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What makes you want to click out of a website before you read the first sentence? For me, it is cheesy music with no way to shut it off.

Signs of Webmaster Newbies

All of us have been “newbies” at one point in our webmastering lives.To make what we thought were impressive sites, we spent hours searching the free javascript sites, dhtml sites and so on for copy-and-paste scripts.

First timer’s websites are easily spotted with their smorgasboard of javascripts, animated gifs, sounds and other components. The problem is, 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, your visitors are meeting you for the first time.To inspire trust, you want a professional image.  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. The majority of web users use 1024 x 768 as their desktop resolution. Try to remain 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. With a music site, there are scripts that will allow the user to click “play” at his or her option. This applies to audio advertisements or other background sound effects — have a pause button or an off button.
• “Cool” effects - About 8 or 9 years ago, it was real “cool” to have a flash presentation on the index page. Almost everyone was doing this. This does nothing to establish your online reputation. Flash introductions take forever to create and many of them are just downright stupid. These intros can take a long time to load and most people will not wait around to view them. Other things that beginners think are cool include animated images, page fading effects and scrolling text. I added these types of things when I first started out, thinking it made me look talented. 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 including these effects. People visiting your site are looking for specific information or products and are generally not looking to be impressed with the scripts you have embedded.
• 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. Menus that are positioned on either the left or the top of the web page are the most popular and will be most familiar for your visitors. The key is that you keep your menu in the exact location throughout your site so that it is consistent. An amateur web design has no clearly defined and consistent 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. If you don’t know how to do this, try free services like FreeFind or Google search.  This makes your site “user friendly” and shows that you care about your visitor’s experience on your site.
• “Secret” prices - If you’re selling products, include the price. Don’t force your potential customer to go through the shopping cart process just to find out the price — many are turned off by this and will not do it in the first place.
• Policies - An amateur site will not include privacy policies, terms of use and, when selling products or services, returns and shipping policies. If you are selling products or services, you should also provide contact information.
• 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. Once the page is completed and uploaded, then you can add a link to your menu and sitemap.
• 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 want to be able to buy it immediately. For the most part, your potential buyer is not interested in spending the time mailing in a check or money order. If you don’t have a merchant account, take a look at Paypal or, if y ou are selling digital products, consider services like Clickbank.There are free shopping carts available for people who already have a merchant account, such as Mals-e.com, which also givesyou the ability to offer an affiliate program.

What’s Your Top Gripe?

Newbie or pro, you can voice your opinion about what makes a stinking website at the NotGuru’s survey about poor website design.The NotGuru blog offers plenty of simple resources and tips, as well as software, giveaways and other offerings.Take the site design survey and feel free to voice your pet peeve in the comments - the results are quite interesting.

To attract and retain customers, businesses use marketing in many forms. Before a business can serve and supply their customer base with products and/or services, the customers have to be made interested with the company first. The proven way to create a unique image and identity for your company or product(s) is via brand recognition. First and foremost, brand identity is established via a logo design. When customers see your logo, you want them to instantly be reminded of your firm or product.

A quality logo presents a positive, professional brand image to the consumer. You want your company logo to be as good of a work of design as possible, and produced in high quality.In the eyes of a consumer, a poorly designed logo translates into a poor representation of your services and products. Your new company logo will be the catalyst of establishing the best possible image.

Think about the most recognizable logos – the golden arches is a good example.

No matter where in the world they live, when people recognize a logo, they immediately associate it with the given company. This is good branding, the kind you want for your company. If you can get a truly memorable logo for your company, it will take you far.

In todays fast paced world, people tend to think visually. More so with products and services, we remember and associate colors, shapes and pictures. People give their business over and over to companies they trust, and almost instinctively seek out the logos of these companies.

A well designed company logo instills trust in the eyes of the consumer. The way to create this is the combination of a distinctive, easily memorable shape. Consumers come to associate the logo with the company, which is exactly the idea.

Make sure your logo is on everything associated with your company – business cards stationary, letterhead, advertisements, anywhere a logo can go, it should go.

While it is possible to take the do-it-yourself route with your logo, not everyone possesses the requisite skills for it. Most people realize the need to seek outside assistance. You can hire a designer on a contract basis, but keep in mind there will be some headaches: non-disclosure agreements, contracts and of course, gathering references to make sure the designer knows what they’re doing.

Many opt to hire logo design specialists. Companies who specialize in logo design can create a logo for you and put it onto your marketing materials and so on. One such company is Logo Design Creation. They offer web design, which they handle with the same professional, affordable service that goes into all of their work. By selecting the correct logo design company you should be able to get all your branding taken care of.

If you’re trying to build a brand image for your company, a well designed logo is the way to start. You’ll catch the eyes of consumers, while instilling confidence in your company; which will get your company’s foot in the door with the public.

Extending their operations online should be a primary objective for most small businesses. It is not easy to personally put together a website. A few companies might have their in-house IT experts to create and maintain their websites, but the majority of us have to depend on an independent website design company to create the website we need. 

The importance of choosing the right small business website design company cannot be emphasized without considering the importance of having a website, in the first place. Regardless of your company's size, a well-designed website will allow you to reach a wider audience. It projects a strong first impression of your business that can either be positive or negative. Clearly, choosing the right company to create your website cannot be taken lightly. 

Don't contact any company unless you're completely clear about what you want to achieve with your website. Decide what you want to be on it and how you want it to be represented, so that you always have a clear idea what you’re getting, when you discuss the project further with your designers. 

