Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in merrows713's InsaneJournal:

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Friday, February 24th, 2012
8:36 am	Building your Website in 2010, here are some interesting Web Site Designing Tips Everyone would like to have the best looking and most successful website out there! But have you ever wondered what it takes to have a web site that not only looks PRO but also is a hit with your audience Here are some interesting tips that you may need to keep in mind when designing your website. Content of the SiteSnazzy animations and colorful banners can make your site look pretty - but it also puts off a lot of serious customers who may be looking for your products and services. The foundation of any site must be made of great content. Your content must be fresh, unique, relevant, concise and compelling. Fresh content means, content that gets updated on a regular basis, unique means - no copy paste from another site. Always avoid content copied from other web sites. Content of your site must be relevant to your products and services and must be comprehensiveness. Content plays a lot of role in sustaining, bringing the new visitors. Moreover content plays the major role in search engine optimization process. Site loading Time Make sure that your site pages will not take much time in loading. Use of animations or large image banners and videos hits page load times making your site slow. No one is going to wait for 2-3 minutes to see your site. Remember pages of your web site should be opened like as you turn the pages of a magazine. Use flashes, videos in your site only when it required most. So by reducing the unnecessary flashes, videos you can make your site more user and search engine friendly. NavigationSuppose you click on the one hyperlink and get stuck in the page where you don't know how to go back to the previous or home page - means you make your visitors very angry. Your web site must have a constant navigation bar that has fixed position on every page of your site. Make sure each page of your site have good number of links to other pages. Your navigation should be short and to the point. Avoid too flashy, fancy, dark color navigation buttons or complex navigation menus, that don't work smoothly. Meaningless, Useless Page titlesThis is the most common mistake by a lot of web designers. Either page has no titles or useless titles like 'welcome to mycompany name'. Some careless designers even leave the page untitled, which is really unprofessional. Moreover you will see the same page title for all the pages of your site. These type of page titles are useless and for both the visitors and search engines. Page titles are meant to offer a brief description of each page in your site Brisbane Web Design. Your page title must have major keywords of your business, if you plan to look at improving your website search engine ranking. Browser Support In the early days, there were just 2 popular browsers, but now, there are at least half a dozen of them - and each will render your webpage differently to your audience. And in the case of Internet Explorer, itself, there are 3 different versions, and all 3 of them display pages in different ways. While designing ensure that your web site is compatible to at least the most popular of browsers. Many web designers do not check site compatibility with major browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari etc. The best way to check the compatibility of the site is to check it with Lynx, the popular text- base browser in Linux. After checking the site compatibility with Linux, you can work on your way in other web browsers. URL Structures & Site MapBasically there are the two types of URLs- Dynamic and Static URL's. Dynamic urls are generated as a result of a search of a database driven website and sometimes looks like http://www. yoursite name. com/product/productid= 2345&sort=date. This is very confusing both for users as well as for search engines. Make sure that the urls of the pages of your site must be static, which looks like this http://www. yoursite name/products/shoes. html. Static URLs are helpful for both users as well as search engines. Also make sure that your site has a sitemap. Sitemap's serve as navigational maps for both visitors and search engines. Obviously you have to generate 2 kinds of maps for each of them. A website that has many inner pages can create confuse your visitors, and a sitemap can get him to the page of his choice. Similarly sitemaps will help search engines to find as many pages as possible, and also help in tracking those pages that have frequent updates and changes. Outdated PagesAs we saw in the beginning when we discussed about having relevant content in your website, it also means that content has to be refreshed and outdated content removed or archived on a periodic basis. Web sites which offer current news, events and updates cannot afford to put stale news and outdated information, as it makes your audience a bit wary about your company and brand. Make sure all the sections of your site are updated time to time, giving your website visitors and search engines something to chew on every time they visit. Being over-creativeThere are some web sites which show lots of flashes, dark backgrounds, background music and sound while opening the pages of the site. Besides the owner of the site, these sites are hard to understand for visitors. Brisbane Website Design Being over creative in web designing is same as being over smart. Try to make your web site as simple as you can. These are some of useful web designing tips which every site owner can follow and hope to achieve his goals and web objectives. Current Mood: confused (Comment on this)
8:19 am	Use Color And Layout As Sales Tools! Did you know that the color and layout of a web site could have a huge impact on selling your product or service One of the key factors in establishing a friendly and attractive web site is color and layout. And thats where a lot of beginning webmasters go awry. If you look at any of the available professional web site templates youll see that the colors and the layout blend with the content. Web site templates can be a great guide to showing the inexperienced how to combine color and elements. This is especially important for the color challenged. I have to admit I am partial to both red and blue. But that doesnt always work well for a web site. So its important to step outside your own preferences when designing a web site. Many tests have been done on colors and impact for web site design. Colors can often complement the product or service, or the companys logo design. Some companies even use a color to brand their service or product, like UPS does with brown. Not my first choice in colors but it appears to be working well for them. Colors can have an impact on mood and cultural significance. Red is a universal color for attention, yellow for caution, and green for approval. But there are exceptions, green hats in China indicate infidelity for a woman. Red implies danger in many cultures. So colors can affect the mood and emotional response of the viewer. Men and women definitely view colors differently. Women prefer red, black, and bright colors. Men prefer blue, orange, and darker colors. Although most of the impact is psychological or emotional, it can have a positive or negative effect on buying products or services. Dark and foreboding colors may deliver a message not intended. Bright and colorful designs on a web site selling a serious product or service (like medical products to treat a terminally ill patient) can definitely show a lack of sympathy and put off potential buyers. Some colors may actually render the words unreadable to some people. Using light yellow or blue type on a white background is hard for many to see, not too mention not very attractive. Black backgrounds with white type certainly have enough contrast, but may miss the boat on creating the appropriate mood or emotion. Most experts agree that neutral backgrounds and dark blue or black type are the most legible and readable for most viewers. Using other colors for emphasis is fine, as long as you dont over do it. Having more than 3-4 colors on any page can diminish the impact of any one of the colors. Too many colors, just like too many fonts (type styles) can agitate the reader and create a negative experience. And when you are trying to convince someone to buy something, thats not a very effective presentation. Too little contrast makes viewing difficult, too much contrast irritates the reader. Another problem faced by any web site designer is how the color will appear on different monitor and computers. Some colors have a tendency to not produce the same look on any monitor or video card Web Design Brisbane. Each computer may have a different rendering technology and therefore produce a different hue or color. Some video cards and monitors can only display 256 colors (it used to be about 16). There are also other factors such as the type of monitor (LCD display much differently than tube type) and available ram on the video card (more ram usually means more colors). But there is a way to help control this chaos. There is a standard" of sorts that is called Browser Friendly or Browser Safe colors. Netscape originally established this standard years ago and many still rely on it today. All of the major browsers have adopted this color set to help web site designers with choosing colors that display the same across all video devices. Without getting too technical, these colors are limited to the basic 256 available on any computer equipment including our friends with Macs. These browser safe colors will display the same across all makes and models of equipment. You can see the colors and Hex values here: The major concern is not to distract from the message of your web site, whether it be informational or selling a product or service. Dont go for the big fancy design and forget the purpose of the web site. Thats especially important for web sites designed to sell a product or service. John Dow owns www. fptemplates. net, a website that sells a great set of FrontPage templates and web site tools package. Get 125 Templates and several web site utilities like Audio, Shopping Cart, and other useful scripts. Dont pay $30-$150 for just one template when you can get 125 for $29. 