I'm looking for suggestions on a broad framework of a strategy for developing a website.

Choose a platform. That probably going to mean an OS, server software, a database, and a language to write your dynamic pieces in. LAMP is good. If this isn't the right time for you to learn Linux, you might start with WAMP instead. The "P" still means Perl.^†

All along, of course, you'll be thinking about the functionality you want to provide and issues like browser support, session management, authentication and authorization, persistent user data, multimedia, client-side dynamics, blah blah blah blah blah. Consider how these issues are going to affect code you need to write. Plan to separate logic, presentation, and data. Think about how you are going to do that. Try to choose ahead of time which modules or libraries you are going to use and which wheels you are going to re-invent. Choose carefully, because you are probably going to be pretty well locked into these choices in short order. Pick a good templating system. Maybe consider a whole framework like Catalyst.

Oh, and don't forget content. (Don't laugh... it seems to get forgotten all the time.)

Now, put it all together and wait for hits.

After you get your first 10,000 hits and then realize that they've all been from search engine crawlers, start thinking about marketing.

Broad enough?

† Or PHP. Or Python. But, this is Perl Monks, so what'd you expect?

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";