Is Planning A Website Different From Planning For An Internet Based Business?
Yes, planning a website is very different from planning for an Internet business. Confusing the two is one of the major reasons why so many websites and Internet businesses fail to even get off the ground. Confuse website development with business development, and you don't have a hope in hell.
Website planning, or website development is a much more narrow kind of planning. It involves figuring out a lot of the nuts and bolts of owning and running a website -- where you put navigation bars, the kinds of content you want on your site, what the site will look like, where you place advertisements and/or product information, determining how visitors can contact you, etc.
Website planning is an essentail process to success. Gone are the days when you could slap together a website without a plan.
However, even when people undertake some form of website planning or website development, they often don't do that within the context of a business plan. The website, then isn't driven by the purpose and goals of the Internet business, and so it doesn't produce.
The key is to do business planning (or strategic planning) FIRST. Then you use your business or strategic plan to drive the website development process. In other words your website must reflect your business goals and strategies.