95. Click here to learn more: http://www Website Design Brisbane. fptemplates. net. Current Mood: full (Comment on this)
8:02 am	Planning Your Custom Web Site Design With the ever-expanding popularity of the Internet comes e-commerce, the exploding trend of doing business on-line. Perhaps you have witnessed first- hand the infinite power of communication, information, and marketing afforded by this awesome tool. But how do you get from the basic concept of your own web site- to a professionally designed site, up and running on your own domain The following information may helpful. Planning Your Web SiteSome questions you need to answer before developing your own custom web site design are:Will it be a personal web site Personal web sites usually focus on family and friends, or things such as hobbies, recent news, or "fun" things. Will it be for conducting or promoting business On the internet you will find an endless variety of business web sites, ranging from basic customer information type sites, to enormous ecommerce web sites like ebay or amazon. These mega web sites require extensive inter-relational databases to enable the various aspects of the site such as on-line credit card purchasing or customer service forums to function properly, and track and record each transaction. In addition to personal or business web design, there are educational sites, political or viewpoint sites, support or encouragement sites for any given subject, blog-type sites, and the list goes on. Once you have decided what type of web site you want, it is necessary to develop a domain name. You should give much thought to this; the domain name should relate in some way to the subject of your web site Brisbane Website Design. For instance, if you are selling baseball cards, a good name would be baseball. com, or ballcards. com. After deciding on a name, check with one of the online registries to find out if the name is available, or whether it has already been taken. Solving Technical ObstaclesOnce you have successfully selected and registered a domain name, you are ready to begin your own custom web site design. Because many aspects of publishing a web page design can be very complicated and technical, you will most likely want to enlist the services of a web site design company Brisbane Website Design. Especially if your site does on-line transactions. When credit card transactions are involved, your site needs to be secure in order to protect you and your customers. A good web design will include aesthetic points, such as appearance and page loading times. If a page loads too slowly, potential customers may grow impatient and leave. When it comes to a business web site, the more people you can get to visit the higher the chances for making a sale. How do you get the people visit your web site By being high visible on the various search engines. This is accomplished through careful meta tag and keyword placement. Once you get people to visit your site, keep them there with a user-friendly web site format; eye appealing, easy to maneuver, and professional looking, with interesting, up to date content. Even with complex technical issues to deal with, there are many affordable design companies available to help you create just the right web site. For more information or a quote for services, visit http://www. acecomp. com. Current Mood: frustrated (Comment on this)
7:47 am	Internet Marketing Web Site Design - 5 Tips For Designing a Site That Makes You More Money Web site design has been around now for almost two decades. While of course the designs themselves have gotten a lot more sophisticated-looking over time, what is even more significant in terms of advances in web site design that of our collective knowledge about how people behave on web sites. This body of knowledge - which we could call the psychology of the Internet - is growing every day. These days, we have software that can track actions on a given web page, down to the eye movements of visitors. We also know a lot more than we ever did about how to get people on a web page to do will we want them to do. Does this sound manipulative Maybe so. But, it is no more manipulative than a department store placing mannequins in a window or a hotel leaving a mint on your pillow before bedtime. They do this to garner your business. At the end of the day, we build websites because we want our visitors to do something when they get there. And the more of them, the better. Nowadays, good web site design is not just about using a cool widget or a neat Flash presentation. Rather, is about the psychology of buying. And at another level of analysis, good site design must also take into account the world of search engines. That is: your website needs to be designed in such a way that it can be found by someone who is searching for whatever product, service, or information that you provide there. If you are looking for Internet marketing web site design tips, here are 5 tips for designing a site that makes you more money: 1. Clearly label your site:The first rule of good design is this: make sure that you make it abundantly clear to your site's first-time visitors what your site is about and to whom it is targeted. The simplest way to do this is to place a clear label or description of your site across the top of every page. For reasons unknown, many web developers skip this important step every time. It is to their detriment Website Design Brisbane. 2. Optimize each page of site for a different target keyword:Each page of your site should be content-optimized for at least one target keyword. Of course, this keyword might be the so-called long tail keyword consisting of multiple words. Whenever keywords you choose for each page of your site, that keyword should be very well-represented on the page. 3. Make sure the meta title matches each page's target keyword:Another optimization related-tip: make sure that the meta title tag on each page is specifically optimized for that same keyword. 4. Make it clear to visitors what they should do:Okay, so now we've gotten someone to your site and they know what you do. What's next You need to immediately get them moving toward your ultimate objective. If that objective is to sell them something, then of course direct them to your sales page. If on the other hand your objective is to get them to download your latest white paper, direct them there. This may sound obvious, but countless websites are so cluttered with buttons and links that it is almost impossible for a visitor to tell where they should go next. This will kill your sales. 5. Minimize number of steps from landing to sale:Finally, think of every step and action that a site visitor takes from the moment they land on your home page to the moment they taking that desired action (such as making a purchase) as a link in a chain. The longer the chain, the better the chance they believe your site without ever taking that action. Keep the chain - the number of steps - as short as possible. Follow these 5 tips for designing a web site that makes you more money. Current Mood: aggravated (Comment on this)
