More specifically, these tips are more likely to apply to those businesses that have always worked confidently in the offline format: producing printed publications or conducting educational and informational activities live. Now they have started to work actively online and are faced with the need to update their website.
What is typical for such projects? Most often, such resources are characterized by the presence of paid and free content, which means that content consumers must have their own accounts, and different consumers have different levels of access to the content.
Therefore, here are ten most important tips for owners of such resources
1. The design of the open part of the website should be as attractive as the cover of your publication, book, info product, etc. Do not skimp on the design of the website.
2. The design of the closed (paid) part of the website, i.e. the account with products, should be NOT so much beautiful as comfortable, like slippers.
3. Take into account the level of computer and mobile device proficiency of your target audience, i.e. age, region, and experience of using online products. Because if you have great content, but your client can't figure out how to get to it, you're wasting money.
4. If your content is designed for specialists in a particular profession (engineer, production technologist, labor protection specialist, farmer, etc.), then ask yourself: when, in what conditions, and on what device will your client read or watch the content? And if these are specialists who do not sit in the same place, the mobile version of the website should be the most convenient for such a user.
5. Ensure the availability of an online consultant, and simple visualized guides, and provide the user with the opportunity to ask questions.
6. When creating a website for the transition from print to online, decide from the very beginning what you plan to sell online. This determines the structure of the website, databases, and the processes of purchasing and communicating with your customers.
a. Do you plan to sell subscriptions to an entire publication, as you did with the print version, for example?
b. Do you plan to sell content in portions, such as specific sections, articles, etc...?
c. If you want to provide advertising space for advertisers, how do you plan to do so?
7. Even before you start looking for a website developer, make sure you have a team and a project driver who will drive the process forward and who understands the target audience. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting a website that will not meet your requirements or the expectations of your customers.
And it's preferable that this person is on the client's side more than yours – a kind of customer-oriented sales and marketing person. This is inconvenient from the point of view of investment because it usually does not allow you to save money on clients, but it will later return to you a hundredfold in the form of grateful clients who prefer to read your content rather than the content of competitors.
8. Let's talk about website developers. For such projects, take a TEAM that will consist of a project manager, designer, architect, backend and frontend developers, and a tester. Thoughts like: "Let's hire one freelancer, and he or she will do everything for us", must be driven away. Unless you have extra money, time, and clients.
9. Do not save on the terms of reference. Let it be step-by-step, let it not contain beautiful page layouts, but it must contain the website architecture and all the processes of client interaction with the website. Otherwise, you will run into your own previously incorrect decisions and will have to redo them again.
10. Take into account the fact that the new website will still be developing and finalizing for at least 2–3 years. Of course, if you want to provide your clients with exceptionally convenient and well-designed services.
This list can be extended, but in our opinion, these are the most important "stops" for careful planning. Good luck!