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Plan Your Web Site for Profits

Copyright © 2005-2008 Leva Duell

Most businesses fail to plan for online success. Knowing your purpose, audience, and uniqueness are the first steps to developing a successful web site. Follow these three steps to position your web site for profits.

Step 1: Determine Your Purpose

The first step in planning a web site is to determine what you want to accomplish. Do you want to sell products and services, find new customers, generate leads, establish credibility, or improve customer service?

The purpose of your web site will affect its content and design. Depending on your goal, you may want an email form, articles, a sales letter, product information, pictures, a secure online order form, and a shopping cart.

Step 2: Define Your Target Audience and Their Needs

Many web sites are too general, trying to attract everybody. Don't make that mistake. Your web site will be more profitable when focusing on your ideal prospects who are likely to buy your products or services. Ask the following questions to create a profile of your ideal customers.

After defining your ideal customers, target your web site's content, message, and design directly to them. Here are some examples of how your audience affects the design of your web site. Make your text larger If you are targeting seniors. Use a conservative design If your prospects are accountants, Make your design colorful for children. Avoid movies, sounds, Flash animation, or Java programming if your customers have slow computers and Internet connections,

To target your content to your ideal customers, tell right away what your web site is about and what's in it for them. If they don't read further they were not prospects. Attract your target audience with a benefit-oriented headline and provides valuable, useful, and interesting information your prospects are interested in.

Step 3: Demonstrate Your Uniqueness

Emphasize your uniqueness to make your web site stand out and set you apart from your competition. Attract your audience with a benefit that is different from other web sites. What is your distinct advantage? What separates you from your competition? What is distinctive about your offer?

Visiting competing web sites will give you ideas about content, design, and features you may need for your web site. Then, develop a site that stands out and distinguishes you from them.

Answer these questions to help you formulate your uniqueness.

Determine what makes your online business unique. Then you can emphasize your uniqueness to make your web site stand out and set you apart from your competition.

Plan your web site for profits. Determine what you want to accomplish with your web site, who your ideal audience is, and what makes your online business unique. Only after implementing these steps are you ready to start developing your web content.