No problem.
Anyone can use this program. And, it accommodates custom HTML page design
and custom graphics, if you want.)
All you'll have to do is think. And write. (I have a couple decades'
experience as a copywriter, so if you want, I can polish it.)
Look into
this site-building, traffic-building, BUSINESS-BUILDING
system, used successfully by thousands of people every day.
As I said, the game plan is proven.
The research and programming drudge work are automated. There's an active
forum frequented by the publisher and fellow users. Support is included
free. And everything's outlined in the Action Guide, all in the right
order.
In fact, the Site Build It! Action Guide alone is a great planning
tool, even if you don't use the SBI! program. And it's free.
To download it from the publisher (legitimately), contact
me for instructions.
Sounds like a plan, doesn't it?
The first step to your online success begins
right here.
I don't
mean to overdo the SBI! recommendation. It's not for everybody
And neither am I. But in the case of most entrepreneurs and other small businesses,
and even certain individuals, I can help you avoid a lot of mis-steps and problems. And in any case, I hope I've
persuaded you to take a good look at your plan.
So, now
you have options. All of them good. Which one first?.
Click
here to learn more about me: Marketing
Communication Concepts
Click
to tell me about your needs, hopes and current situation:
Write
me
Click
here to learn all about SBI! Site
Build It!
Even if
you choose none of these, remember that my core business includes "conventional"
marketing communications. I wish you success, and I hope someday you'll
let me know how it goes.
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