7:30 am	Flash Web Design; Offering Multiple Benefits for Your Business through Unique Site Design A site without any significant number of visitors is as good as non-existent. This is especially true for ecommerce sites whose businesses are totally online-based. The number of visitors a site registers directly impact the success of its business. Every click counts. So how will you increase your site's traffic The visibility of your site is largely dependent on search engines ranking. A higher ranking can be guaranteed with optimizing your site for search engines by using different SEO techniques. Website Design Brisbane But your job is not over yet! Your next mission is securing loyal visitors Brisbane Web Design. Apart from expanding your customer base, your business also needs retain customers. New visitors should not lose interest in your site quickly. Rather they should feel like visiting it again and again. To do so, you need to have a special web design, a design which is eye-catchy, visually enticing, and user-friendly. This is when Macromedia Flash web design can come to your rescue. Initially developed as an animation tool, Flash has become the favorite tool for web designers offering multiple uses. Using this tool, designers can give your site a facial makeover by adding rich graphics, audio and video clips, animations, slide shows etc. The quality of images will never be the same with Flash Brisbane Website Design. And by giving your users a complete multimedia experience, they will feel like visiting your site definitely more than once. A professional Flash web design also offers infotainment to visitors through animations. Moreover, Flash technology can be utilized in developing complex interactive games. Hence you see that a Flash-based site is no match for static and boring sites. There is no doubt that the overall effect of Flash can be leveraged to enhance your business profits. It can also be used to promote your brand, products or services in more effectively. Logos and banners can be mage distinct and unique through this technology. Likewise, you can better highlight your products to visitors by using Flash development. Spinning products or 3-D designs can be developed for better display. As such, Flash web site design solution offers multiple benefits for your business. Current Mood: rejuvenated (Comment on this)
7:13 am	Web Site Design Keys Web site design is the process of designing a template or web site on the internet. This is used for many different types of web sites. Website Design Brisbane All designs will be passed to you for approval and any changes asked for will be made into the site. Web site design is the process of designing a template or web site on the internet. This is used for many different types of web sites. Each web site design is unique and individual to the particular site in question. The site designer will begin by asking you some basic questions about the site and based on the answers, will begin to build a site for you and your particular product or service. All designs will be passed to you for approval and any changes asked for will be made into the site. There are also web sites that will allow you to be the web site designer. Places such as Homestead, Angelfire and GeoCities will allow you to design your own web site. If you are a small business, it may be advisable to either consult with the designer at the place that hosts your site, or consult a web site designer. A poorly designed and made site will drive away traffic and cost you sales, time and money. This is why a web site designer needs to be called in, to make the site look professional and clean. This is a must when selling on the internet. When you are looking for a web site designer, please bear in mind the following: How many of these sites have the designer done Are they reputable Can you talk to clients of this web site designer These questions will need to be answered. Take time to research the designer in question. This is a must to take action on. As with anything else, there are cons out there willing to take your money and leave you to hold the bag. Sufficient research will net you the honest ones out there. Make certain that you receive everything in writing. This way will protect you in case of a fraudulent web site designer that skips out on you. The contract can and will be enforced. It is no longer acceptable to have a gentlemans agreement in this age. For your protection, a written contract is necessary to protect both yourself and your business. That fact cannot be stated enough. With the advent of the Digital Age, comes the need for protection in any and all business matters at hand. With a written contract, there will be no dispute over what is ordered and what is not. Once you have found your web site designer and fleshed out the contract, then work can begin on producing your site. The time limits will be specified in the contract. Once work is completed, the designer will contact you and submit the final design for approval. Once approved and paid, then the site is yours and can go live immediately. Once your site is live, then the orders can commence and your business will flourish and grow. Having a well developed functioning web site is crucial in the constant struggle for the consumers hard earned dollar. Current Mood: bored (Comment on this)
6:57 am	SEO Friendly Site Design - Web Site Design with Search Engine Optimisation in mind. Web Design and website development has typically been known as a process of enhancing the aesthetics of a Web Site rather than the execution within search engines but these days the roleof a web designer has broadened greatly and web designers today have to design a site that will not only look superb but also stand up against the competition and within the major search engines and obey with SEO processes and procedures and also SEO standards. Its now usually known, search optimisation is a process of promoting websites on the popular search engines. A lot of emphasis these days is directed towards link building and off-page optimisation but without a solid foundation and a web site design that is initially setup to be SE Optimisation Friendlythen the whole off-page practice could be done in vain. The general layout of a website design plays a imperative role in the proficiency for SE's to crawl a Web Page and making sure that a Web Site Design has a neat, structured setup is central to the end-result in terms of performance within search engines. Excellent placement of h1, h2 and h3 headings so not only to catch the eye and to look aesthetically pleasing but to should also be used to establish the most important sections and areas of your web page so that search engines pick up and crawl the correct and most appropriate content. Brisbane Web Design Universal text through-out the Website Development also plays an essential part of the overall result and especially different text styles such as bold text, italic text and quotes. It is essential to highlight fundamental keywords with these styles in order to enhance the overall bearing of your SE Optimisation efforts and one more central aspect of on-page optimisation and Search Optimisation that is essential to get right in the web site design stages is the optimisation of the Web Page images, most designers fail to take this part in to consideration but without setting the image height and width, alt tags and having a file name that correlates to your important keywords then it becomes increasingly difficult for search engines to pick them up and read them correctly therefore making it even harder to grow your search engine rankings. In closing, your web design should be browser friendly, have the correct foundations in place to ensure that when your Search Optimisation consultant comes in to complete the final work on the Web Page for performance purposes that everything is in the right place and is doing its job and also well laid out and aesthetically pleasing for your Website visitors because it is not only important for the search engines to be able to read your Web Page but also your Web Site visitors and potential clients because if they are not happy with your Web Site Design and the overall looks and layout of your Web Site the whole SE Optimisation exercise will be done in vain Web Design Brisbane. Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
6:40 am	Web Site Design And Hosting Web site design and hosting services are subsequent to the meticulous testing procedures as well as standards and work in a structured environment with in the midst of international level standards conventionality. Clearpath technology division's web site design and hosting services offers a complete range of quality assurance and SEO services next to maximizing web application quality, performance and availability at the same time as managing the costs in addition to risks for our clients. Clearpath technology division's web site design and hosting services provides the latest white papers on variety of related topics to help to stay with current on this critical business technology concern. Clearpath technology division's web site design and hosting services assist you in delivering web services with confidence along with compete better in the market, which comprises in formulating the investigation plan and test cases, execution, defect analysis reporting, risk assessments in company with proposals. Our web site design and hosting services are enable companies to test the performance, scalability and consistency of internet based services. Brisbane Website Design Clearpath technology division's web site design and hosting services let you make over your web site into a highly specialized earning tool and get knowledgeable of performing functions such as jitter and timing analysis, system verification, communications standards testing, disk drive measurements, video measurements, power measurements in addition to much more. Clearpath technology division's web site design and hosting services ensure that applications are meticulously tested using industry-standard testing techniques along with best processes. Clearpath technology division's web site design and hosting services grade load in addition to functional testing tools provides greater tester efficiency as well as lower total cost of ownership to more than hundreds of clients. Our web site design and hosting services are relying on people and a process to construct an offshore testing plan for clients comes from wide reaching. Clearpath technology offer monarch web site design and hosting services spanning the complete web site life cycle. Current Mood: depressed (Comment on this)
