plan. Building a website without a plan is like a contractor trying to construct a building
without a blueprint. Not only would it take forever to build, but the end result would be a
complete disaster!
This section will take you through the necessary steps to plan your website. You will
learn how to:
- • Develop a content theme
- • Plan your website sections
- • Identify your website pages
- • Design your website layout
- • Create a website template
By following a website plan you will be able to build your website faster and better. In
addition, you will be able to identify potential problems before they arise and become
difficult to fix.
1 Develop a Content Theme
Once you have decided on a promotion strategy and have selected the merchants you are
going to promote, it's time to start thinking about a content theme. A content theme tells
visitors what your website is about. Your visitors should be able to understand what your
site is about within 5 seconds of arriving.
When planning your content theme, I recommend that you review your keyword list and
merchant offerings. Did you notice any market categories that were underserved? Did
you happen to find a group of related keywords that would make a good content theme?
As an affiliate, I have had the most success by building niche websites, which are also
known as microsites. A microsite is a website that is narrowly focused on a small group
of closely related products or services.
As you may have guessed, the opposite of a microsite is a macrosite. I define a macrosite
as a website that has a wide focus on a large group of associated products or services.
For example, a website about home furnishings would be considered a macrosite. Within
the home furnishings category there are literally hundreds of associated sub-categories.
Think about all of the diverse products that fall under the home furnishings category:
beds, clocks, couches, rugs, lamps, and wall art, just to name a few! As you can see, all of
these products are associated under the home furnishings category, but they are not
closely related.
If you were to select any one of the sub-categories from the above example, you could
build a microsite. For example, a website about rugs could be considered a microsite.
Even though there are different rug sizes, brands, and textures, all rugs are closely
related.
As you are thinking about different content themes to build a microsite around, be careful
not to go too narrow. There is a difference between a microsite and a microscopic site.
For example, an entire website about Silk Rug Cleaning Solution might not be a good
idea. It may make sense to build a section or a page about Silk Rug Cleaning Solution
within your website, but an entire site devoted to this product may not generate enough
interest or traffic to make it worth your time.
2 Plan the Sections of Your Website
After you have selected a content theme, you can start thinking about the main sections of
your website. This step requires you to group the products or services together with some
kind of categorization. There are many ways you can consider categorizing the content on
your website. I suggest you look at your keyword list and see which keywords are being
searched most frequently and how they're related to each other.
Follow the example below using the keyword "rug". Look at each of the keywords in the
list. How would you group these keywords together? Do any of the keywords fall into
similar categories? I've made some suggestions below:
This screenshot is very insightful. Let's try and group some of these keywords into logical
categories.
Keywords related to rug styles:
1. braided rug
2. shag rug
3. Persian rug
4. oriental rug
5. sisal rug
Keywords related to rug locations:
1. area rug
2. kitchen rug
3. bathroom rug
4. runner rug
Keywords related to rug brands:
1. Nourison rug
2. Karastan rug
3. Shaw rug
Keywords related to price:
1. cheap rug
2. discounted rug
3. cheap area rug
By scanning this list of keywords, I was able to come up with 4 categories (rug styles, rug
locations, rug brands, rug prices). I don't know if this is necessarily the best way to
categorize rugs, but this example shows you how you can use your keyword list to
categorize your content.
In addition to using your keywords, I recommend reviewing your merchant's and
competitor's websites to see how they categorize their content.
