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Nowadays, it seems like everyone has their own website. Whether you’re planning on launching your own business, going it freelance or you just want to create a space where you can write and share your thoughts, a website is a great idea. However, there are some downsides to running your own site, and so below, we’ve put together some questions to ask before you make the jump.
1. Who is your target audience?
Before you launch a website, ask yourself who your target audience is. If you’re planning on posting personal memories and family photographs, then you may decide that a Facebook group would be better for you. Try to come up with a unique selling point that will help you stand out because there are millions of blogs and websites covering virtually every topic known to man.
2. What are your goals and aspirations?
If you’re thinking that launching your own website will bring you tonnes of money and success overnight, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Set out clear and realistic goals when you’re putting together a plan for your website, and remember that it’s hard work and won’t necessarily provide any return. Reasonable goals include improving your writing, helping you find new clients, giving you something to do when you’re bored or archiving memories for the future.
3. Do you have the funds?
The reason why so many new websites pop up online virtually every day is because it’s cheap and easy to do so. You could use a free website builder like Wix.com or Weebly to create a website and pay a monthly subscription fee, or you could go it alone and pay for a domain name and web hosting. The average domain name costs around $10, and hosting can range from $5 a month to $500,000 per month depending on the size of your website and the demand on your server. If you don’t think you’re going to be able to afford the monthly upkeep, then perhaps reconsider.
4. What are you going to post on your website?
Having a bank of content ready to go before your website launches is one of the best ways to go, and that’s exactly what we did at Fuzzable. When we decided we were going to launch in 2017, we spent the last three months of 2016 coming up with ideas and writing about the things we loved. Then, come launch day in January, we had a whole host of content that we could schedule out to keep our website fresh and up-to-date. Consider doing the same, and preparing your blog posts and pages in advance so that, when you do launch, people will have something to look at.
5. What will you call it?
You may decide to keep it simple and buy your full name as a domain name, a la PerezHilton.com, or you might choose to come up with a brand and create a blog or website around a specific topic or niche. Play around with different ideas and see which ones work best; if you’ve got a few and can’t choose between them, then a Twitter poll with friends could help you determine a name.
Launching a website can be great fun and improve your digital skills, but it’s important that you get into it for the right reasons. Let us know your thoughts on today’s blog in the comments below.
