The first thing to do when planning a web site is to define your audience. Think about who they are and what they want. People have to need or be able to use (rather than merely enjoy) the material you present. Put yourself in their shoes and ask "what's in it for me?".

Then try to put into words something that sums up the reason for and scope of your web site and keep referring back to it at all times during web development.

Once you know what you want your web site to do and who your audience is, you can begin organising your content, think about ways of making it useful and relevant (interactive) and building a basic web site in which the directory structure reflects the way the content is set out.

Begin with a site diagram. It is one of the advantages of web design that the structure of a site can be built first and the content and the graphic design added later.

This means you can build a skeleton site without content just to see how it works.

If you've got a tight budget (who hasn't?) it is important that each phase of a web site's development is reviewed, approved, documented and signed off to avoid cost blowouts or travelling too far down the wrong road.