From Coder to Online Entrepreneur - Part 2 - Build Something Useful

[If you're a software developer, you may already possess many of the technical skills you need to build a money-making website. This set of articles aims to provide a step-by-step guide to using your existing skills to create your own online business]

Your idea needs to be useful. It sounds pretty obvious, doesn't it?

The problem is, many programmers are brought into a project after the initial idea for a system has been conceived. Someone else has already identified a need and requested a solution. It's effectively a ready-made market.

Building your own online product or service is very different, though - you're the one who needs to draw up the initial idea. Programmers can often fall into the common trap of chasing the 'cool' factor, or trying to overcome some huge technological hurdle that's personally important to them. But, remember, your goal here is to actually create an online business. You need people to be genuinely interested in your site or product. They won't care about all the problems you've had to solve or how many hours it took you to build.

Once you've come up with an idea, and you think it will interest others, it's then important to try the 30 Second Pitch test. Can you explain your site or product to someone who knows nothing about it in just 30 seconds?

If you can't get over the concept of your idea in 30 seconds, you really need to have a good long think about what you're trying to do. Web surfers tend to be notoriously fickle and often have small attention spans. They'll probably not read your landing page pitch for anything like 30 seconds, so it really could be time to think again.

You also need to carefully consider your target market. Do you want your product to have broad appeal? Or target a niche?

The big advantage of targeting a product with broad appeal is that you can cast your net very widely indeed, with a huge number of potential customers. Say, for example, you decided to develop a new dating site. A huge range of people could potentially be interested in it. But the market is already completely saturated with dating sites. And you need to devise a strategy for drawing those people in and providing something the other sites don't.

A niche site, on the other hand, usually represents a more focused market. It gives you a much smaller section of society to target, it's then far often easier to publicize it. Finding potential consumers is also an easier task because like-minded people tend to flock together in forums and communities.