Web Designing Tips

Easy That’s how you’d like life to be, right? Especially when you’re creating a website on your own. But that doesn’t mean you want the site to look severe and just functional. you want it to be pretty , smart and also respond and move when you interact with it, while saying all that you want to say to its visitors . There are little tips and Features incorporated into software just for people like you.

Love what Flash can do but don’t know how to use it ? Macromedia thought of you and built a feature into Dream weaver that lets you create cool animated Flash buttons just by entering parameters. Want to have button respond to a mouse-over but have no idea or patience to create one with graphics software? You can make a quick and easy mouse-over button right from within FrontPage. What do you do if you need to optimize 150 images within an hour? No need to panic, image ready can help you out with a little droplet. Check out the different tips that make life easier or better for you as a Web designer.

• Animated Flash Button & Macromedia Dream weaver:

Dream weaver lets you create some custom vector graphics from within the software. You can make Flash and embed them into your Web pages. There are different kinds of style that you can choose for these from the available set-play back type of buttons .Arrow shaped button, shopping cart button And so on, or make some of your own.

Making a smart interactive button is simple in Dream weaver, select insert-interactive Image-Flash Button. Form the window that opens select different button style by looking at the preview image below. Customize the button the way you want it by adding the name of the button, the Font color and font size , then specify the URL that the button has to link to . The button is saved with SWF extension you can preview the button in your browser to see if it looks the way you want.

• Easy Mouse-Over Buttons :

Mouse-over and Front Page? Oh Yes. The software has quit a few convenient features up its sleeve, one of which is “Hover buttons.” Granted, these buttons don’t have snazzy graphics they look like typical button blocks, but they react to mouse-over and you can archive it very simply. Here’s how.

Select Insert –Web component. in the window that opens , select Dynamic Effect in the component type and select the Hover Button effect on the right . Type in the text that should appear on the button, choose a font for the text, specify the URL to link to on clicking, and select the size and color of the button. In the drop-down menu for Effect, Glow is the default selection. Try it – you can select the color of the glow-check the button in preview mode-the button light up when you move your mouse over it. There are several other effects available that are worth checking out, especially the bevels quite neat!

• Cool Effects With DHTML :

DHTML or Dynamic HTML offers some cool effects that could make your Web pages stand out click? Or your page to load with a transition Effect? DHTML will do this for you along with other little tricks. After you’ve built your Web page, from the menu bar, select Format-Dynamic HTML Effect. A tool bar appears in the work area. Choose an event from the first drop down list. This could be on ‘click’ double-click.’ Mouse over or page load. Depending on the event selected here, the next Drop-Down list offers the possible effect that can be achieved , This could be a change in the color and style of the font if it is text, a border added around it , or in case of an image , you can replace the image with another one by a swap .

Most of the effect toggle Meaning if there was a font change on click, another click will change the font back to what it was before. However, some effects are one-time like the disappearing act of an image or button .you select ‘fly out’ from the effects list for this . On ‘page load’ you could have the selected text drop in word by word, or hop in, spiral in, zoom out, and so on. This is especially useful for advertisements or parts of the page that you want to draw the user’s attention to.

• Animation In Reverse :

You’ve made an animation using image Ready-may be a tween of position, opacity or effects or a manually placed and manipulated animation backwards? No need to re-tween or manually place the frames backwards; simply click on the little arrow in the animated palette and select Reverse Frames. You can also create a rubber band effect by copying the forward sequence (small arrow > copy Frames), pasting it at the end of sequence (small arrow > Paste Frames > ‘Paste after selection ‘) and then, by selecting the newly pasted sequence and applying Reverse Frames on this.

• All It Takes Is A Droplet :

Want to optimize several images with the same settings? Create a “droplet “and save time.

Open the optimize palette in Image Ready with your image open. Set the optimization to what you want-file type (JPG, GIF or PNG), quality (low, medium, high), lousiness, dither and so on while previewing the result in the “optimized” tab of the main in the Optimize palette. This creates what is called a “droplet” that contains your optimization settings. Save this droplet anywhere you want, say on your desktop.

Now drag the folder containing the images to be optimized onto this droplet. All the images in the folder will get optimized the way you specified. This may take a while depending on the number and size of the images in the folder. You can also drop images one at a time onto the droplet.

• Precise Hot Spots :

Want to link different parts of an image to various URLs? You can do this by slicing the image and assigning links to the relevant slices, but the disadvantage of this is the lack of precision: slice is necessarily rectangular. Also, slices are pieces of the image.

Say you’re working on a Web page for children about the different parts of ancient castles. You would like the parts-dungeons; moat, guard towers, and so on-to have precise rollovers and links so that the information is conveyed correctly. Rather than slices such an images and allot links, use image maps, select the polygon Image Map tool in Image Ready and outline the part you want to talk about precisely . Even circular image maps work fairly well in some areas. You can adjust points of the map edge after finishing the shape, too .in the image map palette, you can specify the URL to link to along with ALT text. To preview your work, save Optimized as a HTML file and check it in a browser.

• Optimize Your Web Graphics Easily :

Despite the cable Internet connections and high-speed modems, Web graphics are still limited speed-wise. The sites that load fastest and work most efficient have well-optimized graphics .GIF images are generally good for line drawings and illustrations while JPG ones are best suited for photographs. Besides file format, there are various factor that affect the optimized image like the ‘lousiness’-the amount of data in the image that you’re willing to sacrifice for smaller file size-the number of colors you need minimum, whether you can have dithering or not, so on .

In Photoshop, to try out different optimization settings, click Save for Web . A window opens up showing the current image along with various options and menus on the right . in the image window itself, you can see two tabs: 2-up tab to see two versions-the original and the optimized-for comparison along with time needed to load the image according to various modem speeds . The 4-upshows you 3 versions against the original. These previews are useful and convenient, rather than having to manually save the image repeatedly in different ways and comparing each of them.

• Making A Banner Ad:

We’re all familiar with banner ads that we see all over the Web: a strip with an image and text that changes into another and another conveying some information. Clicking on this ad takes you to the site that the company is advertising for. You don’t have to use GIF Builder or any other graphics software to animate such an ad. You can make it easily using Front Page. Select Insert-Web component-banner ad manger. In the window that opens, specify the size of the ad, the transition effect, the number of seconds to display each image, the URL to link the ad to and add the images you’ve prepared. That’s it.

This feature could also be used you want to share a few photographs coiled also be used when you want to share a few photographs or images but don’t want the images to be save-able on the cline’s side; right-click will not work on these images. Although the images may be found in the cache, at least they won’t be able to be copied directly.

