By Andrew LaPointe © Copyright 2000

It has been said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. The appearance of your web site is your appearance to the world. If your sight doesn’t convey a professional image, why would you expect someone to spend money on your site. Here is an example for you. Would buy something from a site if the first paragraph was the following:

  “Thanks for visiting my sitte. I sel childrens’ piggy banks. They are the best bankss on the net. You can by it here for only $29.500. Enter your creidt card here:”

We have all seen sites with misspelled words, incorrect information and bad sentence structure. So be extra careful when creating your site and ensure it projects the image you want it to.

Below are 12 ideas to help increase the productivity and appearance of your site.

#1: Learn the Language of Web Creation. Learn HTML and JavaScript. These are some the languages of the web creation. Also purchase the web creation software; companies such as Microsoft and Netscape have outstanding web creation software.

#2: Hire a professional to design your site. Of course, this will cost you money, but it will be money well spent.

#3: Try not to overuse banners or graphics. To many graphics will slow down the load speed and overall performance of your site.

#4: Keep your frames to a minimum.  People don’t like frames and the fewer the frames the better.

#5: Understanding the importance of colors. Learn what different colors represent. For example, blue represents corporate, bright yellow and red represent advertisements. Take the time to understand what the different colors mean to your visitors.

#6: If possible, view your site on different browsers. The reason is each browser may “see” your page differently. If you notice inconsistency among browsers, reconstruct your page so each browser will “see” it the same way.

#7: Test all of you links every couple of weeks. More often if possible. Nothing will frustrate visitors more than having dead links on your site.

#8: Ask friends, co-workers and family members to give your feedback on your site. Here are some the more important questions to ask:

            #1:       Overall appearance: font style, font size, color, etc.

            #2:       Ease of use. How easy is to navigate through your site?

            #3:       Easy to locate. Can you locate it via search engines, etc.

 #9: Understand the importance of colors. Numerous studies have been conducted on the affects colors have on the emotions of people. For example, yellow is an aggressive color. Unless you want to stir aggressive emotions from your visitors, understand how colors affect emotions.

#10: Offer valuable and useful information on your site.  Access to information is the key to the Internet and vital to your success. Keep your content fresh and current.

#11: Update your site at least once a month, if not sooner. This will encourage visitors      to return to your site often.

#12: Create a mailing for your site. This will permit you to keep in-touch with your visitors.