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Before You Build Your Website: 8 Common Misconceptions

Guest post by: John Williams

Article Overview: If you’re feeling pressure to create an Internet site for your company, you’re not alone. Even if you don’t want to sell your products or services directly over the Internet, simply maintaining a professional-looking, well-functioning Internet site can help a new company seem more established. (Conversely, having an unappealing, poorly functioning site hurts.) Before you get started on that online component to your business, though, consider the following common misconceptions:

Before You Build Your Website: 8 Common Misconceptions

1) "If I build it, they will come". Marketing your site may not be as easy as it seems. You'll need economical ways to direct traffic to your site on a national (or international) level. Perhaps the most obvious way is to advertise on search engines like Google and Overture, but this can get expensive. Unfortunately, it can take months or even years for your URL to turn up near the top of organic searches. Investigate other ways to get eyes to your site, like affiliate programs, e-mail newsletters, and partnering. 2) Online, the more you offer, the more you'll sell (generalization vs. specialization). Trying to be all things to all people rarely works. It may seem logical that the more you have to offer, the more people you'll attract. However, even if you attract them, will they buy? The "general" aspect of your offering will communicate that the value of your product/service is equal to that of others - so price becomes the only issue, and branding becomes difficult. In today's marketplace, there's a powerful demand for specialized products and services. The point is to differentiate your company from your competitors. Determine your niche and stick to it.

3) The best way to generate sales is to copy the competition - in everything from marketing strategies and positioning to sales offers and design choices. Remember the adage that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? This means that when you imitate, you're not just reminding your audience about your competition - you're suggesting they're better! Certainly you can learn things from what your competition does, but blaze your own trail if you're serious about branding your company.

4) Your Home page should explain everything about your business, or you'll lose visitors. You've got about 3 seconds to hook visitors - not bore them with visually overwhelming text. Grab their attention by being clear, concise and compelling.

5) Once I get my site up, sales will skyrocket. Yes, your potential customer pool has grown exponentially - but so has your competition. How will you stand out? How will you locate the people most likely to buy your product/service?

6) Websites should be slick, with lots of bells and whistles. On the Internet, functionality is king. High-tech gimmicks may look great, but load slow. Of course, it's best to find a good balance between form and function.

7) Building a website is easy - I'll just buy a how-to book. Whether or not you can do-it-yourself depends on the type of site you want and your own experience and skills. For example, will you require shopping cart functionality or database programming? Building a website is deceptively complex and requires a variety of skill sets, from HTML savvy to good artistic taste.

8) Everybody else has a site, so I should too. Thinking through the real purpose of your site is crucial. Is it to sell your product? Increase awareness? Provide information to drive local sales? Add credibility? Despite what some critics say, creating an "online brochure" is a legitimate reason to build a site. However, it is a very different purpose than selling directly over the Internet.

Clarifying your purpose for wanting a website is a perfect starting point. Good luck!

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Article Tags: build your website, business card, common misconceptions, Do it Yourself Logo, internet site, logo design, website design



Related Forum Posts
Re: what position to request? - Hi Michael, Great suggestion from David, or you could try something around a design consultancy, How about Website Design Consultant, Design and Development Manager, Website Support and Development Manager or maybe Internet Business Development Consultant. Ultimately whatever you are comfortable with and good luck for the future, Mal.
Re: Great start, but no finish - My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan
Re: How to do Link Building? - Be diligent. Build blogs.Pay attention to the contents.
Re: How can I promote my site? - There are various useful techniques for promoting a website. In SEO the techniques could be "white hat" and "black hat" techniques. White hat techniques includes following techniques to promote website as per the search engine rules. - Search Engine Friendly Tags - Website submission to Search Engines - Website Submission to Social Sites (Like twitter, Facebook) - Articles Promotion & Press Release Promotion - Quality Directories promotion - Contribution to Blogs, Forums Black hat techniques can reduce website strength in the search engine and can treat site as spam that could be following. - Keywords Stuffing. - Hidden Links - Maximum Links of unknown sites.
How do you know if you have a good idea? - [quote="orxan":3118uboz]My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan[/quote:3118uboz] Thanks orxan! But how do you know if you truly have a good idea or not? If we ask ourselves, we may be suffering from tunnel vision. On the other hand, friends/family may try to discourage us from pursuing a small business because of their own fears, while others will simply give us an empty "you can do it!" line.


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