Important Website Design Points For Small Businesses

Intended Audience: Small Business Owners/webmasters and anyone new to the world of web design and search engine optimization (SEO) particularly those working with small businesses, organizations and sole traders.

Home Page Navigation Tab

During the construction of some recent websites our clients have asked us why we don't call the first navigation tab on their website the "home" page. We thought it would be worth providing an explanation for this:

When indexing a website Google looks at a website's navigation links to figure out what a particular page is about i.e. establish a theme for that web page. On most websites the first link on the index page (aka home page) is usually a link (tab) called "home". As the 1st link is also considered (by Google etc.) to be the most important link on your website you are actually informing Google that this page is about "home". Unless you are selling houses this is unlikely to be the case!

The best alternative is to name your home page after your primary keyword or key-phrase as shown below:

Original Navigation Links

Home | Products | Services | About Us | Contact Us

Revised Navigation Links

Interior Design | Products | Services | About Us | Contact Us

If it's not possible to use a keyword or key-phrase then consider using your company name but avoid using the word "home".

Link Source Ordering

As outlined above care should be given to the allocation of the first link on your website's home page. You should also be vigilant to ensure that no links appear above navigation structure or those links will take precedent when search engines like Google index your website. Sometimes links are added to a logo header which sits above the navigation structure on a website page layout and these types of links will cause problems with your search engine ranking and should be avoided.

As well as deciding on a suitable name for the first link in your website's navigation structure you need to order the links in your navigation structure in order of importance. If using horizontal navigation then the priority should be top to bottom while vertical navigation should be ordered left to right in order of importance.

When we use the term importance we mean which web pages you want to rank highest in terms search engine results pages. Pages such as Terms and Conditions are important but they don't need to found using search engines so they can appear at the bottom of a navigation structure.

Eoin Redmond is an authority in the area of Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing for small businesses works for Istech Technology Services in Kilkenny, Ireland.

Istech Technology Services Ltd
Leading Website Developer and SEO Specialists
00 353 86 154 1049
Web: Website Design Kilkenny by Istech
Blog: Istech's Website Design Blog

Short Load Times and Good Web Design

We have all been there, sat at our computer waiting for the page to load, then waiting some more, then waiting a bit longer. Sometimes we stick around, other times, because of our impatience we hit the back button and find another web site at which to look at or buy something from. Loading times today are as important as at any other time in the fast. However web site designers and developers seem to pay less attention these days assuming that everyone has super fast connections and the hosting server can deliver everything at super fast speed.

This is where good practice in website design comes in and that every page, together with all its assets, such as images, style sheets, JavaScript files and the like, are aggregated in size and the amount of time to download estimated for a variety of connection speeds.

The knowledgeable, professional and astute web designer will use certain methods to reduce this time as much as possible, and often without noticeable changes in the quality of the site to the end website user. By placing formatting in external Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) much repetition can be avoided. This works for two reasons. The first is that the CSS will only be downloaded once per visit and secondly all the formatting that would be repeated in page after page of html is removed from the equation. Likewise by including all Javascript (JS) in an external .js file, this is only downloaded once regardless of how many pages on the site are accessed.

Another technique used by web designers is to ensure that the compression of images is adequate. Unless you have a website showcasing something such as photography most images can be heavily compressed. For some images people can't tell the difference between those at 60% quality and those at 80%. For this you need to experiment to ensure that you get the right compression and remember that every image is different. Luckily many professional level image editors (e.g. Photoshop) allow you to preview images at different compressions alongside each other so you can make a selection based on appearance rather than guessing at a percentage to use.

If you follow these simple guidelines then you should be able to reduce the download time for your pages and hopefully provide rapid access to your site and prevent users navigating away through frustration.

Established in 2002, Switchplane Ltd is a Eastbourne Web Design company operating in the South East of the UK. Switchplane are capable of undertaking web based projects using a variety of technologies.

Short Load Times and Good Web Design

We have all been there, sat at our computer waiting for the page to load, then waiting some more, then waiting a bit longer. Sometimes we stick around, other times, because of our impatience we hit the back button and find another web site at which to look at or buy something from. Loading times today are as important as at any other time in the fast. However web site designers and developers seem to pay less attention these days assuming that everyone has super fast connections and the hosting server can deliver everything at super fast speed.

This is where good practice in website design comes in and that every page, together with all its assets, such as images, style sheets, JavaScript files and the like, are aggregated in size and the amount of time to download estimated for a variety of connection speeds.

The knowledgeable, professional and astute web designer will use certain methods to reduce this time as much as possible, and often without noticeable changes in the quality of the site to the end website user. By placing formatting in external Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) much repetition can be avoided. This works for two reasons. The first is that the CSS will only be downloaded once per visit and secondly all the formatting that would be repeated in page after page of html is removed from the equation. Likewise by including all Javascript (JS) in an external .js file, this is only downloaded once regardless of how many pages on the site are accessed.

Another technique used by web designers is to ensure that the compression of images is adequate. Unless you have a website showcasing something such as photography most images can be heavily compressed. For some images people can't tell the difference between those at 60% quality and those at 80%. For this you need to experiment to ensure that you get the right compression and remember that every image is different. Luckily many professional level image editors (e.g. Photoshop) allow you to preview images at different compressions alongside each other so you can make a selection based on appearance rather than guessing at a percentage to use.

If you follow these simple guidelines then you should be able to reduce the download time for your pages and hopefully provide rapid access to your site and prevent users navigating away through frustration.

Established in 2002, Switchplane Ltd is a Eastbourne Web Design company operating in the South East of the UK. Switchplane are capable of undertaking web based projects using a variety of technologies.

Web Design Day Rates Explained in Plain English

First Things First

If you are an employee it's easy to get confused about consultant or freelance rates. The thing to remember is freelancers can only charge for the time they are actively working for a client. However, they are not necessarily active for a client for 40 hours a week, 52 weeks of the year. Therefore their rates have to take into account all the time they are not billing a client and their running costs. It's all explained below.

Why Have Freelancers and Consultants?

Freelancers play a vital role in the economy. Without freelancers companies would have to hire and train all their own staff. Can you imagine hiring a member of staff to carry out a specific specialised task that only needs doing once or twice a year?

How Day Rates Work

Companies providing services in many industries such as web design, SEO, engineering etc base their charges on day rates. These can be the source of confusion or contention for the companies who need to hire firms using day rates as the headline rate can seem high.

