"Most businesses don't plan to fail, they fail to plan."
You know, or should know, your product or service. Now think about your "target market"; who is your customer?
Think about the gender, age bracket, income bracket and any other pertinent information (see our planning guide for additional topics) you have about the customers who represent the majority of your potential Internet sales. The more you know about the customer the easier it will be to plan and design your site. It it much easier to plan for a niche market than it is for a broad market.
What other sites are selling similar products or services successfully? Visit those sites and see what they've done. Make note of what you liked or didn't like. It also helps if you can identify what other products your target market may purchase and also visit any of those web sites. Soon you will begin to formulate more specific ideas of what you want to accomplish on your own web site.
You probably should get yourself a notepad to make notes. Most web sites start of with sketches of how the pages will look. Some people even find it helpful to print and cut out logos and artwork and tape them to their sketches to see how they appear.
This involves a lot of work and time however, in the end, you will have a much better chance of being successful if you invest the time and effort now. This can also save you a lot of money if you intend to have an outside web development company (like VolTech) create your site for you.
Remember, all web sites are under development. Once you have an idea for the foundation for your site you will want to get it published so you can begin getting exposure and business too. You can change art work, add pages and content, and make additional changes after your site is "live".