You can’t deny the importance of goals.  They give you direction and something to shoot for.

However, the problem comes in when your goals aren’t followed up with a strategy.

I’ve seen it too many times. People have great ideas for what they want their sites to accomplish, but they fall short when it comes to the strategy part.

A classic example that I see all the time is when people say they want to create a website to make money from advertising/sponsors, but they have no plan for how they will attract interested parties.

Making money from advertising is the long-term goal, but you first have to develop a strategy for how you are going to make your site popular enough so that people will want to advertise on your site.

People aren’t just going to throw advertising dollars at you because you have a site.

First, develop a strategy that makes your site attractive to advertisers (you’ll need lots of targeted traffic), THEN start thinking about setting your prices and selling ad spots.

I know this may sound elementary to many of you, but there are still too many people starting off on the wrong foot.  They have a goal to create a website, but don’t take the time to strategize because they assume people will just flock to their site automatically.

Below is an example of a goal, followed by a potential strategy someone could use to obtain the goal.

Goal: I want to create an online store.

Strategy: First, I will develop a content website surrounding the theme of my store.  I will learn SEO (search engine optimization) to attract free, search-engine to my niche website, and use that site to funnel targeted into my store.

Lesson:  Any type of site lacking themed content that is not updated frequently, can be challenging to drive traffic to. (Unless you plan to pay for traffic.)  That is why many people choose to create content-rich websites to funnel traffic into the site.

Juggling The Task

Jim Nelson’s website, JuggleNow.com is a great example of this strategy in action.

Jim knew it would be challenging to promote a brand new, stand-alone online juggling store.  He doesn’t have the brand awareness or popularity of Amazon.com or any of the popular e-tail stores.  So he created a content-rich website about juggling to funnel traffic into his store using SEO.

In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to promote a new store if you are just starting and do not have an audience or brand awareness.

I implemented a very similar strategy with my forum, WebsiteBabble.com.  I used my content-rich, heavily trafficked website to 2 Create a Website to drive traffic to the forum because I learned (the hard way) that promoting a forum with no existing traffic base often yields poor results.

No matter if you have goals to create a forum, social networking site, e-commerce store, membership site or whatever your choice.  Take the time to learn how and why certain sites become popular.  Then develop a strategy to help you reach your goals.

Don’t become so blinded by your long-term goals that you neglect to develop a road map for how to reach them.

My recent blog post, “My Failures.  Your Lessons.” sparked quite a few e-mails over the past two weeks.

Many of you want my recommendation for the best kind of site to create if you want to make money online but don’t have a product to sell.

Here’s my answer…

I want to emphasize that the above video expresses my opinion based on my own experiences. There are many ways to make money online.  You have to discover what works best for you.

When some Webmasters set out to build their websites, they have a lot of big ideas.

They want forums, profiles, user interactivity and all the Web 2.0 features that make a website look cool and fun to visit.

Nothing wrong with having goals to build the baddest site on the planet, but it’s important to think realistically and put things into perspective.

Unless you are a skilled programmer, have a good understanding of Net marketing and possess a ton of money for promotions, then I would not suggest that a new Webmaster begin by creating an interactive Website that targets a large audience.

You can’t assume that if you build it, they will come. You have to know how to bring people to you.

And unfortunately, the average new Webmaster doesn’t know much about building traffic.

Getting ranked high in Google, having the top article on digg.com and getting thousands of visitors per day doesn’t happen just because you’ve launched a “cool” site.

Internet Marketing is a complex subject, and it’s getting more complex as the Net matures.

Start small. Target a small group of people by providing valuable information they would find interesting. Then as your site gains popularity, look into launching forums and other user interactive tools to support your audience.

Here’s an Example…

Say you love video games. While I know it would be cool to create the Net’s largest video game networking site, you have to take this in small steps.

1) Start by focusing on one video game niche (Role Playing, for example.) Build a simple site that offers reviews and the latest news on games in this niche.

2) Learn the basics of SEO (search engine optimization) and start generating traffic from people searching for these games. Your reviews are important because that content will help the search engines find your site.

