Website Ideas

bydamecranon

88 followers

Updated 5 years ago

Good evening WA. I am getting used to writing a blog now, as I used to fear on writing entries and come up with some new thoughts to write about. But I’ll give you a strategy (should help with writing your actual content) on how to get over writer’s block and start to write down your blog content before I get into what I want to discuss this evening. When you write out your blog content, think of something that may have caught your attention, or even simpler, blog about your lesson of the day. I haven’t written about the any lessons just yet, but I will here eventually. Also, I just finished Part 1 of the training on Monday evening, so I am excited to start part too which I will now segue into what I actually do for a living, web application development and design.

My Experience

Well, briefly about my web development experience, I’ve loved the ideal of building web sites when I was a junior in high school. We had computer class, and I was wondering how a site got built. Well my computer class teacher tasked my class to build a site with what we learned. This is how I got my feet with HTML (will talk about that in another blog discussion). But I started to learn how the basis of a site was constructed. Later after high school and a brief stint in college, I decided I wanted to go into the Navy. From there I received training in my rating (or job to you civie’s – just joking lol). Once I got to my duty station, then I went to my division (or office). You will be surprised how structed the military is, and how is relates to real life. From there, I did more training in my job, and that is where I started to really master the ins and outs computer hardware. I wasn’t really interested in fixing a computer, but I wanted to do more from what I’ve learned in school. My degree program was computer science. So, in my command, I showed an interest in doing our command’s web page for other sailors (yes, I was a Navy guy), and also helped out with other extra duty I could possibly help with. So, it did not stop there. The office I worked in; I showed more interest in building our application for our daily tasks. From there I learned more how a web page or application is started. So, I can say I’ve been doing application development for over 20 years. I don’t want to put my resume on here, but I do have extensive experience in website development.

How To Come Up With A Website Idea

Now this is the million-dollar question. I want to go back to my extra duty as an example and hopefully take you all through a simple process. There is an intricate way on getting your ideal from paper to web. Since we use Wordpress as our website template, wordpress is a powerful CMS or content management system. But we need to get our ideal first instead of just building to be building. That does not work in the real world as you will waste time if you don’t stick to your blueprint. Now I will give you my steps to come up with a site ideal for your niche.

Step 1 – Write It Down

First step on your website ideal, is write it down on paper. In the development world, it’s no different than coming up with a new business ideal. Brainstorm as much as you can. Write everything down as much as possible. There is no time table to doing your brainstorming. My advice is to jot down as much as you can and use that as your first iteration. In the development world, your first deployment will not be your last. You will put out more versions and fixes to have your product fresh and attract many users.

Step 2 – Get inspired

In step 2, what do I mean get inspired? Well think of it as a famous music artist, how did they start out? Did they just start out without listening to anyone? They were inspired by numerous artists before them. They listened to their music, followed their style, how they hit notes whether if they sung or played an instrument. So, with that being said, look at your top sites, and figure out how can you sort of duplicate what they are doing, but not copy. Take a look at their site style, how does it look so fresh, and the way it’s laid out to the world. Take notes (this actually goes with step 1, but with your idea J )

Step 3 – Create a Wireframe

So now were getting to the good stuff. This is where we will get creative at. Remember what I said about wordpress, it’s a powerful tool to use in your creation of your website. It does a lot of the work for you as far as your basis. But we’re not ready to actually get there yet. What is a wireframe you may ask? Well think of a wireframe as your website blueprint. There are several web tools out there to create your wireframe, but if you’re a beginner, the best way to create on is on paper. When creating your wireframe, there are certain symbols that is used in the design and development world, but if you’re learning for the 1st time to actually do this, simple symbols like a circle, square, rectangle, triangle and ovals will be sufficient.

Here is an example of what a wireframe looks like. This may have been created on some software, but you can do this on paper.

Step 4 – Come up With Features

This step could go with Step 1, but when you’re in brainstorming mode, you will actually just come up with one-word ideas on what your site will do. In this step, will be how will you use your site and what features you want to create on your site. Again, remember what I told you, wordpress is a powerful tool, and there are various plugins out there (free ones that will get the job done) that will help you get some features onto your applications. I know some of you will ask, what are features? Well think of features as what will make your site work with potential users out there. Do you want users to login and comment on your site? Well you would find a plugin that will assist with that in wordpress. That would be a feature. Twitter feed on your website is a feature. You see where I’m getting at. You have to make your site attractive with your niche. Ask yourself this question, what will make my site standout from the other sites. You would want users to come back and visit quite often.

Step 5 – Be creative

This is my last step and probably the most important one. When you get inspired, you will get very creative in the process. What makes your site stand out? How will you keep the attention of the users with your niche? Is your site just blah? How often will you work on it? Don’t worry, you will not get it the first time, but stay inspired and the creative juices will flow. Stick with it, as this is your baby. You want your site to be a reflection of you. So, get those creative juices flowing, I know you have it in you J

To close out my article today, my advice to whoever is reading this is come up with an idea for your site. You would want to have daily users visit your site, versus a couple of users who will think your site is just a site that is sitting there it’s boring. With your niche, come up with something creative and possibly innovative. Marketing is hard, but in order to market, your site has to look attractive. Keep working at it as it will not happen overnight. Good site design takes time, but one can find a good-looking template and go fourth and conquer. Well that is all I have, and I hope you find my entry informative and possibly this helps you figure out how to come up with a site for your niche. Have a good one!