Becoming a website owner

Becoming a website owner is a challenge that I understand from personal experience.

In terms of being a website owner, this post is a case of ‘do I as I say not as I do’. I hope it offers some insight into things to consider and the potential pitfalls of choosing to set up and manage your website.

This post considers aspects of planning and approach.

I began developing my WordPress sites at the beginning of 2012 ahead of a planned business launch in January 2013. Halfway through 2012, I realised I had to reconsider my approach. I needed to stop and create a new plan to develop my website structure from the ground up. This took extra time, and the work I had put in on my website in the early part of the year, was lost. The lessons learned were real and valuable, and the new version was better. The content creation and the planned structure were ready to implement and over the next month or so the Phoenix rose…

During the second part of the year, I also helped develop and deliver a seminar to colleagues a the Audit Commission on setting up as a website owner. This post contains content from that work, and thanks must also go to my colleague Jim Gwilliam for his clear and concise advice.

Owning a website is a BIG decision!

Setting up and managing a website is a complex task.

.. .and the bad joke of the day! A website is not just for Christmas…

Owning a website is much like deciding to own a pet or have a child.

It requires planning (always better to do this before arrival).
you must be committed – in terms of time to nurture and develop.
It will turn your world upside down! With demands, you just won’t expect!

Do you need to be a website owner?

The first choice in the website journey is – Do you need a website? Once upon a time, the only way to get an online presence was to have a website, understand HTML, coding and essentially be a nerd (sorry if I have offended any nerds out there). Social media, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, Pinterest, Instagram and all manner of other blogging and online platforms have changed the web landscape forever…

You can now promote, advertise, sell and brand build yourself, your services and your products without ever having to own a website. The possibilities are constrained only by your creative thinking, around how to use any given social media platform to deliver your online presence. For example:

LinkedIn: A personal profile and networking tool. This has the option to add a company page to promote your business products and services.
Facebook: The social networking platform of the masses! You can also promote your business and even sell directly through Facebook. Facebook advertising lends itself well to product selling to targeted audiences.
Pinterest: This growing social media network is becoming popular with product-focused retail sellers looking to promote their products visually. By linking profiles directly to purchase options such as Amazon, a small business can create a simple sales route.

The pitfalls of using social media platforms as your key online presence

Using social networking to promote your business, and deliver an online presence is a practical approach, as many big and small brands use. When starting, give these options some real thought. Take some time to assess the platform and whether it offers your business proposition a clear audience. Is focused energy spent on a social platform that you can affect, better than lots of energy spent on creating a website that is beyond your control? If you can create a connection with your target market you will be achieving your business goal.

However, the potential disadvantage of building your business proposition on social networking platforms is that you do not own the site. In many cases, the content is also not yours (make sure you understand the T&C’s of any platform you use). There is much less control over how a platform might change over time. Changes made to the infrastructure of your chosen delivery platform might have consequences for your business, with little you can do about it.

Social media is now an important part of your online presence and for the most effective outcomes ensure social networking is integrated with your online activity. If you chose to use it as the delivery platform for your products or service, make sure that you keep up-to-date with potential changes and new features to make sure you do not run into difficulties.

Define your objective

The question to ask yourself before you proceed any further is simple – What is my objective? It is vital to understand this before you begin to consider how to build and manage your website. Your reasons for developing your website will be your own. For this blog, we are going to discuss them in these terms.

Personal – Just for fun, to support a hobby business, raise a personal profile, or to support a charity. Essentially, a website you have time to learn and develop with and where ultimately financial success is not the driving factor.
An online e-commerce business.
A business providing services, (a website can support online and offline business services).

Why does this make a difference?

Because it should lead you to your first big decision… DIY or professionally developed?

If you are looking to build a website to support a business proposition aiming to deliver real returns, you should consider the following. While you’re learning to build your website, you are not growing your business. Your value to your business, let’s say as an hourly rate, is likely to be much more than that of your web designers. It’s a question of the best use of your time.

How much is your time worth?

This blog does not offer financial business advice. However, the following approach to evaluating the value of your time is useful.

Decide upon a figure for the annual return you would like.
Now divide this by the hours you wish to work (1840 is 46 weeks, 5 days a week for 8 hours as a guide).
This will give you your base hourly rate.
Now multiply this by your chosen non-productivity factor. No one is productive for all of their working days. Even the most successful business people tend to accept that they are productive for only about a third of their time. So, multiply your base rate by 3 or 4 to give you your final figure.

The number you have come up with is the total that your time is worth per hour. My guess is it’s higher than you expected. It certainly was when I completed the task. So why is it of value? It should give you a different perspective on the potential of buying in services, such as web design. Is it better to spend time learning to build a website, or better to spend time building your business? Yes, a web developer will cost money, but your time is not FREE. A website takes time. And lots of it if you don’t know what you’re doing, or have a clear objective.

If it takes you two hours to adjust something technical on your site, it’s going to take a professional less than half that time (if they are any good).

So get some rates, do the maths, and ask yourself, ‘Am I saving money?’

Get your website priorities right

OK. You are still want to take on this challenge yourself! Then the next step is to get your priorities sorted. Novice web owners view the priorities of their site in this order (and I know I certainly used to):

Design
Technology
Marketing

Wrong!

Marketing is the factor that will decide whether your website succeeds or fails. Focus on this before design or technology. Design and technology are things to be adjusted to fit your marketing goals. Your website is about getting traffic and converting visitors. If you’re planning to become a website owner to support a business, then I would recommend reading Make Your Website Sell by Jed Wylie. This book walks you through the entire planning, set-up and management process.

Marketing your site

Step 1: Customer profiling

Define your ideal customer (and not your average buyer) considering these attributes:

Name
Gender
Age
Appearance
Occupation/salary
Other identifying traits – (relationship status, past failures/successes, likes/dislikes – look for identifiers that bind your market together)
Emotional needs (to feel secure about business, freedom from stress, etc.)
Core desires (to earn more, spend more time with family)

The more detail and types of customers you can identify, the clearer the picture.

Step 2: Ask yourself some key questions

Next, answer the following questions about your website and from the answers (taking into account your customer profiling) you will have some clear ideas about how your website should work.

Who (is it for?)
What (do you want them to do?)
How (are they going to do it?)
When (do you want them to act?)
Why (should they bother?)

You have reached the website base camp.

OK, so this is the end of Becoming a website owner, hopefully, it has challenged you to think about what you want to achieve and how you might best go about this. In the end, the decision, as they say, is yours! Choose wisely and make sure you stay focused.