Fresh, original content shows you know your stuff. People will want to link to your content to add to usefulness of their own website. Lots of pages with relevant content can even help your search engine traffic. Your potential customers will have to return to finish reading through all of great information.

I could go on and on about that one.

Anyway, what I'm saying is, even if YOU aren't successful yet, your website should make you appear as if you are.

If I run across a site on Geocities do I think person is successful? Do I whip out credit and order his products? Nope.

Do I want to give my gold card (if I had one) to someone that can't or won't pay $70 in registration fees and $30 a month in hosting fees?

I'm not saying that people on free websites aren't making any money. Its just that for me it doesn't spell 'trustworthy company'.

Neither does 15 banners on home page, or graphics from clipart CD.

Put yourself in your customers shoes. What things make you feel that you have hit a legitimate site?

What things make you click away before page has finished loading?

What things make you bookmark that site, and then actually return to it?

Ask yourself these questions, then type in URL of your website and view it from eyes of your visitors. Have you broken any of your own rules?

The bottom line is that every pixel of your visitors monitor as they hit your site should scream SUCCESS!

Besides, "it can't hurt", right? Worst case is that information provided in this article does nothing to help your online presence.

But if it does work for you, you just might make enough money from your website to allow you to buy clothes so that YOU can dress for success!

Though clipart can be fun, I still encourage you to hunt down a scanner. A small, basic scanner runs at about $70 (and remember, you can write that off on your taxes), or you may have access to one at your local library or university. My favorite method of scaring up web graphics is to lurk though used bookstores and find old pamphlets, maps, magazines and photos and slap them on scanner. This may be a little too arty for some people, but remember, if you can access a scanner, you don't need a digital camera. It will allow you to digitize product photos or pamphlets for your site. If you want to make one big trip of it and are prepared to pay through nose, Kinko's will also scan things for you (though I think buying a scanner is probably a more cost- efficient choice here.)

The whole key is to find interesting images that relate to your product, have a crisp, clean appearance, dowload quickly, and give your site a unique look. Try to find images that speak to your audience, but use images they've never seen before. Images can become as cliche as phrases, and a cliched graphic is just as weak as a worn-out saying--poor old Garfield being a fine example.

If you have questions about how to shrink your images and make your graphics fast and snappy, here's an article from archives to help you with *that* particular ball of wax!

Practical Graphics: http://www.fixmywebsite.com/article07.htm