Want to build a successful website?

Creating a website that ranks well with the search engines and pulls in lots of traffic takes as much time and money as creating an unsuccessful low-potential one.

Amazingly, people often start creating a website without building a clear plan of what they want that site to achieve.

If you're going to build a website, take a few moments to stop and brainstorm the best website concepts for you. Take the time to think it through thoroughly before you actually start creating a website. It takes less time and money to do it right the first time than to have to go back and fix problems with your site after it is finished.

The few hours or so that you spend here, in planning your site content, will determine exactly how big your success will be.

Remember, most people fail in any business because they don't plan adequately. So invest the time now to maximize your returns later.

There are many good reasons for building a web page but it is important that your goals are clear. Your objectives should drive the content and the design. Many people build home pages as a hobby, purely for their own personal development. Others build them to promote business, social, cultural, humanitarian, or business objectives.

Knowledge of web page development can help you in your career. Many businesses today have their own corporate Intranet sites, which are simply internal Internet systems used to share corporate information. The ability to communicate electronically is a valuable skill to employers.

There is also potential for generating income from the web pages you develop. This is done by publishing interesting pages that attract large numbers of visitors and then selling advertising space, goods or services from those pages.

Judging by the vast number of home pages that contain little more than the builder's name, age, and a photograph of the family cat, it would appear that many web page developers have not clearly defined their objectives!

To create a commercially viable website, you need to formulate a good website idea or theme. The subject for your website ought to be something that you are interested in and knowledgeable about. The theme of your site should be focused around something you want to research and explore. To be successful, your work truly needs to be a labor of love. You do not need to be an expert in the subject area. You do, however, need to know more about the topic than most others do.

The theme for your website could be something related to work, family life or a personal interest. The topic need not be of broad general interest. In fact, great success can be attained with a narrow, specialised website topic, where your competitors will be few in number. You can begin your website by focusing on a niche market and by growing the site to attract a broader audience. Always remember that your potential audience is global and not limited to your community or country.

Once you have selected a suitable subject area for your website, give some thought to how your website can be grown. Growth can occur by delving into greater detail in the subject area or by broadening the subject area into related fields. In general, however, think of your website as a store, with each web page as a product in that store. Your goal is to attract people to your store by offering a specific item and hoping that they will buy items they had not planned on purchasing. Load your store with complimentary items and bounce your visitors from one department to another.

If you can visualize a growth strategy for your site, before you purchase a domain name, you will then be able to select a web address that is narrow enough to attract people and search engines but broad enough not to restrict your future growth.

Getting started

What is the problem that you have the solution for? For instance: Do you have the secret to making money on the internet? Can you teach someone how to housebreak a pet? Decide what solutions you can offer and then write them down. This is your mission statement. Keep this list handy and refer to it often as you design your website so you don't get sidetracked. Users' needs are not necessarily hard to fulfill but one website can not solve all users' problems, so don't try to. Focus on the solution you offer the user and concentrate on how to deliver it.

Meeting expectations

Now that you've figured out what you can offer your users you have to focus on delivering that solution. People looking for answers want them now! Studies have shown that you only have a few seconds to get a visitor's attention and hold it before they click away - don't waste any time. Tell the user what you have to offer right away. Don't use intro pages that take too long to load. People want to get to your content and you should remove anything that gets between the user and the information. Guide them to their goal with as few "clicks" as possible.

Plan to succeed

Many people get frustrated when they try to create a web page simply because they don't do any planning. If you jump in and start writing HTML with no plan you may find yourself lost and so will your visitors. Before you start up your computer get out a pencil and some paper. Create a diagram that illustrates how your website will be layed out.

Build your website one page at a time focusing on one topic per page. As you add new content expand your website diagram adding new pages in a logical order. This will make it much easier for you to build your site and for visitors to find their way around. If you follow a plan you will avoid leading viewers to blank pages, dead links or having them run in circles trying to navigate your website.

Don't worry if you think your website is not perfect. No website is ever totally finished. You should always be fine-tuning and updating your content. You should continue to learn web site design from books and other websites. Website construction is an ongoing process. Build - review - add new content - repeat.

Four steps of planning your site content...

1) Optimal Niche
Discover the correct niche for your website and you won't be working, you'll be playing.

Your goal is to find a subject that you really know and like and that you think would have some appeal for others. Your passion will make creating a website fun and easy. If a concept really turns you on, you won't be working. You'll be playing.

2) Choosing Keywords
Find correct keywords and choose the most profitable website concept for you.

Build a table of keywords that can bring targeted traffic to your website and are often searched for, but still not so competitive as to make a top ranking next to impossible.

If you have several concepts to choose from, analyze related keywords and make a decision which concept is the most profitable.

3) Analyzing Competitors
Make your final website concept ever more profitable by analyzing and using the competition.

The goal of this step is to grow your keyword list, to get more ideas for your site content, and to find possible partners (merchants who offer affiliate programs or pay-per-click advertising).

4) Site Structure
Build the optimal structure of your website that corresponds with your table of highly profitable keywords.

The correct structure will make your site easy and navigable for both your visitors and your search engine spiders.

Here's the comprehensive resource that describes the above process in more detail - Ken Evoy's Affiliate Masters course (new 2005 edition). It's probably the best single resource on creating a website that makes money... and it's free! There's no charge - you're not even asked for your email address.

After the successful completion of all these steps, you'll have your perfect website concept, the comprehensive keyword list that contains a lot of highly profitable relevant keywords, and tons of raw materials for your site content.

You'll be super-ready to start creating a website that will be a real money-maker for you!

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