1. Define each potential business idea in a key word or key word phrase. For instance, electronics, discount electronics, discount computer equipment, etc.

2. Begin your research on the Internet. It is recommended you start another notebook (your first notebook was for the printed out online FAQs or other information to help you build your Web site if you do not have a programmer). In this notebook you can keep your notes, emails and print-outs, and any other Internet pages you might print out.

3. Enter your key word or key word phrase into a search engine. The main ones are google.com, msnsearch.com, yahoo.com and ask.com.

4. When you come across a site you do not care for, for whatever reason, click off of it and move to the next. When you find a site you like begin your examination and evaluation.

The four areas of the website to examine and evaluate are:

• The Written Content
• The Graphic ID (Identity)
• The Page Layout
• The Structure of the Site

The Written Content

The written content goes throughout the site, obviously. In this exercise you want to pay particular attention to that first page that comes up when you click on the link from the search engines search results. That page is written to two different audiences.

The first audience is the visitor who comes to the site. The visitor has one simple question they want answered, “What’s in it for me?” We have 20-30 seconds to answer that question to the visitor’s satisfaction or he or she clicks off and is gone.

The second audience is the search engines. The search engines send their spider, bots, crawlers through web sites to parse and index the site. Start now to ask yourself, “I put these words into the search engine and this site came up. Where are these words on this page?”

The Graphic ID

The graphic ID is made up of the logo, the background, images on the site (photos, graphics, buttons, bars, etc.). This is where much of the touch and feel of your web site is established.

The Page Layout

The page layout is how the programmer is using the space in the monitor. Some programmers like to jam every bit of space with something while others have a simpler approach, lots of white space, easy to read and get around. Then there is everyone else in-between. You need to start figuring out what you believe will appeal most to your visitors.

The Structure of the Site

The visitor will judge your site visually (graphic ID and page layout) in about 5 seconds. If you pass the test there, the visitor will read your copy. Again, there you have about 20-30 seconds, at best, to keep them there. If the visitor stays, he or she now begins moving through the structure of your site.

Think of the structure of your site like a funnel, a big round mouth at the top that leads to a small spout at the bottom. When someone is surfing the net, usually he or she has something rather specific in mind. If he or she clicks the link to your site, what you want to be saying is, “Come on in! We have some information here that will be of help to you!”

So, he or she comes in and starts reading, clicking, reading, clicking, etc. And like gravity pulling something through that funnel, you want to pull that visitor through your site. So, you will want to develop deliberate strategies, or pathways through your site to accomplish this. These pathways, click by click, lead your visitor down to the bottom of the spout, which is for us a little button that says, “To Order Now, Click Here,” or “To Subscribe to Our Newsletter, Click Here,” or “For More Information, Click Here,” etc.

To get them to that button, a specific strategy must be developed. It is called, your “Most Wanted Response.” You will learn more about this later.

A specific strategy to move your visitor from one spot on your site to another cannot be overemphasized. You probably have been on sites where you have been reading and clicking. You finish reading a page, and now you have no idea where the site owner wants you to go! When this happens, visitors tend to leave the site. When that happens, you have lost a potential sale today, and perhaps other sales from that visitor in the future.

Questions to Ask Yourself as You Research

Here are three questions we suggest you ask yourself about the above four areas of each site.

• What do I like?
• What do I dislike?
• What could I do differently or better?

Two Specific Goals From Doing the Research

Your first goal to achieve from this research is establishing a marketing niche to pursue. This niche will probably be refined during your coaching and as time goes on.

Your second goal is to come up with a name. We have a couple of suggestions here for you on selecting a business name.

A Name for Your Site and Your Business

Have your name say what you do. This can apply to your actual company or business name and your Web site. People can read the name and immediately see what you do. At the same time, do something with the name to make it clever and catchy.

Have your business name be something completely unexpected, off the wall, yet still memorable. A favorite example we have of that is a Web hosting company called Angel Fire. Who knows what Angel Fire is? But what a cool name!

Part of the reason Yahoo.com or Amazon.com are so successful is they have a cool name that is easy to remember.

A Couple of Recommendations About Internet Business Names

It is a good idea to have the name of your business and the name of your domain match. This can work for you with some of the search engines and directories.

Also, while having a clever name for a domain, there seems to be more and more discussion that if your domain has a keyword or phrase in it related to your business it can be an advantage with the search engines. This has not been the case in the past, but things seem to be going in that direction now.

I suggest going to your local library and checking out a book called the "22 Immutable Laws of Branding" by Al and Laura Ries. You can also buy it at www.Ries.com. It helps you to understand more clearly the laws of naming a website for success. You can also go to Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com to purchase a copy.

Differentiating Your Business

After your brainstorming exercises, define the value of your website to your visitor and yourself by answering the next two questions. If you are having a difficult time deciding what kind of business to market on your website, or why you would market a particular business on your website, the exercise below should help.

For each business you are seriously considering, take a sheet of paper and at the top write the name of the business. Next, answer the following questions.

1. How will the site for this business serve the visitor? (The visitor must have a reason to come to your site, what is it? What will they get of value by coming to your site, particularly, what would they get that is different from other similar sites information, discount on products, one of a kind products or service, etc.?)

2. How will this business site serve me? (Whatever your site is about, there must be something you are getting out of it. Would that be sales, leads, and information for your clients?)

What does this mean?

What you are seeing here is the Internet version of Dale Carnegie’s quote,

So make your site have enough value (something you are helping them with, i.e., showing them how to solve a problem) that visitors would come to your site, so that you and they have the possibility of doing business.

After the Research

Basic Questions About Your Business Web Site

After you have established a direction or niche for yourself, review and answer the Basic Questions About Your Business Web Site below.

Please answer for the marketing niche you are considering.

1. Why would this business be a good marketing niche on the Internet?
2. Why would this particular marketing niche be a good Internet business for me?
3. What do I want my Web site to do?
4. When a visitor comes to my Web site, what do I want to have happen?
5. How will that happen?

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