Often, when evaluating rates, people will take the headline day rate, multiply it by 261 (the number of weekdays in a year) and assume they are being ripped off. For example, a day rate of £325.00 is made to look like a salary of - 261 x £325 = £85k! Nice money if you can get it.

In fact this is a nonsense. In simple terms day rates are calculated thus.

Number of weekdays in a year = 261

Less - 25 Holidays

Less - 8 Bank Holidays

Less - 5 days allowance for being ill

Less - 24 days of non billable time

Less - 10 days for marketing and business development

Total - 72 days

Total billable working days in a year = 261 - 72 = 189 Days

Now the per person costs for running the business

£500 - advertising

£500 - Hardware and Software

£1000 - Servers etc

£100 - Affiliation costs (professional bodies etc)

£2000 - Client visits etc

£150 - Insurances etc

£500 - Accountancy fees etc

£2000 - Phone/Office etc

Total = £6750.00

This equates to a daily overhead of £35.71 (overhead divided by billable days)

Now the required salary including Employers NIC etc

A well qualified and experienced consultant salary = £40k (£44475.52 with NIC etc)

This gives a day rate of £235.32 (salary divided by billable days)

Next comes profit and 20% is an accepted level of profit = £54.21

Now add it all up - £35.71 + £235.32 + £54.21 = £325.24

So the day rate of £325 gives the consultant a salary of £40k and the company a profit of £10k, not what you might call earth shattering and this assumes the company don't get thrown a curve ball.

David A Robinson - Red Evolution (Aberdeen) Ltd Specialist advice on all aspects of Web Design

Web Design Software Helps You in Mastering Web Designing

Diverse pieces of web design software using visual techniques let almost anyone of you to profitably build a web presence. Even now, other more complicated web design software let the less qualified web builder to put together a functional website with remarkable appearance.

The use of the software makes it possible for the people who have some degree of comprehension of web construction to put together a quality site. Existing sites from which web page templates can be found and used free of charge or for a small fee are also vacant nowadays. The users will be permitted by the company to import their designs into their own software as well as formulate changes to meet their needs.

Because of the comfortable use offered in home computer, people can purchase the software similar with the software used by the experts. Plug-ins for Flash as well as other design languages can be gotten in a relatively cheap price, already with instructions on how to use them to add audio as well as video files to their websites. One Way that Allows Newbie Entering the Market

Web design software is still desired by many small companies in building their own functional website at their leisure, uploading it to their domain name only when they are happy with the results. However, companies with a more urgent need to create a web presence may still choose a professional builder to get them started. Web design software will be used when they need to make some vital changes.

If you belong to the group of web masters, or those skilled web designers who also help maintain the site, you will be likely to use higher quality software to establish sites for others. Your web design software is typically more complex and more costly than the software used by those private individuals for one-time use.

Despite that fact, many unskilled web builders are now entering this otherwise specialty field without the need for widespread training in the field of website languages, especially with the availability of expert design software.

WebDesignerCode is a professional online consultant of web design and any other things related to websites, including web design software.

Homepage Tips For Web Design

Your home is the most important page on your website. This statement can be true or false. But one thing that is true is that you home page is probably the most viewed webpage on your site. It can either grab your visitor's attention or scare them away. Also note if your homepage is great and your other pages have problems, then you site will still fail. Your homepage should be your doorway to your content. It is good to put some extra time and attention to the front page, but remember that your other pages need their own attention.

Home isn't the Most Important

Website designers put more time into the homepage than any other webpage on the site. And why shouldn't they? This is the most unique page of a website and also your most popular. The homepage should summarize all your content and information and that lead your visitors to your other pages. It is as important for a visitor to know what your website is about as soon as they view it. You have about 3 seconds to capture your audience.

Content is just as Important

Giving visitors the impression of what your site is about is a good start. The second phase is giving them a reason to stay. What can your website offer them? Content, information services, products or entertainment. You only have a couple of seconds to answer these questions. Visitors will stay longer and come back regularly if you have something to offer. Quality content is the key. The better content you have the more traffic you will receive. Remember Google rewards quality content.

Homepage Tips - Simple, Easy and Clean Design

Having a simple and clean web design can slow them down. Have your navigation either at the top or at the left side. These are the most common places in web development and surfers have gotten use to having them there. Have common font through your whole site and a font size that is big enough to read. Watch the colors you have for your background and text color. These small easy fixes could slow down your web surfers to stay and see what you have to offer. If some of these simple tips are not addressed, you could be losing potential customers.

Try to Keep things Updated

Ok, you have traffic coming in and they are staying, Congratulations! Now some of your visitors are coming back to see what else you got. It is important to have up to date content. Try to add more and more content and information. Keeping your homepage your aggregation point, but give them something new. If you have an ecommerce website, give them banners, special deals or product pictures. If you have news, keep them posted on what is going on recently. People are only looking for things that are relative to today's society.

These Homepage Tips are just a Start

Doing some of these techniques for your pages could change the way your visitors react. The goal of your website is to have people visit and use what resources you have. As a designer, try to keep your mind in the state of a first timer web surfer finding your site. It is hard to do, but finding this could change the whole look of your website. Try to think were the user looks first, second and so on. Just keep it simple, clean and unique.

Read more articles and information for Web Development and Homepage Tips.

The Importance of First Impressions With Web Design

The look and feel to your website is crucial to its success. As a website owner you should take great care and consideration when it comes to web design. A poorly designed website will not produce the same results or have the same appeal as a professionally designed website.

First impressions are of great importance when it comes to your website. Visitors to your website will make numerous judgments concerning your company, products, and services based on the actual design of your website. If your website does not appear professional you are likely to lose business.

Many visitors to websites will compare the look and design of the website to the quality of the products and services that are offered. That is why you need to go to great lengths to assure that your web design is of the highest quality. Failure to do so could result in the ultimate failure of your website, and could also result in the loss of revenue for your website.

When considering web design you can easily hire a freelance web designer to carry out all of your design needs. Additionally, if you have any design experience on your own you can purchase a professional designed web template to implement your websites look and appeal. There is no reason why your website can't look professional, sleek, and ingenious in design. In fact, it is very affordable to obtain the look and style that will take your website to the next level and will produce more revenue and will please visitors the moment their eyes behold it.

Are you really interested in driving massive traffic to your website? Here's the answer:

Secret Article Weapon - Download your free ebook now.

Would you like to know more about the magical marketing techniques that have helped me to quit my day job? I have just completed my new ebook.

Secrets To Make Money Online - Download your free ebook now.

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.

