Getting famous is all about who you know...

Our first five tips on how to build a successful website!

1. Don’t use a dark background. Think about the websites you’ve seen that are fun, refreshing, and really draw you in. Ever notice they usually have a white or light background? Aside from the fact that dark or heavily patterned background are somewhat emotionally draining to look at, they’re also hard to read on. And first and foremost, the Web is a written medium. (Yes, you can add audio postcards, etc., to your site, but no site is purely aural.)

One of my early webmasters leaned on me hard in a redesign of howmuchjoy.com to lose the pretty salmon pink, patterned background. I thought white would be boring, but I was wrong. He made the site look crisp and refreshing, and best of all it loaded easily and quickly.

Now if I click on a site with a brown or black background, I flee immediately. Just don’t want the stress of waiting around for it to load and then trying to read it.

2. Don’t pick hard-to-load graphics. You’ve heard it before. Don’t use little graphics that sing and dance not only because they take longer to load (not everywhere has a high speed connection.) Search engines get confused by them, and could potentially downgrade or even ban you in their rankings. Ultimately, tricky stuff like this does little to enhance your site.

3. Don’t confuse the reader. Pick one focus and stick with it. Resist the temptation to cram all of your many skills into one small website. Chances are they speak to different audiences, so serve up only focused fare for a singular audience. For example, if you’re a coach who works with the chronically disorganized, plus those who need relationship help, you’ve got the making of two powerful websites, not one.

4. Make sure your site name, URL and ezine name all reflect your focus. If the focus of your site is to help disorganized, menopausal women get a grip, choose a URL that reflects that. Go with ‘getagripover50.com’ for instance, instead of a generic life coaching term like ‘strategicliving.com’. Again and again I encounter coaches who think they must put all of their myriad products under one generic name that means nothing. No one says you can have several websites that reach several different audiences and sell different products and services. (Remember, however, you’ll have to promote all those sites, so don’t go too crazy.)

5. Make sure your ezine screams ‘BENEFIT’ … and offers a nice goodie up front for sign up. Nothing worse than a soft, mushy ezine that doesn’t really DO anything for the reader. Using the example above, why not an ezine called ‘Hot Flashes Over 50’?

Also bear in mind that your ezine must be more than your collected thoughts. A good ezine delivers useful info to exactly who needs it. And the title reflects that. Pick a title that will do the heavy lifting, and spell out exactly what the benefit is, like ‘Creativity Tips for Busy Women’ instead of ‘Creativity Today’.

Finally, always offer a nice giveaway with your ezine sign ups, and promote that goodie right on the sign up box on the home page. It works.