3 Things Before Launching A Website

Often I talk about being action oriented and just doing stuff. Well just doing stuff has taught me some interesting stuff. Now before I launch a website it really HAS to contain these 3 items or I will keep it on the back burner until I can find a way to implement these 3 items. I will use AuctionAds as an example.

Service

Does your product/website offer a service people will use? I always do “offline research” asking friends/family if they would use a service like this. I also ask them how they would use a service and how it would improve there life. Many times people will just tell you they would use it just cause they want to make you feel good. With AuctionAds we really saw there was a need to make accessing the eBay affiliate program easier. Between the easy to use code and geotargeting for 15 different countries we offer a service that nobody else does.

Viral

This is very important IMO. The item has to have a viral component so it can spread itself. Again take AucitonAds as an example… We spent a bit on advertising at first but over 80% of new signups come from seeing the ad placed on websites. Not from our banners. Now AuctionAds gets over 200 new users every day and we spend nothing on advertising.

Money

Obviously there has to be a business model to make money from the product. With AuctionAds the plan was to pass on 100% of the revenue for the first 6 months so we can reach the highest tier then take a small percentage while still being able to give the best payout to our publishers.
Anyway these are things I think about before starting stuff. I have a few sites like rafflebag.com which have the service and money part down but lack the viral component so they have not launched…