Web Design and Your Business

Should You Design Your Website?

Although most don't realize it, there is more to designing a web page than it might at first seem. There are several sites you will see while internet surfing and that may tempt the creative side of you to design your own, but that is not necessarily the best route to go. Professional web designers use workarounds like, for example, a 3rd party web design kit or a site builder.

The answer is no because they have good enough knowledge in HTML and other web development languages which is needed to bring any mockup design to live. Making a website design mockup can be difficult already if you take the screen size compatibilities into the picture. Making the website friendly for all the browsers and optimized enough to load without stressing out the bandwidth can be other hurdles to deal with.

Now that you are familiar with some of the pro's and con's of whether to do it yourself or not, you can understand why it's better to go the professional route since they have the better knowledge and skills to design your website from the bottom up.

By going with a web designer to create your website, you will probably get more than you expected and that is especially true if you choose a company that does good quality work. You need to tell them exactly what you require on the website and they will do their best, and sometimes more, than you expected.

By hiring an expert to do what they are best at, you are then free to do other important tasks like marketing or adding articles to the content of the website. While the professionals are busy on the design it leaves you more stress free time to get other things done, without the stress of designing. This is a good reason for hiring a professional.

Having a visually appealing website is important, but so is user friendliness in regards to navigation. The website also has to stay with a chosen theme that is relevant to the content. It is best if the website is also modern and contains Web 2.0 elements. In order to get all this done you will have to work together with your web designer and do a lot of brainstorming, therefore the professional hired should be willing to do this to ensure the quality.

Once done, you will be able to enjoy a wonderfully designed and functional website that only cost you some money to have. After everything is setup you can then continue adding some ads to your new site that will quickly earn the money back that you paid the web designer. Not only that but you will save time maintaining your new site and a real professional will even offer free maintenance for a short time afterward.

Choosing a professional web designer to create your website is a good idea and you will be sure of getting quality work in the shortest possible time. Just make sure you hire the right web designer and everything will go great.

If you are looking for web design Arlington, you should consider this site with details about web developer Arlington VA.

4 Things That Make A Web Site Great

First you need original content. Content is the heart beat of any exceptional Web site. The ability to take a common subject and give it some interest and originality is a rare talent,but necessary to keep visitors coming back. Add a dash of humor, be sure to update once or twice a month and look out, you're on your way.

Second you need, great graphics. If your graphics are properly used they can greatly enhance a web site and it's content. However, if you overuse or they take forever to load, you will drive visitors away before they even see the content. The irony here is that just about anyone can make decent graphics and expensive programs are not required.

Third, you need a good presentation. Good Web sites do not keep the user guessing. They make their purpose immediately evident and present an easy to follow navigation system. The content and graphics blend in perfectly with the presentation and following it is a simple matter. You will never find hyperbole or confusion caused by overuse of animated graphics,Java or anything else that will serve to mask the intent and content of the site. Most importantly, a great Web site is run by a competent and knowledgeable Webmaster. One who knows how to seamlessly move the visitors to each level of the site. A great Web site is not a side show, it's a simple (no-need-to-be flashy) library of content. It just does what it is supposed to do and leaves the hoopla behind.

Last, but not least your site needs to be both interactive and proactive. Good web sites are ones that are people conscience.While, yes, the Internet is the cutting edge of technology and
all that, remember it's just regular people, like you and I that are using it and will make it what it is in the future. The great web sites are the ones with the developers who not only
have all the techno skills, but the people skills to boot. Think about the sites you visit over and over. What keeps you coming back. Useful content. Yes. How about that feeling of
belonging. Like someone is actually having a one on one conversation with you. The ability to provide the opportunity to express and contribute is the mark of a superior web developer
and what makes a web site one of the great ones.

Copyright 2004 DeFiore Enterprises

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business? Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 19 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to our "how to" Home Business Solutions Digest, it's like having your own personal coach: subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com

Increase Your Sales With the Right Web Design Service

There are many benefits to using the right web design service. When you understand how they could help you, it will be easier for you to understand exactly what areas they can help you. Everyone can use help in improving their business, right? The benefits of using such a service are:

1. Stress free- Everyone hates to have to make deadlines and worry about the different design templates that will work or won't work with their websites. With designers, you don't have to worry about anything. From the web design down to the final touches, the designers have everything in order. In the critical economy, it is important to lower our amount of stress in our life.

2. Professional design- Each website comes with a professional design. This design will stand out among other websites and will give your business the touch of professionalism it needs. When you have a professional design on a website, you are going to attract a more diverse crowd to come to your business. Whether this is simply web design or web marketing, the professionalism of your site is very important to obtain the right amount of sales you want per month.

3. Fast and reliable- The service that you receive from a good web design is fast and reliable. When you choose to try the company's talented designers, you will get your design in a fast manner without the added cost. This is something not everyone is able to offer. Having a fast and reliable website is very important to the company.

With the proper company helping, you can get a wide variety of services. If your idea is not in the web design area, there are many others which can help you increase your sales.

When you have at least 5 or more products to try other than your web design, there are many benefits to the alleys you can explore.

With designers, there are many ways to increase your sales if you are willing to explore around the company. With a vast portfolio, you are able to see the work they have done and make that informed decision on your own.

With talented web designers, your web issues are in the hands of the company.

Cyndi Parker writes articles on various subjects including Web Design. Any online business depends on their webmaster for a total professional website. Find out how you can have A Professional Web Designer For Your Online Business at Kent's website which is at: http://www.sytecweb.co.uk.

7 Web Site Design Mistakes That Will Lose You Clients

In today's world, a web site is virtually mandatory for any successful business. But there are web sites that will win you customers, and there are web sites that will lose you customers. Good design has a lot to do with which category your web site will fall into. But what is it that makes good or bad web site design? In my personal opinion, a good web site is one that's simple, informative and gives me a reason to come back frequently. That's what you should get from a good web designer/writer team. Bad sites, on the other hand, are complicated to use, slow loading, confusing or just plain annoying. Here's a list of my personal top 7 turn-offs as far as web site design is concerned:

1. Slow loading pages

Studies have shown that you have less than ten seconds to grab a visitor's attention. If your web page hasn't finished loading within that (very short) amount of time, you might as well forget about it. The main culprit I've found here are huge, slow-loading graphics, especially when they are embedded in tables. If large images are absolutely vital to presenting your business, compromise by adding thumbnails to the main page and allow the visitor to click on them to access the main image. Nobody minds a longer loading time, as long as it's them who can make that choice.

