Formulating a Vision

To create a commercially viable website, it is important to formulate a good website idea or theme.  The subject for your website ought to be something that you are interested in and knowledgeable about.  The theme of your site should be focused around something you want to research and explore.

To be successful, your effort needs to be a labor of love.   You do not initially need to be an expert in the subject area.  You do, however, need to know more about the topic than most others do.

The theme for your website could be something related to work, family life or a personal interest.  The topic need not be of broad general interest.  In fact, great success can often be attained with a narrow, specialized website topic, where competitors are few in number.

You can initially launch your website by focusing on a niche market and then later grow the site to attract a broader audience.  Always remember that your potential audience is global; it not limited to your state or country.

Once you have selected a suitable subject area, give some thought to how your website can be grown.  Growth can occur by delving into greater detail in a subject area or by broadening the subject area scope into related fields.

In general, however, think of your website as a store and each web page as a product in that store.  Your goal is to attract people to your store by offering an item of interest to them and hoping that they will buy items they had not planned to purchase.

Stock your store with complimentary items and bounce your visitors from one department to another.

If you can visualize a growth strategy for your site prior to committing to a domain name, you can select a web address that is narrow enough to attract a target audience and to obtain high search engine rankings but broad enough to not restrict your future growth.