Before you go to see any website developers about building a site for you, take the time to work through the following.

1) Define the primary purpose for your site. 

Exactly what to you want the outcomes from your site to be.  Do you want more newsletter sign ups?  More sales? etc  The layout of your site should be designed to make it appealing and easy for interested new customers to interact with you.

2) Prepare a brief for your new site

Research other sites from within your industry and outside it, to decide what features you would like your site to have.
It may not be necessary to start with everything up front as developments can be done in stages, so prioritise your wishlist as well.  Some features that you might consider include:  Newsletter sign up, Giveaways, Blogs, Forums, Booking Systems, E-Commerce (for online selling), Events Calendars, Photo Galleries & Forms.  In addition, think about the content that you would like to include such as; Product and/or Service details, Company history, Testimonials, Returns Policy, Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Media pages & Contact details.

A cricital element for any site that you get designed is that it should be built into a CMS (Content Management System) so that you will be able to your website yourself after it's been built.

3) Research potential providers

Research providers and understand exactly what you are getting for what's quoted, make sure that you understand the design, development and hosting costs and make sure that the system they are using has the ability to scale with you (that you can easily & cost effectively add to the site later) as your business grows.

Professionals and Businesses today require an online presence as the majority of customers are now using the internet to find providers, compare options and shop from the comfort of home 24/7.

As a marketing and sales tool the internet has been an unprecedented development.   The benefits of being online include:

• Having a 24/7 sales and customer service presence
• The ability to interact with and service clients that are local, national and international
• Opening a shop without the high costs of rent, fitouts, staffing and full stock holdings.
• For existing retailers the internet is another way to sell the stock you already own to customers unlikely to find you otherwise. You can leverage the investment you've already made in your staff and stock to service extra sales that come in via your website.
• For designers, wholesalers and manufacturing the internet provides a way for you to interface directly with your target customer, enabling you to sell direct to the public and to your wholesale clients.

Websites should be easy to use & they should showcase your business and brand(s).
 
When designing your site you need to think about what content & features you want to include, for example:

Product and/or Service Details

Newsletter sign up

Testimonials

Blog

Forum

Booking system

Online shop

Events calendar

Media page

Photo gallery

Contact page

It it important to take the time to prepare a brief of what you want to create in your site.  It also helps to spend time looking at other sites both from within your industry and in other unrelated industries to see what you can include in your site to make it as effective as possible.

If you are just getting started and you want to set up a website yourself for free or very cheaply, there are lots of basic DIY website systems in the market place. I have used and recommend godaddy, although there are plenty of other providers, so it is worth shopping around to see which system holds the most appeal for you personally.

DIY can be very cost effective, however, it can also be time consuming and it can be frustrating if you know the look you want to create and it isn't easy to replicate using one of the standard templates.

A blog is the equivalent of an online journal and there are now blogs about every topic you could imagine.  Blogs are usually started by individuals passionate about a particular topic or by businesses wanting to build their brand profile and showcase their industry expertise.  You can add links to other sites and insert videos, photos, articles etc.

The main benefit of a blog is that it is a very low cost way to get online quickly & easily.

The two primary blogsites were you can site up for a free site are:
www.wordpress.com
www.blogspot.com

If you sign up for a free site your URL or domain name will be something like mysite.wordpress.com
If you choose you can upgrade your blog to a paid account which gives you access to premium features.

It is possible to have a blog integrated into your website, exactly how this is done and the cost will depend on the provider you choose.  Blogs on sites are great for SEO as they are an easy way to keep adding new, regular, relevant content to your website which will help to improve your search engine rankings.

World Internet Summit is an Internet Business Event held over 4 days.

WIS is run worldwide and the next event in Australia is Feb 24-27 2011 in Sydney.

If you are an entrepreneur or business owner wanting to build your own business(es) online this event is seriously worth attending as the event is run by many of the world's best internet marketers.

Over 4 days they teach you how to create and market businesses on the internet. To the best of my knowledge World Internet Summit is also the only event in the world with a Joint Venture Club. It's a dedicated section set up for attendees to create deals with each other. It's the perfect place to find like-minded people and one past attendee created a $1,000,000 deal because of the JV opportunity.

Brett McFall is one of the Co-Founders of World Internet Summit. I have enjoyed watching Brett now on several occasions and I have learnt a lot of quality information from him. I would recommended him to anyone looking for fast, effective techniques to make money online.

Enrol now for WORLD INTERNET SUMMIT, Australia.

If you want your own website you need a domain name. 

The domain name will become the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that people use to find your site.  An example of a URL is http://www.WebTrainingCentre.com

When selecting a name it is best to choose a name that links directly with the product, service or business idea that you are planning.  If possible the name should also be short so that it is easy to remember and easy to spell, this is so that people who hear the name stand a good chance of remembering it and searching for it correctly when they are at home.

You will need to decide how many versions of your domain name you want to buy.  This is a personal decision that will depend on the availability of the name you want and the resources you have available.  At a minimum it is usually best if you can to buy the .com version of your name and also the local country version eg .com.au, .com.us, .com.uk etc.  The benefit of buying as many versions as you can is that no one else can use them to compete with you.  In addition, you are able to get the extra names directed to the one main name you want to use.

The two site that I have personally used and recommend are below:
www.crazydomains.com.au
www.godaddy.com

The internet has enabled entrepreneurs and businesses to reach audiences in speeds that were previously impossible.
If you are not yet online or know that your online presence could be improved, the points below should prompt you into action quickly.

LATEST INTERNET STATS

As at 31st December 2009, 1.8 billion people were online which is 26.6% of the population, almost 400% growth since the year 2000.  Australia has 17 million people online which is 80% of the population.
Data from www.worldinternetstats.com

5 MAJOR BUSINESS BENEFITS

1. The internet provides a cost effective way to reach a massive audience.
2. The internet offers customers access to 24/7 customer service.
3. Customer expectation, consumers now take for granted the ability to search for information and get their questions answered online.
4. Online shopping is increasing rapidly in popularity, resulting in opportunities to increase revenue.
5. The number of internet users worldwide is also increasing rapidly, enabling business of all sizes to tap into an expanding international market.