As I begin the transition of my Blog to a more work-related one, I have struggled to find a good segue.
Who knew the Soap Network would be there to help? As I sat on the couch, aimles
sly flipping channels, I landed on a relatively new, old-school episode of Beverly Hills 90201. Intrigued, I settled in for the long haul.
The crisis du jour is whether or not Donna Martin should embrace this trendy new thing called the Internet and build a website for her retail clothing store. As an online marketer, I was endlessly amused by the way the internet was represented around 2000.
- Donna’s website could do all sorts of revolutionary things such as track inventory and allow people anywhere (yes anywhere) in the world to buy her designs.
- For $20,000, an internet developer promised to place Donna’s website “all over the worldwide web so everyone could see it.”
- After Donna wouldn’t go out with the developer, he refused to relinquish her site until she would agree to go on a date with him.
In the end, everything seemed to work out OK and Donna’s site was launched successfully…although there were still those awkward, unresolved feelings between her and David Silver.
Even though I am making fun of Beverly Hills 90201’s treatment of the internet, they actually brought up some very real problems I have seen as both a Project Manager and Marketing Consultant.
- Functionality: does the site do what you need it to do? For example, will you need to update your site a lot manually but you don’t have knowledge of HTML? Ask your developer about a Content Management System (CMS). Using one is typically no more difficult than editing a document in Word. I think Creative Flavor’s CMS is robust and easy to use.
- Visibility: the “build it and they will come mentality” has never worked. Do you have an advertising budget to make your site seen? How about organic search engine optimization? Or, paid keyword searches? A website is only good if people can find it.
- Integrity: do you have a good relationship with your developer or hosting provider? Do you have access to your domain name record and know how long it is renewed for? Do you know who your hosting provider is? These may seem like trivial questions but I have seen sites held “hostage” and it is a horrible situation. Protect one of your most important assets–your website–by staying on top of this information. You can look up your domain and hosting record here.
From Donna Martin’s attempt to go online to best practices for site development, I can guarantee you one thing – in 10 years, this posting will likely seem as outdated as 90201. But probably not in syndication on the Soap Network…
