When To Actually Start Working On A Website?, Still collecting information Options

[mocha]

Hi, my website will be about my own health products and therapies. I am still preparing material on various diseases, symptoms, causes and cures. While I have gone a long way, there is even longer way left. That is much much more is still left. A friend of mine suggested me to get the work started with whatever material I have right now and continue adding content to the website as and when I prepare it. I am going to get it done by a professional web developer, so I am not sure how I will be charged if I do so. Another option is to wait until I complete it. Any suggestions please?

[fisicx]

I think you are going in the right direction. Preparation of your content is probably the most important stage of the web design process. There is no reason why you shouldn't consider the site structure at the same time. This means thinking about how all the content will fit towether and sketching out your general navigation will help to identify gaps in the content ar indeed superfluous material.

The more perparation you have done the easier it will be to brief the website designer. What you need to do is make sure they build you a wireframe, test site so that you can see how everything fits together. If they insist on beginning with the page layout or template then go find another designer.

[jonbey]

Start now! If information only, I recommend a Wordpress install. Build a "front page" or use a magazine theme layout to highlight latest posts. Then categorize all the topics, and start adding them when ready. Getting your site up as soon as possible is generally best (in my opinion). You can change / tweak / edit content later. The design can come later too. But getting the pages up early will help with the search engine placement, and adding new content on a regular basis is generally accepted as a good idea too. So rather than going from 0 to 100 in a day, build it up over a few weeks / months. Start with one specific group of products that you think will ether sell best or really signify what the site is about.

[fisicx]

Difference of opinion here...

I wouldn't advocate going down the wordpress route. It might seem like the easy option but it may well be better to wait until you have the site structure planned and the most of the content written before 'going live' with the wireframe.

What you don't want to do is waste the honeymoon period Google gives to new sites whilst it carries out the full indexing process. So by going live with an incomplete site could lose you a good number of potential customers. Even worse is the fact that you may get ranked, change or update all the pages and lose that ranking.

[notepage]

I would start now and gradually add content as you complete it, this will help get your site indexed in a reasonable time frame.

[EGOL]

Put the domain out to the public as soon as you have a few good articles. My site will never be finished... working everyday but there are not enough days in a lifetime to get it done - even with help.

[cre8pc]

Mocha (love the name!)

It's been my experience that the failure of site conversions and marketing is that the site owner has no plan. They think they know what they need but in the end, they've forgotten a great deal.

In addition to the content, which you are correct in gathering now and always, you need to determine who the site is for and what you want to get out of it. These decisions are necessary to pass along to your designer, so they don't go about building something you don't want (and wasting your money).

Yes - get your domain asp.
Yes - get your host asp

Determine your platform (custom code, blog software)
Determine who your target reader/customer/use is.

I have a slide show (free of course) on the topic here which can help you to understand in more detail what I mean.

Welcome to the forums

[AbleReach]

Get the basics written, make it look pretty, and work with the navigation structure until you're satisfied that it will still work if the site ends up growing more than expected.

Start small, prepare for big, only post what's finished, but don't wait until everything is done to post anything.

Adding gradually can be good for a site, especially if you're going to make yourself available via RSS. It gives subscribers something to check up on. Even if you're not going that route, there is a little fresh content boost.


Good luck!

[TheManBehindTheCurtain]

Hi Mocha ...

If I read your initial question correctly, you're particularly worried that a lack of organization on your part will result in overcharges by the designer, if it results in the designer having to redo work. It shows you've got good instincts about planning a web site, and it is the type of question we all struggle with.

As EGOL says, a web site is never finished. That's the brilliant part. You can -- and must -- always be adding content, improving usability, refining the design ... etc. etc. Professional web site designers understand this. That is, anyone calling himself/herself a professional should be able to sit down and understand your long-term plan for creating and building and nurturing your site over time.

The key is, as cre8pc and AbleReach are saying (if I can put words into their mouths), is to have a very clear idea of your goals -- your business goals, and all the intermediate goals for your site's vision and content. If you can clearly communicate to the designer what you want to accomplish, and provide enough solid starter content, then you and the designer can plot a multi-stage course. For future stages, you may not have all the content you think you want, but you can tell the designer what *type* of content you plan to provide, and give solid examples. And you and the deisgner can decide how that content will be integrated into the site over time.

I'll also second all the other sentiment to start sooner rather than later. You'll never get it perfect the first time out, no matter how much you plan. Some things you'll have to learn through experience -- and making mistakes -- and so you might as well dive in as soon as you have enough material for that first good "stage 1" rollout.

[RisaBB]

Hello Mocha,

I'll second and third what everybody is saying - a website is never finished. This is what I do most of my day - update my website, or I'm doing marketing for it. I think you should get the site up ASAP so Google can start crawling it. You should learn about SEO and keyword research so that you'll get found in the search engines for words that people are searching for - that means having those words on your page and in the title tag.

You should give thought to your navigation architecture, but that shouldn't be so difficult. Think of your site like a book with chapters. Each chapter, or main topic, is a link in your nav bar. You don't have to think of all your main links right now though - I don't. I add categories as they become relevant or if I want to add content in the subject. Some categories are so big that they may have subcategories.

I think you should seriously consider having the site designed using a CMS - content management system, so that you pay the designer/programmer once, and they you are in full control to add pages, categories, subcategories, photos, graphics, etc. without depending on the hourly rate of a web designer every time. Plus, since websites are never finished, even when you think you're done with a page, you'll find a typo, or a better way to say something, and it will be a pain to contact the web designer for every little thing.

I recently designed a website for a client and hired a programmer to program it in Joomla - a CMS, so the client can update the site themselves. There is a learning curve involved - but not too bad when you get the hang of it. I learned it well enough to teach my client a few weeks later. It doesn't look like a blog, but like a website, which is nice.

Good luck.

Risa

[Ruud]

^^ what they say ^^

- prepare 5-10 pieces of killer content; the stuff you're proud of.

- publish it, market it

- follow up with 5-10 pieces of really solid content. Link liberally to folks in the space. Those links are like private invitations to your house ... and your content investment means your house is in order

- rinse. repeat.

[AbleReach]

- prepare 5-10 pieces of killer content; the stuff you're proud of.

- publish it, market it

- follow up with 5-10 pieces of really solid content. Link liberally to folks in the space. Those links are like private invitations to your house ... and your content investment means your house is in order

More great practical advice from Ruud.

At about fifteen good posts a blog starts to look like it could be an ongoing presence, not a tentative false start that's unlikely to be worthy of RSS subscription.

Coincidentally, or maybe not, 5 pages is a good starter size for a brochure site. At about ten, with good content, you can start to see more of the personality of whatever is behind the site.

10-15 seems like a good point for the housewarming party, especially if the next 5-15 pages are outlined enough to be in the chute. I think that having the party without more in the chute for later sort of misses the boat, if you're looking at growing a presence.

This post has been edited by AbleReach: Oct 14 2009, 01:46 PM