Pick a Topic - It all Starts with an Idea

Alright, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get the creative juices flowing. As I mentioned earlier, you need to create your own intellectual property. This is a fancy way of saying “unique content.” There are well over 500 million people online worldwide, and you have to create something that appeals to a segment of this online population.

Every person on this planet has their own hobbies, interests and unique knowledge. To create a successful subscription website, write down some of your interests and thoroughly research them on the Internet; I recommend using www.google.com to begin your research. Are there certain subjects you feel are not adequately represented on the Internet? Do you feel you could do a better job with your own fee-based website? Perhaps you have an idea for a site that has never been done before.

The Internet is in its infancy and there are countless opportunities out there. Take your time during this process and rank your ideas, beginning with the one you believe will be the most successful.

Try to avoid saturated markets and make sure your information is not readily available for free. Interestingly enough, however, even if the information is available for free elsewhere, many web surfers are willing to pay for well-packaged, easy-to-read information that will save them time.

When I started my first website back in 1998, I decided to create a site that offered employment assistance to a very specific career group. I know others have had similar success helping people get jobs in pharmaceutical sales, private investigations, etc.

The potential topics are truly limitless. One site that comes to mind is www.MrSkin.com. This innovative guy started logging all the nude scenes in mainstream films. He organized his data by actress and, voila, he had a winning website. Visitors could join his website and quickly find all the nude scenes for a particular actress.

The bottom line is to create something you believe people will be willing to pay for. The days of creating free websites and profiting from advertising dollars are over; it's all about subscription sales.

For your first website, keep things simple. Do not choose to create a website that requires extensive coding and a back-end searchable database. While it would be nice to create a website like www.classmates.com, it would not be a realistic first project. Similarly, do not choose to create a website that requires an abundance of fresh daily articles. Such content demands a large staff, which can be very expensive. Think of your first project as an online, interactive book that will require little to moderate updating. Later, when you have more experience and confidence, you can tackle larger, more challenging projects.

Once you have settled on your topic, you should do sufficient research to fill in any gaps in your knowledge. Remember, you want to produce a quality product, so do not skimp on the necessary research. Use the Internet, visit the library, and even consider interviewing experts to round out your knowledge. You should also thoroughly study your competition, not only online but also in print (a careful search on www.google.com and www.amazon.com will suffice). From here, you should create a brief outline of your content. This process is no different than writing a well-organized research paper. The major difference here is you are writing for the web, which is interactive with clickable links. At this point, only generate a brief outline for your site; you will write the actual content later.

Next Section: Create your Site