If you say come back on the 17th for a valuable offer, you had better have a valuable offer (from the visitor standpoint) ready on or before the 17th.

In other words, the things that irritate you probably irritate The Other Guy. (T.O.G.= your market )

Get Rid of Anything (or as much as possible) Standing Between the Visitor and What They Came There to Get.

A Prime Example: Time-wasting animated, "Welcome To Our Site: Click Here To Enter" Splash Screens.

Keep your ego out of it!
Just because YOU happen to think Flashing Green text on a Red Background is a sexy theme for the Holiday promotion doesn’t mean that everyone does. Get lots of opinions from the people who matter most, the people who will be using your site.

Form a "Red Team."
Far too many Websites are designed and produced with little to no ‘End User’ input. That’s one of the things that make so many very pretty Websites so bad.

Your Red team should be a small but representative group (3-5 people, maximum) from your target market. As your site develops, bring the Red Team into the process, asking for their opinions and comments. Then, listen to that team. You, as a manager, may THINK the visitors want something that may be completely at odds with what they need. After all, the site is being designed for the end user. (The Visitor) It’s not about you, your marketing department, the PR folks or the boss.

Ask and Answer (at least) the 4 Basic Questions.
Answering a few basic questions can increase your chances of success.

1. Why is this site here?
2. Why would someone come to it?
3. Once they are there, why would they stay?
4. Once they’ve been there, why would they want to come back?

Until the answers to at least those four simple questions are clearly and concisely defined, you are essentially wasting your time and money and shouldn’t go any further.

Won’t the Web Designer/Developer you hire take care of all of this stuff?

Hopefully, the first few words out of a prospective designer/developers mouth will be to ask at least the Four Critical Questions. If this is not the case, perhaps you should consider another designer.

Even if you are using an outside design/development service, the critical questions still have to be answered. You can save yourself a great deal of time and money by having the answers ready, right up front.

1. Why is this site here?
2. Why would someone come to it?
3. Once they are there, why would they stay?
4. Once they’ve been there, why would they want to come back?

These are only four of the critical questions, and part of the preliminary 'fact gathering' that you should do even before contacting a Designer or Developer.

Why don't more people answer these questions up-front?

Because answering them forces them to think and plan ahead!

Apparently, many people do not find thinking and planning to be pleasant or easy endeavors. They'd rather toss up an unplanned, online hodge-podge and if it can't be fixed later it's not their fault. It's the marketing department, or the PR folks who didn't get the word out, or Google for not picking up the listing or the developer for not asking the Four Critial Questions. In any event, they always have someone else to blame. (aka Government Attitude) next