{"id":1168,"date":"2013-10-24T20:10:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T20:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/?p=1168"},"modified":"2014-04-25T17:08:31","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T17:08:31","slug":"new-web-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/new-web-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Launching A New Web Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"
So, you’ve got an amazing idea for a new website. You’re buzzing with excitement and day dreaming of seeing your name mentioned alongside the likes of Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> and Biz Stone as the creator of the next big thing on the internet.<\/p>\n It’s such a good idea… nothing can possibly go wrong…. can it?<\/p>\n Well, hopefully not! However, sometimes you can be too close to an idea and overlook the potential banana skins and obstacles that will be blocking your new site’s path to internet glory.<\/p>\n Here are 5 questions you should ask yourself before remortgaging your house to finance that fantastic new website idea….<\/p>\n In fact, before you read all that boring text, since it’s nearly Friday I fancied a bit of fun. So here is the whole article presented in the form of snakes and ladders \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ok… now read on to make sense of the above!<\/p>\n Social networks are all the rage and for good reason. Everyone would like a piece of the facebook pie and with ‘out the box’ software like social engine<\/a> (aff) making it a doddle to get your own niche social network up and running, it seems like a great, easy way to make money online.<\/p>\n But here’s an example of why it is not as simple as you might think.<\/p>\n Fishermen. There’s lots of fishermen in the UK. 4 million in fact.<\/p>\n So, how about setting up a niche social network for fisherman. What a great idea!<\/p>\n You think of ‘catchy’ domain name (pun intended), grab a social networking script, create a great logo, nice layout, put it live, throw some ‘bait’ (sorry…)\u00a0out on a few forums and social media and wait for those 4 million UK fishermen to sign up to your site.<\/p>\n And you wait….<\/p>\n And you wait….<\/p>\n Well, put yourself in the shoes of one of your target audience, a fisherman (hopefully they are not too wet…). He sees your blurb in his favourite forum about this great new social network for fisherman where you can….<\/p>\n And he thinks… Well yeah, I already do all of that. On facebook.<\/p>\n And he’s right isn’t he?<\/p>\n But this social network is just for fishermen you say… that’s the USP!!<\/p>\n Well no. It really isn’t. He’s already part of an exclusive ‘fishermen’s friends’ (sorry, there’s just too much material here!) group on facebook.<\/p>\n So what are you offering that they aren’t?<\/p>\n And the answer is nothing. Apart from one more longwinded registration form and social network to worry about updating.<\/p>\n There’s nothing wrong with niche social networks as a concept and there are some very successful ones.<\/p>\n The key is to really think about your target audience and what you can offer them that they are not getting at the moment through their existing social media.<\/p>\n You have to get them as excited for your new site as you are.<\/p>\n So, let’s continue with our example of fishermen.<\/p>\n How about in addition to the usual profile, pictures, wall stuff we offer them the following features: –<\/p>\n I’m just making this up off the top of my head, and you can probably tell I know nothing about fishing, but hopefully you get the idea!<\/p>\n So, if you believe your site has a strong USP that will appeal to your target audience, get them excited for your site and rushing to sign up, it’s safe to proceed to question 2.<\/p>\n It’s all very well coming up with a concept that your target audience will love, but if your target audience is 10 people then it’s highly unlikely your site is going to be floating on the stock exchange any time soon.<\/p>\n In an ideal world your new web property will have a global appeal (a youtube, a pinterest), but if you are targeting a niche then make sure it is big enough to justify all that effort.<\/p>\n This is one of those occasions when you have to put aside your personal thoughts on a topic for a second. Conventional wisdom says that you should create a website on a subject you are passionate about, but if the only other person interested in that subject is called mum then it’s probably best to go back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n If you are happy with your answer to question 2 and the potential audience for your new site is large enough to make it fly, then the next thing you should think about is whether that audience is actually one that would be interested in a digital expansion of their interest.<\/p>\n1. What Is My USP?<\/h2>\n
Go Fish<\/h3>\n
So What Went Wrong?<\/h3>\n
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What Could You Do Differently?<\/h3>\n
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2. Is There The Critical Mass Required To Make This A Success?<\/h2>\n
3. How Tech Savvy Is My Target Audience?<\/h2>\n