Ask Not What Your Website Can Do For You…

From the moment you contemplate a new site, think about how much time you can invest to make it successful; both during and after development. A well implemented site will bring you more business, improve your image and all those other good things. But not without ongoing effort.

A lot of people think of a web site like a new car: even if it’s expensive, once paid for, the fun begins the moment you drive it off the lot. Unfortunately, most sites are a more like owning a boat than a car. If you know anything about boats, you know that buying the thing is only the beginning!

So before we start, discuss how much time you have in these three areas:

1. During design, do you have the time to obtain all necessary resources and go over the content repeatedly?
2. After deploying, do you have the time to regularly feed it fresh content? If it’s a store front, have you budgeted time every day or week to process orders and update your products?
3. Despite what you may have heard, no site sells itself. Every site that becomes popular does so because of a marketing campaign. Let me repeat that one more time: no matter how cool, your site will not generate traffic by its mere existence. So let’s discuss how we’re going to get the word out. Again, this is an ongoing process.

I don’t want to dash your enthusiasm. Developing a great web site is an exciting thing. But it’s like getting into shape. The results are worth it, but sadly, it never ends. (sigh) 😀