It depends

I would say if you have been at it a while like many of us on here. The process is fairly quick vs those early days where you procrastinate over everything

You can always change things later, and change according to searches in and into your site

Though usually i plan it out as I go and dont plan the whole thing. I figure out the first step, do it, next step, do it. That way your always getting something done

It would be hard to plan everything before implementation, as new things might pop out all of a sudden. Usually great things are not planned in advance, it evolves over time, like Facebook.

Having said that, I'd plan the initial outline first on the things that need to be in there during website launch.

Once I have an idea of a site that I want to set up, I start from keyword research of the available domain names. Once the domain name is settled, I buy it. After buying the domain. I will start looking at similar sites in the same niche/field to see if I can find out their strength and weaknesses.

Once I'm done with that, I start asking questions in forums on how to make the site worthwhile. After I have got people's suggestions, I blend them with my idea and then swing into action.

If I'll use WordPress, I will install it immediately, install the vital plug-ins and start making the pages ever before getting the content.

So, in summary, I get the idea, survey the market, ask folks some questions, sync their ideas with mine, host the site, make the pages, put the content...

You have to have a general plan and also be able to play it by ear.
In my experience, knowing what the next step is, is a great help but with the ever changing nature of IM... you gotta be able to look back and re-evaluate your goals within your larger business plan.

Does that make sense...?

It is as simple as that... Decide your business, read the minds of target segment I mean what they expect from you, get a domain, then keyword rich appealing content, various site optimization techniques and here you go to launch a website. Blog section and article submission in various directories add to the freshness.

Hey,

Thanks for sharing is thread!

Personally, I'm more of a act off empluse type of person many times I have to watch myself, because i do something I don't really need to be doing. I mean everyone's different some people just simple act while others think things out.

I believe what really matters is what works for you. You have to figure the method that shows you the most postive results, then you work on capitalizing on those results making them stronger, & better. If yup feel the need to plan your site then you better plan it down to the last penny.

I think you should just simply dive right in, because not everyone knows everything from the start. If you let your self be open to new things you will develop for the better. You will make mistakes, but the successful people don't give up they learn from their mistakes and work on never doing hem again.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks again!

God bless,
William Veasley

this right here is exactly what you want to do when you're starting a mega site.
I know its not possible to plan out everything right from the beginning but you SHOULD always plan out a basic structure for your site in the beginning before you start publishing pages and writing content. this will save you weeks of labor later on when you're trying to scale up. You want to structure by category or brand.

considering your own example above, a structure like this is what you can consider,
yoursite.com/category/subcategory/brand/product
which converts to
yoursite.com/hardware/monitors/viewsonic/105s

or you could do a structure like
yoursite.com/viewsonic/monitors/105s
yoursite.com/hp/laptops/pavilion103
etc...

The important point here is that you take the time even if it takes you a couple of days, to structure your site. When you start creating pages, stick to your structure.
This will save you days or weeks of labor and you won't have to pull out your hair.

Asim

Thanks guys, got my general categories set up, so I am at least working to some sort of plan...just need to drill down further into them