The Global Concept of
Web Development
By: Case Stevens
Web development is quite
complex, because there are so many disciplines involved. It takes some skills
to build a web site that delivers exactly what you want, with a good layout and
with community building and you need to know technical aspects as well as
research and marketing, promotion, writing, etc. Web development also means
hard work. It's an ever-ongoing effort as you will see below and if you don't
have enough (human) resources for it it's going to be hard. It's not the money
that count so much (the site will be a reflection of your budget, but lots of
small budgets already have been very successful) as well as time, energy,
persistence and a great will.
Let's try to break it down
to the basic elements.
Why?
A very popular reason to
create a web presence is ... to have a web presence. "Competitors have it,
so should we" is often heard. A defensive strategy. That is definitely the
wrong way. Companies or small businesses should have a better reason to be on
the Internet. You should plan that carefully. Most of the time it starts with
an idea, a product or a service. And unless you want a personal home page, you
better find out first if there's a market for that idea, product or service.
Internet presence comes down to three things: marketing, promotion and (fresh)
valuable content.
Step 1
So, if you have an idea,
product or service suited for the Internet, first find out if there's a market
that wants to pay for it. Just use the Search Engines and Directories to find
similar ideas or similar markets. If you do not have an idea, product or
service yet try to find a (common) need or dissatisfaction in a certain group
of people that want to spend money to solve their problems (niche, target
market). Lurk in Discussion Groups and Forums. Post some questions about what
is needed most. Develop a solution to fill a need, relieve a pain or satisfy a
desire.
Step 2
Develop a USP, a Unique
Selling Proposition. It should be a unique aspect of your business, something
that separates you from your competitors. And locate where your customers are,
what they do, what they read, what interests them, in short: how you can reach
them and where. Define your keywords and keyphrases. This may seem trivial, but
if they can't find you, there's no business! This is crucial for the concept.
Target your audience!
Step 3: Build It!
Sounds easy. It is when
you exactly know how to do that. And even than it's quite complex. Develop a
site that sells with deadly precision, build content, write sales letters, the
technical stuff (CGI, Java, etc.), prepare Autoresponders, make articles, get
references and so on. Try to automate as much as possible. It gives you more
time for the actions in the next steps. And make sure that you can stay in
touch with prospects. Your newsletter can do that. Have the content ready.
Step 4: Get traffic!
Here's the promotion part
of the process. Search Engines and Directories are great to get targeted
traffic. Despite of all remarks regarding constant changes of algorithms it's
still worth while. Press releases, articles, forums and if you want to banners
and advertising are all in place here. Select your resources with care by using
the information from Step 2.
Step 5: Test, test, test!
Check the results. Does
the system work the way you planned? Can you improve it? You will not know
unless you test it. Try different sales letters, prices, guarantees, other
layouts or navigation (only change one thing at the time) and check the results
again. If nothing works, go back to Step 1 and start all over again. If it
works, go back to Step 2 and refine the whole system. After that go back to
Step 1 and develop the next product, because now you are well situated for back
end products.
