To effectively build a website, you must first begin with the same basic guidelines of any business or organization. Define your business, your primary objectives, and how you intend to reach your goals. By clearly thinking about, defining and putting a plan on paper, you will achieve a significant accomplishment in how you approach your website and grow you organization, community or business.

Many people think the Internet is a magic solution built on alternative business models, when it really is simply an extension of a traditional business, leveraging an alternative channel. Basic business and marketing principles hold true for a web-based business as much as they do for a traditional brick-and-mortar business. However, when building an online community, you must constantly think about the user experience and how your reader will navigate your site and identify with your community. This is a bit more challenging than a basic business website, and probably easier for the small company to master than the large corporation, mostly because it requires creativity, rapid response and flexibility.