Although the beauty of the web is that people of many nationalities, ages, and cultures can meet together to exchange views and experiences, not all of them will be interested in your site. You need to decide who you're aiming at - their age range, income bracket, nationality, hobbies, business interests, family circumstances. Many sites will be aimed a broad range of people, drawing visitors from all sectors. Others may have a narrower range for certain sectors - for example if you're selling expensive sports cars you'll need to target more affluent visitors. You probably won't be aiming for teenagers, parents with children, or the very elderly.
Colour
The colour scheme will be the first impression your visitor gets of your site. Your target audience will to some extent dictate your colour scheme. Different colours mean different things to different cultures. You also need to think about the content of your site - a music site for teenagers will need a completely different colour scheme than a site offering health advice to seniors.
Colours "say" different things too - red is a hot colour, used to convey both passion and aggression as well as love, intensity and competition. Black often conveys sorrow and death, but is also used to convey power, heaviness, or mystery.
I've got a complete list of the colours and their significance, plus which colours go well together, in my e-book "Make Your Site Sticky". It also has a list of the "web-safe" colours you can use, and their names and "numbers" for coding your web page. You can download a free copy at http://www.firstwebbuilder.co.uk/sticky....
Content
What do you want to include on your site? Making a brief note of all the items to include helps you to see how they link together, and which items will go together on one page. You also need to think about graphics - if you don't have any already, check the Links section for websites that provide graphics for webmasters, or for tools to help you create your own.
Try to match your language and tone to your target audience. Only use "slang" if you're sure that all visitors will understand it. It wasn't until I started writing for the internet that I discovered that outside the UK, the common word "fortnight" (i.e. two weeks) is practically unknown. Only use acronyms and abbreviations if you're sure visitors will recognise them. If you are providing a "teaching" site, you might think about including a glossary, or linking to one that already exists online.
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