Small,Business,amp,#58,Website DIY Small Business Q & A: Website Design Considerat

When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in

Q: Should I build and maintain my business Web site myself or paysomeone else to do the work for me? -- Wesley L.A: When you say, pay someone else to do the work for you, Wesley, I am going to assume that you are talking about hiring a professionalWeb site designer to do the work and not your next-door neighbor'steenage son. If my assumption is correct, then read on. If not, goahead and surf on over to Dilbert.com. You will get no good outof the advice I'm about to give, so you might as well consult Dilbertfor your hot business tips.Should you build and maintain your business Web site yourself or paysomeone to do it for you? Let me answer your question with a coupleof my own. Number one: is building and maintaining Web sites the keyfocus of your business? Number two: could your time be better spentdoing more important things like, oh I don't know, say running yourbusiness? If your answers were no and yes, respectively, then youhave no business building and maintain a Web site. Remember this: every minute you spend on tasks that are not relatedto the key focus of your business is time spent to the detriment ofyour business. In other words, every minute you spend focusing ontasks that do not contribute to the growth of your business and therebyincrease your bottom line is time wasted. If you want to be a web designer, be a web designer. However, if thekey focus of your business is building widgets, it doesn't take arocket scientist to figure out that your time would be better spentbuilding widgets, not Web sites.Case in point: I once had a very wealthy dentist ask if I could teachhim how to maintain his Web site so he wouldn't have to pay me to doit. Now my teeth had helped put this guy's kids through college, butthat didn't seem to matter. At that moment he was more concerned abouthaving to pay for changes to his Web site than my personal oral hygiene. Sure, I said, I'll be glad to teach you how to update your Web site, just as soon as you teach me how to clean my own teeth so I don't haveto pay you to do it. He got the point. And he charged me enough forthe cleaning to keep his site updated for months. Smart man.Many business owners think they can't afford a professionally designedWeb site and that simply is not true. While the old adage, "you getwhat you pay for" is never more true than when applied to Web site design, having a professional web designer do the work for you is money well spent. A well-designed Web site can bring you a many-foldreturn on your investment. You can't say that about too many othercollaterals. While it is best to leave Web site design and maintenance to the experts,it is up to you (or someone considered a subject matter expert within our company) to provide the designer with the content (text and photographs)that best conveys your company's message to your customers. A Web site,no matter how well designed, is meaningless if it lacks the content required to interest customers in the products you sell or services youprovide. Here's are a few questions that, once answered, will help ensure thatyour Web site's message is as appealing as its design. Go over thesepoints with the designer before the design process begins as the answerswill help determine the direction your Web site's design should take.What Is The Purpose Of Your Web Site?Most business Web sites have two purposes: (1) to educate the consumerand, (2) to sell them products or services. If you sell shoes, for example,the purpose of your Web site is to educate potential customers on thequality and durability of your shoes and as a result, to sell them shoes.If you paint houses the purpose of your Web site is to educate home ownerson why your services are superior to other painters and sell them on hiring you to paint their house. By defining the purpose of your Website you will give the designer the information required to create aWeb site that best conveys that purpose to your target audience.Who Is My Target Audience?Your target audience consists of those folks you want to attract to your Web site: potential and current customers, future and currentemployees, possible investors, etc. Anyone who might be interestedin your company and its products or services is a member of yourtarget audience. Correctly identifying your target audience is vitalsince your Web site should be designed specifically to appeal to yourtarget audience.Put yourself in their shoes (or in front of their computers). Imagineyour Web site through their eyes. If you were visiting a Web sitesuch as yours what would you expect to find and what would you bedisappointed not to find? Identify your target audience, then haveyour Web site designed to fulfill their needs and surpass their xpectations.What Content Should My Web Site Feature?Your Web site content should be driven by the nature of your business.If you're a real estate agent, your site should feature photographs of homes you have for sale and information on buying and selling a home. If you own an auto body shop, your site might feature before and after photographs of cars that you have repaired. Remember to determine the purpose of your site, then develop the content to serve that purpose. What's My Competition Doing?The last question you should ask is one of the most important: What is your competition doing on the Web? Do a Google search for similar businesses and click around their Web sites. How are their Web sites designed? What message are they trying to convey? Are they doing a good job of conveying that message and as a result, selling products? What do you like about their Web sites? What don't you like? Make note of the things you like and the things you hate, then share your findings with your site designer. Remember, you're not stealing trade secrets here. You're just borrowing ideas.Here's to your success.Tim [email protected] For information on starting your own online or eBay business,visit http://www.dropshipwholesale.net Article Tags: Sell Them, Target Audience