The difference between failure and success on the web is rarely a close call. Almost invariably, businesses and individuals who invest in websites and website strategies end up putting their time, money, and resources into the wrong places.

At Convina, one of our most important challenges is to teach our clients and prospects how they should allocate resources in order to maximize success.

Most people have at least some ideas about Design, Performance, User Experience and Marketing. While it's not really possible for us to go into detail for all of these concepts in a single article, we hope to persuade you to seek at least a basic understanding of the important factors that make the difference between success and failure online.

Success on the web requires a clear understanding of what needs to be done and why it will help. This may seem like a daunting challenge. But the good news is that you don't have to know everything about how to do it.

Here are a few examples...

• Design
  You don't have to become highly-skilled graphic designer to understand what design is and why it's important. You can learn how design gives your website a personality. You can learn how design can solve problems or create problems for your website users. You can learn that design strategy goes much deeper than the styles, shapes, colors, and personal opinions for your website.
• Performance
  You should learn that performance is all about tracking and reporting business objectives. And you don't need to be a statistics wiz to realize that monitoring performance has an innate impact on success.
• User Experience
  It's important to understand that user experience is only loosely related to design. You can learn how critical it is to connect with and respond to the needs, desires, and habits of your site visitors.
• Marketing
  You don't have to become a pay-per-click or seo pro... But you will want learn how marketing should be the first thing you think about when it comes to web strategy. And the last thing. And everywhere in between.

We'll be diving into each of these topics in detail over the next few weeks. And don't worry-- we're not going to get too technical. What we will do is enable you in making smart decisions about your strategy and empower you in providing better insights and leadership to those who do the technical work for you.