Creating a web site is a long term project. It may be tempting to to create a web site quickly, and run the project as if it could be done with just a few simple pages. Treating a web site project like this increases the possibility of failure of the whole business. A good web site is the focal point where most users will converge as your business grows.
However, the development of a good web site can be made much easier when we have user iteration. Users are very important in this phase because they can dictate where you should spend your time and where the pain points of your readers are.
For example, suppose that you create a new web site from scratch, in a topic such as investing in low cost stocks. This is a perfectly fine topic to develop a web site, but you don’t know yet what are the main important questions in this area.
After doing some research, you figure out that finding low cost stocks in one of the main areas that users would be interested in learning. With this information on hands, you start to create content focuses on low cost stocks, and how to trade them profitably.
Using Users Suggestions
The problem, however, is that this approach ignores what users really want to see in your web site. After you finish writing all the content, users may visit your web site or not. You will never know in advance if you information is really useful.
Another approach is to use readers feedback as you go. Using this approach, you could setup a simple web site, and start creating content for it. You can start with you initial topics, but as time goes, you will notice that readers are more interested in one topic or another. Using this information, you can now quickly direct your efforts into ideas that are more interesting to your readers.
Suppose, for example, that you find that the most read article is on the topic of day trading low cost stocks. You will now be able to search and create content directly related to what your readers want, that is, how to day trade such stocks profitably.
Reaching your Readers
The important action, therefore, is to get feedback from visitors as soon as you can, in order to improve the quality of your web site or blog. And the best way to do this is to asking them to participate, and by giving real incentives for this participation.
One suggestion is to give small prizes to your readers. For example, you can say that you will give a small gift to one of the readers that leave a comment. This will give them an incentive to write about what they like or dislike in your web site.
You can also do this by asking questions that are though provoking. At the end or an article, you can request feedback on what you’re doing. Another option yet is to direct readers with a survey — many web sites, include Facebook, now have simple methods to create and display the results of a survey
Conclusion
Improving the response to you web based business is a key ingredient for success. With the help of users your can make changes that really impact your audience. However, it is necessary to listen to what they want to say, and provide the right opportunities for that to happen.