2. No contact information

As I've already mentioned in my article "Do's and don'ts of web site copy", one of my pet peeves is a web site that has no contact information accessible form the main page. If I can't get in touch with a company quickly and easily, chances are that I'll go to the competition. My advice is to have a whole page dedicated to contact information - address, phone, fax, email, and preferably a map of where you can be found (remember item #1, though - no huge graphics!) And please, don't use a graphic to display that information in a particularly clever way. I like to copy and paste that information directly from the web page to my contact management program. If I can't do that, you'll likely never hear form me - and all other customers who do the same!

3. Difficult to navigate

Don't try to be clever with navigational features. Simple text links or, if you prefer, quick-loading graphics are perfectly good means of allowing a visitor to navigate your site. Anything that requires interactive navigation, like menus that expand into sub-menus, sub-sub-menus and so on, is more an indication of a wrong information architecture than of a true need for complicated navigational features.

4. Non-HTML features

Don't get me started on this one. I've got a firewall on my computer, and my browser is set to block all those little nasty things that can mess with my PC. As a result I come across many a site that won't display or function properly, because it relies on features like JavaScript, Cookies, Interactive Headers or Java Applets. None of these are necessary to build a good web site, and unless you want your web site to lose you potential customers, you shouldn't use them. Or, if you absolutely have to, make sure that they are not integral parts of the web site!

5. Huge splash page

Another pet peeve of mine. As mentioned earlier, you have less than ten seconds to get your message across. Now guess how many visitors are going to wait longer than that just to watch a fancy animation? 'Nuff said.

6. Pop-up ads

A huge turn-off as far as I'm concerned. As a matter of fact, I've got a pop-up blocker installed on my PC, so if your web site tried to tell me something important via a pop-up window, I'd never even see it. If you feel that you have to use pop-ups, consider going for the less intrusive (and annoying) pop-under windows instead.

7. Sideways scrolling

Not everybody has a monitor with the same screen resolution as you, so make sure that your web site displays on monitors with a lower resolution without forcing your visitor to scroll sideways. It's a singularly annoying thing, and chances are that you'll lose those visitors very quickly. Or, if you have information in a column on the right side of your web site, it may simply never appear on the screen.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need online copy that gets results? Frauke Nonnenmacher is a copywriter who specialises in clear, informative and persuasive web copy. For more information, please visit her web site at http://creativecats.sectorlink.org/tracking.pl?article3
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Basic Web Design Principles

Home Page

Home page should clearly indicate what the site is about. Provide top level navigation on the first page, your logo, and tell to the visitor what he can found on your web site. Your home page should be informative, and should call your visitor on action. Home page is the place where the visitor decides what he will do, click on some of your links, or leave the site. If you have a discount, or if you offer some free service in attempt to make a contact with potential customers, make sure to provide link to that service on your home page.

If you decide to implement flash intro on your first page, make sure to give the user possibility to skip the flash intro. The link “skip intro” should be outside of the flash, because you will force the visitor to wait until the Flash movie is loaded.

Navigation structure

Place the navigation on the place where the people are used too look for it. Don’t experiment with the navigation! I can’t stress enough this. Keep the navigation system same on ALL pages. Visitors are not ready to learn your site navigation system. Consistency is the most important thing here. You should focus your effort on building consistent rhythm across all pages of your site.

Font size

Your font size should be enough big so your text can be read without effort. There are many people who will not bother to read very small letters. Don’t loose your visitors because of font size. Optimal size seems to be 12-13 points. Visitors should be able to read your text easy, without any effort. Broke big chunks of texts in paragraphs and make them easy to follow.

Line Length

The length of a line of type should be comfortable to read. The optimal line length for printed materials seems to be about 10 to 12 words, or 60 to 70 characters. Somewhat shorter lines of about 40 to 50 characters may be more appropriate for larger displays. If the line is too long the reader must search for the beginning of it; if it is too short it will break up words or phrases awkwardly.

Creating emphasis

Creating emphasis is an important and integral part of designing and typesetting. Handled with taste and good judgment it can help direct and inform the reader. When these qualities are lacking, or someone feels that every word is important and must be emphasized in some way then your web page starts to look like a battlefield and becomes difficult to read!

Graphics

It’s well known that one picture worth more than million words. This rule applies on Internet too. Do your best to show clear, attractive photo of your product. If you offer a service, find a photo which will best describe him. However, be careful about file size. Don’t compress your photo to that level to not be clear, but also don’t leave the photo on full quality. That will make file size too big, and will increase download time.

Gif vs. JPEG

Less experienced web designers many times use wrong format to store their picture. Here are few guidelines which will help mistakes to be avoided. If your photo has small number of colors (less then 64) GIF will be better choice. Make sure however to reduce the palette size too. That is, if your image have10-15 colors only, reduce your palette on 16 or 32 colors.

Also, if your image contains text, GIF format should be your choice. JPEG use loosy compression method and will cause text and edges to become blurry.

If you are saving a photograph – save it as JPEG

JPEG images can contain over 32 million different colours. That is much more than the human eye can see.

If you want to incorporate large text into a photographic image, JPEG may be a good format to use. While the edges may still get blurred, danger of it becoming unreadable is slim. If you think your image is more important than the text, go ahead and use the JPEG format.

Speed

Do your best to reduce the download time. We live in a busy world and people are not will to wait long time. Try to reduce size of your graphics as much as possible without to destroy the image. Image must look good, but size (in KB) should be as small as possible.

Test before publishing

Do your homework, and do it well. Your visitors will not bother to send you an E-Mail that some of your links does not work or that some of your images does not appear. Even if someone do so, it is quite embarrassing. Perform spell and grammar checking. Remember that in many cases visitor will build his opinion about you or your company on base on your web site. When published, site should not contain any “under construction” or “coming soon” messages.

About The Author

Zoran Makrevski is founder and CEO of SEO.Goto.gr.

Since 1998 has focused on E-Commerce and attempts to bring more traffic to the customer sites bring him in the SEO industry, and he is running his own company today.

Search Engine Positioning Firm

SEO.Goto.gr

Ten Web Design Mistakes to Avoid

Avoid these mistakes and your site will be steps ahead of your competition.

1. Not planning your site
Before you even have a website, you must have an idea, a focus. Why do you want a website? What are your plans and goals for the site? Sit down and draw out a map of possible pages and ideas for your site. Include your site's purpose --whether it is to sell more product or make the public more aware of your issue -- whatever it may be. Build your site from it's strong foundation (your goals) and you'll have a better, more solid site.

