So You Want to be a Webmaster - General Business Skills

Think you’re just running a website that brings in money? Try again. You’re running a business. That website is only part of your business. It might be the most visible part, but it’s still only part of it. If you want that website to do its job, you need to make sure you can do your job by supplying the supporting services a business needs to keep going.

Let’s do a mental exercise to take our perspective back a step; some things are easier to see with a little distance. Suppose a friend came to you and started asking questions about how to make money online. He wants you to show him how you did it. What would you tell him?

If you’re smart, you’ll realize that you and he are two different people, and what worked for you might not work for him. So you can fall back on asking him questions, just to see how much thought he has put into it so far. What products or services does he plan to offer? Has he considered his own strengths and weaknesses, and how will he accommodate them in his plan? Has he researched the market to see if there is any demand for his idea? Just how much research has he done? Does he even have an idea yet? If he has an idea, does he know what niche he wants to serve?

Once you’ve asked these questions, you might start asking the nuts and bolts kinds of questions. Has he written up a business plan? Does he know the costs of the products and/or services he wants to provide – and if the cost isn’t straightforward (as it wouldn’t be for many services and some handmade goods), how has he calculated it? How about getting a business license, insurance, and other business-related expenses? How does he plan to handle the finances for the business? Or is his situation somewhat simpler in that he has a brick-and-mortar business, and wants to use the website to expand?

Remember, this was just a mental exercise. If you want to be a webmaster and run a website, or a web host handling a number of websites, you need to be able to answer these questions for yourself. That means learning about the market (including how to do market research), knowing your own strengths and weaknesses, being prepared to write a business plan, and so on. Fortunately, there are many books on the market that can help you acquire these skills.

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