1. Everybody who works the web is a marketer. Some Google VP said famously that every single person who works at Google is a marketer for Google. Some of us are trained marketers and some of us are intuitive marketers and some of us are piss poor marketers. If you think you may be the latter... you need a business plan that has a budget for a professional marketer.

2. If you have a business you need a branding document. Without it you'll spin your wheels every time you need to develop an ad or a website or make a sign for your store. If you pay a professional marketer for nothing else... pay them to help you do one of these. If you can't afford that... do one yourself and when you CAN show it to a professional marketer it can be a starting point.

3 The internet doesn't need you. And you don't need it. If you're not into it that's fine. Sure you'll miss out on some opportunities but maybe you'll create those opportunities in a different way. Don't worry about it.

4. Figure out (and be honest with yourself) about if you are a social person – do you communicate well and fluidly and more or less gramatically correctly in plain text. If the answer is no... then you're going to have to find someone who is if you want to use social media effectively.

5. If by this point you've never used any social media tools in your personal life, then you're late in the game. And that's important because all social media tools have a kind of half life - a period of time between when they start to get popular and when they start getting used by huge corporations. Get in and use them personally first before you think about trying to use them for your business. If you don't enjoy using them and find them useful personally... then they're probably not for you. In that case... if you think they would be useful to you, hire someone for whom they are second nature.

6. If you sense you have a crappy web site... take it down. In its place put up a one page web site that is really simple, has a perfect version of your logo, has one awesome photograph, one amazingly good paragraph about what you do, and your contact information. You don't need a web developer for that kind of web site. Pretty much any competent designer will know enough about the web to do that for you. In any case, work on this one page, show it to people, take their comments seriously, get it perfect. That will tide you over until you decide if you really need a better web site.

7. If you're going to put up a traditional web site and it's crucial that it stay online... Separate your hosting and your designer. (Horror story of website held to ransom by disgruntled designer/host goes here.)

8. If you are going to hire someone to create a web site for you... then what "type" of person is the lead is crucial. (Developer lead versus designer lead.)

9. Once you've hired somebody... let them do their job. Don't tell your designer or developer what anything should look like. Simply tell them what you want the web site to accomplish and give them your branding document and see what they come up with. If you hire a designer and then design it yourself you're literally throwing your money away.

10. Generally speaking, if something is absolutely critical to your business, you should pay for it.  If you get a service for free you have no leverage over it.

11. For many businesses and endeavours there are better and cheaper ways to have a good web presence than have your own web site.

12. For many businesses having an online shop will be a complete waste of time. Try to get depth of sale first. Try to get people talking first.

13. Running a successful online store will generally be at least a half-time job for at least one person. Most of that time will be spent on doing what amounts to publicity.