Everyone is interested in building web apps these days, just look at the hundreds of YouTube copy cats, or MySpace copy cats popping up every day. There are a few things that people are forgetting to look at when they plan and build their web sites/services/apps. So here I am today offering up some free consulting to all of you.1. Break down your goalsWhat exactly does this mean? If you’re creating a video sharing site, what is the goal of this site. Is it just to let people share video? Is there a unique way they can do this? Look at some of the popular sites out there, and try and surmise their goals:
- Facebook – originally to let students find out more about each other
- Myspace – to help people
hook upfind cool bands - Youtube – enable people to share their
stupidpersonal videos
Look at these sites, they decided on their goals early on, initially their goals were simple, eventually they grew to add more things, but they started small. So if you’re building a web site, focus on a few things first, and do them well. This is somewhat inspired by 37Signals, but honestly its just prudent business.I’ll be posting the rest of these tips later in the week, so stay tuned.