6:21 am	Web Design Cost Per Page - A Better Billing Option Web design cost per page is a common way to charge for designing a website Website Design Brisbane. Prices for web design services usually vary based on the amount of work that will need to be done. Typically web design cost per page also varies according to the type of page that must be built. You might pay one rate for the first page, another for resource pages, and still a third rate for simple information or ordering pages. Billing web design cost per page is an alternative to hourly billing as it allows the designer to bill more for more difficult work rather then feeling like they are not earning enough in a specific hour. For example, the first page of a website is usually the most difficult to build. It takes more time to come up with the plan for the layout of a website, choose graphics, and place links on that first page then it does on subsequent pages. The web design cost per page for the first page sometimes even includes building the search engine pathways to your site. It makes sense that building this page would be more expensive then building other pages. The pages that link from this first page are typically the least expensive pages to build. Cost per page allows the designer to work as quickly as they can to build these simple pages. If you were being charged an hourly rate they might be tempted to take their time on the easy pages to make up for the added effort in building that first complicated page. Your site may also include resource pages. These pages are filled with content that helps drive traffic to your site. Because these pages are a little more difficult to build then the second type of page, but not as time consuming as the first, their web design cost per page is usually somewhere in the middle Brisbane Website Design. Rather then looking at an hourly rate you should try to evaluate potential designers based on web design cost per page. This gives you a better understanding of their work and allows them to be honest with you about the time and effort involved in building a high quality web site. Current Mood: morose (Comment on this)
6:04 am	5 Common Mistakes Start Using Web Site Analysis Tools Web site analysis tools can contribute to design decisions to improve visitors’ online experience but also to inform site owners, business owners about the performance of their Web sites. However, in many cases, eBusiness Managers, Webmasters or Web operations managers, start deploying Web site analysis tools just as a ‘nice to have’ tool. Instead of measuring performance and comparing it to the business objectives, they mostly communicate the raw analysis data to senior management, without any further explications or any recommendations for site improvements. To exploit the value that Web site analysis tools can provide, the following major pitfalls should be avoided: Business objectives not set for individual sections of the site: At most organizations, business owners responsible for a sub part of the corporate Web site have not defined their specific business objectives of their sub parts. For example, a sub part of a Web site could be customer support, which can be further broken down into self-service tools (e.g. frequently asked questions, download of drivers, etc.), support contact information, warranties, user manuals, etc. Measuring the performance of a site or a sub part of the site is only valuable, if the measured performance can be compared against the targeted objectives. If business owners do not set business objectives, the analysis cannot determine the site’s performance. eBusiness managers or Web operation managers that are in charge of deploying Web site analysis tools need to help business owners defining the detailed business objectives of their Web site’s sub parts. Site owners or site section owners are not trained to understand the analysis reports: At most organizations, site owners or business owners for a specific sub site can not leverage the reports of Web site analysis tools as many of them don’t understand the benefits of such a measurement’s approach. eBusiness managers need to explain as a first step the benefits and the importance of this performance measurement as integral part of their Web performance measurement program. The second step includes explaining of what is measured and how the measured data can help business owners to further improve their sub-parts of the site (e Web Design Brisbane. g. changing navigation or cross-linking sections, providing and updating section with ‘most used links’, etc. ). If business owners are not sensibilized and/or not trained how to leverage value out of the Web site analysis report, they most likely will not even start reading the reports and all efforts in measuring Web site performance using Web site analysis tools is wasted. Data points of Web site analysis tools are not related to each another: Web site analysis tools measure data points for a defined time period such as number of viewed pages, number of unique visitors, number of visits, etc. However, these data points do not provide any value Web Design Brisbane. For example a high number of viewed pages may indicate that site visitors are lost within the navigation and browse a lot of pages to find what they are looking for versus a lower number of viewed pages, which may indicate that site visitors find directly their information in few clicks due to effective site navigation. It is crucial that Web analysts, relate the individual data points to derive value that can be translated into site improvements and that the value can be communicated to business owners to inform them about their specific site performance. For example to measure the effectiveness of online support, Web analysts should measure and relate the following key performance indicators (KPI):. Stickiness = total amount of time spent viewing all pages in the support section divided by the total number of unique site visitors in the support section and Focus = average number of pages visited in the support section divided by total number of pages in the support section. For online support the stickiness and the focus should be low, which indicates that the navigation to the specific support is effective (e.g. site visitors need few clicks and minimal time to get to a specific support page). It is crucial that the measured data points of Web site analysis tools are related to each another and that these data points are measured for a specific section on the site. If data points are not related to each another and not measured for a specific section, they do not provide any value or at worst if they are interpreted they may lead to wrong design decision. Not enough skilled human resources available to analyze the reports: Web site analysis tools do only track and store the visitor’s online behavior. Web site analysis tools cannot interpret the measured data. Brisbane Web Design To get value out of the measured data, dedicated Web analysts need to analysis further the collected data. The main duty of the Web analysts is to relate the individual measured data to each another to obtain KPIs. These KPIs allow Web analysts to deduce the design changes to increase site visitors’ experience. In addition, Web analysts need to be able to relate the correlated analysis data with Web site design. Web site analysis tools are considered as the only way to measure Web site effectiveness: Many organizations rely mainly on Web site analysis tools to measure Web site effectiveness and do not perform any other site performance measurement approach to improve the visitor online experience. To continuously improve a Web site, the Web performance measurement program should include as well, usability lab testing, focus groups analysis, etc. Current Mood: rushed (Comment on this)
