Clarifying the purpose and scope of your web site

Date: Thu Nov 08 2007
When beginning a project, it is good to begin at the beginning (so to speak). What is your purpose in developing a web site? It doesn't matter what your purpose is, so long as you clarify for yourself the purpose. The purpose helps you to focus your attention on the goals you have for your web site.

Before beginning to write anything, before setting finger to keyboard, before drawing any images, before thinking up a logo, before registering a domain name, and before anything else, ask yourself

  • What the heck do I want to say?
  • What is this about?

If you head to that street corner and begin rambling on about a thousand things all at once, will anybody pay attention? Probably not.

Knowing what your message is will let you focus on that message, and should reflect in a successful web site.

Having said that, it's not necessary to go overboard with developing your purpose for writing a web site. Let the purpose grow on you, because it will anyway. Do the best you can right now, and expect the purpose to grow and evolve over time.