Forget $100,000 consultants. Redo your web strategy for 67 bucks.

Back in the day, web sites were mysterious, and marketers had to hire consultants who could speak Latin for $100,000 a month to help draft a list of magical portal doors that would let every customer in the world in. Big PowerPoint decks debated web ROI with gravitas, and after a year of expostulation before the Board, maybe someone would boot up Photoshop and sketch a wireframe. If anyone doubted this process, an IT voice would whisper, "what about the CMS?" and naysayers would pale and quake.

We still know execs in their 50s who buy in to this baloney. (If you're one, don't read further. Just call us for a quote.)

For the rest of you, take a shortcut. Find sites you want to emulate. Then copy them. The great Seth notes that good web design starts the process, and if you just find a site you like -- out of the kabillion out there -- and tell your team to modify it, you've jump-started the process. Or, go to freesitetemplates.com, download a fully loaded site like the one above for $67, and ask a 15-year-old to rewrite the copy and tweak the code.

What's more important than sites these days is an Internet presence. The web isn't your little star; it's the entire constellation. Get yourself visible in this vast universe with the three modern lead funnels online: pay per click, search engine optimization, and direct links from other high profile sites to you. You can buy some of this presence with Google pay per click. But to really get noticed online, you'll have to become relevant. Start a community. Enlist customer advocates to blog. Incorporate viral techniques. Make B2B linkages to your peers, your suppliers, and your clients. Make your site helpful, a commentary, a forum. In short: get meaningful yourself, and get connected to others.

We'll soon relaunch our own agency site at mediassociates.com. We've hired pros, really good ones. (Right now, they're drinking tequila in Mexico. No kidding.) Their designs rock, hell, they've worked with Janet Jackson and David Gilmour. But we still wonder ... could maybe $67 have gotten us the new Web 2.0?