One of keys is to choose a product or service that COMPLIMENTS what you already do. Whatever your product or service is, think through what your customer is likely to buy based upon purchasing your product.

If you sell shoes, someone is going to sell them socks and it might as well be you. Not only will you increase your revenue but you will encounter less sales resistance and show your customers that you are thinking of them.

Another method is to choose a product or service that CONTRASTS what you sell now. If you normally sell a business related product come back at them with a personal product. Why should they NOT buy it from you? You have proven yourself as honest and dependable; now cash in on that hard work.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK

One final word. Your customers decided to trust you when they bought what you sell. Capitalize on those good feelings and ask them for their feedback on what you have in mind. This is by far most powerful, yet virtually free, market research available in land. Use it wisely and your EXISTING CUSTOMERS will tell you both what they want to buy and when they want to buy it.

All you have to do then is step up, fill need, and go to bank.

_______ (c) 2002-2003 by Dan J. Brown, This article may be reprinted freely, provided author byline and url remains intact.

Don't use large graphics for navigation buttons as it makes page slow to download. Rollover buttons can look good but make sure that graphics are optimised first so that they are as small as possible.

Debabblizer is great for optimising images and supports many different file types. http://www.equilibrium.com/Internet/Equil/Products/DeBabelizer/index.htm

If you don't know how to create rollover buttons they are very simple and just require two small images both of which are same size. Make sure that both graphics are in same directory and name them image1.gif and image2.gif

Here is a tutorial that you may find useful, it shows you how to build rollover buttons using javascript. You don't need any knowledge of programing. http://www.p5interactive.com/home2/rolltut/roloverl.html

A good graphics program which is inexpensive and capable of doing lots of things with graphics is Paint Shop Pro. Download it from here at just $99 and get $75 free software http://www.digitalriver.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Entry17c?CID=86740&SID=5152&SP=10007&PN=5&PID=534751&DSP=&CUR=840&PGRP=0&CACHE_ID=86740 You can create images using it's advanced drawing tools or import your own.

Also if you use graphics make sure that you use alt tags with descriptions. this is a good idea as if buttons take a few seconds to download alt tag will appear first. It's also good for visually impaired.

If you use plain text links in your navigation bar instead of just giving page name e.g. "blue widgets", make it more interesting encouraging visitors to click on link. e.g. "For an outstanding, hard wearing blue widget click here"

Logo Design a logo for your site. This will appear at top of every page in your site. Keep it simple and make sure that image doesn't take more than a couple of seconds to download. Design it on paper first and then create it using a graphics program.

Building a website isn't difficult. Knowing what your site is about, carefull planning,(maybe some basic knowledge of HTML) and some software is really all you need. There are also many tutorials and articles on internet which can help.