Who is your target audience?  It's very important to base all of your design and navigation decisions on this answer.  Always keep your audience in mind and make sure they can find what they want quickly.  Whenever possible, gather together a group of people from your target audience to review and test your work as you develop your site.

Why do you want a web site?  This is really the first question you need to address:  spend some serious time thinking through the answer to this question.  As well, you probably need to mentally prepare yourself for the fact this answer may change and evolve over time.  The important thing to realize is that the answer to this question will always drive the decisions you make about your site.

What are your three main objectives? Define your three main objectives by writing them down on a piece of paper.  Now put the list someplace where you are forced to look at it on a regular basis (tape it to the refrigerator or pin it on the bulleting board next to your desk).  Every time you are faced with a decision about your web site, refer to this list and make sure your choice fulfills your objectives.

What do you want people to do when they visit your site?  Build your site with clear goals in mind for the user.  Do you want to showcase an on-line gallery?  Do you want them to learn more about your artwork?  Do you want them to have fun?  Do you want them to purchase your products on-line?  Do you want to establish a dialog with other artists?  Keep your desired result in mind as you start on the early planning.

How much do you want to spend? Setting a budget is an important part of the planning process.  Costs can easily get out of hand as you think of new images and content you would like to include.  On the other hand, if you don't spend the money required to create something valuable, you're just wasting the tight budget you were willing to invest.  Make sure you give your web project the resources it deserves and then stick to your plans and budget.  Remember,  on the Internet you can always start small and add more content later.

Essentially, there are four areas which will require financial attention:

• Web hosting space (a server);
• Photography of your work, your process or your space;
• Scanning of your images, including colour correction, sizing, and formatting for on-line publication;
• Page design, text, graphics building, layout and HTML coding.

Next:  Building and publishing your site