So you're considering building a website and you may be feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. While this can easily happen it is wise to whip out some note paper and write down exactly what you want to achieve and what steps you need to take in order to get there.

So the first thing you are going to need to do is put the foundation in place. This will require extensive research. Now contrary to popular opinion I start this process a little bit differently than what is generally advised.

Now while we all know that you need to find a hungry market doing this can be a little more difficult than explained in actual fact that is just like everything else when it comes to doing anything online.

Actuality can be quite different from theory. So what I do is visit the article directories. I punch in a keyword that I am interested in and see what articles come up relative to that. Then I check the articles out to see how many page views they have received over a given period of time.

If an article receives a lot of page views then I know that there are a number of people looking for information relative to this subject. I also know that if I write an article on this topic that it will receive a lot of page views and as a result get a lot of click throughs to my site which will help me get traffic quickly without having to worry about what Google and everyone else does.

Next I visit the forums to see what solutions are being discussed then I go back to the articles and check what the writers are promoting and see if it is a valid good product to help people achieve the goals they desire. If so then I make note of it. Now I feel a little more confident about building a site around this theme.

The next thing you have to consider is the domain. A keyword in the domain is helpful but not essential. Your next quest is hosting. You need a good host as this is your life line.

Finally you want to be able to build the site effectively so as to achieve good search engine rankings. Keyword research relative to your overall theme will help you to do this plus you need to structure the pages properly so that you site can be understood by the search engines.

Do not worry if you lack technical knowledge as there are site builders out there to help you overcome this challenge.

Select any of the following links to watch some free videos.

This is a question you will have to address. Many folks just a build a website but do not think out why they are really doing it. As a result they don't take it seriously and therefore they do not get serious results. This makes logical sense right?

A website in and of itself means nothing unless it has visitors and achieves a certain objective. So you have to be clear what you want to achieve as this will help you focus on your research and build a site that can achieve your objective. Quality research will help you build a quality website.

To build a business online you are going to have to build a relationship with your site visitors. You will need to show them how to connect the dots and you can only do this by providing valuable content that is benefit driven.

Furthermore you are going to have to show them solid evidence of how your product or service can help them achieve results. Connecting the dots means moving them closer to their outcome. Once they can follow this and see how it will work for them you will naturally build credibility which will result in you having a profitable website.

As mentioned when you build your site you want to clearly have your visitor's objectives in mind so that you can address their concerns and overcome their objections. If you can help them achieve their goals it will be a win win situation for all parties concerned.

How's your website, then?

I'm not asking whether it's a good site or not, but what its performance is like. Is it slow to load? Does it have problems with certain web browsers? Occasionally you'll find that code working perfectly on, say Internet Explorer, doesn't work with Firefox. And vice-versa. Any coding problems?

How should I know? Who... who cares? I hear you ask.

Because it's important. You only have seconds -- tenths of seconds, even -- to make an impression on people who come to your site. If the site isn't working, has dead links or some old code that doesn't work and leaves the site with blank areas, you can bet your life those lovely, potential customers will click away at the drop of a pixel. And more than likely they'll be clicking away to the welcoming site of one of your competitors.

Wake up and smell the Mugicha! After reading this post you no longer have any excuses for not knowing. There's a website I often turn to when I want to see how my own site is doing, performance-wise. It makes for uncomfortable reading sometimes, because it doesn't hesitate to tell me stuff I don't particular want to hear -- the site's too heavy, too many images, too many elements, you've failed at life, you're a bad, bad person... et depressing cetera. But it's well worth it.

I have no connection whatsoever with the owners of the site and this isn't an affiliate link, so click in confidence. Here it is:

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

Put in the full address of your website and have a look at what it says. Pretty eye-opening stuff, eh? You didn't realise it was that bad, did you?!

I'm not particularly interested in contacting the owners of the site to ask for their optimization services, but the results I get when I check my site are very interesting. Useful, too. Oh, and completely free. Check it out.