1. The ability to make your own edits – we highly recommend setting up your website with WordPress. It’s a content management system and it’s free!
2. A way to collect email addresses (leads) – this is usually done with an email autoresponder. You pay a small monthly fee to a provider and you get a sign up form to cut and paste into your website. You can get signups by offering a free report, or e-book for example.
3. A blog – nowadays customers want to see that you’re a real company with real people, and it gives them a way to interact with you and give feedback. It’s also a way to keep your site current.
4. Contact information – it’s surprising how hard this is to find on many websites. Often this is because companies don’t want to help their customers!
5. Useful information – many businesses take a brochure of their services and put it online. But by providing useful articles, blog posts, reports and so on, you will be perceived as an authority. This will build trust with your customers which is vital these days. Think of a customer going to your website and seeing your services – they will probably be thinking ‘How can I trust this company?’. Other than asking friends for recommendations, they will often use your content and knowledge of the subject to determine whether you are trustworthy.

It is our belief that online communities like Facebook are splintering into smaller niche communities where people with similar interests can interact and learn. These niche communities can also be called Tribes, as Seth Godin points out in his new book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

You can create and manage your own tribe with a membership site or at a bare minimum a customer email list.