How to build a website in ten easy steps

I recently stumbled through the process of creating a website for my new company.  I thought I'd consolidate my learnings into a blog post in case they're helpful to any of you.

1. Write down what you want to say.  Before you start designing anything, sit down with a Google doc and write down your marketing message.  Imagine you're telling your ideal customer what you can do to help her.  To cover your bases, answer the basic "who, what, when, where, why, and how" questions and let your story unfold from there.
2. Organize what you've written down into a logical collection of web pages.  Sort out what you want to say into a set of pages that makes sense.  
3. Purchase a template that basically gives you the architecture your content requires.  Alternately, if you are an uber-designer, you can design your own site. Or you can find a design for free somewhere on the internet.  I am not a designer, by any stretch of the imagination, but realize that a good design goes a long way towards an effective first impression, and wanted to minimize the time I spent hacking my content into a site that someone else designed.  That's easier with a template that's designed to be flexible and extensible.  Therefore, I purchased a template.
   Regardless of where your design comes from, make sure that the site is mobile-friendly.  (In other words, Flash is out.)  If you can find a good HTML5 design, that's your best bet.
   I did a lot of searching before I stumbled across ThemeForest, which is ultimately where I found the design for my site.  The templates they offer are well designed and competitively priced.
4. Add your content to the template; adding, subtracting, and moving things around as needed.  
5. Customize the site design using custom graphics and fonts.  This is not actually as difficult or expensive as it might sound. iStock Photo is a great resource for graphic art. Google WebFonts let you do amazing things with fonts. (You might notice that after this step, you've drastically departed from the template you originally purchased.  That's how you get a custom website out of a template someone else designed.)
6. Set up tracking so you can evaluate and optimize traffic to your site. Generate Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics tracking codes and include them on your pages, as explained on the linked sites.
7. Think of, and reserve, a reasonable domain name.  Good luck.  Finding a good domain name that hasn't already been reserved is next to impossible.
8. Find a web hosting provider and upload your site.  I chose Bluehost and have been happy with them.  Their customer service was helpful when I was having an FTP problem.
9. Set up domain-specific email and calendar accounts.  A domain-specific account is much more professional than a generic web account. Google Apps gives you the convenience of Gmail and Google Calendar for domain-specific accounts.  
10. Drive traffic to your site.  Use Search Engine Optimization best practices to drive organic traffic to your site, and paid advertisements to include your site in targeted ads.

Here's what I ended up with: DevComm: Engage Your Developers.  Comments and feedback welcome!

What other great website development resources do you know of?

Corporate Identity 101

A corporate identity has a few basic required components:

• Company name
  Don Dodge recently gave a good interview on choosing a company name.  I'll be the first to admit that the name I chose for my company, DevComm, is terrible.  In this case, my writer's mind is working against me.  I'm used to coming up with the perfect word out of an existing dictionary, not the perfect set of harmonious, meaningless characters.  I'm still working on it.
• Logo
  You can buy a generic logo from various websites and print companies, or you can have one custom designed.  I commissioned Rusa Vuong, a San Francisco-based designer, to create a custom logo for me.
• Business card
  Rusa also created my business card design.  I chose to electronically embed my contact information on the back of the card using a QR Code. Rusa generated the code using QRStuff.  If you want to go the simple route, you can get a standard business card design from many printers.
• Website
  This one's complex enough to merit its own post, which is coming soon.

Resources for starting a new company

As I set off down the path towards starting a new company, I realize that there are a lot of things that I don't yet know how to do.  I have lots of questions:

• Should I structure my company as a consulting company, or a product company?  Or both?
• Is it just me, or do I involve others?  If I involve others, in what capacity?
• What kind of business do I set up: Sole proprietorship? LLC? S-Corp?  C-Corp?  Anything in between?   When do I file the paperwork?
• What legal considerations do I need to be aware of?
• Do I need funding?  If so, what for?
• Should I fund this myself (what's known as "bootstrapping", I've come to find out) or seek venture capital?
• What's the difference between angel investors and and venture capitalists, and why would I seek out one over the other?
• How do I find a designer to help me set up a marketing presence, like a logo, website, business cards, etc?

I've run my own consulting company before, but it seems different this time; bigger, more real. I've also worked in several startups, but never at the beginning of the venture when all of these decisions are being made.  So this is essentially all new to me.

Although I certainly don't have all the answers yet, here are a couple of the resources I've found that have been helpful so far:

• YCombinator: A micro-financing / mentoring organization that helps a select group of startups develop a business model and seek funding.
• SCORE: An entrepreneurial support organization with local chapters around the US.  They give  useful classes on topics related to starting a business.  I've taken "Be a Successful Consultant" and "Legal Issues for Small Business.  They also offer free consulting services that give you the opportunity to get feedback from seasoned entrepreneurs.  I intend to take them up on that as soon as I've narrowed down my list of questions. SCORE tends to be pretty generic in terms of the types of business it consults on, so it's not so great for questions specific to creating a technology-related startup.
• SVForum: A more tech-focused advisory network, local to the Silicon Valley.  They sponsor panel-style discussions related to startup topics.  The panel is usually composed of seasoned tech entrepreneurs and VC investors.  I attended " New Venture Launch Fundamentals for 2012" and got a lot out of it.  This is also a great venue for networking and meeting people who are working on similar things.
• The Founder Institute: A tech startup support organization that offers a complete curriculum for creating a startup.  They have chapters around the world.  I haven't started reviewing their curriculum yet but the topics look promising.

What other resources do you know of that help entrepreneurs?  What advice would you give to someone just in the midst of starting a new venture?