While you're here, sign up for our FREE e-newsletter...

"The BizWeb E-Gazette"
 

Cybermarketing tips, articles & biz classifieds in each weekly issue...

Subscribe

Net profits not quite what you expected?

Get the book...

It's packed with real internet marketing strategies that actually work!

Web Design Mistakes
By Jim Daniels

"Small Business Webmasters - Curb Your Creativity!"

With literally hundreds of do-it-yourself web design programs on store shelves these days, many small businesses have decided to take on webmastering.

Is this a good idea?

YES! It's a GREAT idea. Not only can you save big bucks, you can make site changes as often as you like and keep your content fresh. For do-it-yourselfers, these changes cost nothing to implement, except time.

But there is a down side. :-(

There are far too many webmasters that get carried away with their creativity. Take a little time to surf the web and you'll see exactly what I mean.

If you're going to rely on your web site to produce an income, there are many things you can do to help make it profitable. The fact is however, the things you don't do will have even more impact!

Below you'll find the top mistakes that these new "small business webmasters" are making, so YOU can avoid them. Remember, if you're designing your site for fun, then the sky's the limit as far as crativity goes. However, if it's going on the web to produce income, you need to curb your creativity...


1. MUSIC

Has this ever happened to you?

You're surfing the web and you follow a link to a site that looks interesting. Just as you cruise into the home page, - BLAST!! - your speakers start blaring the theme to Godfather II! What is your natural reaction?

Well if you're like me, it's much easier to hit that "back" button on your browser than it is to fumble around looking for the volume control on your speaker, right?

After all, when you set out on your surfin' safari, you were looking for information. If you wanted to listen to "movie theme songs" or "hits from the 70's" you would have rifled through your album collection and fired up your turntable!

So why is it that webmasters with otherwise useful web sites feel the need to play their favorite tunes for their web site visitors? Who knows, I guess it's fun for them. But the bottom line is, they're pushing more people away than they realize.

Remember the internet marketing basics: If you're selling something, you need people to stick around. After all, getting visitors takes work, why risk losing them before they get a chance to check out your wares!

Now don't get me wrong, strategic use of some choice midi or wav files can spice up your web site. The key is to give your visitors a choice of whether they want your sounds or not. Don't force your audio on them. If you're interested in adding sound to your site, here's a place for tips and some great sound files:

Wav Central
http://www.wavcentral.com
Mega source for all the best sounds on the net.


2. FRAMES

If you’re considering using frames when designing your site, don't.

Frames divide web page content into sections, and look really cool. But the fact is, they load slowly and many older browsers simply cannot handle frames.

As more people utilize current browsers, this won’t be an issue. Once again, when you're designing a site with the intention of selling something, you need all the visitors you can get. Marketing will forever be a numbers game.

Perhaps you're thinking, "Then why do all the "Big Sites" use frames?"

Well, first off, all the big sites don't use frames. Have you been to Microsoft's site lately? They know a little about marketing. No Frames.

And besides, a lot of the sites that do use frames offer a "no frames" version of the site at their entry page. If you must use frames, be sure to offer a no frames version!


3. GRAPHICS

"What? Now you're telling me I should have a site without graphics?"

No, that's not what I'm suggesting.

What I AM suggesting is that you don't get carried away with your graphics. Keep your graphics to a bare minimum.

Graphics take time to load. People surfing the web are an impatient lot. They typically won't wait for images to load if it involves more than 15 seconds.

If you must use lots of graphics, make sure they are all related and appropriate.

4. UNPROFESSIONAL SITE

Too many sites from new webmasters look like, well... sites from new webmasters.

Rather than build your site from scratch, you may find it much easer to start all your sites with a template. A template is a pre-designed site you can use as your own, and it will be much more professional that what you can do as a new webmaster.

Here is a template site offering the best quality and variety of templates I've seen to date. And there are designs for just about any kind of business. This site is just another example of the rising quality of website templates available today.

Actually, I loved Joann's templates so much I purchased master licenses to these outstanding designs so my Make A Living Online members can download them at no cost. (Members just log into the companion site and look for the link on the main page.) These templates offer the fastest path I know to having your own top-notch professional website. (If you're not a member of my Make A Living Online site, get details and join today and you'll still qualify for those $100's worth of templates!)


So there you have it. The top mistakes by the growing army of small business webmasters. Have you visited YOUR site lately? Has your creativity been driving your prospects to the competition? You might want to take another look.


Back to Free Help Index

Internet Marketing - who's behind this site? - how I quit my 9-5 - free newsletter - website promotion - email marketing manual - free help - unique autoresponders -  revealing articles - 1 on 1 marketing help - bulletin board - search engine positioning - new software - advertising - bizop review - grab your domain - web hosting - website builder - e-book creation services - design services