So, you’re considering starting a new website, great job. Building a website yourself (or hiring someone to do it for you) is a great way to expand an existing business or start a new one. I’ve been an online entrepreneur for quite some time and I’ve learned some hard lessons with my experiences. The one thing I know for sure (as Oprah would say) is a website without marketing might as well not exist. The days of if you build it they will come are long gone. These days, you need a solid marketing plan and budget before launching a new site or it could end up costing you a lot of money while your site languishes at the bottom of search results with very little traffic.

It’s very easy to pour tons of money into Adwords straight off the bat without thinking too much about it. What does it matter if your average CPC is .25 cents as compared to 5 cents? It’s just a 20 cents. The difference is that click is 5x more expensive then you would have spent otherwise. Compounded over an entire marketing campaign, that .20 cent difference can add up to hundreds or thousands more dollars than you ever intended to spend. Be disciplined, stay within your budget and learn to use PPC advertising methods well. Also consider the myriads of ways you can promote your site for free–social networking, writing articles, affiliate programs etc. are great strategies (all of which I will be writing about in the near future).

Forming a marketing plan doesn’t have to be something dry and complicated; it’s merely a document that gives you an outline for how you are going to move forward.

Some simple questions you can ask yourself to help form a marketing plan:

• Who are your target customers or visitors?
• How do you plan to monetize your site? Selling a product? With advertising?
• How do you plan to market or advertise your site?
• What is your advertising budget?
• What is your Maximum Cost Per Click (the max amount of money you are willing to pay per one click to your site)?
• What is your expected conversion rate (ie how much advertising do you need to make one sale)?
• Which forms of paid advertising work best for your business?
• How do you plan on drawing repeat customers back to your site?
• What are your sales goals and how do you plan to meet them?
• Do you plan on using social networking or bookmarking to promote your business?
• How do you plan to employ Search Engine Optimization techniques and link building campaigns to help you rank better in search engines?
• What kind of PR campaign are you going to have to promote your site in the press?
• Are there any other websites that you could partner with to promote your products or services?

This is just the beginning of the kinds of questions you should ask yourself (and learn the answer to) before purchasing a hosting plan and building your site. It can all seem overwhelming at first, but remember, the more you plan and research in the beginning, the less likely it is that you’ll make a mistake in the future and have it end up costing you a lot of money. Start as small as possible and only continue to put time and money into the techniques that work for you.

Any readers out there have any suggestions for how to form a marketing plan? Comment below!

This is part one of my ongoing series, “ How to Avoid the Costly Mistakes New Website Owners Make” stay tuned for more marketing tips, strategies and advice, or better yet, subscribe in the sidebar, and get it all delivered to your email for free.