| "1. Write down a very clear description of the | | | | I know, everyone says that building a website is a |
| purpose of the website before you begin any work | | | | must and it will really help your business, but the real |
| on it. | | | | truth is that you get out of a website exponentially |
| Most people skip this step because they think it's | | | | how much you put into it. |
| obvious, but trust me, it's important and your main | | | | If you spend 1 hour getting it up, don't expect that |
| purpose will make a HUGE difference in how it should | | | | anyone who calls your number will trust you yet. |
| be coded. | | | | 5. Do some homework. |
| 2. Stay objective. | | | | In my opinion, most of the unfortunate websites out |
| I know it's tempting to fall madly in love with your | | | | there are due to the website owner not being |
| new virtual 'baby', especially if you built pieces of it | | | | educated enough to know what to ask or how to |
| yourself. But beware... On that path there be dragons. | | | | chose the right people to work on the site. |
| I once had a client who built her entire website by | | | | You don't need to learn HTML or PHP, but spending |
| herself. She was very proud of her baby, however it | | | | some time learning to differentiate between different |
| was not converting very well and she was getting | | | | kinds of websites and what is required to make |
| very few clients from it. | | | | them work will be time well spent. |
| I showed her what needed to be done to fix her | | | | 6. Don't spend 80% of your time tweaking the |
| conversion problem, but in the end she lost at least | | | | design. |
| $22,000 worth of new business because she was | | | | Design is important as long as it looks clean, |
| too close to the project. | | | | professional and easy to follow, then let it go. Trust |
| 3. Decide early if it's important to get free search | | | | your designer's eye to make everything else work |
| engine traffic. | | | | the way it should and go work on the content. |
| If it is important to get free traffic, then your | | | | 7. Pick a good designer/developer. |
| designer/developer needs to know that as early as | | | | Learn what the difference is between a graphics |
| possible, as it will affect how they code the website. | | | | designer, a developer and a programmer (hint: there |
| 4. Be prepared to work a bit. | | | | are multiple answers depending on who you ask). |