Project Management Activities

Internet Business Success

This is a summary of the activities involved in the successful management of an Internet project, based on actual experience. The essence of the approach is to estimate how long each activity will take to complete and over what period of calendar time. This is basic project management, but it MUST be done. Otherwise, the Internet project will not succeed, just as a building won't get built on time and within budget if project management is lacking.

Evaluate Business Potential

1.1 Assemble all available data. This includes notes of conversations, relevant data on similar businesses and general marketing information on Internet commerce.

1.2 Visualize possible sales concepts. Sales techniques differ from one product to another. For example, some services may consist of seminar sales, while a manufactured product may involve the sale of the item directly to the end-user.

1.3 Guesstimate possible sales. This is truly a guesstimate because there is not enough historical data to make quantitative forecasts. It amounts to best judgement based on knowledge of the Internet, backed up by gut feel.

1.4 Estimate fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs are based on the estimated number of hours to be spent on management activities. Reasonably good estimates are possible based on the activities required to promote and manage an Internet business. Variable cost can also be fairly well estimated, since they relate directly to the product or service. Downloaded software may involve small variable costs, but support costs could be high.

Create Business Web Site

2.1 Brainstorm approach to site. Internet means creativity. The result of this activity is a mission statement for the web site, along with general guidelines on how it will look and operate.

2.2 Evaluate hosting needs. A business requires hosting that allows it to accept payments easily, receive the estimated number of visits without slowing down and that is reliable in terms of function and service.

2.3 Establish merchant services. Merchant services allow payments to be accepted over the Internet. Americans have an advantage over Canadians here, but there are ways of obtaining US merchant services even for non-US businesses.

2.4 Establish corporate identity. As a result of the mission statement, the Internet site and each page contained in it will have a corporate identity that is in harmony with the business as a whole.

2.5 Develop site content (layout, graphics, text). Site content follows from the mission statement. There is more work here than meets the eye. The overall effect of the site on a visitor must be right. Otherwise, any effort could be of no avail. The combination of layout, text and graphics must stimulate the viewer's imagination and emotions, while presenting solid content.

2.6 Develop promotional material (seeds, PR, ads). This includes: proper wording of visible and invisible text on each page; short, medium and long descriptions; keyword lists; press releases; classified ads.

Launch Business on Internet

3.1 Establish hosting account. Although site development can be done in a staging area, it has to be officially hosted to be in business. Getting a domain name (yourbusiness.com) is part of it. This activity can be quickly accomplished unless it involves a study of hosting possibilities.

3.2 Establish site monitoring. Several companies offer site monitoring services at less than $100 a year for 100 pages. Some free services could be used, but they require significant added effort to administer.

3.3 Transfer files and test all functions. Every single link and function, including the upload of files itself, has to be tested and pronounced operational before the site can be announced to the world.

3.4 List with major search engines. There are less than 10 search services which account for the bulk of search activity. This is a simple activity; it only requires submitting the URL addresses of all the site pages. Nevertheless, considerable tedious follow-up is needed to ensure that the submissions were actually indexed in the search engine.

3.5 List with Yahoo. Yahoo is a searchable directory used by millions of seekers. Listing with Yahoo is fairly simple, but the follow-up process can be time-consuming if they are overloaded.

3.6 List with all other directories. It's not easy to determine which of several hundred directories will be useful. If in doubt, one is better to list. This is a time-consuming activity that must be done.

3.7 List with announcement sites. This activity is not a one-time affair. To be effective it requires a program of announcements over the life of the launch (and the site.)

3.8 Announce on Usenet. This too is an on-going activity. It is subtle, however. Products must not be announced directly. The approach has to be indirect.

3.9 Send out press releases. The activity here is the same as for announcement sites.

3.10 Place classified ads. There are thousands of places to insert classified ads for free including some print media. Classified ads, both online and paper, can also be purchased. The life of a free ad is usually three to four weeks, whereas paid-for ads have runs of 90 days and more.

3.11 Establish reciprocal links with like sites. This could be the best of all the promotional activities. Getting a link on a related site that is already a success allows one to share in that success.

3.12 Follow up and track initial activities. This is the most tedious and time-consuming of all the activities. Nevertheless, it must be done to avoid wasting all the previous promotional efforts.

Maintain Business

4.1 Track activity regularly. More so than other businesses, ones on the Internet must be followed up closely to see what works and what doesn't. The Internet is too new for there to be historical data to use. Each new business creates its own valuable data.

4.2 Renew promotional activities. This can be likened to a continuous launch of the business.

4.3 Renew ads. If measurable, ads that work are renewed and ones that don't are yanked.

4.4 Develop ongoing content. The content of any site needs to be regularly refreshed to keep visitors returning. If they keep seeing the same old stuff, they'll go elsewhere. Creativity!