2. Failing to put contact information in a plainly seen location.
This could be disastrous. If a customer doesn't see this information, they can't contact you. You should consider a 'Contact Us' button or link from your Home page. Even better, make a link to your email address in your header or footer, somewhere that will show up on every page. Even if no one ever contacts you this way, just the presence of this information comforts edgy customers.

3. Broken Links
Do you enjoy clicking on a search result only to get a Page Not Found Error? No one likes them. Check your site statistics at least once a month (if not more) to make sure you don't have bad or broken links.

4. Outdated Information
A sure turn-off to a potential customer is the presence of old information. If it's July and your website is announcing the 'new' products available in February, your site just lost major credibility. Make sure your information is up-to-date. Consider adding a 'Whats New' button or a Business Blog.

5. Too Many Font Styles and Colors
This is a huge pet-peeve of my company. I've had people ask me to review their website and the first thing I notice is 4 different fonts. It looks bad, unorganized and unappealing. Different colors may attract the eye for a short time, but constant flashing or otherwise bright fonts (and graphics!) become annoying. Beware, this is a sure-fire way to scare people away from your site!

6. Orphan Pages
Every website has a heirarchy, a sort of tree that branches out from the Home Page. While most of your visitors visit you through your home page, there are times when a page further down interests someone, and they may copy that link and send it to a friend. This is where you need to pay attention. That friend may like what you have to offer, but they can't find out how to contact you, or how to get back to your Home Page. That's an orphan page. Every page on your site should, at a minimum, have a link back to your Home page. I would suggest adding a contact link at minimum.

7. Frames
Frames at one time were the talk of the industry. They were the original Content Management System (CMS) for your site. Nowadays they are few and far between. If you are designing a site, don't use frames. Newer technologies such as server-side includes are much more common and accepted. Your pages look fresher and those silly bars don't get in the way.

8. Disabling the BACK button and excessive Pop-Ups
Have you been to a website and decided that it wasn't the information you were looking for? When you clicked the BACK button, did you suddenly get a barrage of windows (or, pop-ups) to your dismay? These things rarely actually work, and worse off, the reason you hit the BACK button is because you DIDN'T want any more information from that site. Don't break the BACK button. There are other ways to get your user's attention.

9. Slow loading pages
While personal and hobby sites may normally be slow, there should be no reason for your business or other professional website to be slow loading. Today's Internet surfer won't wait long for information from your site - there are too many others with the same thing! Make sure your pages load quickly. If the server is slow, consider a different host. If your webpages are full of applets or large graphics, consider a page/site redesign.

10. Using Leading-Edge Technology
While the Internet is all about new and fancy stuff, don't be the first to do it. While it may 'look cool' to you, you ultimately need to decide if it actually enhances your user's experience. Do the flashy cartoons make your customer more apt to buy from you? Probably not. How many of your customers have to install a Plug-In just to see your page right? Do they have to upgrade their browser to contact you? Not good. Wait until the technology is either more of a standard or gone - you'll save face with potential and future customers.

About the Author

Will Hanke is a self-proclaimed geek who owns and operates Lighthouse Technologies (http://www.techlh.com), a web development and hosting company based in ArnoldMissouri. For questions or comments, email him at will@techlh.com. And buy yourself a good virus program so he doesn’t have to fight your emails with anti-virus spray.

Building Your Website to Save You Money

Does your website make you any money? Does it SAVE you any money?

Websites are more than just marketing tools, out there in Cyber-Land effortlessly promoting you and your products. While that's great, why not use that same website to save yourself some money?

How? Well, while I don't know your particular situation, I can provide you with some thought-provoking ideas that you can take back to your web designer for more input.

Reduce your support costs.

It is often cheaper, easier, and more effective to support customers over the Internet than through more tradiditonal methods such as telephone and direct mail. Services such as instant messaging and Get1on1 (www.get1on1.com) provide immediate chat facilities to current and potential customers.

Corporations can support their employees and business partners over their corporate intranets, keeping them informed and soliciting their feedback. Providing documentation for perusal saves time and reduces labor on your email server.

Providing a map to your location can save your receptionist valuable minutes on the phone explaining turns and streets, freeing her up for more important tasks.

Including a forum on your site can bring people of a common industry or interest together to discuss upcoming events, current problems, and other interesting ideas and thoughts. These forums can grow very large very quickly. And, in the meantime, your website traffic increases. Stick an ad on the forum and bring in more sales from people that you already know have expressed interest in your industry.

Interested in reading more ways to increase your sales and save money? Visit http://techlh.com/why_web.htm and read our full story

About the Author

Will Hanke is a self-proclaimed geek who owns and operates Lighthouse Technologies (http://www.techlh.com), a web development and hosting company based in Arnold, Missouri. For questions or comments, email him at will@techlh.com. And buy yourself a good virus program so he doesn’t have to fight your emails with anti-virus spray.

8 Tips for Designing a Great Website

Square buttons, round buttons, flashy buttons … will they match my shoes, my handbag or my tie? Are you stuck in a maze of buttons, headings, bullets, sub-headings and colour schemes?

STOP!!!!

Take a deep breath and read some practical tips for professional looking websites.

1. Select a colour scheme and stick to it.

If your company has a logo or preferred colours on its stationery that’s a good start. For those of you starting from scratch, choose two or three complementary colours and stick with them – don’t change colours on every page.

The most common colour schemes include:

• Red, yellow and white
• Blue and white
• Red, grey and white
• Blue, orange and white
• Yellow, grey and white.

If you’re not sure what colour scheme to choose, surf the internet and find a website that you like. You can then model your colour scheme on what already exists.

2. Use templates.

Can’t find a website you really like? Another option is to choose a template. There are many templates or pre-set designs. These come as part of your web design software (such as FrontPage) or you can check out some websites that specialise in designing templates.

Visit:

• www.web4business.com.au/templates1.htm
• www.newtemps.com
• www.website-templates-resale-rights.com
• www.123webtemplatesandmore.com

3. Provide an easy to use navigation system.

This is one of the most important issues to consider when designing a website. You need to ensure your visitors can find what they are looking for easily. Most websites either display their navigation bar on the left or at the top. And since most people are used to this type of navigation, it’s best to stick with it.

It also helps to include your navigation bar at the bottom of each page to save your visitors from having to scroll back to the top.

4. Don’t go overboard on special effects

Whilst it is ok to have one or two special effects to jazz up your website, spinning graphics and logos often distract your visitor from the content, not to mention they can take too long to download. Your visitors may click away even before your spinning logo finishes loading.

