Ideas

Here some guidelines that alot of web profesionals use for creating their sites.

• Give your readers a reason for visiting your website. As well as a reason to come back. If a visitor leaves your site thinking "why did I go there?" then they will not come back, nor will they talk about your site (word of mouth advertising). Maybe a joke of the day or a rare picture; anything that will make your site stand out in someone's mind.

• Keep it simple.There are many things that will cause a visitor to loose intrest in your site. This will cause them to leave. If your page is to complex it will take a long time to load. It will be difficult to get your message across if your page is cluttered or your text is to small. Flashing text and animated images are great at first but after awhile they become obnoxious. Make your links large and easy to find. Overall make your stie interesting but not overwhelming. This will help your page load faster, as well as keep your visitors happy.

• Your home page is your business card. It is a good idea to keep it current. Updating your site shows your vistors that it is not a dead page. This will insure more return visitors.

• Give people options. Let them choose what they want to see. Rather than having ten pictures on your home pages let them choose to look at your photo album. This again will help your page load faster. If they choose to look at your pictures then they would be willing to wait for them to load.

• Maintain contact. This gives a personal feel to a site. If a visitor recieves a responce to a email that they send you, it shows them that there is someone on the otherside of the webpage. Then you can count on a return visit from them.

Since 14 Mar 2001