Three Crucial Website Building Tips: 

To make it online you need more than "just a pretty site."  The following article will show you the three fundamental points to follow for building a profitable internet business online.

Forget the bells and whistles – Surveys, market research and just plain old experience has proven over and over again that people like clean, simple, easy to navigate websites.  If your visitor has to wait for a flash image to load or can’t find what they’re looking for fast, then you’re going to lose them.  

The key here is to keep it simple.  No music, not too many colors (black text on a white background with the occasional graphic will do).  Remember no flashing, and always apply a super easy navigation structure.  

The navigation structure is simply the way your pages are laid out and how they link to each other.  Most websites are not achieving the traffic they need because they haven’t spent time thinking through their navigation structure.  

A proper navigation structure isn’t guess work.  There is an exact system which has been tested and proven to work.  The website building platform I use and recommend, shows you exactly how to set up your pages and even helps and guides you along so that you get it just right (link at the end of article). 

Content is king – People surf the net to look for answers to their problems first and foremost.  Well researched and written content provides those answers.  If you design a website around this basis then you won’t be short of visitors – not only will the search engines reward you handsomely with more traffic but you’ll also have more and more visitors that remember your website and come back to it over and over again.  Then they start recommending you to their friends and family.   

You really can’t substitute anything else for good content. Without good content you won’t have traffic, which means, you’re not in business.  As you learn more about internet marketing you’ll learn there are ways to get traffic to your website by paying for it.  You can do this through pay per click campaigns or advertising on other websites.  But the thing to keep in mind here is that you really don’t need to do that (especially at the start).  

By taking a little extra time at the beginning to build a valuable asset you will have an income for years to come… 

A few months ago we moved to a new county and as you can imagine settling three children into schools, my husband starting his new job and finding a new home takes time – it meant I had to take a considerable amount of time off work.  During that time my income did not suffer in the slightest – in fact, my traffic count went up and I made more money.   

I was also recently speaking to another mom who has an internet business as well.  She told me, some months back her son was diagnosed with Leukaemia.  Rather than having to go to work everyday, this mom was able to stay by her son’s side day and night.  Her husband was even able to take a few weeks off his job to be take care of the other children. 

Now imagine being in that extremely awful situation with money worries as well.  Luckily for my friend, she had no money worries because her websites ticked over beautifully.  Her son is now making a full recovery, thank goodness.  

True financial freedom comes when you don’t have to worry about money.  When if, worse came to worse, you can survive financially and have “one less” worry on your mind.  

There is one sure way to get to this level with your online business… 

quality content… 

Good quality content rules the day in internet business.  Without it, you are merely one of the many other websites polluting the net.  I saw a statistic the other day about the number of abandoned websites and blogs simply set up on a whim and left to die a slow painful death on the internet.  This is not where you want to be.  

Take the time to do things right from the start and you’ll be rewarded handsomely in the future.  To build a real, profitable business you’ll need to lay the groundwork first and then move up from there – do this right and you’ll reap the rewards for years to come.

Learn “Net” Talk – You may have noticed that this article is written in a very casual style.  There’s a reason for this, writing on the net is different to other types of writing.  To communicate effectively on the internet and to build connections with your visitors, you’ll need to use a friendly, informative tone.   

Of course, there are a few exceptions and only you can be the judge of that.  Some topic matters require you to speak in more “technical” style, but that’s the exception.  As long as you provide value, are respectful and present your information in a clear way you’ll be fine.  

It’s also important that your style and tone be unique to you.  Don’t try to do something outrageous just for the sake of being outrageous and certainly don’t try to duplicate others.  Be yourself and write in a friendly, respectful tone and you’ll be just fine.

Finally, it’s worth noting that good spelling and grammar are important as is taking the time to make sure your pages are readable and reflect positively on your business.  But the odd spelling or grammar mistake here and there isn’t going to raise many eyebrows – as long as you are providing superb content.  Also, it’s worth using your spell checker to avoid those niggling type o’s. 

Here’s a simple way to write directly to your customers: 

Picture your ideal customer/visitor and imagine they are sitting across from you at your kitchen table.  Now imagine you’re having a cup of coffee and chatting away happily.  Picture that person and write in a friendly, light hearted tone as you share your thoughts and information.  

And please don’t worry if you don’t consider yourself a “writer” – you don’t need to be in this business.  We are not writing award winning novels here.  We are in the business of sharing information and you can simply do that by writing how you speak.  

If you do these three things right you’ll be off to a great start.  To read about the platform that has helped me build profitable websites online click here.

All my best,

Mila Sidman
Owner of Internet Based Moms

Still need more info?  Visit our Getting Started section for further reading on building your first website.