Running a website is no easy feat and it’s something that a lot of people underestimate. How hard can it be to draw a few pictures and upload a few articles on a topic you find interesting right? Well quite hard as it turns out, and it actually takes a certain kind of person to handle the unique pressures and challenges of running a website. If you’re thinking of getting into the world of blogging/webmastering then, or if you’re building a website in order to promote your business then, the question is simple: do you have those skills? Are you the right kind of person?
Here’s what you need to be in order to thrive online…
Driven:
One of the most difficult things about being a webmaster is also one of the things that can make is so appealing as a full time job. You see you’re not going to have anyone breathing over your neck and telling you what needs to be done, and this can actually make life quite difficult when you need that bit of motivation or when you’re feeling tired.
It’s all too easy as a webmaster then to wake up feeling rough and to decide that today you’re only going to write five articles rather than ten. In order to succeed you need to know that very few excuses are good enough, and you need to be able to force yourself to work even when you don’t fancy it.
Business Minded:
Running a website is essentially running a small business. There are overheads to consider, there’s marketing and there’s administration. In order to make your site a hit, you need to be a jack of all trades and you need to know how to quickly and efficiently create something that’s going to make money. If you have experience as a businessman or woman, then this is actually one of the things that will help you the most in making your site into a hit.
Analytical:
You also need to be someone who’s analytical and who’s able to look at the statistics and maths behind what you’re trying to accomplish. While you need to be a ‘big picture’ person, you also need to be able to slow down and to look at the finer details in order to find bugs in your code, or to understand why your clicks have gone down in response to recent changes. Mathematicians will have a big advantage in running a website.
Creative:
That said, having an analytical brain with an understanding of business isn’t what you really need to make a compelling website – that’s just going to result in a spreadsheet. As well then you also need creative vision and an eye for attractive graphics. The main way that people are going to interact with your site is through vision, so you need to make sure that your site looks beautiful and eye catching and you need to give it a UI that you can feel proud of. No pressure then…
Optimistic:
While running a site can be highly rewarding and a lot of fun, there will be days when you want to pull all your hair out. In order to be successful then it’s crucial that you can deal with those days and that you don’t let them get to you. You also need to be hardy, resilient and ultimately quite confident in order to believe that your site can succeed. Because if you don’t believe in it, then no one else will and you’ll eventually end up just giving up. Go and watch Rocky then apply his attitude to your site…
Passionate:
Perhaps most important of all is that you’re passionate about what you do. You need to be bringing a website into the world that you care about deeply and that you’re incredibly proud of. If you’re not, then the end result is always going to be disappointing and you’ll have a hard time marketing it too. When you’re passionate it will come across in your marketing, in your content and in the quality of the end product. Everything else on this list can be learned and developed (or just outsourced). Passion though is something that you need from the start.
Our guest blogger, John Miller is a freelance blogger who enjoys sharing his personal and work experiences online. He writes for Webfirm, a renowned email marketing company based in Australia. His hobbies include painting and calligraphy.
