by Inspired To Write

Created on: February 11, 2009   Last Updated: March 29, 2009

Build Your Website Find Your Niche

Can you build a website without having a niche? Of course, but I would strongly suggest you find your niche first then build your site.

Knowing your niche before you build a website won't guarantee your success, but I believe it is you first step towards achieving your goals.

Building a unique website takes time and plenty of attention to detail. Also, it's a creation this is constantly in the making. It involves learning as much as you can about web creation and its maintenance. After that it involves constant tweaking.

As for finding your niche, it's not that hard to do. Find what you like to do best and go with it. When I first started out as a VA I offered every service under the sun, as long as I knew how perform that service, whether I did it expertly or not, I offered it. I have since learned that is not the way to do business. To be considered a professional, whether in the VA field or elsewhere, you need to know your craft. Now when I get a request from a prospective client and the services they seek are not within my realm of expertise, I either inform them that I can't help them and send them to a site like VAnetworking.com or I offer to find a VA who can assist them.

Once you have you niche, it's much easier to build your site and develop the keywords you need to help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You need to learn some basic SEO if you want to have a strong presence on the web, but we'll go into that in a future article.

You'll also need quality content on your site and have all of you links working properly to attain your goal, which should be to rank on the first page of the search engines.

If you don't think you have what it takes, yet, to do your own site, find someone reputable to help. Do a little bit of research. There are a lot of veteran Virtual Assistants who offer help to newbies, whether it's for websites or just mentoring.

If you belong to an on-line group like, IVAA, DVVAA or VAnetworking.com, which I strongly advise a new Virtual Assistant to join, they offer many resources to their members. The members are very knowledgeable and always ready to help when you have a question or problem.

So, if you want to create and maintain your own website, you should start now. To build your site you will need a working knowledge of an HTML editor or website development software like CoffeeCup or Macromedia Dreamweaver. They are the only two website software systems I know of that are user friendly, or at least reasonably easy to learn. You'll also need to acquaint yourself with a graphics software such as Jasc, Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

Don't let all of this technical information scare or discourage you. It's a lot to take in all at once but it's really not as bad as it sounds. Remember, VAs are a brotherhood/sisterhood, we're here to lend help when needed.

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