Successfully Planning a Website

[Joshuad]

Joshuad submitted a new Article:

Successfully Planning a Website

About

This article is dedicated to newer and inexperienced webmasters but should be considered as a good read to experienced administrators alike. This article is written for Drake Technologies and The Admin Zone exclusively, but if you would like to use this for your website, be sure to leave a source link.

This article will be broken down into several sections and I will attempt to organize them chronologically in the order of items you should put into consideration first on the planning stages of developing your website. This is written by Joshua Drake, a freelance developer and web enthusiast with over a decade of experiences building, buying, selling, and flipping web sites.

Section 1 - Defining Your Niche

niche [nich] noun, adjective, verb, niched, nich·ing.
–noun

2.
a place or position suitable or appropriate for a person or thing: to find one's niche in the business world.
3.
a distinct segment of a market.
4.
Ecology . the position or function of an organism in a community of plants and animals.
–adjective
5.
pertaining to or intended for a market niche; having specific appeal: niche advertising.

Every website, regardless of what it's about, has a defined niche, and if it's been online for more than a year, the webmaster has typically succeeded in making their website define said niche.

When you are planning to start your website, the first thing you need to decide is your niche. This is something that once you are out of planning, MUST be set in stone. One of the worst mistakes a new webmaster can make is changing their target niche and generalizing their content, diversifying their audience and crippling their traffic. Typically, if you have an idea for a website, this part is already taken care of, but as I just mentioned, you must be dedicated to your niche if you want to maintain any authority with your website down the road.

For this article, I'm going to use a generic niche, gaming. Should we make a gaming site? That's a rather vague topic and has been done 3 million times over by individuals and private businesses alike with funding far greater than ours, so to make this a more feasible idea, lets specify further. We are going to carve our little place on the internet and make a name for our website as an authority on XBox 360 gaming!...

Read more about this article here...

 

[iWinterBoard]

Outstanding article! It was a very good read.

 

[Akela]

It is a very good strategy you described. Great work!

[Not only] Beginners, listen up!

 

[KyBB]

Wow, fantastic comprehensive article. I'm still a noob, so this is helpful...thanks

 

[Creaky]

Great article, some very useful info in there.

 

[FlipnFeedMe]

Great article...
But...
Does here has got any article related to successfully planning a forum?

 

[Abhinandangarg]

You have pointed great points for regarding web development, many time people unaware about seo and other thing they ignore that things. they design their website at cheapest rates but they don't know that cheap thing is not good for long term.

they should pay for mention these kind of thing into their website.

 

[Joshuad]

Thank you for the comments, everyone. Victor, I'm not quite so sure I understand yours. If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me. Right now I don't have internet so I can only check so often (via cell phone), but if you PM me it will instantly notify my phone so I will know there is something to look at.

I have another article nearly complete that I will be releasing for my own site as well as TAZ regarding 10 design and method mistakes commonly made by new webmasters / administrators that I'm hoping will be an enjoyable read for everyone.

I also have several other articles in their planning stages. Keep checking!

 

[freebroc1]

Outstanding article! It was a very good read.

Very informative but lengthy article.

 

[Joshuad]

So many posts have been deleted for spam in this thread that my previous post doesn't even make sense anymore o.0

@FlipnFeedMe: A lot of the information that I have provided in this article (as well as others I've written) can be translated into forums. Actually, all of the content I have provided in this article can be translated into forums. Just reread it and think of forums.

@Abhinandangarg (that was a mouthful *pant*): The expensive route isn't necessarily the best, either. Typically you are just wasting money. You want to go the safest route, and the smartest one. I rarely spend more than domain and hosting costs when launching a website/forum. I upgrade to premium software and invest money in cosmetics and advertising AFTER it is launched, and I know that it will not only be successful, but maintain my interests. That is important when you are building and maintaining your site, because at the end of the day it is still YOUR site, and if you don't like it, who will?

@freebroc1: I'm no teacher, but I've been a skill trainer for years in about every job that I do. I've learned that the best way to teach is through extreme repetition. If you read through my writings, you will notice I repeat myself a lot, it's not an accident. It's proven psychologically to force retention. I apologize for it being a lengthy article, but you will find few short ones from me.

 

[MrPolarZero]

wow! I am so impressed with what you have written here. I have nothing to add actually

 

[aemillerco]

VERY nice article. Thank you!

 

[d3100]

You really could make a short ebook expanding this article. It's very well written. Thanks

 

[Sore]

A very nice article although I loathe GoDaddy.

 

[hasan_am09]

its amazing post in my view, must be helpful for newbie, who has a plan for working a web site.

 

[jackob2916]

Outstanding article! It was a very good read.

Really you are true this is outstanding article with complete explanation..

 

[ipod163]

wow this article was great! ahha while reading it one of the ideas given out i had allready planned... the idea about having a store in the forum and one of the first things being sold would be shirts with the forums logo on it. I swear I had that idea and i really haven't seen that done before.