[ari_]

Rand, This list is banal. About the only thing I Can agree with is installing some analytics software (preferably NOT Google Analytics) to monitor goals and traffic sources. The only thing you need to do when launching a website, or any business, is market your product off. Adding yourself to the various webmaster tools, tracking brand keywords via Google Alerts is all a huge waste of time and only makes sense (if it makes any sense at all!) once you actually have traction - links to look at, brand mentions to follow etc.

Ari

[patd]

Could you explain why not Google Analytics and provide a few alternatives (and why they are better) ?

[ari_]

Well I don't like the idea of giving all your data to Google to exploit. I think the interface itself is nice and versatile but do you really want to give your ecommerce data to Google? If you really love it I think Google now licenses Urchin that you can host. Alternatives include, but not limited to: GetClicky Omniture Pwiki which is open source and can be modified Mint Log Files