But asking yourself why can help narrow down the choices. Some people start out in entirely the wrong part of the net and end up with their fingers burned.

How do people get it wrong?

I want what she's having
You feel as though you need a business on the internet "because everyone else is doing it."
You end up plugging away at some part-time business you don't enjoy and never really wanted.

Fuzzy concepts
You have a fuzzy idea of what the concept you want to start up, but can't quite pin it down. You could spend a lot of money before you find your niche on the net. Concentrating on the 'why' can help you to nail down the 'what'.

Mr Opinionated
You start up what looks and feels like an information site, but then litter it with your personal views and ravings. You would be better off with a blog where you can let your rants run rampant.
You've wasted a lot of time and effort - when you could have been building up a fanbase of people who would enjoy your acerbic demeanour.
.
Miss-Directed
You have a little business that you run locally and it does very well through word-of-mouth.
A salesperson talks you into having internet advertising, and for that you usually (although not always) need a website.
You go to a website designer, who talks you into a huge website, with lots of bells and whistles - and she charges like a wounded bull.
Your hip pocket is now considerably lighter, but you're no better off than before.
If you really wanted a website, it only needed to be a few simple pages - but you've now created a monster which needs constant feeding.

Sliced bread
You've found the best thing since sliced bread. It's a no-brainer guarantee of success. Until next week that is, when you find the next big thing.
Asking yourself 'why' could give you the path to follow, and the motivation to stick at it. Yes, all kinds of people are having amazing success at all kinds of things on the net - but you can't do all of them.

No signposts to the bad neighborhood
You've slapped up a website - so off you rush to promote it. But no one told you about the bad neighborhoods on the internet.
Now you've gone and signed up programs to automatically direct traffic to your website, and you've been busy exchanging links with all kinds of sites that you found at a link-exchange site. You've even started implementing some methods of increasing your google ranking that you read about in a 'black hat' SEO optimization forum.
Now your website has been banned from the major search engines, and you are left confused and licking your wounds.

If you'd stopped at the beginning and remembered your 'why' - then you might have spent more time making your site, and more time building real, natural traffic - and you might not have gone off on a mad sprint and ended up on the wrong side of town.


What questions should I ask myself?

Start by simply asking yourself 'why' and then writing down whatever comes to you. Don't stop to think about what you're writing - just write anything and everything that comes off the top of your head.

"I have an idea and want to use it to make money"

"I just want a personal site to write down my daily thoughts and feelings"

"I want to work at home so that I can make money but still be at home with the kids"

Circle the most important points. Now, write two mission statement using those points. Write one for yourself and one for the visitors who will come to your website.

1. What value do I want my website to provide for me?

2. What value do I want my website to provide for my visitors?

The answers to these two questions will give you a solid basis to build your website upon.

Why do I want a website?

This question might seem like it's asking you to state the (patently) obvious.