Here's an analogy for you. Yesterday, I was working my butt off in the gym on the cardio machines, panting wildly with sweat dripping off me and my face as red as a beet. Not the most attractive sight, but I figure, you're at the gym to work out right? I might as well "go hard" or "go home", as they say.

As I looked around me, I could see all these people simply going through the motions. There they were, minus perspiration in their shiny new lycra and expensive gym shoes, casually walking on the treadmill or lazily turning the wheels on a bike while reading a book or glued to the TV screens in front of them. Only a few seemed to be there for the actual purpose of working out. The rest seemed to be there to check out the talent or to simply keep up the appearance of fitness, while doing the bare minimum.

Huh? I don't get it. Why have these gym bimbos paid so much money for a gym membership and all the related gear if they aren't going to take full advantage of their investment?

Then it struck me - these gymbos were just like those companies who spend thousands of dollars on a shiny new website with all the bells and whistles like graphic design, blogs, shopping carts, web analytics, the lot and then fail to take advantage of it. I see it so often, regardless of company size. Web sites that could easily be bringing in loads of traffic and revenue simply wasting away because nobody can be bothered tracking visitor activity, analyzing trends or checking for search engine compatibility and usability.

These companies are simply keeping up appearances, investing heavily in Internet technology because their competitors are doing the same. But no thought has gone into the search engine compatibility of the site, how usable it is for visitors or whether it meets accessibility guidelines. They don't look at their site statistics, they don't check for broken links and they sure as heck don't investigate why their sites aren't converting traffic into customers. What a waste!

Is your web site working hard enough for you? Run it through the following 20 point fitness assessment to find out:

- Is your site fully search engine compatible? Are all your pages being indexed by the major search engines?

- Do you track your visitor statistics on a regular basis? Do you use the information provided by your visitor statistics to improve your site?

- Is your web site accessible to visually-impaired visitors? Does it meet the international standards set down by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)?

- Do you know which sites and search engines provide you with the most traffic? Do you use this information to increase your traffic further?

- Do you track the source of all reported errors in your site statistics and fix them promptly?

- Do you know which keywords your site was found for in the search engines? Have you conducted keyword research to determine what search terms your target markets are looking for so you can optimize for them?

- Does your web site HTML code validate to W3 standards? Do you check for validation regularly?

- Does your site contain zero broken links? Do you check for and fix broken links regularly?

- Has your site been fully search engine optimized to integrate your target search terms into your Page Titles, META Tags and visible page text?

- Have you created and submitted an XML sitemap to Google Sitemaps?

- Have you created and submitted a sitemap to Yahoo Site Explorer?

- Have you checked to see if your site meets Google's Webmaster Guidelines?

- Do you measure your visitor sign-ups and conversions on a regular basis? Do you tweak your landing page copy to increase the conversion rates?

- Is your site navigation intuitive and are your visitors following the navigation paths you intended?

- Do you encourage feedback from your site visitors and provide an obvious way for them to provide such feedback?

- Are there at least 250 words of text on your home page to satisfy search engines?

- Does your site contain a visible, text-based site map to aid user navigation?

- Do you have an ongoing link building campaign running to secure more incoming links to your site and improve your site's link popularity score?

- Does your site have a high percentage of repeat visitors? Are the majority of your visitors staying on your site for more than a minute?

- Do your search engine referrals and site traffic figures grow each month?

Unless you can answer yes to all the questions in the above checklist, your web site is not working hard enough for you and needs a workout. Get to it!

Pay for a web designer or do it yourself? Can small business owners really design a website or is it a job for the pro's?

Most consumers look on the internet before going to a store. Sometimes it is their only stop: they research, compare and buy online. It goes without saying then that for a small business to reach its potential market, it should have an internet presence.

Small business operators do not often have a dedicated IT person on staff - in the past this is the person who would be given the job of building a website. It's great news then that there are now beginner-friendly website building packages on the market which are perfect for the small business person's use.

Data is entered into your web pages as one would using a word processor - with modern easy to use web builders, there is no need to know any html whatsoever.

The tutorials provided with almost all software suppliers take the novice through the process of building a website in a non-technical, easy to understand way. Having completed the tutorial, one is equipped with more than enough knowledge to launch straight into a website build.

Not all website software programs are easy to use. Small business operators do not need fully blown web design industry solutions due to the steep learning curve. One feature to look for is a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor. This simply means you type on the page as you see it.

There are expenses involved in publishing your own website - you get nothing for nothing. Apart from the cost of the software (there are free web builders however they are more difficult to use or too basic in features), a small business (or an individual or a large company) will need to register a domain name (less than $10) and find a web hosting service (around $8 per month).

Businesses should also set up a merchant's account from an organization like Paypal (free). Having a third party handle financial transactions is always reassuring for consumers and takes away an administration burden. When an item has been ordered via your website and paid for, Paypal advises you, with delivery instructions so that you can fulfill the order or if it is an electronic delivery, this part can be automated.

In any small business time is money, and the time spent learning a new skill like website building with easy to use software must be seen as a good investment. It is possible to build multiple websites so that you can have a website network feeding a central business. This is ideal for multi-brand retailers and multi-branch operators. This degree of control will reap rewards as your business grows and you build different websites to cater to changing needs.

Because you have built and are managing your website yourself, you are able to instantly react to changing trends and new opportunities. Avoid delays by not having to wait for your webmaster to make changes. Fresh content on your website is highly desirable.

Some website programs are specifically designed to assist the business person become an internet business marketer, and as your knowledge of web design grows, the more you will value search engine optimization and site map generation tools. Having a correctly designed site map helps search engines easily match your site to search requests.

If you decide to look at other ways to earn money through your website without doing a thing, you will no doubt look at including on your site some affiliate marketing and advertisements from non compete companies.

Features to look for:

Ideally you will have an instructional video, help desk support and forums. Look for testimonials from other business owners to see how they have applied the software.

Getting started is the next step once you arrive at the conclusion that a website is no longer a luxury - it is essential!

For newbie's starting out with an online venture the notion of building a site can be a challenging one. There is so much information out there it's hard to know where to start. What direction should you go in to yield the best results?

Where you really need to start is with yourself. Write down what you wish to accomplish and put together some form of outline that will help you stay focused. One thing is for sure when doing anything online and that is you will find yourself getting distracted here and there when seeking out information.

This happens to us all but if you have an outline posted in front of you then it will be easier to stay focused. To make life easier on yourself you can use a site builder to build your site.

The advantage of a site builder is that it will help you to construct your site without having to worry about the technical details. The good site builders will also help you to construct your web pages properly so that your reader can understand your message and the search engines can figure out what your pages are about.

This will help your site to get indexed and into the search engines which overtime will provide you with free targeted traffic and if your webpage's are set up right this traffic will make you money.

In some cases site builders come with hosting as well. Once again this provides you with less to worry about and you can get on with the task of building your site around your favorite topic.

To conclude keep it simple, stay focused and you will achieve your goals.