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8. Use a sans-serif font (Verdana is your best choice) for
body of all your content. You can use a serif font (Times New Roman or Georgia) for headings to provide some contrast. Use no more than 2-3 fonts, in total. Don't bother with fancy fonts. Each visitor's browser will use whatever fonts it has loaded. Often your fancy font ends up as Times New Roman to
visitor.
If you want to use fancy fonts in page headings, you must create a graphic for each heading. I don't recommend it unless you only have a few pages. Adding new pages becomes a chore when you have to create a new graphic for
heading every time.
If you want to use a fancy font somewhere, make a graphic for your web site's name (include your logo and your USP - Unique Selling Proposition, if you wish) and post this graphic on every page. It will need to be loaded only once so every subsequent page that uses this graphic won't require it to reload. Re-using graphics helps speed-up
load time of your web site.
9. Unless you are an advanced HTML programmer, stick to "fixed width" designs. Set your main table size to 650-700 pixels maximum. If you set your table size to 100%, yes it will shrink and grow according to
visitor's browser, but you can get some ugly, unexpected results.
10. Learn HTML! When
(What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor you're using produces messy code, or an effect that you can't fix or don't like, looking at
code and understanding how you can change it will make your site work better, look better and often download faster. Recommended HTML editors: MS FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver (Note: if you can use MS Word, you can use FrontPage).

Andrea Wilson is a writer, web designer and author of the email newsletter "From Niche to Rich!" You can email Andrea at andrea@ablewebs.com. Subscribe to her newsletter at http://www.ablewebs.com/newsletter.htm. Visit Andrea’s web site at http://www.ablewebs.com.