Basic Tips to Creating A successful Website

I will also cover branding and Target Audiences. 

 

So you want to create a Forum/Blog or Website but you don't no were to start. You will first need to figer out what your sites going to be about. what I mean by this is what topic is your site based on. I see so many people follow the trend and go with a promotion site. I think this is bad for a few reasons. 

 

Firstly, Promotion Sites & forums is not a new idea. they all follow the same pattern. the market is very crowded with promotion forums and so it would be harder to make a dent or become popular within that crowded. I am not saying it isn't possible, I am saying it would be difficult. 

 

Secondly, you have to have content or something different. Promotion sites offer other website owners to promote there website. but what I see is Promotion sites promoting other promotion sites. for an advertiser like my self, I get put off by forums that offer that same services as the one there promoting. for your site to be successful you need to think bigger. 

 

That's why research and idea development is important. The first thing you need to do when you want to create a site is sit down with a pen and paper. You need to ask your self some very basic but important questions: 

 

>> What is the site about?

>> What is your target audience?

>> How are you going to target them?

>> Do you have competition?

>> Has your idea been done?

 

You need to think about the questions when you are developing your idea. Then you need to research into the questions and trying to find out as much information as possible. You need to create a portfolio of Primary and Secondary research this will help you develop your idea. 

 

How To Get Your Primary Research?

 

Primary Research is the research you find out your self this is by simple communication skills. Listed below are methods I use when developing any idea:

 

>> Ask People

>> Create Surveys

>> Have a Focus Group

>> Interviews

 

once you have this information you can then work on your Secondary Research, This involves:

 

>> Searching The internet

>> Search in books/newspapers & magazine's

>> Finding any information that was written but not by you    

 

You know have your portfolio :D You can now start designing your site. I start by sketching out my ideas by using a pen or paper. This would really be designing the layout of the site (how it would like to the visitor). I would then create a wire frame this is a digital copy of my sketch which is a finalised layout of the site. 

 

I would then enter a program called Adobe Photoshop (which you can download a free 30 day trial form their website) which I would then mask out the layout designed by using guide Lines. After that I would Build my design using a colour scheme which i researched into in my research.

 

Once I have completed my design I would then save all the peace individually and begin coding the site. This is a slow process but , will allow you to create a great website. 

 

I said at the start of this post that you need to know your target audience what I meant by that was that you need to understand who your audience is and what they want. For example Facebook is targeted at young teenagers allowing them to communicate with there friends. you must understand that a target audience cannot be everyone, you must target fans of a certain genera or age range. once you have this information, you should have a popular site.

 

Thank You For Reading!

 

Jack Baker AKA Strike