Building websites that matter
Competition online is fierce. Whether you’re building a blog, forum or static website, there will already be others in your niche that have succeeded at doing what you haven’t even started yet. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go for it. Many a newcomer has entered a competitive niche and blown the competition away by building a website that matters. Here’s how you can do the same.
Find the best web hosting
A common beginner mistake when putting a new site online is to go for the cheapest webhosting company you can find. Don’t do it! You wouldn’t buy the cheapest car you could find to safely and reliably transport you and your family around for the next five years and you shouldn’t do it with web hosting either. Unreliable web hosting leads to all kinds of problems:
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Excessive downtime
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Unexplained database errors
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Slow load times
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Little or no support
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Lack of trust with your audience
Find the best web hosting your money can buy. It is always worth it to invest in quality web hosting that you can count on. If your website isn’t reliable, neither are you and everything else you do will be moot. Your audience will move to the competition without giving you a second thought.
Be faithful
If you’ve promised to write daily blog posts, make sure you do it. If you guarantee that visitors to your forum will learn on how make money online, be certain you’re delivering that information, and then some. If your eStore swears to offer a money back guarantee to customers who aren’t satisfied with their purchase, follow through with that. Whatever guarantees, promises and assurances you have offered your audience should be kept.
In your early stages of web development and promotion you will be working toward building trust with your future community. If can’t deliver what you’ve promised, your visitors will find someone who can.
Create a community
Those websites that are really making a difference have strong content and strong communities. It is your audience who will propel your website forward by advertising for you. People who are really impressed with what you have to say will use Twitter, Facebook, their own websites and social media tools to introduce you to the rest of the world. You can encourage and grow your community by retweeting the posts of people who follow you on Twitter, commenting on every blog post you receive, and interacting with your audience in as many ways as possible. Relationships are built on trust, loyalty and mutual respect. Make sure you’re delivering.
Competition online is fierce, but it is absolutely possible to build a successful website that will become a hub for those in your niche. But it all begins with you. Are you ready?