An important thing to remember when you are designing your website is that you want a clean professional look. It might be pretty if your site looks like a Las Vegas nightclub act, but your visitors will probably get confused and lost in the glitter and go onto another site. You want a clean, uniform design on all pages which should also be easy to navigate. Visit a few sites and see how they are set up and take notice of which ones you can easily find your way in and which ones you easily get lost in. Visit these sites for more information:

http://www.trace.wisc.edu/world/web/
http://www.bignosebird.com/

Another thing you want to do is to provide quality, helpful information and content in your website. Once you have a visitor to your site, you want him to have a reason to come back. If you have a website about pets, put up articles on pet care and have links to other websites that contain resources for pet owners. Here are a couple of sites to find articles on any subject:

http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com/

There are also article announcement lists such as:

Free-Content-subscribe@egroups.com
articles_archives-subscribe@egroups.com 
article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com
PublishInYours-subscribe@egroups.com

You should also provide something FREE at your site. You could have FREE greeting cards, FREE resources, FREE ebooks, FREE downloads, or whatever you would prefer to have. A few sites for FREEBIES:

http://www.thefrontdoor.com/freestuff/
http://www.ebookdirectory.com/
http://download.cnet.com/

One way to keep visitors coming back is to get them involved with your site. Start a discussion board, have a weekly or monthly contest, have your visitors fill out surveys and draw a winner from all the entries. There are many ways to get people involved. Be creative and always be adding fresh content to your site. Update regularly.

To let everybody know about your updates and new content, start your own ezine. This is easier than it seems. With an ezine you will be able to build relationships with your visitors. You will gain their trust and keep them interested in visiting your site. There are many sites to help you get started publishing an ezine. One of the best I found is:

http://www.e-zinez.com

This site can help you get started with resources, articles, and a template.

Building, maintaining and promoting a website is challenging, rewarding and takes a lot of work. I have learned so much in the two years that I have been on the net and I know there is tons more to learn. I eagerly accept the challenge and thoroughly enjoy the rewards. You will have many ups and downs, but do not let the downs deter you from your goals. Best of luck to you all.