5. Backgrounds

Ensure your visitors can read the text on the background, ie. no black writing on dark blue background or yellow on white. Also be careful that your links are visible before and after being visited. The default for links in most programs is blue (before being visited) and burgundy (after being visited), so if you have a dark background, ensure your links are light.

6. External Links

It is a good idea to open links to other websites in a new window. That way your visitors can easily return to your site when they are finished browsing the external link

7. Site Map & Search Feature

If you website is more than 15 pages, it is useful to have a site map or a “Search” feature to ensure your visitors can easily find what they’re looking for.

8. Content is King

While it is important that your website looks clean and professional, it is far more important that you concentrate your efforts on the content and promotion.

If you want a professional website, things to stay away from include:

1. Flash intros, revolving globes, bevelled line separators, animated mail boxes
2. Loads of pop up or pop under boxes
3. Autoplay music. Allow your customer to play music only if they choose.
4. Hit counters of the free variety, which say “you are 27th visitor”
5. Date and time stamps, unless your website is updated daily or weekly
6. Busy backgrounds.

Don’t sweat the small stuff and get yourself focussed on what to include on the website and the best way to promote it. We will cover these topics in future articles.

Copyright 2004 Ivana Katz

About The Author

Ivana Katz is the owner of Websites 4 Small Business, a company specialising in the design and promotion of small and home-based business websites. She believes that every business deserves to have a successful website, no matter what its budget is. For more information visit http://www.web4business.com.au or email info@web4business.com.au

Do You Own Your Web Site Design?

Your web site has been up for a few months and you are making money hand over foot. While surfing sites one evening, you are shocked to find a competitor using your design. You find out your designer sold them the same design. They must be breaking the law, right? It all depends on whether you own the copyright to your web site design. Many site owners are shocked to find out they do not.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a method of protection for authors of original works such as literature, computer programs, music, artistic pieces and photographic images. The protection provided by copyright arises under Title 17 of the United States Code. A copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to do or authorize others to: reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, publicly display and generally use the material that carries the copyright in exchange for something, typically a royalty or fee. The copyright owner often grants this use through a license agreement, but can sell it outright.

Who Can Claim Copyright?

Copyright protection is created IMMEDIATELY upon the creation of a fixed form of the material in question and granted to the person that created the material. For instance, I automatically own the copyright to this article upon completing it. I am not required to file for an official copyright with the US Copyright Office to prove that I am the owner of the content. However, if I want to sue a person for using my article without permission, I must first register it.

What If I Hire Someone To Create A Web Site For Me?

If you hire a person or company to handle the design of your site, the complexities of copyright become a major issue for you. Specifically, the issue of "work for hire" is critical in determining whether you own the design.

"Work for hire" refers to the relationship between your business and the person creating your web site. If this person is an employee of your business and creates the material within their scope of employment, then your business owns the copyright. However, what happens when the designer is not an employee? In such a situation, the following must occur for the copyright to automatically transfer to you. The work must be specially ordered or commissioned for use as:

1. A contribution to a collective work,
2. A part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work,
3. A translation,
4. A supplementary work,
5. A compilation,
6. An instructional text,
7. A test,
8. Answer material for a test, or
9. An atlas.

It is my opinion that the design of a web site does not fall into any of the above categories. As a result, you do not own the copyright to the design and can do nothing about the fact that one of your competitors is using the design. Obviously, this is not the answer that most site owners want to hear. So, what can you do to protect your business?

When you hire an outside party to design, alter, amend or improve your site, you must have them sign a written contract. The contract must include a clause clearly establishing that the copyright to the material produced is vested with you, not the designer. You should then file the contract with your important documents as some designers "forget" that assigned the copyright to you. Presenting a copy of the contract and noting that it allows for the recovery of attorney's fees usually solves the problem.

The issue of copyright ownership of a web site or aspect of a site pops up often. Finding your design being used on another domain is bad enough, but it can get worse. If you sell your business, the attorney for the party purchasing your business will always ask about the copyright of the site as part of the due diligence process. More than a few business deals have fallen apart when the lack of copyright ownership is discovered. Obtaining copyright at the outset of your business effort will avoid serious problems in the future.

About The Author

Richard Chapo, Esq., is with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com offering business law advice to California businesses. This article is for general education purposes and does not address every facet of the subject matter. Nothing in this article creates an attorney-client relationship.

Web Design: How To Get Your Visitors To Stay

Remember the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come"? In the world of Internet marketing, you not only want them to come, you want them to stay.

The Internet is fast-paced. Your visitors decide very quickly whether or not you have what they want. There are five strategies that will help you engage your visitors and encourage them to explore what you have to offer.

Make Your Site About Your Visitors Not You

In order to do this, you must clearly know your target audiences and what you anticipate they will be looking for when they visit your site.

For example, your target audiences could include the client groups you serve, potential donors, policymakers, members of the general public and the media. In order to get and keep their attention, you must quickly let them know that you understand their needs and have a service or product that meets them.

Remember, your visitors want to know what's in it for them.

Make Your Site Easy to Navigate

Limit the navigation choices your visitors can make. One recent study found that many sites offer an average of 25 options from the home page. That's too many. In addition, make sure the wording of your navigation bars gives your visitors a clear idea of what they'll find. You want to make it easy for visitors to get the information they want.

Visitors who get confused or frustrated leave.

Make Your Web Site A Funnel

You want visitors to decide that they want to get to know you. Give them easy ways to learn that you can meet their needs.

Let me give you an example. If you provide health-related services, guide them to content that gives them health tips they can use. Then let them know that they can receive this kind of information regularly through your monthly e-newsletter. Give them an opportunity to subscribe. Then lead them to content that talks more directly about your programs, services or products and the benefits of what you offer.

Draw your visitors into the work of your organization.

Use Testimonials

Word of mouth is one of the best ways for people to learn about you.

You can get the same result with testimonials.

Ask your clients what benefits they got from participating in your services or activities. Ask board members to tell you why they chose to become involved with your organization. Ask your volunteers what benefits they get from working with you. Then ask their permission to use what they said as a testimonial and put those testimonials on your site.

Testimonials help visitors feel more comfortable with you.

Make Your Site Interactive

Use short assessments and other feedback mechanisms to engage your visitors. Offer opportunities to attend events or to volunteer. Make sure that visitors can easily contact you - both online and offline.

Interaction starts building a relationship.

Take a fresh look at your web site. Look at your site's organization and content in terms of these strategies. What action can you take right now to encourage your web site visitors to stay?