5:49 am	How to Set Up an Opt-In Page - The Layout and Design Opt-in pages exist for only one purpose, that is, to turn as many website visitors as possible into subscribers. Because of this, the layout and design of an opt-in page is of big importance. This article teaches you how to set up an opt-in page and focus on its design and layout. The first rule in setting up your page is to make it simple and clean. It must instill confidence, trust and value to anyone who visits your site Brisbane Website Design. Secondly, your opt-in page must show newsletter samples, and in those newsletters, there must be a link to your site. Thirdly, putting testimonials on your opt-in page also helps increase the interest level of your viewers. Brisbane Web Design Testimonials should be in pull-quote format inserted as a simple text or as an image. Fourth is to offer your viewers some incentives. If you offer them something valuable (for instance they can get free downloads of anything if they subscribe), then most likely they will turn into subscribers and not just a website visitor. You can offer them special reports, software trial, tips, news, discounts, mini email courses, or ezine subscriptions. Fifth is to state your privacy policy near the subscribe button. Tell them you won't share their email addresses to other people. This is important so that your viewers are assured that they won't get spam messages from other companies. Lastly, set expectations for your recipients like how frequent they will receive emails from you or how else you would communicate with them. Current Mood: bitchy (Comment on this)
5:33 am	How To Come Up With Effective Web Design The world has become a global village and in today's cut throat competitive environment it is a must to have a website which has superb technology and Seo oriented design. The technology progression has given a chance to web designers to come up with innovative and creative ideas. Custom web design is something where designers can show their skills. The ecommerce web site is the most powerful tool a business owner may have. He has to attract clients through his website, so the website has to be attractive and appealing. All the aspects of website have to be done superbly in order to get success for instance, web designing, graphic designing and web developing etc. There must be unique approach used when it comes to web developing. Unfortunately some web developers become too individualistic. This has a direct affect on site's navigation system and "look and feel."Web site designers must not overdo with the design and there is no need to be over smart. Here are simple rules they must keep in mind: The internet users are very impatient. Brisbane Website Design A study shows the minimum page wait time is 5 seconds, so don't use unnecessary images, it can increase the page load time too. Nowadays Google chrome, Mozilla Firefox gives a lot of features to their users, make sure your website runs smoothly there. The website must be browsers compatible. The last point is something web designers should pay special attention. No matter how good a website's design is, no matter how valuable content it contains, if it's not SEO friendly, it has no value. Increasing the visibility of the website should be one of the prime objectives of web designers. The selection of web design company is another very crucial point in making a website a successful one. A business must follow proper recruitment and selection process when it comes to hiring a web design firm. It is always handy to discuss the business requirements before assigning task to a web designing firm. Current Mood: sleepy (Comment on this)
5:16 am	DesignSmarts; Three Terrific Tips for Site Design! Terrific Design Tip # 1Place the most important offer, feature or product of yoursite closer to the top of the page. Give it prominence sovisitors will not miss it. Having a big logo taking all thevaluable space at the top of your web pages will not help yourbank account. The upper section of your page is the first thingthat your prospective clients will see as soon as they enteryour site and this will be the area that will determine ifthey stay to see what else you have to offer or they proceedto the next website. To get the maximum impact, I suggestthe use of a Flash banner to really get the attention ofsite visitors AND to help capture lead information! Check out the following sites that use Flash banners:1. http://www. internetcashcity. com2. http://www. successseekers. com3. Brisbane Website Design http://www. fortumine. com4. http://www. healthyendeavor. com5. http://www. internetcashplanet. comTerrific Design Tip # 2Your site has to have an email capture form. This is one of the mostimportant components of your website. If you have plans of making moneyfrom it then lead generation strategies should be incorporated intoyour main page, preferably closer to the top. You can do this in a formof a newsletter signup area, client survey form, contest entry form,information request field or a simple guestbook. The key is to givepeople good reasons to want to complete these forms. Make an offer toget them to do so, and assure visitors that their information will NOTbe sold to third parties. If you don't know why you need to capture your client's email address,I suggest you learn more about online marketing with email andhow to build an in-house client email list. Start by purchasing abook by Dr. Jeffrey Lant called email "Email El Dorado". You can learn more about the book and order at -https://secure. incor. com/mlmprofit/books. htmTerrific Design Tip # 3Get a professional marketing and design company like Worldprofit athttp://www. worldprofit. com to build your website! Effective websitedesign is an art that writes it own rules. Experienced design firmswith experienced designers know the market that you will be competingin and they can guide you in building an effective website that meetsyour requirements and gets you results. Remember, you have to impressand intrigue your client within 10 seconds of entering your page;an amateur web site will sabotage your sales from the moment yourpage loads. Trust your company's online reputation ONLYwith a professional design and marketing company. If you are not sure what I mean then let me convince you. Review some of these just completed sites by members of our designteam. We practice what we preach. In these sites look for:1) Prominence of offers;2) Email Capture Strategies to generate leads for the site owner;3) Professional graphic design, layout and expertise. http://www. place-crete. com/ http://www. grayofficefurnishings. com/ http://www. dr-tee. com/ http://www. intuitiveconsult. com/ http://www. mug-m-book-m. com/ http://www. kitchton. comThere you have it! Three Easy Tips to BOOST Your Sales! **. Current Mood: depressed (Comment on this)
5:04 am	Putting Together A Site Design Brief If your organization is looking to strengthen your on-line presence so you have to have a face-lift of your Internet site or you want to start all over again and give a web site design brief to a local web site design firm, read on... It is important for your marketing success online to have a absolute understanding of what your Website is envisioned to achieve for your business establishment and what your policies are with regard to search engine optimisation of your web site and your method for affiliate marketing and PPC It could be that your enterprise's Website will be an online brochure that does not necessitate attracting customers to your Website via SEO yet, even if that is the fact of the matter, it is vitallyfundamental that our online showroom is competent in every aspects. To see to it that is the case, it is wise to seek the services of a Peterborough Website designer who understands exactly how best to design and build your Website, whether or not you live in Peterborough or elsewhere in the British Isles. On the assumption that you would like to build an online company that sells merchandise or services from your new Website design, it is very important that youpossess some awareness of techniques to sell online with the help ofthe search engines, prior to briefing a web site developer. Assuming you would appreciate ones web site to be high up Google's organic searches together with the lessimportantfree search rankings provided by search engine companies such as Yahoo and Bing, it is critical that your Peterborough Website design brief takes on board the vital elements of search engine success such as how SEO can impact profitably on the Website including the way search enginecrawlers are affected by your copy content and the efficient use of key words. The copy of your Website is not the responsibility of your Website designer but the layout most undeniably is. The more details you can present to help the process of your Peterborough web design the larger the possibility that your home page and your Website as a whole will gain more visitors and induce them into either purchasing directly from your Website or contacting your firm. Assuming that the home page or landing page is bountiful in key words; it is also critical that the layout is focused and straight forward to use. Success or failure of your Website can rely on the reality that your customers either remain and investigate what you have to provide or are put off and hit the back button to escape. Any competent Peterborough web site designer believes in the call to arms that less is more. It is perfectly possible to burden your web pages with numerous pictures including videos, but should you need your web site to be