The Silent Avatar Speaks

Today’s blog is in answer to a question not uncommon to those who are venturing into a web presence, and a common thread is “I have no idea what I want, or “I’ll leave it to you to decide”, or, “I don’t know where to start”.

In a lot of ways designing a website is a bit like having a baby.

First there is the thought you would like to have a one. You’ll consider if you have what it takes to handle a baby – you research what’s required.

When you decide that you do have what it takes to have a baby, you then you move into the “conception stage”. The conception stage is laying down the DNA. It’s the blueprint for the baby (this is the design process stage).

Then the “birth” stage commences – the design work is undertaken to bring it to launch status (when the site goes live).

Then after the birth (the website launch), we move in to the “teething problems” stage, monitoring any problems and tweaking the site until things settle down.

Then there is the growth stage – When you actively grow your site by increasing visitor traffic.

And last of all comes maturity – that time when the website is just about on auto pilot, where the plans laid down in the conception days start to bear fruit.

So the laying down the blueprint stage is the most critical. It will determine how your “baby” proceeds once the blueprint is determined. You efefctively are charting a course for birth.

One of the messages in “The Secret” (and if you haven’t heard about The Secret” I suggest you have a look here), is “our throughts create our reality”.

So the best place to start is imagining what you end goal is like. Start imagining.

If you have other areas of your business which are demanding your attention, then leave the “planning” of your website until your mind is clear and focused on the process of designing the website. Your whole attention needs to be focused on the preparation .

Of course you could leave it all to the designer, it’s just that in order for the designer to get an idea of what you want involves questioning you about your expectations for the site.
Leaving it up to the designer will still involve input from you in some way.

So focus on your tasks at hand which have a higher priority at this time, mindful of the tasks that a designer is required to undertake when designing a site so you can marry what you are doing now to what may be required later.

For an overview of the process just click here

One of the areas which you may have never given any consideration for is how many vistors to the site do you expect?

If you currently don’t have a website this is probably an unknown , however with a bit of maths you can get an idea of what you need to make the site a viable business to bring you sufficent income to support you.

To do this you need to sit down with a pen and paper.

Start by deciding how much income you would like to make from your website.

This is a figure only you can determine, but for the purpose of this excercise let’s say $1000 a week.

Now if you sell widgets which cost $10 each, this means you would have to sell 100 widgets to make this income – and you have to have available 100 widgets to sell!. You will also have to consider your “outgoings”, and factor them into the equation.

Now based on 100 sales you may find you need 400 visitors to your site each week to generate 100 sales (conversion rate of visitors to sales is 25% in this case). Typically conversion rates are lower, oftentimes around 5%.

Doing this excercise will focus you on what the goal is. It will also probably scare the hell out of you. You’ll probably think” how on earth am I going to get 400 (or more) visitors to my site consistently”?

Remember… we are starting with the end result in mind. We are looking to build a site which will handle this number of visitors (minimum).

Don’t worry about how this will happen at this point. If a designer has this information, then the functionality of the site can be geared towards this end result.

Every website comes with ability to track how many vistors come to your site. Monitoring this figure will determine whether you need to up your traffic generation strategies. (You can click here to see my tips on generating traffic at no cost).

Of course a designer can offer their expertise in determining what your site should have, but they still need an overview of your expectations. And you expectations are related to the end result. That’s the purpose of a design questionaire.

For those who already have a website and it’s not performing to the level they want, it’s usually better to scrap what is, and start again. Certain elements of the existing site can be usedagain, however if the site is not meeting your standard to what you envisage as your end result then you can see that things need to change radically or need to start over again.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The planning stage of the site is the most critical. It’s a project. It’s not something you do when there’s nothing else to do. If you have other projects on the boil wait until you are free to give it your attention.

After all it’s your “baby” and you are the creator. Give it the attention it deserves and you will reap the rewards.

Tags: General // Add Comment »