In Part 1–because you are brilliant–you came up with the idea for your online business.
In Part 2–because you are dedicated to this endeavor–you came up with a good, functional name you can live with for a long time.
In Part 3–because you are looking at the bottom line–you designed a plan of how to make money, either selling a product, selling information, or selling advertising while providing information, OR, a combination of the above.
Before I go onto Part 4 I had a thought I wanted to share. You may have noticed that this website is called “The Debt Dance,” and the focus of most of the postings are how to get out of debt, make money, bring sanity to your life, etc.
So, why a series on starting a business?
It’s obvious to me but may not be to you. The Debt Dance method is about living your dream, making your dream a reality. It is my strong belief that once you “align” your sights on the target that you want the rest of your life will fall into place. See: Then the Magic Begins.)
For example, if your desire is to quit your job, be your own boss, define your own destiny and you begin to take REAL steps (like in Parts 1-3 of this series) you will start making choices that bring control into your life. With control (e.g. cutting up those damn credit cards) you can achieve any goal you set your mind to. It’s very difficult to re-design your life with the weight of debt on your shoulders. Seeing your dream helps you create change in your behaviors and your life.
So that’s why this get-out-of-debt website focuses more on goals and dreams than on budgeting and clipping coupons.
Now, to the business of Part 4: how to actually put your website together. I am no tech-y, but I can tell you that creating a website today is miles easier than it was even ten years ago.
If you are not a technologically trained person I do HIGHLY recommend taking a course or two. Even if you’re going to hire someone to design and launch it for you I still recommend education. “Sharpen the saw” is one of the best pieces of advice I have to guarantee entrepreneurial success.
First Step: take a considerable amount of time drawing on pieces of paper exactly what you want your website to contain. (If you’re not sure go visit some competitors and similar companies and glean the best of the best.) Don’t worry about graphics or where this or that box will go because your templates will pretty much tell you that. Focus instead on Categories, Articles you would have, how pages would interact with one another. You do want to look at some design features such as width (too narrow a field can be cumbersome as you grow) and you may want special features like scrolling images (flash.) You will need a general idea of these items when choosing a template.
Then think about components like RSS feeds (really simple syndication) which is a wonderful device where your viewers sign up to receive news from you. It could be that they want to know specials, or when someone comments on one of their favorite posts, etc. The important point is that it keeps them coming back and builds your viewer/customer list.
Decide if you might want a forum, if you want to hold contests or offer surveys.
Decide what type of shopping cart you will need, something very simple with just a few products or a large one that is interlinked with other products or services.
The second step, decide if you are going to do the design or if you will hire a pro. Hiring a web designer is just like hiring anyone. Make certain you will have access to her (in other words geographically close), that she has excellent references from recent clients, and that you can play around with websites she has already designed. Get a firm price, in writing (can be just a letter), and make sure the price is for the end product with a significant number of revisions. Do not just agree to an hourly wage. Spell out any ancillary expenses you will or will not cover. Set deadlines and milestones. Just as you would with a builder building your home, give incentives to finish on time. Give penalties for unreasonable delays (this has to be spelled out upfront obviously.)
Another option to hiring someone to do the whole job is to find a designer to consult with you. This is a nice compromise if your skills are fairly good but not great and your funds are limited. This works well also because you will probably need help as you progress in mastering the critical and often extraordinarily frustrating fine points.
The third step: find a host. Look for a well established company that has the hardware capability to keep you up and running. Three such companies that I’ve worked with are BlueHost, GoDaddy, and ATT/Yahoo. But there are many more. Shared hosting can be inexpensive in some cases under ten dollars per month with a one year contract. A great value.
The fourth step: find a theme. For blogging most people use WordPress and can find themes (just do a search for WordPress themes) that are very professional and are free or low cost ($30-$90.) If you are going to sell things Joomla is very popular content management system (CMS) featuring free or low cost themes (like WordPress) and many free or low cost components and add ons. Virtuemart is one example of a free shopping cart.
Beware the allure of fancy and dramatic themes. You want your viewers to see your content and products, not the artsy background. Avoid black or dark backgrounds as text is very hard to read. Two good sites I like as far as design are ProBlogger.net (very clean and easy to scan through), and BackCountry.com. The reason I like Back Country is its focus (the products) and ease of use–the directory with images is right there when you land on the page. It’s not too cluttered and it provides good info in small spaces. The masthead let’s us know what the site is about without dominating it.
Phew! I know that was a lot. It’s a big subject. It’s true what they say that you can put together a website in about an hour, but realize it will be a simple, limited site. Take your time planning, and educating yourself, and you can have a fantastic site that will convince viewers that you know what you’re talking about and that you’re trustworthy–which is about 90% of the battle with online business.
Please comment with questions/suggestions!
AS ALWAYS HERE’S A LITTLE SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU GO “WOW.” ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT GOD DOESN’T FOOL AROUND.
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