user-friendly, and a opening to making a sale, then the cleaner the content and the more accessible the welcome, the greater the chances are that you will have at least half a possibility of making a sale. In other terms, your perfect web site should explicitly layout your merchandise and services with content precise, accurate and rich in keywords. Remember, google cannot see images so it is vital to identify your images as if to a blind person complemented by well-researched key phrases. Also, the ALT tags within the images, that come alive when your curser is held over the image, should also be clean-cut in their descriptions and complemented by key words. Remind yourself, search engines can't see how fine-looking your Website looks; they simply check over the main content at the speed of light - or thereabouts. The solitary aim of your Website is to make the experience of purchasing easy and a pleasure, which is why most merchant websites include a shopping cart program and a link to a flexible payment provider that will accept payment in a number of ways. Consequently, it isvital for your Peterborough web site design to include a shopping cart that is user friendly and enables customers to chop and change their minds. It may be that the chief aspiration of your Peterborough web site design is to attract users who will then click one of your display ads as it can be a amazing way to make money to display ads for third parties and then to partake of a commission every time a user clicks through to an affiliates web site. On the other hand, if you are a trader with your own models to sell it may not be that good an idea to fill your web pages with affiliate display Ads when you really want your consumers to stay and shop online from your Website Brisbane Web Design. The moment your Peterborough web site design is live and on the web, it is very useful to be able to update it yourself by way of news stories, blogs and copy as it is always a good idea to keep your web site refreshed with new content. Current Mood: refreshed (Comment on this)
4:51 am	Tips For A Great, Effective Web Site Design While surfing the internet I have seen many different types and styles of web sites. The design of all of the different web sites on the internet varies widely. I have noticed that within the last five years there has been a tremendous move towards Flash web sites or Flash elements in web sites. Personally I am not a huge fan of a web site built entirely in Flash, because I believe that it is too much for the user to absorb everything that is happening. Also when a search engine crawls a web site made completely with Flash it will not be able to pick up any text in the web site that is embedded in the Flash images. Normally a search engine will rank a Flash-only web site lower than a non-Flash web site, because there are more keywords included in the paragraphs of the web site that are not made completely with Flash. However using some Flash elements in a web site design is a great idea. Flash can help make your web site pop, and give the user a focal point that will draw their eye into your web site. Web site design is the most important element of creating a web site. The design of the web site is what actually brings the users into the site and keeps them there. A major aspect of your web site design is the web site navigation. If the navigation of a web site design is not very good, then the user will leave the web site quickly, without really looking at much of anything Website Design Brisbane. If the web site is difficult to read, or the colors are not appealing to the user then they may also leave. A good, clean, and simple web site is the best type of site to create, because it allows the user to navigate easily, and find the information that they desire. Some people like to use navigation on the side and some like to use navigation on the top of the web site. No matter which you choose you want to be consistent, so that the user always knows where to go to move to another page. Personally I like to use the main navigation across the top of the page, with the secondary navigation down the left side. The main navigation will have the main points of the site, and the secondary navigation will allow the user to delve deeper into any one of the main navigation topics. I prefer to use navigation this way, because it allows the user to navigate to almost anywhere within the web site with only two clicks. One of the clicks will get them into the main topic, and then they can get into more detailed information relating to the main topic using the secondary navigation. Recently I have looked at a few web site design companies in the UK. These design companies have very nice classic styles that are very easy to read, and they relay the information to the user in a very nice way. UK web site design seems to use fewer Flash elements, and more CSS and JavaScript techniques to entice the user. I also prefer CSS and JavaScript techniques, because they do not require Flash Player to be able to see the effects. Also these techniques are much more subtle than Flash elements. CSS and JavaScript are just text markups, so the text can still be read by the search engines' spiders, which usually translates into a higher search engine ranking. Current Mood: nerdy (Comment on this)
4:36 am	Building your Website in 2010, here are some interesting Web Site Designing Tips Everyone would like to have the best looking and most successful website out there! But have you ever wondered what it takes to have a web site that not only looks PRO but also is a hit with your audience Here are some interesting tips that you may need to keep in mind when designing your website. Brisbane Website Design Content of the SiteSnazzy animations and colorful banners can make your site look pretty - but it also puts off a lot of serious customers who may be looking for your products and services. The foundation of any site must be made of great content. Your content must be fresh, unique, relevant, concise and compelling. Fresh content means, content that gets updated on a regular basis, unique means - no copy paste from another site. Always avoid content copied from other web sites. Content of your site must be relevant to your products and services and must be comprehensiveness. Content plays a lot of role in sustaining, bringing the new visitors. Moreover content plays the major role in search engine optimization process. Site loading Time Make sure that your site pages will not take much time in loading. Use of animations or large image banners and videos hits page load times making your site slow. No one is going to wait for 2-3 minutes to see your site. Remember pages of your web site should be opened like as you turn the pages of a magazine. Use flashes, videos in your site only when it required most. So by reducing the unnecessary flashes, videos you can make your site more user and search engine friendly. NavigationSuppose you click on the one hyperlink and get stuck in the page where you don't know how to go back to the previous or home page - means you make your visitors very angry. Your web site must have a constant navigation bar that has fixed position on every page of your site. Make sure each page of your site have good number of links to other pages. Your navigation should be short and to the point. Avoid too flashy, fancy, dark color navigation buttons or complex navigation menus, that don't work smoothly. Meaningless, Useless Page titlesThis is the most common mistake by a lot of web designers. Either page has no titles or useless titles like 'welcome to mycompany name'. Some careless designers even leave the page untitled, which is really unprofessional. Moreover you will see the same page title for all the pages of your site. These type of page titles are useless and for both the visitors and search engines. Page titles are meant to offer a brief description of each page in your site. Your page title must have major keywords of your business, if you plan to look at improving your website search engine ranking. Browser Support In the early days, there were just 2 popular browsers, but now, there are at least half a dozen of them - and each will render your webpage differently to your audience. And in the case of Internet Explorer, itself, there are 3 different versions, and all 3 of them display pages in different ways. While designing ensure that your web site is compatible to at least the most popular of browsers. Many web designers do not check site compatibility with major browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari etc. The best way to check the compatibility of the site is to check it with Lynx, the popular text- base browser in Linux. After checking the site compatibility with Linux, you can work on your way in other web browsers. URL Structures & Site MapBasically there are the two types of URLs- Dynamic and Static URL's. Dynamic urls are generated as a result of a search of a database driven website and sometimes looks like http://www. yoursite name. com/product/productid= 2345&sort=date. This is very confusing both for users