If you are just starting out in business and you want to create an online presence, most entrepreneurs begin by creating their website and blog. Your website is your calling card in the world, the billboard or brochure that highlights your products, services and other offerings. It also provides information about you as an owner or about your company and why your products are valuable to the marketplace. Your blog communicates information about you, your offerings, your customers and your success stories too. It can be a valuable tool to reach and attract potential clients. Wondering how you can build your website and blog to be a success? The following are some ideas.
Get the Technical Training You Need
Although you can do some of the content work (posting a blog entry, for instance) without a technical background, if you really want to put together a truly professional site, you are going to need some education. You will need a background in web and user interface design, as well as HTML. For images you will need to be able to use Photoshop or similar graphic design software. Within WordPress, you’ll find CSS, PHP and JavaScript so having a basis in those languages really helps too. It’s a great idea to look for the training you need up front. When you find the perfect courses, it’s smart to take out student loans to finance the whole program. You’ll be able to pay over time, and get the technical education you need to build successful sites right away. As time goes by, you’ll save thousands when compared to the cost of contracting all the work out.
Select the Right Software Partner
There are a lot of ways you can create your website and blog, but one of the best choices you can make is to choose WordPress. WordPress offers amazing flexibility and the framework is free. You can create your website, write your blog, include audio clips, share videos and connect with customers through easy to fill out forms. In addition, there are WordPress plugins that you can use to extend the functionality of your site. The look and feel of the site are customized through themes. It pays to take a lot of time to select the best theme shop for your website and blog needs. Look for a company who has been in business for a while and has great reviews. Make sure they have a lot of great professional-looking themes for you to choose from. And perhaps, most of all, make sure the themes are responsive (adapt to different devices) and the company has top-notch customer support.
Find the Right Niche
As you begin to create your business model, it’s critically important that you find the right niche. If you try to be everything to everybody you will get lost in the noise and fail to get your message across. You should focus on an area that you love and are passionate about, because you want your enthusiasm to come through in your marketing and sales copy. Make sure you do your market research too. You can use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to help you gauge the level of interest in different areas within the broader niche. Ideally you don’t want to go after the biggest categories in the niche because you’ll get drowned in all the noise and overshadowed by bigger players. You want to niche down and go after a segment that has a smaller following but that is still big enough for you to easily reach and reap the rewards.
