What are YOUR top 5 tips for website design?

Hi all

I'm writing a free several-pages-long report to offer to our website visitors. I handle the advertising for our website (see below). We have a link to a "how to advertise" page on our website and last month over 200 folks went there.

Who were they? No idea. So, I'm compiling a report, with a list of "x simple tips to improve the effectiveness of your web-based advertising", which will (I hope) be of value to someone who clicks on that link - ie, someone with at least SOME interest in advertising on the web (that's why they clicked, right?) It will cover tips from both ends of the process - designing an advert as well as "what are you doing with your visitors when they click through to your site?"

They'll get that by autoresponder when they request it. There'll be no selling at the time, just a truly valuable report, which will stand up on its own feet. Then, after a while, I'll be able to drop them a very soft - "did you enjoy the report, did you find it useful?" kind of email.

There are a number of sites which employ this soft approach, which makes a lot of sense to me. No spamming, no bugging them. Just a valuable report followed up with a "did you find it useful" email.

SO, if you were asked the five best simple pieces of advice to make someone's website and web advertising work better, what would they be?

Thanks all

Philip


World's second largest news service for the mining industry

>>
> SO, if you were asked the five best simple
> pieces of advice to make someone's website
> and web advertising work better, what would
> they be?

Hi Philip,

Here's some thoughts on this, on design and adv. Some of these are debatable. :-)

1) Design your site with no more than 2-3 complimentary colors.

2) Keep your fonts consistent.

3) No Flash (OK, I hate it and will NOT stay on a site with it - debatable)

4) Keep pop-ups to a minimum and test them.

5) Optimize your graphics for a quick loading website.

6) No dark text on dark back background.

7) Use proper grammar or hire someone to rewrite.

8) When you collect e-mail addresses, state the benefits to the visitor clearly or you will not get it.

Sorry, I couldn't keep it to just 5, but I'll stop here.

Cheers,
Loree




Quick Online Business Tips

> SO, if you were asked the five best simple
> pieces of advice to make someone's website
> and web advertising work better, what would
> they be?

IF I were asked?

IF I were asked - and remember, no-one has actually asked yet - then maybe I might consider kinda sorta possibly saying...

On Marketing:

1: Create some marketing to test.

2: Locate places where you can test the marketing you created.

3: Run your marketing... Test, Test, and Test some more. THEN, do some more testing.

4: Monitor your testing to find the test that gives you the best results.

5: Keep doing what your testing reveals works the best.

On Websites:

1: Avoid using flash, shockwave or anything that requires Active X to be used.

2: Avoid requiring I download stuff to be able to use the website.

3: Keep graphics to a minimum. And what graphics you have, make them fast loading. Not everyone has a cable modem.

4: Design your website as if an idiot is visiting it. What might be obvious to you is not obvious to everyone else. So use plenty of instruction - click here, press the right arrow to continue, etc.

5: Use Arial font. Studies show it is easier to read on a computer screen.

Bonuses for both:

1: Put your URL on your offline marketing material - business cards, checks, invoices, ads, brochures, etc.

2: IF your business is suitable, create some way in which your customers can interact with you.

3: Keep It Simple. A confused mind say, "No."

4: Treat your online marketing as seriously as your would treat your offline marketing.

5: Lower your expectations. You ain't gonna run one ad and get a flood of orders. Let the orders dribble in and compound the profits into more marketing and business generation.

Michael Ross


Click here to discover what you could be missing

There's a lot of disagreement on what makes a site "good" but there's almost universal agreement on what makes them BAD. Webpagesthatsuck.com gives a very nice overview of the no-nos that everyone should avoid.

(yes once you know them and know how to deal with them, you can break the rules. But beginners should avoid these like a tired cliche!)

The second thing is "don't learn HTML just to do a single website" (you will spend too long getting it up and running.)


http://www.melwhite.com/5mm.htm