as well as for search engines. Make sure that the urls of the pages of your site must be static, which looks like this http://www. yoursite name/products/shoes. html. Static URLs are helpful for both users as well as search engines. Also make sure that your site has a sitemap. Sitemap's serve as navigational maps for both visitors and search engines. Obviously you have to generate 2 kinds of maps for each of them. A website that has many inner pages can create confuse your visitors, and a sitemap can get him to the page of his choice. Similarly sitemaps will help search engines to find as many pages as possible, and also help in tracking those pages that have frequent updates and changes. Outdated PagesAs we saw in the beginning when we discussed about having relevant content in your website, it also means that content has to be refreshed and outdated content removed or archived on a periodic basis. Web sites which offer current news, events and updates cannot afford to put stale news and outdated information, as it makes your audience a bit wary about your company and brand. Make sure all the sections of your site are updated time to time, giving your website visitors and search engines something to chew on every time they visit. Being over-creativeThere are some web sites which show lots of flashes, dark backgrounds, background music and sound while opening the pages of the site. Besides the owner of the site, these sites are hard to understand for visitors. Being over creative in web designing is same as being over smart. Try to make your web site as simple as you can. These are some of useful web designing tips which every site owner can follow and hope to achieve his goals and web objectives. Current Mood: exanimate (Comment on this)
4:18 am	Top 10 Professional Features Required In Beautiful Website Design Web Design Brisbane A website is a way to impress a potential customer and that is why you need to have a smart looking website to promote your business. The biggest setback of internet marketing is that there is no possibility of communicating with a potential. Brisbane Website Design Nevertheless with internet marketing this opportunity is converted into marketing with words. Not only this, a good website should have the right mix of correct words with an attractively designed website. In continuation there are a few basic fundamentals that need to be understood. In fact there are some vital professional features that are required to be present in a website. To begin with a website should have the right text. This text should contain an introduction to your company, products and services. It should be crisp and coherent to give a good idea of your business to the visitors. The color scheme of a website is the next thing to be discussed which should go with the concept of the products and services. It should not be hurting the eyes and should be neat in appearance. Web Design Brisbane Another professional feature that is associated with this are the graphics. Graphics should be designed in concurrence with all the above mentioned elements. Then a website should be user friendly. So if the idea is to attract more traffic then the navigation has to be easy. The navigating buttons should be easy to operate which should provide potentials with clues as to how to navigate and where to go. In addition the latest the thing that is a must have are a link to popular social networking websites like Twitter and Face book. This helps in generating new leads as well. A beautiful web design should have a huge logo of the company which should stand out. It should be eye catchy as it establishes the brand. Then there should be underlined links to make the visitor comprehend where to go and how to move around on the website. Then an RSS feed and an email to a friend keys should also be there on a beautiful website. Again one of the most important professional features of a beautiful website design is its being SEO friendly. This is a significant attribute of a website which is designed mainly to rank in the top searches of search engines. It is to be mentioned here that the site should have latest antivirus, an authorization to a secured mode of payment, updated technology and quickly downloadable information. Above all the budget factor should not be exceeded. However becoming tight fisted may not help and overspending may upset the entire the budget of a project. That is why entrepreneurs try their best to make it cost effective. web designwebsite design. Current Mood: scared (Comment on this)
4:01 am	New York Web Design Get An Excellent Website In Very Competitive Rates Having a website for your business is an important part of your business marketing strategy in todays marketplace. From finding restaurants, to purchasing books, clothing, shoes and even food, consumers are turning to the internet more and more as their number one resource for finding the best deals and the businesses that offer it. As a result, having a business web design has become an essential asset to businesses and their virtual calling card. Before you consider your options, it may be helpful to create an outline to present to potential new york web design companies, so that they will have a clearer idea of what type of site you are seeking and what your particular needs or goals are. A good new york web design company will be able to explain why it's beneficial for you to begin your SEO campaign as your website is designed. Selection of keywords is vitally important when your designer is building your web site. Keywords and phrases have several aspects that bring you success. It's important that your keywords include a word that people actually search for, and when you are selecting the best keywords to bring traffic to your site, you can be assisted by your ny website design company. Web design and development has evolved in a significant manner and most New York Web Design companies have followed these developments quite closely. The reasons behind their ever increasing popularity are their zeal to provide the best designs according to client requirements and use of latest technologies that not only offer better services but are also extremely cost effective. These companies employ the best professionals in the field, which is why New York is increasingly becoming the hub of NY website Design professionals from across the globe. Moreover their services come at an affordable price and they cater to the needs of international clients with as much efficiency as the local customers. New York Web Design industry is a very competitive market and whether you are a solo business owner or a fortune 500 company, you will find a local web design company to suit your budget and your specifications as well as your comfort level and vision Brisbane Website Design. It is important to have a plan of what you want your website to be when approaching these companies. It will make your selecting the right web design company to work with a lot easier, and it will help you to get a quote and turnaround time based on the services you require and the functionality of your website. At Flying Cow Design, they offer a full array of NY website design, web site programming and new york web design. With an award-winning staff of professional web designers, they can assist you with everything from your logo design to your custom website design and development, including flash design, newsletters, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Ecommerce website design and more. Current Mood: horny (Comment on this)
3:47 am	Front Yard Design Ideas - 8 Easy Ideas To Revive Dull Curb Appeal Restoring curb appeal to a run down front yard landscape can often be more of a challenge than installing an entirely new landscape. Not being able to see past the existing design can blind us to the possibilities of what our yard can become. One thing that is helpful with this is to be clear from the very beginning about your budget and whether this is to be a simple clean up, a partial landscape, or an entirely new front yard landscape. And regardless if you don't want to do a full scale landscape, the end result is still a matter of following the same principles of designing a new front yard. Necessary entryways, access, and parking areas should already be provided in an existing landscape. Web Design Brisbane If not, design them in if they are a necessary addition. Then you can focus the rest of the design, plants, and plating beds around them. In restoring an existing front yard, assessment of the problem areas is always the first step. Use your camera to get a better perspective on this. Take a few pictures of the landscaping and entryway from different angles. From this you should see a whole different picture of what your yard really looks like. Make note of it and what you want to change. Make note of things like chipped and cracked concrete, overgrown weeds, dead lawn, dead plants, etc. Does your front entryway look tired and neglected Look at all the details. A poor landscape is usually a combination of many different elements combined. Remove any dead or unwanted shrubs. You