Web-based innovations can quickly fail if their creators are not clued up on budgeting and marketing, the founder of the UK's biggest online dating agency has warned.

On the run-up to the Best Business Innovation Awards, Darren Richards has given The Birmingham Post his top tips for internet success.

Mr Richards founded Birmingham-based DatingDirect.com in 1999 after running a successful business importing children's toys.

Realising the potential of the internet as a dating tool, he gave up his business to launch the website.

The gamble took off and the service now pulls in more tha 4 million members and a turnover of about £12 million.

Mr Richards said a big pitfall when launching online was to underestimate startup costs.

"People often assume that a online business doesn't have start-up costs," the entrepreneur said.

"But you have to pay to set up a website properly."

Mr Richards said he had seen many projects fail because people believed they could set up a website "on the cheap".

"It is one of the biggest mistakes you can make," he said.

"Customers can decide in a millisecond whether you are a professional business or not.

"It doesn't matter if you think you've got a good product, if your web page doesn't look right, there's an error message or it takes a long time to load people will go elsewhere."

Mr Richards recommends getting five good quotes from web developers before building a site.

"If someone says they can design a website for a few hundred pounds, you will get what you pay for," he said.

"Remember that the web-site is the face of your business, make it work for you.

"When DatingDirect.com began we were only two people, but we looked like a big organisation.

"Because of that we eventually became a big organisation - that's the beauty of the internet."

Another big lesson Mr Richards learnt with his own site was to be prepared to adapt quickly.

"Things happen fast on the web," he said.

"You can launch a website one week and have 10,000 members the next.

"Make sure your servers are up to the job.

"If you don't want to buy a huge amount of server space in the beginning, make sure your package can accommodate increasing space if you need it."

DatingDirect.com was caught out a few years ago when the company underestimated how popular the site would be around Valentine's Day.

"We learnt from that," Mr Richards said.

"By November we were able to cope with an influx of visitors after we were featured on a television programme."

Another golden rule is to keep a tight rein on the marketing budget.

"Nowadays its essential to have a budget for advertising on search engines, but you have to make sure you know what you're getting for your investment," Mr Richards said.

"Advertising on the likes of Google can cost thousands in just a few hours."

"Work out what you can afford and allocate finds on a day-by-day basis."

And the final tip? Mr Richard's pet hate is the irritating "page under construction" notices often littering websites.

"It says to me that they can't be bothered,' Mr Richards said.

"If you went to a night club and some of the rooms were not properly built with signs on them saying "coming soon" you would think it was rubbish.

"But if it was completely finished and customer service was top notch you would go back.

"Why should the internet be any different?"