Creating a website and you already registered a domain name?

Trying to build a website around a name is very difficult to do, especially if you have not done a very important step for the process. Your first step in building your website needs to be the planning process. Many beginners do not realize this and when their website fails, they may believe they failed. But in reality they did not fail as long as they understand the missing steps and try again to rebuild their website.

Sure, many say it is very easy to create a website with only using three steps but not one of those steps is planning.

Planning your website

This is a very critical step when you create a website. You need to figure out the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. It may sound difficult to do, but if you take the time at the beginning of your building process, you will find out that in the long run it will save your time (and money).

Who will be your audience? Have you chosen a targeted niche?

What is the content going to be about on your pages? What will be your keywords?

Where are you going to host the site? Will you use free web hosting or paid?

When do you plan on this website being finished? 5 days, 30 days. Be realistic and set a target date.

Why do you want to build your own website?

How is all the steps above to help guide you with your website creation.

The steps above may take you a few minutes or could take you a day or longer. But each one is important when you create a web site.

Even if you already registered your domain name and built your site and your site is not working how you want it to, take a moment and do the 5 W's and 1 H. It might show you what you are missing.

As you know we are all fond of the easy things in life. We all like the path of least resistance. The easier we can find our way the better for us. The more complicated something appears the less we understand it and as consequence the less we like it.

With this in mind we need to approach the building of a website in a way that will avoid all of the above. Your website will need to be laid out in a way that understands the visitor's needs and addresses them clearly and concisely.

The question then becomes how to do this? When considering what subject to build your site around you will need to start your research on the forums relative to the topics of choice. For example if your passion relates to golf then you will need to visit forums where this subject is discussed.

Here you will need to look at what questions are being asked and where the people posting to this forum are having difficulty. Then you will need to get engaged and try and help. Here is how you could do this. Create a signature that links back to a free blog that asks the question "what is the biggest problem you face when it comes to golf"

On your free blog you could ask other questions. Your blog then can have a form where people can submit their questions. Of course you would need to offer them something to do this that will help their game and of course you will need to offer it for free.

Based on this you will be gathering actionable intelligence relative to your target market. With this information you can then build a website that addresses these concerns and provides a product that you are either affiliated with or that you have created yourself.

Now that you have this information you can build a real website that can generate a real income in multiple ways. You will want to build a site that is structured properly for the search engines and one which is easy to navigate for your visitors.

To conclude if you lay the groundwork properly then the rest will fall into place.

Depending on where you want to take your business, a multiple niche website can be an excellent platform with which to expand your business and cover a larger market. It could also be a good choice for you if your interests and expertise vary greatly. However, you also have a choice to just focus all your energies on building one site and staking your reputation on it. So will a multiple niche website be a good choice or will one big authority site increase your chances of success? Let's take a look at the benefits and limitations of each option:

Multiple Niche Websites:

A multiple niche website offers you an opportunity to reach several different segments of the market all at once, allowing you to cover as much ground as you can using just one or a few sites.

Advantages

A multiple niche website lets you communicate to multiple groups of potential customers and possibly close a business transaction from there. It also helps maximize your initial website building efforts, particularly because you only need to build each site around a single design concept.

Multiple niche websites can also showcase your flexibility and comprehensiveness of services that you offer. It's like having a multi-specialty site that attracts clients and customers from several different market segments and then doing business with them. Once your site has been around for sometime, it could easily pick up a minimum of 1,000 to 3,000 hits per day - even more when you've gained enough reputation and recognizability in the business.

Disadvantages

The disadvantage of a multiple niche website rests mainly on its design. Since you will be promoting different products and/or services from a single site, imagine how it would look like to a visitor. One site = hundreds of related links. And we're not just talking about internal links either.

A multiple niche website is essentially your store from which you'll be running your business. Once you're actively participating in the industry, it shouldn't be long until you find external links that you might want to refer to your visitors. Now imagine the chaos - dozens of links, banners, buttons, ads, graphics, pages upon pages, all coming from just one direction, each one crying out for attention.

If you can't manage it well, a multiple niche website can grow to be a multi-headed monster, each one heading for a different direction and demanding a different type of approach. In the end, there is a danger that you could be competing with no one else but yourself.

Build multiple niche websites if...

- You have the expertise and the experience in the specific niches you want to focus on.

- You have the skills, time or manpower to devote for the development of each niche.

- You have the resources to spend for the demands that a multiple niche site will require.

- You have established an organized and well-designed business processing system to handle transactions such as sales, discounting, customer service, subscription, etc.

- You have the patience of a saint and the eye for detail of an IRS auditor.

Single Authority Site

The single authority site is just that - one site offering excellent products or services pertaining to a single niche or industry.

Advantages

One big authority site is perfect for people who want to build their expertise in only one field or niche. If there's one thing you can do well and you want to make it your business, take this route. It's easy to set up, doesn't require a lot of resources and is relatively cheaper to run. You could also concentrate all your efforts here and become a respected guru in a specific field instead of being the internet marketer who juggles with multiple industries and never quite achieving expert status.

Disadvantages

If you made a mistake in your choice of niche, a single authority site can fizzle out like a short matchstick. When it goes, it goes and there's nowhere else you can turn to or fall back on, unlike a multiple niche website where there are other things going on for you.

You could also miss the opportunity of providing products and services for a wider market segment, thus limiting your income potential. If the niche you chose has a limited market, your site's traffic counter will reflect that in the number of hits it receives.

Build one big authority site if...

- Your expertise is limited to only one area and you are confident you can comfortably grow in it.

- You want to become a known authority in that niche.

- You have limited knowledge or training.

- You want to focus all your time, effort and money developing one big authority site versus a multiple niche website.