The key to having a successful web site is to design it with a your audience in mind.

Keep content fresh. Unless the information on your Web site is current, your visitors may just as well refer to last years catalog. With on-line media, up-to-date information is expected. Most sites have "what's new" sections that change every few days at a minimum. If visitors are convinced that the content is fresh they are much more likely to come back.

Make navigation easy. Web sites that are difficult to navigate make visitors uncomfortable. If they are unable to find what they are looking for they are likely to move on. Navigation is often reinforced using graphical elements such as arrows. Make sure visitors do not feel lost.

Provide interactivity. Visitors will enjoy your site if it engages them in some form of interactivity. Contests, chat sessions, games or E-mail with a consultant are just a few suggestions. Already "cookie" technology allows developers to "know" a visitor and call them by name. As the Web matures more sophisticated interactions will be possible and expected.

Be considerate of access speed. If your target audience typically access with 28.8 modems, graphics should be kept simple to avoid long download times. If they have high-speed connections then you can add as lots of media elements without fear of creating bottlenecks.

Test your Pages. Test your site to make sure all links are working properly. Avoid using “under construction” comments. Realize that pages appear differently in various browsers and may need to be adjusted.

Having a great web site is useless unless your audience visits. Here are several different ways to bring traffic to your web site.

1.Register your site with different search directories. Registration is free and is probably the most often overlooked way to draw people to your site.

2.Announce your site to "what's cool" sites.

3. Post the URL of your site in newsgroups. If your site has something of valuable to offer a specific audience, then let those people know about it in newsgroups.

4. Use traditional advertising, marketing and PR. Put the URL of your web site on all printed materials.

5. Trade links. Find web sites related to yours and ask their webmasters to include links on their sites to yours. Most sites will do that for free, especially if you reciprocate.