You know the old saying, “Those who don’t plan, plan to fail”? Every time you start building a web site without a clear set of objectives, you might not be planning a failure… but you may end up spending a lot more time and money, and doing a lot more work, than you have to.

Luckily there’s a drop-dead simple way to make sure that every site you build has definite goals and objectives. Just take out a notepad and pencil, open NotePad, and jot down the answers to these questions. Each one should take about one minute:

#1 – What Am I Selling?
Because affiliate marketing is commission based, your plan should ALWAYS begin with what you’re selling. If you don’t have a good product with a reputable merchant to back it up, you’re not in business. You say the goal of your site is to make money from Adsense? Even though you can’t ask for clicks, you’re still selling something – advertising space. If you decide up front how you’re monetizing your site, you’ll be a lot better off.

#2 – Who am I selling to?
Jot down a few things about your customers. Are they from any particular age group, income level, background, region, or interest group? In other words, who is your niche? And where oh where on the great big world wide web do you expect to find
them?

#3 – How will I get people to come to this site?
Search engine placement? PPC? Traffic exchanges? Link partners? Ezine ads? Viral marketing? Forum postings? List your options in the order of effectiveness. Write a cost estimate next to each…and then double it. This gives you a cushion for making advertising mistakes. Once you’ve got some options and dollar figures on paper, write the amount of time you want to spend on each traffic generation method next to it. Now double THAT figure.

#4 – How will I make my site appealing?
Will you be offering articles and tips, a link directory, free downloads, chat and community, reviews… in other words, what’s in it for your visitors? Go back to #2 and think about what you’ve written. The more you can get into the mindset of your visitors, the more likely you’ll be to profit from their time at your site.

#5 – How much PROFIT do I hope to make from this site?
Notice we didn’t say “money,” we said “profit.” After hosting, PPC, and other expenses, how much cash do you want this site to put in your product? After all, a site that’s only supposed to make $100 a month shouldn’t demand the same time, energy, and resources as a $3000 a month site.

If you find these questions require more than one minute a piece, maybe it’s worth giving them five minutes each. After all we’re talking less than half an hour… yet look at the working blueprint you’ll end up with. You’ll have a goal for your site. You’ll know what you’re going to sell to achieve that goal – and who you’ll sell it to. And most importantly, you’ll be able to balance the anticipated result against the effort and money it will require. Isn’t that worth five minutes?