Once you’ve determined that you need or want to create a horse website, you’re going to want to follow a series of steps to be sure you get started on the right foot.  If you fail to plan things out from the beginning, you’ll probably end up with a website that never gets any visitors.  Without visitors, your website is like a convenience store out in the middle of the desert.  People might really want to buy what you’ve got to sell, but they don’t have any idea you’re out there.

So, here’s your startup plan:

1. Decide what your site will be about.  Okay, I know you’re building a horse website so it’s probably going to be something to do with horses.  But you need to be more specific.  Do you want a site that teaches people to care for their horse?  Do you want to teach them about training a cutting horse?  Are you a pro barrel racer, and you just want to share your stories and videos from the road?  Or, do you sell tack and you want to take your business to the internet?  You really need to be this specific when starting out.  You can expand to include other topics later on down the road.

2. Find a good website domain name.  This is an important step, too.  Once you’ve decided what the site will be about, you’ll want a good domain name to match.  Check out the names of sites you visit regularly.  Notice how they usually include one or more “keywords” - words that search engines use to decide what the site is about.  You’ll want to do the same thing.  A good way to get started is to find out what words people are using to find sites like yours.  You can do this with a free keyword tool like the basic version of WordTracker.  Just type in what your site will be about, and a list of related words will appear along with how many times people have recently searched for each word.  With the full version of WordTracker, you can get a lot more information - like how much competition there is for a keyword.  But the free version is okay for starting out. 

When you have your keywords and you’re ready to find a good name, go over to www.MakeWords.com.  That site is very helpful for finding an available domain name that includes your keywords.  There are several different options at the bottom of the page for adding words to your domain to make it unique.  Just play around with it until you find a good one.

You have lots of options when it comes to registering a new domain name.  One of the biggest names in the business is www.GoDaddy.com.  I’ve used them for years, and they provide good service at a fair price.  Another I’ve used recently is www.NameCheap.com.  They’re only slightly more expensive, but they provide free privacy protection for the first year.  That prevents people from knowing your name, address, phone number, email, etc.  These days, that’s probably a good idea to have.  GoDaddy offers it, too, but you’ll have to pay a couple of extra dollars.

Next time, we’ll discuss deciding on a good web host.  Then we’ll move on to the basics of building your site from start to finish.  Again, we’ll look at important steps you’ll want to take to make sure your new horse website gets visitors as quickly as possible.  And we’ll look at how you can continue to increase your traffic week after week.

Download and Listen to the New Promote Your Horse Podcast

(Right-click the link below, and choose “Save As…” to save to your PC)

Promote Your Horse Podcast Episode 001  

I’m setting up this site just for you, the horse owner or enthusiast.  If you’ve ever thought about creating your own horse website, but you just weren’t sure how to get started, you’ve come to the right place.  If you’d like to go into business for yourself, and you think you know a thing or two about horses, I’m here to help.  Over the next six months, I’ll be providing you with so much information you’ll probably feel like you’re back in school.  But that’s okay because I don’t give out tests, and the only grade you’ll get will come from the folks at Google and Yahoo - not from me.

I’ve launched numerous successful horse websites over the last decade, and I’ve learned a lot in the process.  I’ve learned a little about what works, and a whole lot about what doesn’t.  I’ve learned who you can trust to shoot straight about how to do business online, and my pocketbook has learned quite a bit about those outlaws that just want to rob you of your hard-earned money.

I’ll tell you right now that not everything I’ll be teaching will be free, but it will all be worth the price.  If I can afford to give it away, you can bet I’ll do it.  But if it’s a secret that I use to make money every day, I’d be a fool to just hand it over without getting a fair price.  So, I hope you understand it’s nothing personal.  It doesn’t mean I don’t like you or anything like that.

So, bookmark the site for now.  Soon, I’ll have it set up so you can subscribe to my posts or get my emails.  But just be sure to come back because I promise you it will be worth your time.