Write a Website

Having a website these days is almost a necessity to doing business. Whether you’re a retailer, providing a service, or are operating purely online, launching a new website needs the same careful consideration as launching any business.

Write a Website Business Plan

A well thought-out plan is vital to the success of any business or new venture. Who are your target markets and are they online? Are your competitors online, and if so, what do they offer? How will you market your site?

What do you want your website to accomplish? A website can be used as a distribution channel (selling direct to customers) and/or as an advertising or promotional tool, so it's important to know what you what your website to be. 

Refer to the How to Write a Business Plan article for guidance on how to write an effective business plan.

If applicable, you’ll also want to consider consulting an accountant and a lawyer for issues to do with ecommerce, taxation, privacy, and other legal rights and restrictions.

Reserve Your Domain Name

Even if you’re not going to be online for several months, you should carefully research and reserve your domain name as soon as you can.

Your domain name doesn't have to be your business name; a location, campaign, or task-driven domain name can be just as effective. Take your time to research your domain name options, and choose a domain name that is simple, easy to spell, memorable, unmistakable, and that you like and that will inspire you and your customers. You might also want to consider reserving both the .ca and .com extensions (to avoid confusion in your market), as well as potential misspellings. Read more about domain name extensions and see domain name tips.

Register Your Domain Name on Key Social Media Networks

It’s hard to turn on the news without hearing about Twitter or Facebook, or to read a business magazine that doesn’t mention LinkedIn. Online marketing efforts are shifting and social media networks have become a viable and, in some cases, an essential online marketing tool.

Your small business may not use these sites yet, but you likely will in the future. Like a domain name, it’s important to register your business and/or domain name on key social media networks.

The blog has been

This post was originally created for the now discountinued ebusiness blog (ebizblog.ca) on June 1st, 2009.

The blog has been quiet for some time now, we have been doing some house cleaning. In the coming months there will be some interesting changes, one of these changes is our presence on Twitter.

Twitter is a brilliant source for News and Information. In this the first of many Twitter Monthly Roundup posts I'll share with you some of the best articles I found related to small business online. If you would like to find us on Twitter look for @ebc_chet and @ebc_ali.

Put Ad on Web. Count Clicks. Revise (NYtimes.com)

A good read that talks about the strengths of data analysis when adevertising online.

How site personas can enhance your site. (boagworld.com)

When developing a website it's a great idea to create user personas, it's a great exercise for understanding the readers coming to your website. Have you overlooked you websites persona though? It's equally as important, this article will explain why.

7 Tips for Effective Calls to Action (blog.hubspot.com)

Have you defined your websites goals? If so is your call to action statement well designed? A good read talking about the importance of well designed call to action statements.

12 Tips For Designing an Excellent Checkout Process(smashingmagazine.com)

Shopping Online can be a painful process, help ease the pain and make your customers experience shopping at your online store secure, reliable and easy.

9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design (psd.tutsplus.com)

It's all about the details, this article is a little more web developer focused however it's still a valuable read for any company that is relaunching or getting a new website developed.

How to Improve Your Branding With Your Content(smashingmagazine.com)

Your content is a very large part of your Companies branding online, Rick Sloboda wrote an excellent article for Smashing Magazine discussing this very topic. For all you Vancouver locals, Rick has been a long time speaker for eBusiness Connections and he has an upcoming "Writing for the Web" Seminar on June 8th. You can register for this seminar at the Small Business Education Center

Creating Your Own Deadlines and Setting Aggresive Goals for Your Business (thenetsetter.com)

A great read discussing the benefits to setting aggressive goals for your business.

The dog days

The dog days of summer are sneaking up quick, Here is our monthly list of top Twitter findings relating to Small Business and what is possible for you online:

Brand Strategy: The Art of Branding (smbmarketingguide.com)

Nine key steps for all branding, regardless of the medium.
Twitter Source: @tasty_links

Web Nerd Terminology (Explained) (css-tricks.com)

Not sure what all this web jargon is you keep hearing? Give this article by Chris Coyier a read.
Twitter Source: @chriscoyier

15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Website (smashingmagazine.com)

Your business has gone through the whole process of getting a site created or redesigned all that's left now is taking it live. Before you launch the site be sure to double check these 15 items.
Twitter Source: @gaksdesigns

One Page Vs. Multi Page Checkout Process (proimpact7.com)

Does one page checkout really decrease your shopping cart abandonment? Here is a well written article and informative video discussing the topic.
Twitter Source: @jbillingsley

10 Tools to Improve Your Site’s Usability on a Low Budget (webdesignerdepot.com)

Please test your websites usability, periodically is ideal. It's one of the smartest things you can do, the website is a tool for your small business why not check now and then to be sure that tool is running well. This article provides you with 10 Low cost Usability testing options
Twitter Source: @DesignerDepot

SEO Best Practices: SEOmoz's New Policies Based on Updated Correlation Data (seomoz.org)

SEOmoz is a well respected SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Resource, this is their updated SEO Best Practices list
Twitter Source: @robangeles

Google Analytics is Killing Your Website (bradleyspencer.com)

Google Analytics is a valuable tool, you can quantify your efforts. That said if you have no outlined website goals what determines success or failure, learn more about "Actionable Analytics" and start moving away from the I got "x" visits this month vanity evaluations.
Twitter Source: @briancray

New to twitter? Check out some of what Jess Sloss from socialsquared.com has to say about Twitter and social media in General.