Move on to choosing your website design company. In this, the first step is to make sure of the company’s reliability. Look into how long the company has been in business. Find out what others think about them. You can also conduct an Internet search, get in touch with their previous clients, and make sure their satisfaction about the service is unquestionable. 

The next step is to go through the company's portfolio to see if their designing style suits the vision you have about your website. Go through samples of their previously designed websites, which any company worth your money should have available for prospective clients to see. Do their design appeal to you? Do all the features of the websites work smoothly? Most importantly, do these people have experience in designing the kind of website you are looking for? 

Once you have been satisfied about the first two factors, look for the policies of the company and whether they offer any value-added service with the project. It is always wiser to choose a website design company that not only creates a look for your website but also offers services such as domain name registration, web hosting space, internet video advertising, copywriting, and marketing. It is difficult to have different parties serving each of these functions, especially if you are a complete novice about how websites work. Look for a company that delivers everything you require. 

Another important factor that should be your concern, of course, is the price the company charges for your project. Do some research on this factor and make sure that you are getting full value for your money. Request estimates from more than one company and compare what each offers in terms of service. Don't base your choice entirely on price. Choose the company that delivers everything you need in the long-term. 

Lastly, it is important that the company you choose is flexible, punctual, and interactive. They should be happy to invite your contribution and maintain good communication throughout the process. Even after your website is created, it is important for them to be active about maintenance and updates. 

If you follow these guidelines in selecting your website design company, you can be very sure to end up with a website that is perfectly suited to your taste and requirements.

If you want to keep some of your website hidden or protected from the general public, there are a number of different ways to password protect your website.

Password protecting your website will help keep parts of your website private. The level of security will depend on the method that you choose. How strong (or weak) your passwords are will be another factor in the security of your web pages. Aim for a password length of at least 8 characters, at least a mixture of letters and numbers.

Begin by logging into the control panel on your web host. If your host uses Cpanel (which is the most popular control panel) then all you have to do is select the password protection option and follow the instructions. This is a quick and easy way. All you need to do is select the folder you want to password protect, type in a user name and password and click the “save” button.

The only snag with this method is that you’ll need to either do this for every single user of your site or use a common user name and password that is issued to everyone. You can work around this by changing the password regularly but there is still the potential for people to share the log-in details.

For those who don't like to mess around with control panel options - or where your control panel doesn't offer the option - there are other ways. There is a simple software program that will do everything for you at an affordable price. Check with your website host to see whether of not you're hosted on a Unix or Linux "platform". If you are, you can restrict access to your pages using your htaccess file. There are plenty of tutorials on the web if you want to go down this route.

If your reason for password protecting your website is that you’re running a membership site, there are a number of software programs out there to help. One of the best supported of these is called Amember - you can get more details from this link.

Virtually all new companies have a corporate web site from the onset as to go without is, these days, considered foolish. In fact there are many businesses which exist solely on the Internet. If you are one of those people wishing to start an online business you may have shocked yourself if you had priced getting a professional web site built by professional web designers. This may have caused you to reconsider starting up your own business but read on as this article examines various aspects of web design focusing on creating your very first site for free or minimal cost using free tools and templates.

Although the cost of professional web design seems ridiculously high there are a number of reasons why this is so. Not only do you have to cover the wages of the highly trained designer but the company has other costs such as office expenses. Even if the web designer works from home he will be using software and hardware, such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop, graphics tablets and the likes, that is really rather expensive. You will be pleased to hear that not all things related to web design are expensive some are cheap and some are even free, furthermore such tools can be used to create complex and large sites.

Finding the cheap or free alternatives is as simple as a search on your favorite search engine. Simply search for “web design freeware” or “web design shareware”, the difference between the two types is that one is free whereas the other requests a small payment for use (especially if the software is being used commercially). You will find a massive selection of web building tools are available and many are so good that some professionals use them!

These days most free web design tools have a WYSIWYG interface which makes web design as easy as drawing a picture. However you will need to learn a little about the programming languages used in web design, HTML & CSS. Even basic knowledge of HTML and CSS will help greatly.

If building a web site from scratch using HTML and CSS is a little daunting then you can search the Internet for free web site templates or free css templates. You will be amazed at the quality of some of these designs which can be easily tweaked to perfectly match your web design requirements.

If even this method is a little too complicated for you there is another alternative which is one of the most popular ways in which to build a web site - blogs. Whatever topic you want your web site to be about you can be sure that a blog is highly suitable as the Internet has blogs about virtually everything possible.

The really great thing about blogs is that they are free, yes, get that, this amazing web building tool is offered for free! Of course some blogs carry a cost but the most common are free for a basic account, such as Blogger and Wordpress. You are given a small amount of web space to store your posts (pages) and images and the whole process of building a blog is so easy that children do it. The interface is rather like a word processor, you simply type in the text for the page and hit publish and the page is immediately created.

Of course the free blogs are rather basic with some limitations but as your knowledge increases you can upgrade some to include extra facilities and more web space. However it is really not that complicated to change the design of your blog and, if you have downloaded the blog software (Wordpress is best) to install on your own free web space (very easy to install) then you can take advantage of the many free Wordpress themes and templates available.

Remember building your first web site can be as easy as searching for freeware, shareware, free web templates etc. So why don't you head on over to your favorite search engine and get started on your very first web site just now? Take a Look at www.freewebsitetemplates4u.com