On Content: Keeping it Simple

The most difficult part of creating a website is the content. From my experience, it seems like the text on the page is the last thing people think about. Instead, what they first think runs something along the lines of, “Oh man, I’ve got this great idea! We should totally make a website for it! It’ll be blue and streamlined and have this awesome collage of images that’ll rotate each time you click on a different page…”

Although that’s a lovely concept, it’s hard to make that kind of a website a reality.

If you’re interested in creating a website, first sit down at your computer (or you can write it out, I’m not picky) and answer these questions:

1. Who is this website for?
2. Why do I want a website?
3. Who will write all the content for the website?

You should also think about how much time you can allot to maintaining your site.

Don’t think about how your site will look; that’s for later.  For now, focus on what you want your website to say.  How will it speak to people?

Then, once you’ve got that aside, write all of your ideas down and start actually creating the text.  This doesn’t need to get put on the website immediately, because you’ll probably change your mind a few times before you get it to where you like it.  The important point is that you’re actively spending time on what your website will say before it’s even on the internet.  This will give your site a much stronger presence right from the beginning and people will look forward to seeing your site grow.

I can assure you, that the more time you spend thinking about and creating the content on your site, the more successful your site will be.