Partnering for Success
Developing a commercial website can require many different skill sets. For example, you could find yourself in need of the following types of people:
- A visionary to define website goals and objectives
- An author to write website content
- A researcher to find great websites to link to
- A web designer to develop the user interface, graphics and navigation
- A database analyst to design the tables in which the underlying data is stored
- A programmer to write Java, CGI scripts or other software components
- An expert in electronic commerce to implement credit card functionality
- A translator to translate pages your site to a foreign language
- A marketer to sell space on your pages to advertisers
It is unlikely that you will have all the skills needed to buuild a commercial website. If you do not have the funds to hire experts directly, you can search for partners to handle areas where you are weak.
Fortunately, the Internet is a wonderful place to find partners and to develop good partnerships. Partnerships could be as informal as finding other website owners with whom to swap links. Alternatively, they could be more formal relationships with firms that specialise in advertising or electronic commerce.
Partnerships are established in two ways. Either you search out the partner or the partner finds you. Once you have established a presence on the net and your site is receiving large traffic volumes, other web publishers and companies will approach you with partnership ideas. Partnering is particularly valuable in high tech fields where it is difficult to remain current with the rapidly changing technology.
It is good practise to begin a partnership relationship on a small and informal basis. If the partnership proves to be mutually beneficial, it can be then be expanded and formalised. Partnering with people overseas can be particularly rewarding as individuals in developing nations often have strong technical skills but do not have access to, or knowledge of the North American marketplace.