can always replace them with the same or similar types. However, for a fresher look in new and old landscapes, try using other intrersting textures like ornamental grasses in place of shrubs and hedges. Not only do they provide a new texture and shape, they also add motion and winter interest to the landscaping. Use them in the same spots as singular or in groups. Prune trees and tall healthy shrubs to restore their beauty. Often unnoticed, these are allowed to grow unchecked and make the yard look uncared for. Add a little color, interest, and a whole new dimension by placing some large planting containers and pots on the sides of your front steps or on either side of your walkway. Fill these with a combination of trailing vines, ornamental grasses, and colorful flowers. This will brighten your entryway as well as make it look more inviting and welcoming. Planters are also great for using plants from different climates and seasons and being able to move them inside for the Winter. When you add flowers and plants to your yard or front entry, keep in mind that less is sometimes more. Don't try to add every color of the rainbow but focus on a simple color scheme. Pick two or three colors as well as a few evergreen varieties and repeat them throughout the landscaping. We're only trying to clean up and create a framework to begin with. We can add more later if needed. This will help create unity and retain some of the existing balance until then. Edging any walkways, driveways, and sidewalks will do wonders for making the entire yard look sharp and clean. Brisbane Web Design For now you don't even need fill everything with plants. A layer of protective mulch along the edges instead of flowers or shrubs can look really great. Make sure that any existing sidewalks, driveways, and steps are clean and in good shape. These areas are totally visible so fix any stains or cracks. Severely cracked concrete, brick, or stone sidewalks should either be repaired to good shape or replaced. If your yard and entryway are too straight, hard, formal, and boring, soften the look by adding some curved flower beds. An island bed is also a great addition to add interest and shape to a front yard lawn area. Some beds can be used to line and highlight the front entryway helping it to flow from the street or driveway to the front door. For some night time interest and safety, consider adding electric or lighting to the landscape. You can install low voltage lights yourself or let a professional contractor do the job. Not only do they provide a safety factor, but they also create a sense of elegance on the home at night. And one more thing that is so often overlooked. Don't forget the home itself. No matter how beautiful the landscaping is, no one will even see it if the home is in bad shape and in need of repairs. New paint if needed, repairing roof and siding, washing windows, hanging gutters, and repairing anything else that needs it will do so much for the home as well as help the curb appeal of the front yard landscaping. Article by Steve Boulden. Steve is a professional landscape designer, consultant, and creator of The Landscape Design Site. com . For more front yard landscaping ideas , visit his site at http://the-landscape-design-site. com/blog/2010/07/front-yard-landscaping-ideas/ . Current Mood: thankful (Comment on this)
3:30 am	Examples of Bad Web Site Graphic Design There are two major problems inherent in most graphic design for the Internet Brisbane Web Design. One of is 'too much' and the other is 'no connection'. Designers tend to put 'too much' emphasis on the graphic elements which can take away from the actual site content, and they tend to have images and graphics which don't really connect to their website's purpose or theme. Remember that there is no magic formula for a successful website or even for good graphic design. This article is designed to clarify and answer the questions a potential audience will ask themselves when looking at your graphic design. There are VERY successful websites that use the "bad" techniques labeled here, but generally and for a large number of websites it will be to their great benefit to at least consider the following critique of graphic design for the Internet. Too many designers put the visual elements above the actual content of site. For most purposes this is a bad design trait. Although it's repeated over and over again, it can result in frustrated customers and more important a lot lower percentage of people who actually read your site. Although graphics and visual elements are important, the core to any website is its content or information it wishes to extend to its audience. On most websites this comes in the form of text with hyperlinks to other areas of interest. This is slowly changing as more dynamic content becomes more popular online as broad band and high speed internet access change the way we surf. There are two major problems inherent in most graphic design for the Internet. One of is 'too much' and the other is 'no connection'. Designers tend to put 'too much' emphasis on the graphic elements which can take away from the actual site content, and they tend to have images and graphics which don't really connect to their website's purpose or theme. Remember that there is no magic formula for a successful website or even for good graphic design. This article is designed to clarify and answer the questions a potential audience will ask themselves when looking at your graphic design. There are VERY successful websites that use the "bad" techniques labeled here, but generally and for a large number of websites it will be to their great benefit to at least consider the following critique of graphic design for the Internet. Too many designers put the visual elements above the actual content of site. For most purposes this is a bad design trait. Although it's repeated over and over again, it can result in frustrated customers and more important a lot lower percentage of people who actually read your site. Although graphics and visual elements are important, the core to any website is its content or information it wishes to extend to its audience. On most websites this comes in the form of text with hyperlinks to other areas of interest. This is slowly changing as more dynamic content becomes more popular online as broad band and high speed internet access change the way we surf. In the future the main content might come from a mix of audio, video, and slideshow formats, but for now it's mainly simple text. So your audience has to read those tiny black characters. Overly complex or continued animation, harsh contrasting edges and color combinations can give too much to the graphic elements and make actually reading your pages difficult. If you're over using the graphics, your audience will read a lot less and that means they'll take away a lot less of the information. Some major signs that a graphic designer is of the "too much" camp include: Little text boxes with scroll bars: Don't you hate that Nobody likes text all scrunched up in a little box like that. It's hard to read and involves lots of scrolling, so why do it Overly busy backgrounds: keep it simple or at least a lower contrast so you spare you audiences' eyes and allow them to focus on the content of your site. LONG animated intros or animation sequences: Remember attention span, attention span attention span. Online surfers do not have the attention span to wait for a long overly done intro or animation. The second major shortcoming that most graphic design for the Internet is the lack of cohesion or a clear connection of the graphic elements to the purpose of the website. The web is absolutely stuffed with sites that you can't even tell what they do or are about by their first page. The images, logos, and visual design does not connect to the company's theme or purpose. Your online audience has a VERY limited attention span. They may have stumbled onto your site on accident. This isn't TV, on most sites there is no audio directing your visitors as to what they're seeing. People aren't necessarily going to read the text of your website just because a girl in a bikini is on it. You also see this concept in sites that are too simple. Simplicity is good, but when taken to the extreme, it can make it very difficult to figure out the sites purpose and extract the basic information that your audience needs, before they commit to reading through large areas of text. Some major signs that a graphic designer is of the "lack of cohesion" camp include: Lots of different style graphics: If a website seems to jump time periods, color schemes, and image themes that is not a good sign. LARGE text areas without any graphics: The web is about a mixing of graphic, text, and other elements. Too much text and it becomes difficult to gather meaning quickly. Hard to see connection to product/service: Logo, tagline, and text on beginning pages do not describe what the website is actually about. The graphic design should key people in both emotionally and intellectually to the purpose of the website. Current Mood: nostalgic (Comment on this)