WHAT MAKES A GREAT WEBSITE?
This truly is the million dollar question! The difference between a poor website, a good website, and a great website could very well be the difference between a successful e-commerce presence and a failed attempt. 

A great website is not just having a webmaster that is capable of assembling coded pages that may or may not interact with the user, a database, or simply present an appealing display of information. A truly great website is actually a collaboration of graphic design, marketing professionalism, and the webmasters talents.

When you are looking for the right webmaster to put together your Internet presence, here are some tips on what to look for.
1) References - Visit some sample websites of your potential webmaster, and verify with the client as to who wrote the coded pages. References are always a good start!
2) Technology - What are the page extensions (endings) on these sample websites and are they consistent with current web technology trends.
examples:   www.abc.com/index.html

www.abc.com/index.asp

 Original web pages had extensions of (.htm) or (.html), this is old technology. Newer pages called Active Server Pages have extensions of (.asp). Even newer still is the recent technology of Extensible Markup Language or (.xml) pages and the really new ASP+.
3) Dynamics - Database interaction with the website enhances your site, and makes for a "dynamic" effect. This means that you can change, add, or delete your information without ever changing the format of the webpages themselves. Database interaction cannot be accomplished with (.htm) or (.html) style of web pages. Immediate response, update and interaction for your users is essential and requires dynamic capabilities. (ie. Active Server Pages)
4) Ease of use - Be sure to have your webmaster create "maintenance pages" for your staff to use. These pages allow your own staff to alter content to the database without changing the web pages themselves. You do not need to pay your webmaster to simply rotate your inventory list or retrieve emails from your visitors!  Think Economics! A well integrated web design allows the marketers and staff that know the day to day business to alter information that appears on a website.

example: See my "Events Calendar" or "Web based email" samples.
5) SPEED - Statistics show that the average surfer waits a maximum of 16 seconds for a web page to load. If your pages load slow because they are loaded with high graphics or fancy codes, they are almost NEVER seen! Flash, Sounds, Animations, etc. have little place in high quality websites! Use them as options if you must use them at all.
There's a buzz phrase in web design:
        "Amateurs animate!"