My next step to develop my enterprise idea and so that I can begin to network and reach out to publications and advertisers, was to create a logo so that I have a face to go with my idea. I created a mood board, which you can see below, for some inspiration to decide what I wanted my logo to look like.
Logo
My final logo is below, which as you can see, I took into consideration some of the design ideas from my mood board so that it could look modern, simplistic and including an arrow to represent the synchronisation element to my idea. I didn't want something too bright, because I wanted something that would be plain but eye-catching. From my mood board, I was a fan of the circular logos, especially as I feel this look very neat on social media platforms, as well as being the face of my brand.
Website
I then went on to create my website, and to do this, I looked at a variety of website developers for me to use. As I have no previous experience in coding, I felt as if the easiest thing to do was to use a setup website, but I had to ensure I picked​​ one that allowed me to have magazine editorial features, as well as a lot of flexibility in layout and posts. I trialled a variety of websites from Wix, GoDaddy, Site123, and then finally agreeing on using Weebly.
Weebly allowed me to have a different 'blog' for each category of content, and I preferred the layout options and themes that were available on this website developer compared to the others. At the moment, this is a draft of the style of my website that I'm aiming for, as I want it to reflect the simplistic but modern look. In the future, I will want to buy a domain and to start advertising companies on the sides of my website, so that it has a professional feel to the website.
Content
One of the most important things for my enterprise idea is to come up with engaging and new content constantly to keep my website updated and to keep my audience interested. In order to do this, creating content plans, calendars and planning in advance are vital for me to have a successful platform.
I also wanted to share my workload with contributors who would write for my platform for free in order for themselves to gain experience writing for an online publication. This way, I can focus on local news and events, whereas my contributors can write about general topics such as fashion and beauty, music and travel.
Being an online magazine, it is important to constantly update my platform with new content and be up to date with the latest information and events in Milton Keynes. I plan on doing this work in advance and scheduling my posts so that my website will be updated daily. I think this is an important aspect as I do need to constantly be engaging with my audience, especially to attract them to my website..
Future Steps
My future steps include:
- Content planning and scheduling posts for up to two weeks in advance
- Networking with smaller companies and publications
- Purchasing a domain to create a professional look to my website
- Researching the industry further and keeping up to date with any changes