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So you want to start a web startup.  Great, we need more ambitious people like yourself.  But creating a web startup is really hard.  Before going through the steps on how to start an internet business, ask yourself these questions to help plan out how the web startup will be successful. 

Quick Stats

• Most web startups never get more than 100 users (wha…?)
• The average user uses 6-7 websites during course of a day (double wha…?)

Questions To Ask:

How will you drive traffic to or market your site?

Do you have a sustainable plan to drive traffic to your site every day, month or year?  Press releases and launches are great but something else needs to keep working on getting traffic to your site.

How will you acquire users? (The answer can’t just be it will go viral)

If your web startup is a software, merely driving traffic to the site isn’t enough.  You have to be able to sell to your site visitors and convert them into users.  If your site is a forum, then how many of the site visitors will become registered members. 

If your site is a blog, your acquired users would be the ones that sign up to be on your RSS feed.  Users are people that you can sell to, not necessarily the customers. 

How much startup capital might you need?

The part that costs the most is the development and marketing.  Is it going to cost $1,000 or $1,000,000.  The startup cost might tell you if it’s one you should go and tackle.

Who will do the coding?

Someone has to be doing the coding.  If not you, then someone on your team, or someone you’re paying.  The idea that you can be hands-off on the development if you are outsourcing it is plain wrong.  You have to on top of the development, relaying to the developers exactly what you want.  A lot of projects fail because the software was not developed correctly. 

How much experience do you have in creating a web startup?

Is this web startup your first?  If so, you’re already at a disadvantage.  There’s all the pitfalls that you are not aware of that will trip up most startups.  The best way to get around this is to find advisers, people who have created web startups before.  Find these people and ask them for advice.  Soak up as much as you can from their past successes and failures.

How will you monetize the site?

This is probably the best question of all.  There are numerous ways to make money, but all of them depend on the amount of traffic and users the site has.  There is always the advertising route but that might be the hardest of all. 

To start out monetizing a website, a good place to start is BuySellAds.com.  Second, there is the membership charges, where the site charges the user $X per month or per year.  With this approach, the site needs to offer services to the premium member that the regular user does not have.  Moreover, it has to be a significant increase. 

Other questions:

How long will the average user stay on the site?

How much is the life-time value of a registered user?

Who are your competitors (don’t say none)?

Can you estimate how much your competitors make?

What niche are you in?

How can your time be used most effectively? 

What offline things can you do to promote your web startup?

How much search engine optimization do you know?

Will you be going solo or with partners?

Are you a subject matter expert in the niche?

If not, how long will it take you to be one?

Are you going to quit your job and work on your startup full-time?

Who do you need to meet to help your startup succeed?

What Other Questions Would You Ask?

We want to hear from you.  What other questions would you ask before starting an internet business?

[Image Credit: Meg Pickard]

Read Further:

So You Want To Start A Web Startup? (NSFW)