Running a winning website is a process
All websites aren't the same. They're probably all built by a webmaster or a team. They might have all been through many steps and procedures with various challenges. But they are far away different. Different in how solid, coined, and secure they are. Mostly, they are different in how each accomplishes its goals.
Any website has goals set for it. When it reaches such a goal, we can call it a working website. One of these goals we all have is to make money with our websites, directly or indirectly.
When it comes to making your website work, and making some income from it, it becomes very complicated. You meet very few people who can give you a clear and concise formula to reach there.
There is a whole lot to go through in order to expect some reasonable income. It will not also be possible in a short time, it takes some minimum of time to make your website a winner. And to all this, you add the precious ingredient: consistency.
I would like in this post to share with you a few things you should consider with a lot of attention if you want a winning website:
Project
We'll never say it enough. This is one of the most important steps in any business. Here you should define what exactly your project is and what it should be accomplishing your goals and targets. This is what will condition any other thing that could follow. By making a decision you need to stick to it.
Creation
The creation phase will allow you to put together all the pieces and make a product or service, probably a website in our case. There are many solutions and ways to get a website done.
Management
This phase will hardly be limited. It's an abstract aspect of your business that is present from the start to an unknown limited time. Management is the efforts you will be putting into your website to keep it up and running the way you want it to be.
This process is endless and can involve a lot: coding and maintenance, content reduction, SEO, advertisement, and so on.
Monetization
This is the set of all possible means you will use to make your website pay you some money from time to time. There are countless ways of doing so: advertisement, affiliation, partnership, sponsorship, direct sales, etc.
This will take you a lot of time and tests to discover the real method which feats your business and that fetches you more money. Do not hesitate to experiment.
Fight with Google Adsense
Adsense will probably be your first destination when it comes to monetization of your website. It's a daily combat you need to win. Adsense's algorithm is very complex and almost impossible to predict. It's very hard to have a defined line of winning it. Here too consistency is key.
Fight with Google Analytics
Analytics is the tool you will use to track your traffic(visits) on the website. Most people who are interested in knowing if your website is good or not will probably request for this data. It's important you keep it fairly good, and that can be done if you keep feeding your users with good and consistent content.
Fight with social media
Social media is the new vein used to drag a lot of businesses and opportunities. It's important you set a good image of your website. You will have to use various social media to get your prospects and clients. Your social media is like your TV. They will watch through them.
Fight with Alexa Rank
I will never say enough about this rank. Whether we like it or not Alexa is still very useful in many cases because there is no real reason not to consider it.
This will always determine your position among the millions of websites in the world. You will need to keep fighting and have a good position.
To conclude
My idea here for you is to know that having a website that wins, which is reaching your goals, is a very long process. You need to work hard on it and conduct a lot of tests until you reach a satisfactory business model.
What I mentioned here is probably little compared to what goes on in real cases. It's hard to have a concise formula for creating/managing a winning website, but the main keys remain the same, original idea, good content, consistency, and perseverance.