Article in Web Design

Building a website can be easy, a great hobby and a fun way to make money. However as easy as it may be there are a few simple mistakes that you can make that will affect the overall running and popularity of your website. We're going to go over a few mistakes and how you can avoid them in order to get the best possible return on investment for your money and time



First of all, try not to make the mistake of using too many graphics. Clip art and photos can look great, but overloading the page with them can reverse the effect. You need to remember that although most people are on broadband, not everyone will be. Adding unnecessary photos will slow down the running of the site & stop people from coming back. Beyond that, it makes the site look cluttered. Psychologically, people will be turned off.



A good rule of thumb is to use images to highlight certain aspects of your text, or to prove a point. There's no need to add them just to look "sophisticated" or "fancy".


Next, you want to make sure that the website is clear & crisp. Website users have very short attention spans and go in and out of websites very quickly. You need to appease them quickly. Ensure that the website is easy to navigate. Think about how frustrating it is when you are surfing the web and you find broken links or out of date information.

Make sure your website is fresh looking and that everything works fully. Make sure that pages flow nicely & that it is easy to go back to home. People like websites that look good, but what they ultimately want is something that is simple to use and user-friendly. They do not want to be searching around for the information they want.

With regards to navigation, you need to make sure that you have a clear menu that is easy to find. Each page should have a back to home button and where possible a navigation bar to other parts of your website. Make headings for the different areas of your website, and make each main heading bold and easy to scan. The easier the process is for your audience, the longer they'll stay on your website and take whatever desired action you'd like for them to take.

If you are going to be using money making tools and affiliate screens, make sure these blend into your website. Although they should stand out as links as you want people to click on, ensure that they do not look out of place. The key here is to get people to want to subconsciously click on them, but not to "hard sell" them on clicking. Counterintuitive works best here.



Overall, these are simple tweaks and not at all hard to do. However, the bottom line investment that you'll see as a result of these changes will monumentally change according to if you do them or not.

Rachel Rofe is an Internet Marketer specializing in membership sites, article marketing, and copywriting. Discover how to build your Internet business (as well as learn about Rachel's latest adventures) on www.RachelRofe.com.