P.L.A.N.T. your website!

On my gardening website, my “Gardening Basics” page discusses the acronym, P.L.A.N.T. and, how to make use of it to plan and execute a healthy and productive garden. Each letter corresponds to a necessary step in the gardening process.

This same acronym can also be used to guide us in our quest to build a healthy and productive website.

Want to know how?

P – Pick the right niche. Look deep into yourself and find a burning interest that you have…one in which you can put your heart and soul! If you do this, you will never be at a loss for words. And, those words will mean something to you and everyone who reads them.

L – Lay out achievable objectives. What do you want your website to accomplish? This isn’t about making money through your affiliate links. This is about providing meaningful and fulfilling content to support and develop your niche.

A – Arm your website with affiliate links that are directly related to your niche. Don’t try to sell tuxedos on a website about outdoor activities and camping. Got the picture?

N – Never do anything to alienate the visitors that come to your website.

• Throwing a request to sign up for a newsletter in a visitor’s face while they are trying to read your website content.

• Personally, when I go to a website, I expect to be able to read the content without seeing “Subscribe To My Newsletter” popping up…or “Buy This Product”…or “Get My E-Book Now”…
• When I see these things jumping up in front of me, my first inclination is to get out as fast as possible and look somewhere else for my information. Invitations for newsletters, ads, e-books, etc., can be offered in a less obtrusive way by placing them on the right or left side of the webpage. And, if the content of the webpage interests me enough, I may subscribe to it if I am not pressured into it.
• Worst case…as long as your website is user-friendly and interesting, I will, most likely, bookmark your webpage and come back again.
• Isn’t that what you really want?

• Having more advertisements than content on any page or post.

• Too many affiliate ads detract from your message and make your website look cheap and only interested in making money. As a visitor, I would doubt the sincerity of the writer as well as the validity of the message they are trying to convey.
• Be low-key about ad placement. Keep most ads in a product review section.
• You can sneak a few advertisements into other content but let it flow from the content naturally.
• If it is pertinent to the information I am providing, I will mention a product related to the subject at hand and provide a link to the product’s review. If the reader is interested, they may choose to click the link…or not.

• Content with a lot of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

• Misspelled words, bad grammar, incorrect or missing punctuation…these errors will detract from your website’s appeal…make the page difficult to read…and, in abundance, look very unprofessional.
• Everyone has the occasional typo…or misplaced word. What can you do about it?
• Proofread…proofread…proofread…and proofread again…and again…and again.
• No matter how many times you read your own writing, you will find something that needs fixed…or changed for the better…every time you read it. I know I do.
• Plus, it doesn’t hurt to ask someone else to look at your writing. The perfect tool for this is WA’s website feedback!

T – Try new things. Attempt to come up with unique and innovative ideas to present on your website. Why? You want your website to stand out in the crowd. Don’t just offer the same old stuff that other websites in your niche offer…think out of the box. Strive for content that is ground-breaking… inventive… original… I, for one, would cherish a website that gives me information that I find not only informative but unmatched and original.

So, what are you waiting for?

Go and P.L.A.N.T. your website.

And watch it grow into something extraordinary!!!

Jim, The Lifelong Gardener