Crafting a Successful Website - An Effective Guide

1. Conceiving a Web Site Setting objectives, generating ideas, and knowing your customers are all essential to creating a successful Web site.

2. Goal and Objectives • Who is your target audience? • What do you hope to accomplish? • When do you want it to be up and running? • Where on the Internet do you want your site to appear? • Why do you want to build a Web site?

3. Goals and Objectives • Goals are general targets you want or expect to reach sometime in the future. • Objectives are specific targets you want to reach by a certain time, the progress toward which can be measured.

4. Establishing Goals • What are you promoting? • Do you want to showcase your work for potential employers? • What do you want to express to investors, consumers, employees?

5. Mission Statements • Express your goals through a mission statement posted on your site. • Explain the purpose of your site and what you hope to accomplish with it. • Research mission statements online. • You can obtain assistance in creating a mission statement at: www.franklincovey.com/missionbuilder

6. Writing Goals • Write a list of your goals with a brief outline for each. • Look at Web sites with similar goals and read their mission statements. • Establish your goals so that you can set specific objectives.

7. Setting Objectives • What kind of site do you want to create? • Do you want a blog or newsletter as part of your site? • What subjects do you want to cover? • Do you want your site to link to other sites? • How will you organize your site? • While your goals may remain the same, your objectives might change as you build the site.

8. Brainstorming • Get together with a group to brainstorm, or generate and share ideas. • Exchange, inspire, modify, and combine ideas. • Look at different perspectives, build from one another’s ideas. • Write down every idea; you never know when an idea will turn out to be useful.

9. Conceptualizing • Start sketching samples of the look and feel you want for your site. • This should be based on your goals and the ideas you came up with during your brainstorming process. • Think about the writing that will go into your site, the graphic designs, and programming necessary.

10. Think of your site as having a personality: Is it playful, elegant, classic, edgy, or practical? Your site’s design and functionality should complement its personality.

11. Know Your Audience • Identify your target market ~ the specific group of customers you want to attract. • Research the demographics of online businesses for the Web site you are creating. You will want to know your market in order to design a site that is appealing to the customer. • Look at sites with similar target markets.

12. Know the Customer If customers are shopping online for a particular product, it’s important that the Web site appeals to them. When people feel comfortable with a site’s look and feel, they’re more likely to buy something and return again. Repeat business, of course, is one of the keys to e-commerce success.