Web Design Check List

Preparation

1. Set Your Goals

Not setting goals is like trying to find your destination without a map or GPS. Write down the goals of your business on a piece of paper and display them in a place where you’ll constantly be reminded of them. They should consist of long term goals (ie make $5000/month so you can spend more time with your family) and short-term goals (ie monthly, weekly, daily). The purpose of short term goals is to achieve your long term ones. Create a timeline for the planning, building and marketing of your site. Without doing this, procrastination may take over your goals. Decide how much money you want to spend to create your site and how much you will invest for its promotion.

Set a target date for what you want your site to achieve – you can always adjust it if you need to. Make a goal for how many visitors you will attract to your site.

What percentage of these will be actual sales? When do you expect to make a profit?

2. Stay organized

Organization is an essential part of developing a successful business:

• Create a daily work schedule for an organized approach to each day.
• Use an email program that will filter your messages into specific folders.
• Organize your computer folders and files for quick and easy access.
• Create a “Frequently Asked Questions” page to lessen support requests.
• Create templates for frequently used messages.
• Create a page (that resides on your computer) that contains of a list of products and  affiliat

  programs you’re promoting. Include your log-in information and hyperlinks for

  easy access.

3. Be passionate about your niche

Even though it may be tempting to pursue a niche just for the money, you’ll probably loss interest over time because your heart is not in it. Passion will help you to overcome the hurdles you’ll encounter in your business.

4. Spend money to make money

You must be willing to invest in your online business if you want it to be successful. This includes:

• Domain Name
• Design
• Hosting
• Autoresponder
• SEO, PPC

5. Register A Domain Name

Register a domain name that is short and easy to remember. Avoid registering a long domain address or one that includes dashes or numbers because it will only cause confusion. Even though a .com extension is preferable, it probably won’t be available so you have to get creative by adding a word at the beginning or end or selecting a different extension (ie .net, .info, .biz, .co)

DESIGN

6. Define your website’s purpose

Without a clear purpose for your site, you will not know where you are heading. For example, the purpose of my design site, is to help small business owners attain an online presence on the web to sell their products or services. Now, write down the statement of purpose for your web site. Go over it a few times to make sure it is crystal clear, otherwise your customers will try to figure it out for themselves.

Will you be designing an informational site in which you will be presenting information or an ecommerce site where you’ll be selling products. An informational site can be monetized by promoting affiliate products, sell your own products or sell advertising (ie banner ads, text links. An e-commerce site is essentially an online store for selling products online such as clothes, ebooks or services. Both types of sites can be effective, however your success ultimately depends on your website design and marketing strategies.