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 Start A Website
svincent
Get your site up and running in no time. Websites are fast to put up these days and with a little instruction you can have one up too. |
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Putting up a site is great, but it doesn't mean a thing if you have no idea what the site is about. I was listening to an audio interview conducted by Jeff Johnson where he was reiterating this point. People sometimes rush to put up a site before they really know what the site will even be about. This won't get you anywhere but staring at a blank page. You first need to decide what your site will be about. Now, it may be that you're at the stage where you just want to put up a site and see how the whole thing works. You're just trying to get your feet wet and see if this is something you feel like you could really do or are interested in. If that's where you're at, then go open a Facebook account, play around with it for a while and come back here once you've decided for sure you want to pursue Internet marketing. If you have decided you want to market on the Internet and you're looking for a good idea for a site, here are some helpful tips.
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The answer to that question depends on a few factors. First, it will depend on what you plan to use the site for. If you just want to use it to post a few family photos and let people know what's going on, get a Facebook account and it won't cost you a dime. If you're looking to put up a site that is informational about your company then you can get something from one of the cheap hosting companies for as little as $4.95 a month. There will also be some setup costs involved too. If you can't do the editing of the site yourself, then you will have to pay at the very least a designer to give you the look and feel you want and put up some content for you. A lot of these hosting companies have templates you can use for your look and feel so that can sometimes save you a bunch if there is one you can use. Once your initial cost is out of the way, if you don't have regular edits that need to be done, then you're just down to the cheap monthly amount. If you're looking for something more like a catalog site then you should plan to pay a little more. I'm assuming at this point that you will want access to things like tutorials, help with marketing and also help with the design of your site. You for sure want the access to these kinds of things if this is going to be a business. You can get all of that for $24.95 a month. That's not much for the value you'll get. One of my favorite hosts is SimplWeb. They give you all of what I described and then some.
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I have read reams of information on how to get traffic to your site. Some of it sounds like good advice, and some of it sounds like a bunch of shallow trickery. The best advise I have ever read is to simply build a site with great content. That is, content people will really use and helps them. It used to be that the key phrase for building a website was "Content Is King". Now a lot of people have traded that in for the new social networking approach. Don't get me wrong, I think some of it has a place for sure. But if you want people to keep coming back time and again, you need to give them a reason. You have to have great content. It's really just common sense. If you're giving me something that is useful to me in my day to day activities, then I'll be back. If not, I won't. It just won't be on my radar. And, for all the people trying to get my attention through various means, it has to be something of value. Fluff just doesn't cut it. So if you want to make a great impression on someone and get them back to your site time and again, provide them with solid tools and information. If it's what they need, they'll be back.
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One of the things you need to know is what you don't know. Most people can't do everything on their website. If you aren't real technical, then you need to think about what parts of your website you won't be doing. For example, don't get too focused on trying to do too much behind the scenes. You should get yourself focused on generating content. If you really have something technical that you're stuck on, get help from someone who knows. Don't get your self bogged down in it. You'll find that it really takes away from your ability to keep up with what's most important - selling your products. But how does that work exactly? Let's say you're trying to change the look of your site. Something you need to do to accomplish your task stumps you. What should you do? Send an email to your support person, or chat with them. Get them involved so you can get past the problem and move on. You should always ask yourself if what you're doing is something that is going to take away from you managing your content. Don't let that happen. When I say support person, I mean someone that is probably part of your website host company. These people can help you get over a lot of hurdles. Some companies provide this type of service, while others don't. That's something you want to be sure of when you sign up with a webhost. One such host that helps people in this way is SimplWeb. They are worth your time to check out. Some may provide support for just certain things. For example, if you are using a product like Joomla! to manage your website (and you should certainly consider it), then your host may not support how to use it. They may only help you install it. After that, you're on your own. Again, make sure you have someone at your disposal that you can email or call. It can make all the difference in the world. This all comes down to knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Do what you're good at, and rely on others to help you with the other stuff. You'll get a lot more done, and be a lot more productive in the end.
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I admit to you that I'm a geek. I enjoy computers and programming. It's just the way I am. Nothing wrong with that necessarily. But there is a danger when it comes to trying to create a site you can make money with. The tendency of the geeks it to get all wrapped up in the technology. This happened to me for quite a while. When you're all wrapped up in the technology you're not creating content. If you aren't creating content then you aren't making money - plain and simple. If you're just starting to work on a site then you have the opportunity to avoid this all too common mistake. Work on just putting up what you need for a site. Don't get carried away with a bunch of bells and whistles. Just get something working that looks decent and will allow you to communicate your message. If you do well then add some bells. Just remember that the internet is just a medium for you to communicate with. It's a vehicle for you to get your message out. When it comes down to it, it isn't the technology that's going to sell what you have, it's your message.
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Wouldn't it be nice to just point at a website like that and have it just make you one? It could have everything you need to get a website business going. You just point and click and your new catalog or ebook site is up and running. That really would be nice. But the reality is that things do take a bit more effort than that. You will be able to find a web host that will be able to set up the basic site for you. They can get your site in place and make it so you can start adding product information. But you will still have to go in and add all of your products and pictures. You will have to decide on a design for your site. Thankfully there are lots of templates out there that you can use to make your life a lot easier. In my mind that's not the hardest part. I think adding photos and content is actually the easy part when you get the hang of it. The harder part is learning the market. You need to know what's going on with your products and customers. What are you going to sell and how is it going to get to your people? What will you be doing with shipping? Do you need to charge a tax? There are all sorts of business questions you're going to need to answer and keep up on. That to me is where the real work is. Now if you're one of those people who thinks the business side is a breeze then I think you're in pretty good shape. I think the rest is something you can learn in a relatively short time. It just takes a bit of practise. Once you've done it a few times you'll start to get the hang of it. Before you know it you'll be running your site like a pro.
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It never ceases to amaze me how many people will try the shortcut to running an online business. They see all this hype about how some guy made a killing in just a week. Then they start throwing money him and expect to get the same results. Let me encourage you to Beware The Snake Oil Salesman. There are lots of them and they will be glad to lift of the burden of your wallet. Many have no qalms about lying to you about what they have done. Whatever you end up doing you're going to have to put effort into it. You're going to have to study. You're going to have to try different approaches. Some will work and some won't. That's the nature of it. Like it or not it's real work. The upside is that it's an opportunity for you to do something you really enjoy. You can have flexible hours and find ways to get your site to work for you when you aren't even around. It will be sending emails and taking answers to polls. It will be giving people information for you while you sleep. But it won't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen at the wave of a magic wand. It takes time patience and some good ol' elbow grease. If you're willing to put that kind of effort in, then the likelyhood is that you'll do well.
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