Building and managing your website like a business (instead of a design challenge) makes all the difference.
If you think that having a successful website, or successful Internet business, means you need to know Dreamweaver or HTML or Flash or javascript or Photoshop or SEO (search engine optimization), then think again. A similar line of thinking says that if your site looks pretty with some really cool Flash animation, then it’s sure to be a success.
Many people start off with this line of thinking and end up wasting a year or more trying to build a website for their brick-and-mortar business, or an Internet-based business, with little or no traffic. They scratch their heads and wonder where they went wrong. Surely, because they’ve used an expensive web design tool, or know HTML or PHP or CSS, or have been staring at their Google Analytics until their head hurts, that they can build a website that will work for them.
You Need A Different Paradigm
Ouch! Sorry, but a whole different paradigm is needed. It’s actually to your advantage if you don’t have any of this kind of programming background to cloud your thinking. Building a successful website has more to do with doing in-depth market research before you publish your first page, writing to “presell” without sounding like a sales pitch, and building and maintaining a relationship with site visitors.
And then continuing to manage your growing site as a business. What does that mean, you ask. Well, the traditional definition of “doing business” is seeking the highest profit. And, admittedly, business can’t stay in business if there’s no profit. But, there’s also factors of establishing a favorable relationship with visitor (customers) and taking time to step back and assess what’s working and what’s not (instead of doing the same ‘ol thing and getting the same ‘ol results).
This could ultimately lead us into a discussion of the People, Planet, Profits model of business, which is a favorite interest of mine, but that subject is for another day.
Ok, So How Do I Get Started In The Right Direction?
I you’re a committed do-it-yourselfer, signing on for a subscription to SBI! is the best thing you can do for your website success. Look at it as a an education in doing e-business. It’s a great way to re-tool one’s skill sets. Re-train. Develop the skill sets you need to build YOUR OWN profitable e-business.
It doesn’t matter if your objective is to build a website for your real-world brick-and-mortar business, or to build a website that IS your business (you’re selling digital products or doing affiliate marketing, etc.). The process is really the same. Know your market, brainstorm ways to sell to those that are willing to pay (golf is often used as an example as a niche with rabid buyers), do your keyword research, growing your site over time with great content and a program for continued optimization, and writing to persuade your browsers to become buyers.
Stop Your Head From Spinning!
But, now that you have some beginning knowledge about what goes into a website you can decide whether you really want to spend the incredible amount of time it takes to build a great website… or hire a professional to deftly set up you territory in cyberspace. It’s good to have this background information before hiring a web designer, but I hope you can see that your money spent on a pro who knows the Internet is money well spent. And we’ll help you to keep your head from spinning from information overload 
