-Re-designing a web site without considering how to preserve your existing traffic can result in a loss of some or most of your traffic or a
Traffic-Death Re-design.
-Creating a site without considering the marketing aspect, including search engine optimization, means that you may not have as many visitors as you would like. Plan on allocating some money and/or resources to market your site.
-Don't host with a free service unless you can have your own domain name. Some day you will have your own domain and the move may make your site hard to find for a while. Invest the $8-$15 in a domain name and you also can rely on pernament email addresses for your organization.
-Register you domain name in the name of the organization and have 2-3 different contacts listed. If you miss the domain registration renewal emails, and don't notice that your domain and emails stop working, you could lose your domain forever. If someone wanted to, they could later receive any emails sent to anyone at your old domain by clients, vendors, banks, etc.
-Don't register your domain name with the same company that hosts your site. In the rare case where you have a conflict with your hosting provider, they could hold your site "hostage" if they also control the domain. If you have control of the domain, you could move the site and email accounts while you resolve the dispute.