The outcome of live deployment depends on a number of factors: most notably, the quality and appropriateness of the ‘paper site,’ the quality and efficacy of the production pipeline, and the relative power of the live hosting environment.

From a revenue generation point, there are also economic factors to be considered, such as the projected length of time before the live site becomes profitable. If no direct revenue streams exist, then an indirect valuation, or a valuation by means of alternative opportunities foregone is advisable.

Usually, SEO (search engine optimisation) also feeds into the economic equation. With the emergence of Google as an effective monopoly, small DIY SEO solutions are becoming increasingly accessible. However, larger SEO projects are best left to specialist companies.

Finally, there are increasingly many ‘social networking’ sites such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, or Vimeo, to mention a few, which are now considered as an integral part of a successful live deployment strategy. However, I am not aware of any hard evidence that unambiguously links page visit impressions generated from social networking sites to hard revenue gains. While evidence here remains anecdotal, one must still consider ‘jumping on the band wagon.’