Web Development

Research Your Options for Web Development

Launching a website involves many skills and disciplines. Here’s what you’ll need to consider:

• A website requires design, coding, copywriting, and online marketing. If you’re operating an ecommerce site, or collecting customer information, you’ll also have to take into account backend systems like payment processing and database management. Larger companies can offer a lot of these services, but are more expensive; freelancers usually specialize in one or two areas and tend to charge less per hour or project, but you’ll need a roster of talent.
• Do your due diligence. Before choosing to work with a company or a freelancer, make sure to ask for references and portfolios. We recommend that you create a request for proposal (RFP) to better communicate your website objectives to your potential suppliers. This can help them give you an accurate estimate of the duration and cost of your website project.
• Don’t overlook open source applications and tools that are freely available on the web (e.g. WordPress) that can give you a website at the fraction of the cost of building one from scratch.

Get a Contract

A signed legal contract can protect both parties in a web development project, whether you’re working with one company or several freelancers. A contract is a written agreement between you and your suppliers, without which there is no legal proof of the terms and conditions of your project, such as delivery, payment amount, schedule, expectations, type of work, and future support.

Build Your Website

Before proceeding with website development, you should: 

• Create a prototype or design mock-up (called a “wireframe”) and get feedback from your friends, family, and user groups made up of potential customers.
• During early development, consider the user friendliness of your site’s design and navigation.  
• Ensure your content focuses on your customers’ needs and helps them accomplish what they would like to do on your site.
• Give your customers a good first impression by having good content and web copy.
• Make it easy for people to find you online by optimizing your website for search engines.

Stay Current

Read articles and attend seminars on how you can improve your website. By learning about web tools, technologies, and trends as they emerge, you can make better decisions about how to improve your website, and generate more traffic or sales.

Research

Research Your Options for Web Development

Launching a website involves many skills and disciplines. Here’s what you’ll need to consider:

• A website requires design, coding, copywriting, and online marketing. If you’re operating an ecommerce site, or collecting customer information, you’ll also have to take into account backend systems like payment processing and database management. Larger companies can offer a lot of these services, but are more expensive; freelancers usually specialize in one or two areas and tend to charge less per hour or project, but you’ll need a roster of talent.
• Do your due diligence. Before choosing to work with a company or a freelancer, make sure to ask for references and portfolios. We recommend that you create a request for proposal (RFP) to better communicate your website objectives to your potential suppliers. This can help them give you an accurate estimate of the duration and cost of your website project.
• Don’t overlook open source applications and tools that are freely available on the web (e.g. WordPress) that can give you a website at the fraction of the cost of building one from scratch.

Get a Contract

A signed legal contract can protect both parties in a web development project, whether you’re working with one company or several freelancers. A contract is a written agreement between you and your suppliers, without which there is no legal proof of the terms and conditions of your project, such as delivery, payment amount, schedule, expectations, type of work, and future support.

Build Your Website

Before proceeding with website development, you should: 

• Create a prototype or design mock-up (called a “wireframe”) and get feedback from your friends, family, and user groups made up of potential customers.
• During early development, consider the user friendliness of your site’s design and navigation.  
• Ensure your content focuses on your customers’ needs and helps them accomplish what they would like to do on your site.
• Give your customers a good first impression by having good content and web copy.
• Make it easy for people to find you online by optimizing your website for search engines.

Stay Current

Read articles and attend seminars on how you can improve your website. By learning about web tools, technologies, and trends as they emerge, you can make better decisions about how to improve your website, and generate more traffic or sales.

Social Sharing

Social Sharing

Even if a reader won't comment, they may be likely to share your content on Facebook or Twitter, for example. Put social sharing buttons on your blog to make it easy for them to spread the word. Maybe their friends will comment!

Get Comments Started

It can be awkward to be the first to post a comment, so seed the conversation a bit. Friends can help the post conversation get going. Ask your friends about a topic that they might be interested in and write about it. Once you post the content online, ask them to read the post and comment on it. If your friends are also bloggers, exchange all the links to these blog posts, so you also comment on their posts when they comments on yours. Through this give and take, each and every post is guaranteed to get at least one comment.

Make Commenting Easy

If at all possible, avoid using the Facebook commenting feature that requires users to be logged into their Facebook account to comment. This creates a number of privacy concerns for sensitive consumers, and not everyone wants their Facebook friends to know where they've been leaving comments.

 

Make it easy to leave comments. It's okay to require a Captcha Code to be filled out or some other human checking mechanism. But don't require them to register with your site or have to use a social media account to post. You're just making it difficult for them with these features.

And instead of the boring and impersonal ‘Leave a Reply’ text that appears above the comment area, customize it to make it sound more human. A few popular call to action phrases that you can use to request people to respond without sounding too persuasive are “What do you think?” or “Let us know your thoughts!”

 

The fact that readers leave comments clearly shows that they have something to say and that you said something that resonated with them. Always reply to every comment that you receive so people know that you care about what they think. This is also a nice way of rewarding those who leave a comment. Always be polite, forgiving, and respectful, and you'll see conversations and comments galore.