3) Once you start building an audience, install a forum or a simple chat room to get your visitors talking.

4) As your audience grows, now it’s time to think about expanding and developing more advanced applications where your visitors can interact on new levels.

Useful content builds traffic, not Web applications (unless you have deep pockets for advertising.) So you might as well start out small, learn the basics of free SEO and then launch your fancy website when you have the traffic to support it.

Nothing worse than learning how to build a complex, MySpace-like site (or paying a programmer big dollars to do it) and your site goes virtually unnoticed.

One of the common mistakes Webmasters make is they don’t define who they are targeting.

Now that everyone is learning you can profit online by writing about any topic and adding Google ads, people are often mislead.

It’s not just about publishing as much content as you can on one subject and waiting for the money to roll in.

Your site needs to have a focus, voice and personality. You should talk to a specific group and meet their needs.

I got an email yesterday from someone looking to do an information site on football.

He asked me if 3 pages on a certain football subject was enough for an article on his site. Right away I could tell he was missing the point.

That’s not something I can answer because I don’t know who he’s targeting or his site’s main focus (other than football). Clearly he wasn’t sure either.

Know Your Intended Audience

If you have not clearly defined who your site is for, then you run the risk of building pages and pages of content with no direction.

On the flip side, when you know exactly who your site is for, writing content becomes much easier because you can write about the things your audience has experienced, questions they may have, problems they’ve faced, etc.

For example, if you are building a self esteem help site for female girls between the ages of 13 and 19, that begins your site’s roadmap. You now have a clearly defined group and subject matter you can focus on.

Knowing who your site is for should begin giving you ideas for the kind of topics you will cover.

You should never have to ask someone what should you write about. If you are passionate and knowledgeable enough about the subject and understand how your information will appeal to a specific group… that’s half the battle and your content will begin writing itself.

Remember, don’t write for yourself. Write for your audience. Make sure the goals for your site are beyond “I want to make money.”

Don’t we all.

Your first order of business, however, is to appeal to a specific group. Focus on what will interest them, and the content generation won’t be a chore.

And the real scary thing is you may actually enjoy yourself and make a little money in the process.

This blog entry was inspired by a post in my forum yesterday.

It’s easy to get bogged down in the technicalities of how to create a website…

How do I create a chat room?

How am I going to setup a membership area?

How exactly am I going to make money?

How do I accept credit card payments from my site?

Sound familiar?

Even though these may be crucial components to your website, they don’t mean a thing if you do not know how to attract a targeted audience who wants to participate in the site you worked so hard to create.

THE most critical phase of any site is the planning process in the very beginning. And planning doesn’t just involve the technical aspects of how things will work and are setup.

It’s imperative that you sit down and think about the kind of person you want to attract, and how you will get them to find you.

Unfortunately building a website doesn’t guarantee an automatic influx of interested visitors. People don’t just stumble upon your site like they do a store on a busy street.

Sites become popular on the Internet because they are recommended. The recommendations may come from word of mouth, blogs, social networking sites and even search engines.

Yes, search engines recommend sites too. The reason you see a site ranked on the first page of Google for a particular search is because Google knows the site has numerous links from other sites, blogs, etc. all over the Web in association with that keyword phrase. So Google recommends it to you as a relevant search result.

Something about your site has to attract your audience’s attention, meet their needs and provide a service, product or information that isn’t offered everywhere else.

So if you aren’t taking the time to…

1) Plan how you are going to make your site stand out over your competitors

2) Map out the kind of visitor you want to attract and meet all of their needs, wants and interests…

Then it doesn’t matter how much the site costs, how you setup a shopping cart, chat room, how you are going to design your navigation, etc.

Don’t waste your precious time and hard-earned money on all these site enhancements until you have a definite plan. I guarantee it will be worth the extra effort in the end.

I’ve created many sites without a plan, and it’s no coincidence they are no longer around.

If you are expecting a full-time income from your website, expect full-time work. Take it seriously from day one don’t just skip over the planning phase because you’re in a hurry to rake in the money.

How you plan in the beginning is the difference between success and failure in the end.