Many of my clients have asked me how to get started on having a web site. Should they create a web site themselves? How should they do it? Should they hire someone else to create a web site for them? What makes a good web site?

I usually recommend stepping back from an idea of a web site, and creating a list of what you actually need. You do not need a web site per se; what you really need is a process for getting clients online. Your web site is one of the main pieces in this process.

So, what do you need your web site for? Ask yourself these questions about your future web site:

– Do you need a place to promote your services?

– Do you want to create a hands-off system for getting clients online? Do you want to be able to build your list and use online marketing techniques to do that?

– Do you want to sell products such as ebooks, teleseminars and others?

– Do you need a membership web site?

– Do you need an automated system to get people to your web site and promote your services to them?

What to include on your web site and how to design it will depend on the purpose your web site will serve. If you don’t know what you need your web site to do, don’t hire a designer, as you will waste your money.

Only when you know what the web site needs to do, hire someone to create it for you.
Also, there is no reason to have a web site, unless you are going to use it and other online marketing techniques to attract more clients. If you will not use it for marketing, it will just be another business expense that will not pay for itself.

If you do want to use your web site to market your business, decide what you need your web site to do, before doing anything else. Doing this now will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

I have helped many clients to save thousands of dollars on their web sites – by helping them create a web site plan to get their web site right the very first time they design it or outsource to have it designed for them. You may want to join my mentoring program at https://www.MarketingSalad.com to learn how to create a plan for your web site.
Biana Babinsky

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Digital Products, Information Products, Internet Marketing, Internet Marketing Coaching, Marketing Funnel, Solopreneurs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.