Creating a successful Web site is tough. There are literally hundreds of millions of Web sites out there and distinguishing yourself from the crowd is no easy task. Over the years, I've had lots of people ask me for some tips, and YWS itself has spawned countless imitators. In fact, YWS itself is an imitator of The Young Writers Club (TYWC), which had a very fruitful ten years. Although, YWS is now much larger than TYWC ever was!
So, here are my tips to creating a successful Web site:
Preliminary
Define The Site
Your first step is to define what it is you want to do. Do you want to create a writing site? A site about cycling? A site about you?
However, there's a second part to this step (we'll call it step 1.5), and that's finding a niche. If your site is about you, then that's just you and you have nothing to worry about. Otherwise, you have to narrowly define your site, and this will help you to stand out.
For example, take writing. If your site is about writing, then it's going to fail no matter how good it is. Why? Because there are hundreds of sites already about writing, and some of these sites have millions of dollars in funding.
So you have to narrow it down. For me, I went from writing to young writers, and there's room for specialization even within the young writers area. Take storybooks for instance. I'm actually surprised that so far no one from YWS has tried to set up a Web site specifically devoted to storybooks. If done right, I'm sure it could be really popular.
So to summarize, figure out what you want to do with the site, then narrow it down.
Define Success
What do you want to accomplish? If you want to create a site for you and your friends, then success may be having all your friends sign up. If you want to make money, then success may be making $100 a month.
When I started YWS, success was having 60 people sign up within two months (it ended up being more than twice that number). I knew that if I could get 60 people to sign up within two months, then the site would do very well.
Mission Statement
You have to have a mission statement; just something that guides you through the development process. That is, what do you want to do with your site? For me, I wanted to promote creative writing as a past time through YWS.
Determination
You have to be determined! I created three writing sites before I created YWS, and they all failed miserably. Two of these were writing sites, and the third was a mock newspaper I created for my school (it did pretty well for a few months). Through each one, I learned a bit more, and applied these lessons to YWS.
As an example, one of the writing sites I created was called, "Young American Writers." By including "American" in that, I instantly alienated anyone not from the USA, and that is not something you want to do.
Creating the Site
Designing
If you visit web development blogs, they'll always tell you that good design is essential. I believe in that 100%, but good design does not mean eye-popping graphics. When YWS first started, it was a very simple phpBB forum. It had nothing extra, and that worked fine.
As the site expands, adding clean graphics is necessary. However, what is essential is that users instantly understand your site. That means placing your navigation at the top or on the left, and to not have things hidden. So if you're just starting, my advice is to just go with a very simple, clean design.
Promoting
When I started YWS, I promoted the heck out of it. I went to all sorts of sites and made annoying posts about how great my site was, and sometimes I really annoyed the people there. However, as long as you're respectful (never actually say, "my site is better than this site"), and you write well, people will read what you have to say. In this way, I attracted a lot of people to YWS.
If you want to promote your site on YWS, you can do so in the Lounge. My only rule is it has to be free. If you ask people to buy or pay for something, then you will be banned for at least two weeks. Of course, it also helps if you let me know beforehand. That way, you can say, "Nate gave me his permission," which makes people much more open to what you have to say.
If you want to jump start the site, advertising does work. In 2005, I frequently advertised on Writing.com, which cost me about fifteen cents a click. To this day, I'm not sure if it was worth it, but it certainly did attract dozens of people who otherwise would not have found the site.
When I started JustGoat.com, I also paid for ads on Google, which cost me about a dime a click. This did help a ton in getting that site going, and it was moderately successful still when I closed it in May 2006 (for financial reasons). However, before paying for ads, first try posting on forums. Also, keep in mind that word of mouth does far more.
Running the Site
Last but not least, you need to actually run the site. Nowadays, YWS is at the point where I could leave for years, and YWS would carry on quite well. In the early days, though, I was everywhere. I reviewed almost everything that got posted, replied to every thread, welcomed every member, and sent a personal PM to every member.
However, there is a fine line here. You don't want to come across as over-bearing! When I see that every other post is made by the admin, that tells me the site is bad.
Additionally, in the beginning, there is no need for moderators. If you can't run your site by yourself for the first month, then you don't have the time necessary to make the site successful.
Hope that helps some! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Before I knew about YWS, surprisingly. I can't even remember the address. I'm rubbish at promoting.
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