Blueprint It: Plan Your Website
A well-planned website translates into success later on. As said in programming, "weeks of coding can save you hours of planning!". This is certainly true - and it's a trap you don't want to fall in to. There are five and a half steps I use in creating a blueprint for your site. Follow them now and thank me later.
1. Choose a
unique idea that hasn't been taken before. For example, don't try to start a webmaster forum if you're looking for an instant-hit site. It's no use competiting with SitePoint, WebmasterWorld and well-run communities like TotalWebTalk unless you have some serious funding and/or willpower behind you. If you can't think of something like the Million Dollar Homepage, don't opt for a turnkey instead. Keep thinking - you'll come up with something eventually. Ask yourselves these questions and write down the answers for later review:
- What skills and talents do I have that others can benefit from?
- Where do my competitors fall short?
- What new Web technology (e.g. podcasting) is just itching to be used in the area where I have skills and talents?
2. Choose how you're going to reach your audience
You've got to find a way to get the word out that your site is so much more awesome than its competitors, and communicate that your auidence should dump them in favor of your site. Examples of methods that work:
- PPC advertising campaigns such as adwords
- Blog ads - more specifically, BlogAds -
www.blogads.com
- For gaming: sponsored flash games and videos
- For retail businesses: advertising on consumer review sites like CNet, PCMag etc
- For web services: advertise at webmaster forums
- For any industry with a big forum about it: put it in your forum signature!
3. Identify ways to make money from your audience
Choose the right type of advertisements to run. For example, if you're going to make a gaming site, use a mix of CPM (Cost Per Thousand - you're paid a certain amount per thousand page impressions) and CPC (Cost Per Click - you're paid a certain amount for each click depends on your click-through ratio). If you're going to provide a useful serivce to your audience, charge a subscription fee. If you're launching a forum - one of the hardest things to do on the Web, by the way - plan to save a few quality features for paying members once your forum gets big.
4. Become an
expert on your audience
Do your homework!
Find out what terms they search most and make a list: use the
Overture Inventory tool. This list will come in handy when you're optimizing your pages for search engines later on. You want to make this list
in the blueprint stage so you don't get stuck with a website that's only half-optimized later on.
If you're providing a service, how many people in your audience pay for a related subscription service? How much do they pay? Is it per month or per year?
If you're selling a product, how much do competitors charge for similar products? What do they charge for support?
Now that you're an expert, heres 4.5: Plan your website around your audience:
what do they like?
What do visitors to other sites in your industry like best? Do they want to chat in a community environment? Participate in contests? Read the latest industry news via RSS? How often will they expect you to put up fresh content? Ask these questions now; design & code your site around the answers.
5.
How will you manage your content?
If you're going to be running a small site of 5-10 pages, you can probably manage content on your own. Any more than that and you may need the features of a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS lets your enter your content into the software, organize it, and post it without doing any coding. Most Content Management Systems are open-source. My favorite is
Drupal.
Let's face it: blueprinting is boring. But do it before construing your website and you'll enjoy bigger numbers in Microsoft Money later on.