Is Building A Website All It Takes?
February 21st, 2008 by AlanThis post was written by Alan Johnson, who teaches you how to build a profitable website in 10 days over at TheRatingBlog.com. Alan is one of our new, regular contributors.
Do you think that building a website, in the traditional sense, is all it takes in order to become successful? Do you really think that registering your domain, writing some content and publishing your website will be enough? If so, then I am afraid that you are in for quite a reality check if you don’t change your way of thinking.
There is far more to building a website than simply aspects related to publishing it, and not understanding that is one of the biggest mistakes you could make as an online entrepreneur. Establishing an online presence is really not difficult: you can register a domain in a matter of minutes, have a talented freelancer design a professional-looking website and publish it, thinking that success is just around the corner but unfortunately, that is simply not the case.
Anyone can register a domain, anyone can hire a freelancer and anyone can publish a website. But you have to ask yourself: is everyone successful? Since that is clearly not the case, it should be obvious that, if you want to achieve some more than worthwhile results, you have to do something which sets you apart from others.
Innovation is simply a must if you are serious about making it: you need to either bring something completely new and exciting to your market or take an already existing business model and make some serious improvements. While establishing an online presence is a first step, where you take it from there is what really counts.
What makes your website special? If you were not the webmaster, what would you have to gain by visiting? After visiting it, would you want to return? After your website is live, it’s easy to fall in love with your project and assume that you deserve the exposure just because you have worked hard on it.
Well guess what: people don’t care how hard you have worked, people don’t care how much time and efforts you have invested into a certain project, the only thing they are interested in is results. If you do your job right as far as promotion is concerned, they will visit. If your resource is worth it, they will stick around and even bookmark it but if not, rest assured, they will leave and never look back.
Let’s face it, what do you do whenever you come across a website which simply isn’t worth your time? Exactly, you don’t stick around because, since you are busy and have a lot of things on your mind, the last thing you need is to waste time by going through a resource which simply isn’t worth it. If that’s the way you see things, why would it stand differently with others?
All in all, limiting yourself to establishing an online presence will simply not cut it and there is far more to building a website than meets the eye, as any experienced webmaster will admit. You can either face the facts or continue to live in denial, which option sounds like the best approach?
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February 21st, 2008 at 9:54 am
My thoughts exactly Alan and I’m very excited to have you as a regular contributor.
People will only stick around a website because it provides value to them - it helps them to learn or do something, or it provides them with entertainment.
The value model always works if you truly do provide material that people need.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:54 am
Great way of thinking about how to create a website. When I am designing one, either the layout or the content, I try to think like a visitor to my site.
This way, I can kind of try to see how they might use my site, and how easy it is for them to get around, click on ads, read my content, click on ads…you see where I am going with this.
A lot depends on what type of site you are creating. Either a main blog, or a niche site, both require work and lots of promotion to increase traffic.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I agree, kind of. I see and talk to many evey week who who paid a fair amount to get their site up - and then as we know nothing happens. Also I have just finished redesigning a site - and just from the simple redesign the visitors are coming back, looking at more pages and spending more time on the site. Combination of both seo and good design is needed, and customers are slowly becoming more savvy.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:57 pm
SEO does help to get the people there Leslie. The key after that is giving them a reason to return. If you can do that, you’ll have a winning site.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Contributing on a regular basis will definitely be a pleasure on my part, great to be here
Best wishes,
Alan Johnson
February 21st, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Damn Alan, you are everywhere in the blogosphere lately!
Really enjoy your posts by the way.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Great point Alan. I just want to add that the hardest part of building a site with value add is the the research phase. You should spend 80% of your time researching your target and finding a pain point which you can solve, and 20% actually building and promoting, in my opinion.
February 21st, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Writing here as well now hey Alan? If there is an award for hardest working blogger im nominating you.
Making a website certainly doesnt receive much credit nowadays. Promoting yourself into the top spots is tougher every day. It is only going to get harder too!
February 21st, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Excellent points Alan. Following these suggestions, as well as those learned from Court, Vic, Grizz and several others has helped my blog grow and stand out from the rest.
Having Caroline Middlebrook Stumble my latest post certainly works well too!
February 21st, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Welcome to the neighborhood, Alan. I’m a long-time reader, first-time commenter, Court.
I agree that there is more to success in business (or any other arena, really) that slapping together a Web site. Even marketing your site to drive traffic to it doesn’t mean much unless visitors to your site convert to loyal readers and loyal customers.
In my role as a copywriter for the small business marketing firm PRstore, I see dozens of clients who all make the same mistake: assuming visitors to the site care about THEM.
For my money, the best sites are those that answer the age-old marketing adage, “What’s In It For Me?”
Even a fully interactive site, with a rich user experience, only matters to visitors when it provides them with the information they need and the answers they’re looking for.
Alan, great post…and great feedback from the commenters. I look forward to following the discussion.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Hey Scott!
Happy to have you. You hit it right on the head - visitors don’t care about YOU, they care about finding something that is valuable to THEM.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Oh how I have learned this lesson! But, now that I have learned a lot of SEO tricks, some link building tips, and other way to promote my sites that are just sitting there, i am going to be building and building and building.
I had designed my own site (and i am no pro, but i heavily modified an existing template) and so the whole pride in my work thing was even bigger for me.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I think your post is da bomb. kip on keeping on
February 21st, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Great post. Gotta keep it real.
February 24th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Looks like : “we live in a same village” everybody knows everyone
February 24th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
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April 14th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Nice post, if there was a way to get newbies to read this post before completing a domain registration it would be great.
People hear success stories and they hear of profitable niche markets and think that they can get a website up and start making money.
They need to realize that content is king and if they can’t contribute unique, knowledgeable content that the visitors are going elsewhere and they aren’t coming back.
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