The Top 10 Requirements for Building a Successful Online Content 

Creating a successful and profitable website is not hard if you do a few things exceptionally well.

Based on the experience of building and running dozens of content websites, these are my top 10 tips for getting your website launched and growing quickly.

1)    Pick the right subject (for you).

Choose a specialist niche that you understand and are passionate about. It should be big enough that you can attract a large enough audience, but small enough that you can become the market leader.

2)    The right domain name.

Choose a short, simple domain name that describes your business and is easy for visitors to remember.

3)    Update frequently.

You must put up new content regularly to keep your audience and the search engine spiders coming back.

4)    Your site must be easy to find.

Your website must be designed so that it is easy for the search engines to find and index. Google currently only finds 25% of all web pages.

5)    Your website must be easy for your CUSTOMERS to use.

It is staggering how many websites are difficult to navigate. Make it easy for your visitors to find what they are looking for. Navigation MUST be simple and intuitive.

6)    Your website must be easy for YOU to use.

One of the biggest causes of online publishing failure is having a website that is difficult to update and manage. Make sure you have an excellent content management solution so you are in complete control of adding new content.

7)    Use your webstats.

Your webstats tell you which pages your visitors read most frequently. Use this amazing intelligence to determine what content to create (and what content to stop creating). Not using web stats is like driving a car with a blindfold on!

8)    Capture information from your customers whenever you can.

When someone lands on your website, you should do everything you can to get their email address so you can keep in touch. Offer a newsletter or gift to get them signed up.

9)    Make your website interactive.

Include functionality on your site that allows you to interact with your visitors. This includes an email newsletter, discussion forum, user comments fields, member directories and user submitted articles. The more engaged your visitors are the more loyal they will become.

10) Make money from multiple revenue streams.

Good content websites can drive revenues from online and offline sources. Online money should come from advertising, subscription and ecommerce. Offline money from teleseminars, seminars, conferences, books and consulting services.

Conclusion

Most of these points are common sense, but sense on the internet is not so common!

It is easy to read about what you should do to create a great website. It is rare for people to implement what they have learned.

In my humble opinion, the online entrepreneurs who are successful are the ones who continually learn AND take action to improve what they do.

Good luck with your website and enjoy making it continually better.