Things to keep in mind for your Web site

1. Web site system: When you purchase server or contract with a company to do your Web site, be sure you can host different sites or services over the server(s). Sometimes you may want to create special Web sites and having the right server will allow you to host multiple Web sites on one provider or server. Be sure to look at all systems. Some very good Web servers are free and there are many open source solutions that you can easily install and have running in a snap. Don't be fooled that you need to spend $50-200,000 dollars getting a robust system when there are many capable free open source solutions that will work. Locking yourself into a proprietary system can also cause more trouble than good, so be sure to keep an eye on popular and preferrably free systems.

2. Unless you are a national or state government, be sure you build your site on an open and common architecture. Whether it is static or dynamic, be sure that it is based on a system that is widely known and popular. If you get a proprietary system, you will be locked into one supplier for changes which will make it expensive. Open Source or commonly used programs and languages provide governments a large developer base to hire or contract from. Static HTML Web sites or php/mysql based sites have a large user and developer base so changes, upgrades, installations, will be affordable. ASP and Coldfusion sites are also popular but are based on proprietary systems.

3. You don't need to spend a lot to get a robust site. A good Webmaster can do a lot with one good Web server. There are also a lot of really useful free services you can employ, because you may be able to get what you want using an existing service.

4. Be sure CMSs have a search engine friendly system as well as being user friendly. You want your information to be found and you want normal people to be able to enter information into the system. Keeping this in mind will make your investment more valuable in the future.

Some free solutions which can be very useful:
-Blogs
b2evolution
Nucleus
pMachine Free
WordPress

-Content Management
Drupal
Geeklog
Joomla
Mambo Open Source
phpWCMS
phpWebSite
Post-Nuke
Siteframe
TYPO3
Xoops

-Customer Relationship
Crafty Syntax Live Help
Help Center Live
osTicket
PerlDesk
PHP Support Tickets
Support Logic Helpdesk
Support Services Manager

-Discussion Boards
phpBB2
SMF

-E-Commerce
CubeCart
OS Commerce
Zen Cart

-F.A.Q.
FAQMasterFlex

-Image Galleries
4Images Gallery
Coppermine Photo Gallery
Gallery

-Mailing Lists
PHPlist
Mailman

-Polls and Surveys
Advanced Poll
phpESP
PHPSurveyor

-Project Management
dotProject
PHProjekt

-Site Builders
Soholaunch Pro Edition
Templates Express

-Wiki
TikiWiki
PhpWiki
mediawiki

-Other Scripts
Dew-NewPHPLinks
Moodle
Noahs Classifieds
Open-Realty
phpAdsNew
PHPauction
phpFormGenerator
WebCalendar

-Streaming video
Darwin Streaming Server