Webmaster Productivity and Management Issues

If you are managing and promoting a website, you will soon find that your time is limited. You will need to identify which tasks add most value and which tasks waste inordinate amounts of time (with seemingly little benefit). Above all, you need to be organised and have a weekly written plan of action, which spreads out tasks and relative importance. These tasks also include a management choices across a variety of disciplines. Without logical organisation, general productivity and morale will inevitably falter. Although internet marketing issues are paramount, do not ignore the back-office management processes that keep the whole machine running smoothly....

Firstly, you should ensure your business website domain name is protected and secured for future use. This may be tricky for non-technical users. Most decent domain names have already been purchased. Yet, buying a business domain name that matches and reflects your business identity, is a given in today's electronic world. Many owners struggle to know how to host a domain name and set it up correctly.

Secondly, after you have secured your domain name the next step is to pay close attention to how website is hosted. Many people rush out and buy the cheapest hosting option, and often regret this decision when things go wrong later. The general rule of business hosting is that you get what you pay for. In the case of hosting your company website, you simply can not afford to have any unplanned downtime. If your business is completely dependent upon continuous uptime from web based sales, you could consider managed web hosting. However, for the vast majority of small firms a typical shared hosting package is more than adequate. Think about what plans you could put in place to deal with a severe disruption or failure of your hosting company. How would you quickly switch your hosting account to a new provider to minimise the disruption to your website?

Thirdly, you should consider how you and your team use business email as a tool. In particular, if you are planning to communicate with your customers, suppliers and potential prospects using e-mail, you should devise a company e-mail policy from the outset. This could include things like how to write an e-mail, when using e-mail is inappropriate, messing privacy laws, the consequences of misusing e-mail POP3 technology, and an understanding of e-mail marketing techniques and technologies.

Fourthly, if you are managing a website you should constantly try and learn research trends in information technology. You should be aware of the latest security threats to your website, as well as risks of losing your personal computer data. Other important trends to consider include mobile working, outsourcing opportunities and how cloud-based services will enable you to work more flexibly in the future.

Lastly, there are a host of essential business software applications, software tools and online services to help you manage and promote your website. Carefully review the range of applications and lay with the demo version before buying the full version. Read what other webmasters have said in online forums. At a most practical level, your final choice of business software is absolutely vital. So, think carefully about how software can improve your personal productivity. Anything software that saves you time doing mundane tasks, will be invaluable for freeing up your time to concentrate on more high-value activities.