Judith Rothbaum's passion is helping nonprofit organizations thrive. She gives seminars, workshops, presentations and coaching programs nationwide with one key message - think boldly about who you are and the impact you have in your community. Visit http://www.datafordecisionmaking.com to learn more.

Web Design: Should You Hire Someone or Do It Yourself?

So you need a website. You are not sure if you should hire someone or learn HTML and do it yourself. Consider these points before making your final decision.

Web design is an art and a science

A good web designer is worth their weight in gold. There are literally a thousand and one details you will need to know before your site should be live. These details include designing a clean, easy to use user interface all the way to proper search engine optimization techniques. Can you learn these details? Sure, but how much time do you have? Unless you plan to do web design for a living, hiring a web designer could save you hundreds of hours and lots of mistakes.

Web designers: Things to consider before you hire anyone

When looking for a web designer, there is an expression that comes to mind. Web designers are a dime a dozen but good ones are hard to find... Just because your cousin's friend's brother's sister can put together a website for cheap, it doesn't mean that it won't end up costing you big time in mistakes and missed opportunities. A bad design will cause your website visitors to leave right away. If the website they create isn't put together properly, they may not be able to be crawled by the search engines. Any website created by an unknowledgable web designer could prevent you from getting any website traffic.

How to tell a good designer from a bad one

How can you tell a good one from a bad one? First place to look is their prior work. Ask to see their portfolio. If they don't have one online, ask them for the web addresses of three or four websites they have recently completed. Look the websites over. Do they grab your attention? Do they feature clean lines and easy navigation? Do the websites exhibit the same kind of professionalism you'd like to have for your website?

Web design: Is it worth paying someone?

Your budget will obviously have an impact on how much you will be willing to pay a web designer. If you have the necessary skills, hiring a web design may not be necessary. If this is the first website you ever attempt and you are planning to make money from it, hiring a designer could be one of your smarter moves. On the other hand, if you are simply putting up a personal site, doing it yourself will provide you with invaluable experience. I would suggest that you shop around, narrow the choices down to three, then choose the one you feel most comfortable with.

Joe Duchesne is the president of Yowling. They provide web design services as well as business web hosting. Reprint freely as long as you keep the keyword rich clickable link going back to my website from this resource box.

How to Choose a Website Designer

When you're self-employed, choosing a website designer is a crucial decision, as a good website can bring you more business and a bad one can drive away prospective customers. Below are some important things to consider when selecting a website designer for your new site or site redesign.

What Types Of Websites Designers Are Out There?

I don't think there is an "official" definition, so I'll give you MY definition:

• A Website Designer helps you to determine the page layout, graphics, text location and colors of your site, as well as the navigation and how pages will cross-link to one another. He may also do the actual computer programming and graphic art work for the site, or may hire out that work to a programming specialist. A Website Designer is the project manager for your site design or redesign.

• A Website Programmer takes the design from the Designer and creates the code to make the site run. She is also responsible for all the technical stuff that happens behind-the-scenes to make sure the site works properly for your visitors.

• A Graphic Designer creates the graphics for the site, including your logo and buttons. A Graphic Designer may also create the overall look and feel of the site.

• An Internet Marketing Specialist helps you to determine how your website fits into your overall marketing strategy, and how to get more traffic and sales from your website.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can get all four of these skills from the same person. You may find a designer who can also help you with the text for your website but don't count on it. Be prepared to write the text yourself, or hire a professional copywriter.

Who Is A Good Designer And How Much Do They Charge?

I don't recommend specific designers, as much of it depends on whether you want to work locally with someone, or whether you are willing to work remotely with them over the phone. Here are some things to think and ask about when hiring a website designer:

• Talk to some of their current and recent clients, to see how smooth the process was.

• Look at sites they've designed to see if you like their style. Is there a certain feel to ALL their sites, or are they flexible in their designs?

• Ask them if they did the actual graphic and layout design of the site, or if they just did the programming.

• Ask them if they have a structured planning process that leads you through the design phase, and if they will document all the discussions that you'll have together. If they have a Website Planning Guide that you'll work through together, it's helpful.

• Ask them what they know about internet marketing and search engine optimization. Be sure that they're creating a site for you that meets your larger marketing and business goals.

• Ask the designer for their fees (expect to pay between $60 - $200 an hour, depending on their skill and their location), and what is the estimate of cost for the site you want. They may not be able to give you a good estimate until you discuss content and features of the site.

• Ask them how they bill you. Will they invoice you monthly, or when certain milestones are reached? Do you have to make deposits?

• Pay attention to how much they ask you about YOUR BUSINESS. They should want to get to know you and your business intimately. How else can they design a site that reflects you and your business, unless they spend time to get to know you?

• Pay attention to whether they'll try to stick within your budget, or whether they keep suggesting new add-ons that increase to the cost of your site. Remember, designers aren't responsible for your budget, you are.

• Ask them whether they will maintain your site after the initial design, and how much they'll charge for that. Some designers want to create new sites but don't want to maintain them. Someone like a virtual assistant (VA) may be able to maintain your site for a lower hourly fee, as long as the VA is skilled in website programming. The more bells and whistles and complicated programming in your site, the less likely that an average VA will be able to maintain it for you.

• If you're going to maintain the site yourself, ask them if they'll design your site in a software package that's easy for YOU to use, like FrontPage. Many professional website designers look down their noses at FrontPage or Macromedia Contribute, but guess what? If you want to maintain your site yourself, then you have to use a software package that's easy for YOU to use, regardless of the website programmer's preferences. (And don't let a programmer tell you that they can't design a good site in FrontPage. There's a difference between can't and won't. I've been designing sites since 1997, and have designed over 40 sites in FrontPage that are clean, modern, visually-appealing, and visitor-friendly.)

• Do you LIKE the designer? Do you believe they'll act ethically? Do you enjoy speaking with them? Do they stay focused to the task at hand, or do they ramble and waste your time? Do you feel you "click" with their personality and values? Do they offer you invaluable insight and advice about your site design?

• Tell each prospective website designer what your deadline is and ask if they can meet it. If you don't have a specific deadline, brainstorm with the designer to create a good working deadline that you can both meet.

By doing extensive interviewing of potential website designers, you're more likely to pick one that can do the work you want, is willing to really listen to you, can create a site that reflects you and your business, and keeps within your budget.

Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She helps you increase sales and profits, and learn practical small business skills.

Get the free audio and ebook, "The Art of Networking and Referrals" by visiting http://www.PassionForBusiness.com