Get a website checklist at http://www.score.org/eb_42.html

Some important points to remember when creating a website are:

1. A good first impression: Your website should be pleasing to eye and make a good first impression. First impressions really are last, because in fast world of WWW, all it takes is a click for your prospective customer to get out of your site and go to competition. Make sure you spell out your USP in first 20 lines, have a simple URL which will be easy to remember and do knock off some of those graphics.

2. Easy navigation: The website should have a clear structure so that it is easy for visitor to get about on a site tour without getting lost each time. For instance, have a “Go to Homepage”, “Go to Top” button on each page. Give useful links on top half of page and make links look like links. An absolute must here is a Sitemap and a Search tool. Nothing makes our lives easier than having a map that tells you exactly where we are and how to get to place we want to go to.

3. Quality Content: Almost everybody values quality content, which is not a fine example of plagiarism. Nothing is a bigger put off than to see website after website saying same things. Your website’s content should have real value for customer. If you are selling a product on website, your content should be centred around that, if it is a service you are offering tell your visitors about how it will be useful for them.

4. Contact Information: Tell your visitors where they can contact you for more information, feedback and business queries. Without this feature your website is dead before it begins.

Get some more tips at http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol142/usability.htm

Your website can fuel your sales and profits like no one’s business. With good research, planning and a clarity on website objectives you can make it happen. Make your site usable and valuable to visitors and keep them coming back for more.

Also see:

http://www.apis.ca/Understanding_Websites/Good_Sites_Bad_Sites/What_makes_a_good_website.htm

Meanwhile, here is what I am doing behind scenes to deliver this information

I added one new document to root folder of my web site on server. It's an XML file, "excessfeed.xml" (no need to know what that is).

Within this XML file I include necessary coding and preview text and links you see in My Yahoo! or Bloglines.

Whenever I add a new article, review or newsletter to my site, I update content in this XML file and upload it to my server.

Yahoo! and Bloglines will periodically check that XML file so see if it has been updated. If it has, they let you know in ways I described above.

I can decide how many feeds I want to create and how many items to have within each feed. I can even add small images. And I can schedule when feeds are updated. For instance, with my newsletter, I send out newsletter broadcast at same time as I upload revised XML file. So it is published by email and on web at same time.

>> How do I do all this XML coding?

What's XML? I have no idea. I use a WYSIWYG software tool called FeedForAll. It provides me with a simple interface that enables me to create, format, edit and upload my feeds.

>> As an information seeker...now you can go RSS crazy

Once you get idea and have chosen your preferred RSS Reader (Yahoo!, Bloglines etc), you can subscribe to dozens of different feeds...news, newsletters, articles, blogs and more.

Sign up with one click, and unsubscribe with one click (No more newsletter unsubscribe hassles.)

>> As a publisher...gain more readers

More and more people are turning to RSS. They use it instead of subscribing to newsletters. They also use it to choose which elements of content they want to hear about from various sites.

>> As a webmaster...publish tons of fresh, updated content

Yes, if you have a website, you can have RSS content delivered directly to your site. You want latest art and culture news from BBC showing on your site, automatically updated? No problem. Hence 'Syndication' in RSS - Really Simple Syndication.

>> In conclusion...

This brief explanation isn't intended to tell you everything there is to know about RSS. But I hope I have covered enough to give you your own 'ah-ha' moment.