ARTICLE:

The following eight tips aren't meant to offend, but to teach. I want to help you avoid the same terrible web design mistakes that I made in my first few months creating my sites. And, believe me ... when I look back on some of MY first pages like you'll see at the end of this article ... I CRINGE in repulsion. :-|

So brace yourself -- these could get kinda ugly.

Disaster #8:
Center everything down each page.

Centering all of your text makes it VERY hard to read, and even harder to pick out the important points. And, other than that, IT'S TACKY.

Save centering for headlines and subheadings, mostly.

Disaster #7:
Include at least 50 banners on each page.

I, for one, am impatient. And that makes me only one of thousands of Web surfers that simply WILL NOT WAIT for your banner-laden pages to load.

When I visit a site and even see the OUTLINES of a ton of banners on the home page, I'm on the fast track to a different site.

The statistics are true; you're losing valuable customers.

Disaster #6:
Make all of the text H - U - G - E.

Assuming that at least 50% of the population has 20/20 vision and the other 50% has corrective eyewear of some sort, I HIGHLY doubt this is necessary.

It makes your text hard on the eyes, and your pages look amateurish. Trust me (you'll see in a minute). :-/

Disaster #5:
Use backgrounds with at least three bright colors ... that all clash.

Retro clashing patterns and background colors make your text hard to read no matter WHAT color the words are. And the wavy lines in the background are making our heads vibrate.

This is NOT the groovy sixties, people. PLEASE spare us. We need our eyesight for other things!

Disaster #4:
Have absolutely no way to contact you at all on your site.

If your visitors have questions about the services, products, or resources you offer, they're going to need a simple way of getting in touch with you -- an e-mail address at the very least. (But you'd still just barely pass the test with that.)

We won't be happy if your long distance voicemail number is the only way to contact you on the site.

Disaster #3:
Don't put your NAME anywhere on your site.

Realistically, you're making visitors feel like Neanderthals when they have to send an e-mail addressed, "Dear ... You." If you want us to trust you enough to buy from you, you'll need to trust *us* a little, and disclose a bit more info than that.

Employees of major corporations wear name tags or have name plates on their desks. You should have one on your Internet desk (read: contact page).

Disaster #2:
Plaster things on your site that have nothing to do with its theme.

If a visitor comes to your site after doing a search on Lycos for "free marketing tips," then by-gosh, that's what they'd better find. They didn't come to see the fishing books from Amazon.com showcased on your home page, or bid at an auction on the One-and-Only Network!

Stick to your theme like white on rice, or your visitors will fly the coop.

And finally, the number one "Webmaster Disaster" that'll send your visitors howling is...

Disaster #1:
Have whirling, spinning, farting, bubbling animations on every page.

Putting animated bullets next to important text or ANY type of moving thing on a business site is THE worst thing a Webmaster could do; especially if there's no way to turn it OFF.

This does absolutely nothing but *distract* your visitor's eyes away from the info that YOU intended to use to get them to join your ezine, or buy your product.

      "And, just what makes ME Ms. Know-It-All Web Design Woman,"
       you ask? "Why should you listen to me," you wonder?

Aha! Finally ... just as I promised, my own personal webmaster disaster.

Let's just say I've learned my share of design lessons the hard way. Take a look at the page I used when I first started out, compared to the sites I design now, and tell me what YOU think:

Then: CLICK HERE
* Of course, the image links weren't broken then, but this example was from several years ago, and I couldn't find those old banners.

Now: http://HarmonyMajor.com

I'll bet you'll be much more inclined to take my advice NOW after you're done laughing at my home page THEN ... ya think? :-|

To coin a phrase, "I've come a long way, baby."