Developing a commercial website can require many different skill sets.  For example, you could find yourself in need of the following types of people:  

1.  A visionary to define website goals and objectives

2. An author to write website content

3. A researcher to find great sites to link to

4. A web page designer to develop the user interface, graphics and navigation

5. A database analyst to design the tables in which the underlying data is stored

6.  A programmer to write Java, CGI scripts or other web languages

7. An expert in electronic commerce to implement credit card functionality

8.  A translators to translate pages to a foreign language

9.  A marketer to sell space on your pages to advertisers  

It is unlikely that you will have all the skills needed to develop a commercial website.  If you do not have the resources to hire experts, you can search for partners to handle areas where you are weak.

Fortunately, the net is a wonderful place to find partners and develop good partnerships.  Partnerships can be as informal as finding other website owners with whom to swap links.  Alternatively, they can be more formal relationships with firms that specialise in advertising or electronic commerce. 

Partnerships are established in two ways. Either you search out the partner or the partner finds you.  Once you have established a presence on the net and your site begins receiving large volumes of hits, other web publishers and firms will approach you with partnership ideas.   Partnering is particularly valuable in high tech fields where it is difficult to remain current with the rapidly changing technology. 

It is good practise to begin a partnership relationship on a small and informal basis.  If the partnership proves to be mutually beneficial, it can be then be expanded and formalised.   Partnering with people overseas can be particularly rewarding as individuals in developing nations often have strong technical skills but do not have access to, or knowledge of the North American marketplace.