7 Steps to Designing a Website for a Profitable Internet Business
Step 1: Create The Idea. Decide what type of business venture you
would like to undertake. The internet is a large place, but there is always room
for more and competition in some markets is still in its infancy. Many start up
internet companies are from people who have an idea. This idea can come from
work, family, friends or even to solve a problem in their personal life. If you
plan to start an internet business in a new field, it is good to have
connections in that specific field. Having connections through family and
friends or even your full-time or part-time job can be a significant advantage
over the competition.
Step 2: Do The Research. You will need to do some market research to
discover what types of products you will be selling, who you will be selling to,
typical and non-typical costs involved and how profitable these products will be
for you. You will want to do Keyword Analysis on the major search engines to
find out what your target audience is searching for and how they are locating
your type of business online. Another thing you might consider is creating a
solid business plan. Business plan creation software and guides are all over the
internet. Just Google Business Plan Guide. Finding out what your competition is
doing is a great way to discover new ideas and plans to being more profitable.
You will want to distinguish your new business from the competition so be
creative, don’t just copy off of what the competition is doing. Once you have a
solid plan in place you are ready to move forward to creating the business
website, establishing a customer base and then generating revenue.
Step 3: Establish Web Presence. Now that you have your idea and plan
set, it’s time to take action. You can start by contacting a shared-space
website hosting company to establish web presence. You will also need to
purchase your domain name from a registrar like GoDaddy.com or Register.com.
Often, hosting companies will allow you one free domain name registration with
hosting service activation. Hosting service is typically sold in annual fees of
$240.00 to $360.00. Once you have your hosting and domain name registered you
can build out the website.
Step 4: Building the Website. Contacting a local website development
company is your next step. Working locally with a website developer allows you
to meet the person or people that will be responsible for creating your
profitable business for you face-to-face. If you feel that your business idea is
going to revolutionize the internet world and put Google or PayPal to shame,
then you might consider asking your website development company to sign a
non-disclosure agreement. This will ensure that the website company won’t steal
your idea or share it with any of their other clients. Another good idea is to
request a quote before deciding on a website development company. Most will
offer this as part of a free consultation to find out your project details. Your
website developer will need to know specific things like the goal of your
business, types of web pages your site will have, the content that will go on
each page and obtain logos, graphics or photos from you.
Step 5: Generating Sales and Customers. After all this is what you
want your website to do right? Unfortunately it isn’t easy, don’t expect to wake
up tomorrow morning with thousands of pending sales and money flowing into your
merchant account. This will take time, dedication, the right promotion
techniques and a lot of effort on your part. Nowadays creating a static HTML
website isn’t enough to generate sales and customers through your website.
Typical internet browsers are becoming more and more used to shopping carts,
interactive guides, live chat support, contact forms and quote request forms.
These are all great ideas that once combined will create a very solid and trust
worthy online business website. Your website development company will be able to
set up all of these features for you. If they can’t, find a new website
development company fast! If you plan on being more personal with your
customers, you might be interested in creating a Blog or Discussion Forum.
These are great ways to generate topics and ideas to discuss. This will also
develop a loyal community who will continually revisit and shop more on your
website.
Step 6: Promotion. Internet promotion is great because it allows you
to target your customers without the large budget requirements such as print or
television and radio advertisements. The first and foremost internet promotion
is Search Engine Optimization. This is the technique of developing quality,
accurate and reliable content on your website. Search Engine Optimization also
includes, Title, META and ALT Image tags which Search Engine spiders will index
allowing you to place higher the keywords you are targeting. Other forms of
internet promotion include affiliate programs which allow you to offer
commission based payouts to visitors of your website who refer people to your
site, PayPerClick (PPC) campaigns which allow you to place in the top one or two
spots on a Search Engine results page for a set bid amount, participating in
online forums, communities and discussions related to your business’ subject or
target audience and writing online articles such as this one which will increase
links back to your website.
Step 7: Managing & Maintaining. Managing your customer base and
maintaining your website content is just as important as all of the work you put
into it in the beginning. Your website development company will be able to offer
you website maintenance and update service based on a set monthly fee. Adding
new, fresh content to your website is critical in raising your search engine
rankings and getting customers to revisit your site frequently. Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) software is available to help you track customers
and maintain a lasting relationship. Most systems are web based and can be
integrated into your website for you by your web development company. If you
prefer to maintain the content on your website by making the updates yourself
instead of paying your website developer to do the work, consider a Content
Management System (CMS). Content Management Systems typically cost more to set
up, but allow you to avoid the monthly maintenance fees.
