Planning a new site? What to do?

To do list for any aspiring web developers

[madmal]

1. Research the market

Identify gaps in markets which can possibly generate income streams .

2. Research the product

Identify products which will be suitable for target market.
2.1 identify Price
2.2 Identify Shipping / service delivery

3. research product content
in the form of :

pictures
text
links
affiliates
authors

4. Research competitors

identify strengths
identify weakness
identify opportunities
identify threats

5. Create a competitive advantage

Plan the technologically advanced website which will put you at the the top of the food chain

6. Plan the website
6.1 Plan your keywords
6.2 Plan the structure

is geographic / product / type structure based
i.e www.domainname.com/location/
i.e www.domainname.com/product/
i.e www.domainname.com/type/

6.2 Plan your layout
i.e table structure / content manager / shopping basket

6.3 Develop logos / artistic feel

7. Get a merchant account
Reputation

8. Put everything into place?

i would say research is your single biggest tool in this field (in any field actually )

[SEO practioner]

Madmal, you hit the nail right on it's head!

[buckworks]

Plan cost-effective methods of promotion, online and/or offline. That should happen early in the game.

Add usability testing to #6.

<<Plan the technologically advanced website which will put you at the the top of the food chain >>

You might want to rethink this one. "Technologically advanced" is often:

1) expensive
2) spider-hostile
3) glitch-prone

Aim for simplicity.