ProfitableInternetHomeBusiness.com

What makes you click the back button immediately? For me, it is cheesy music with no “off” button.

Signs of Webmaster Newbies

All of us have been “newbies” at one point in our webmastering lives.We spent hours at dhtml, javscript and graphics sites looking for copy-and-paste stuff that we thought would make our sites look impressive.

First timer’s websites are easily spotted with their smorgasboard of javascripts, animated gifs, sounds and other components. Unfortunately, this makes a site look amateur.

Creating an Amateur Image

You might have a brick and mortar business that’s been around for the last decade, with tons of satisfied customers.On the Internet, however, you are somewhat anonymous.A professional online image will inspire trust.  When designing your website, here are some things to avoid so that your business does not look amateur or like a fly-by-night operation:

• Dark, heavy backgrounds with hard-to-read fonts – For a business website, it’s best to use a plain white background and black text so that your visitors can read it easily. Some first timers are tempted to have “artistic” backgrounds with different colored text fonts. Not only does it make your text hard to read, but if you are including pictures of products, it is hard to make them blend in with the background.
• Pages that are larger than the browser screen – There’s nothing more irritating that trying to read a web page that scrolls across the screen. Most web usters have their desktop resolutions set at 1024 x 768. Try to stay within those confines.
• Sound effects – Everyone has different tastes when it comes to music, but even if you discovered music that appeals to every single person alive, don’t make it automatically load on your site. Wtih a music site, there are scripts that you can use that will give your visitor the option to click play. This goes with audio advertisements or other background sound effects — provide a way to pause the sound or shut it off.
• “Cool” effects – About 8 or 9 years ago, it was real “cool” to have a flash presentation on the index page. Most everyone was doing this. This does nothing to establish your online reputation. Flash introductions require a lot of effort to create and when they are done, do not offer anything substantive for the viewer. These introductions can take a long time to load and generally, people will not view them. Page fading effects, animated images and scrolling text are things that beginners seem to think are cool. When I first started out, I was guilty of adding these things because I thought it made me look like I knew what I was doing. However, the harsh reality is that these effects are a turnoff. I have seen some sites designed by alleged website design specialists, where the links quickly scroll across the screen and you have to “aim and shoot” just to be able to click a link. Don’t bother adding these effects. People are visiting your site for information or products, not a bunch of movement that’ll give them a headache.
• No clear navigation scheme – Many people enter a website by the interior pages, not at the home page. You need to give them a way to easily navigate through your site. Left and top menus are the most popular and are therefore familiar to your visitors. The key is that no matter where you place your menu, make sure that it is consistent throughout your site. A surefire indicator of an amateur web design is the absense of a navigation menu.
• No search feature – Particularly if you have a large product line that you are selling or if you have a content rich site, always include a search box to help your visitors. Google’s fre search box is a tool that you can use if you don’t know how to include a search feature.This makes your site “user friendly” and demonstrates that you care about your visit’rs experience.
• “Secret” prices - If you’re selling products, include the price. Don’t try to force your visitor to go through the shopping cart process to find out what the cost will be — many of them won’t do it, anyway.
• Policies – An amateur site will not include privacy policies, terms of use and, when selling products or services, returns and shipping policies. It’s a good idea to provide contact information, particularly if you are selling products or services.
• Under construction pages – “Under construction” or “coming soon” pages are a surefire way to announce that you’re an amateur. Do not bother linking to pages under construction. Add a link to your menu and sitemap once the page is completed and uploaded.
• No online shopping cart – If you are selling a product, provide a way for people to purchase your product online. When people are looking to buy something online, they usually intend to buy it immediately. Chances are, they do not want to fax in their credit card to you or mail a check or money order. If you don’t have a merchant account, consider Paypal or, in the case of digital products, consider using a service such as Clickbank.  There are other quality shopping carts available for people who already have a merchant account, such as Mals-e.com, which also provides an affiliate program option.

What’s Your Gripe?

Newbie or pro, you can voice your opinion about what makes a stinking website at the NotGuru’s survey about poor website design.If you’re looking for giveaways, software and tips to help your fledgling online business, the Not Guru blog delivers plenty of resources every day.  Take the site design survey today and feel free to submit your comments – the results are quite interesting.