Section 4
Part 3: Goals
B) A site that acts as an “affiliate” for some other business’s products or services (you will need permission from your parents and school to actually sell something online. Please talk to your teacher about this.)
C) A personal blog/journal. Tell others about what you are experiencing/doing.
D) A personal promotion site. Perhaps you’re looking for a job, a scholarship to university, or have a site that functions like a fancy business card.
E) A review site. Review and recommend other people’s products or services.
F) An expert/authority site. Give others advice.
What are your goals for your site? Write them down in your Website Plan document. Be as specific as possible.
Next we turn to our goals. BusinessDictionary.com defines goal as: “An observable and measurable end result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe.” What are your goals for your site? What do you hope to accomplish with it? Your goals should be as specific as possible. Here are some examples and you can use many of them at the same time, as you will likely have or need multiple goals.
1. To have my site completed within 12 weeks.
2. To tell 100 others about my site and get at least 100 visitors within 12 more weeks.
3. To get at least 3 unsolicited positive comments about my site (unsolicited means that you’re not out asking for feedback, but people come to you on their own accord and compliment you on what you’ve done).
4. To sell something and make my first $10 within 3 months after I publish the site (this sounds really small, but if you are going to build a site that sells a product or service, and your school and parents approve, then know that making your first $10 online is a BIG deal).
Every person’s goals will be different. You can’t adopt your friend’s goals. They have to be unique to you, to your talents, skills, experience, time, and vision. Maybe you haven’t thought about this before but it’s possible that you could use your site to impress recruiters at a job fair or university scholarship committee.
Think about that for a minute: If there are 10 (or 100) high school students competing for the same position, having a well-designed website could be the factor that puts you at the top of the list.
5. To get a job offer within 6 months.
6. To get an offer of a scholarship from a college or university before the end of the school year.
Here are a few possible objectives for your site that you may also consider:
A) A business site that sells something you produce. (Note that after you take this course, your website might be able to sell a service to other businesses where you help them build their own website!)
