If it is hard to determine, then save it in both formats and compare quality/size ratio. Not much work, big effect.

Having semi- or fully professional graphic editors will allow you to get even better results by selecting compression rate, smoothness, sharpness of edges – if we speak about .JPG format; or palette, colors, rate of transparency, animation features etc. – if we deal with .GIF format.

Today's technological opportunities are vast, so it is you to decide how deeply you want to "dive in".

CROSS-BROWSER & SCREEN RESOLUTION OPTIMIZATION

The numbers are following: - 2% have outdated 14'' with 640*480 pixels in width and height respectively. - 49% of web-surfers use 15" monitors with preferable "standard" screen resolution of 800*600 pixels; - 45% surf web with 17" monitors with reasonable 1024*768 resolution; - 4% of users enjoy 18-19" monitors with 1152*864-1280*1024 screen settings.

What should these numbers tell you? The very simple thing – if you created WS on your 15" monitor, don't assume that it will look as good on other monitors as on yours.

Let me draw several notes here about tendency that monitor market will follow in nearest future. First is that all 14" monitors are gradually going to their deserved eternal rest. Even share of notebooks with 15" TFT screens growing exponentially. There are even several new versions with 16" active matrixes. Don't also forget that notebooks' 14" TFT screen have almost same diagonal inches as usual 15" CRT (Cathode-ray tube) monitors. Secondly, number of 15" monitors is also decreasing, due to growing number of 17" monitor owners that is third point.

One sentence conclusion of above statistics is that your WS should look fine, at least, under 800*600 and 1024*768 resolutions. This is a market demand to your WS and, as we know, you better not joke with The Market.

Without going deep into theory, there are two ways: - more simple; - more complex.

Both correct, both satisfy demand above but letter way, given it is more complex, usually perfectly fits any screen resolution, whether it is 14" or 21" and more favorable to WS space usage.

The easier way would be to make borders of your web-page (tables of your web-page) to be fixed with certain number of pixels. The most popular settings are something between 650 to 750 pixels just to fit that 800 pixels width screen under most popular 15" monitor 800*600 resolution. If you go that way your web-page will have same look under different sets of resolutions. If we try to see it at 14" monitor with 640 pixels in width, unpleasant horizontal scroller would appear because our fixed setting in 700 pixels is wider then 640 and it just won't fit in it. If, on other hand, we look at our imaginable site under 1152*864 or 1280*1024, it will look too narrow, as it will occupy only 60% of screen width (our 700 in comparison to 1200 screen pixels width). Why does this designing way simpler? You just won't have any problems building it: no need for resolution or cross-browser optimization, as fixed pixels are read correctly under almost every browser.

The more complex way is to have width of one or several HTML tables columns on your site to be set in percents like 75% or 100% and, therefore, poses ability to automatically broaden or narrow according to specified percents, depending on what screen resolution site is being viewed under. If you have 600*800 screen settings (the screen width is 600 pixels) and one of table width of your site is set to 100%, then this particular table along with all included text and graphic will narrow to 600 pixels, if we set monitor to 1200*1024 resolution, i.e. having 1200 pixels wide, our site's table will stretch to specified 100%, in that case, 1200 pixels. That's why it looks more attractive under different resolutions but demands additional optimization, including cross-browser optimization, as Netscape Navigator browser has some problems with proper interpreting of percent settings in multi column tables. Which way to choose depends on tasks and your preference.

I wish you endless creativity and no more then 70Kb per page ;0)

Everyone loves a story. People start reading a story and keep reading until story is finished. If you visitors start reading a story on your site they will likely read rest of site.

The links on you site can help you or ruin you. If you link to another site be sure that link opens site in a new window. This is a must. If linked site opens in same window you have just lost a potential customer. Now only way he can come back is by hitting back button. Will he do it?

Now back to flowers and bees and butterflies. Lets talk about bees and butterflies that come back. Why did they come back? With flower it was probably just luck. With your web site it needs to be much more then luck. You have to plan it. They have to want to come back for something of value (to them at least) that you have on your site.

What brought them back was content. Some how they did not learn everything on first (or previous) visit or they wanted to re-read it. Or maybe they realize that content may have changed and they can get new information. Or maybe your site offers a service that they want to use again and (hopefully) again.

I call a web site that keeps visitors coming back a sticky web site. It involves extra work to make a sticky web site. However, if your goal is to have your potential customers coming back often then extra work is worth it.

Some of best items to make a website sticky is a free service or free content. Examples of services could be a search engine submission service, a forum, current news display, or some kind of game. A service can be almost anything that a visitor can use or view over and over.

Content can be similar to a service. An article directory can be content. Perhaps you write articles for you ezine. Post them on your website. Let your visitors know that they are free to use as long as they don’t change them and they include resource box. If someone uses they article you could get another link back to your site.

Other examples of content could be free software of ebooks. Some people offer free vacation certificates. A free course can also be some excellent sticky content. Book reviews could also work. A weekly survey can also be a good way to bring certain visitors back every week.

Change your site often, at least monthly. Weekly changes are better. People will know that you are actively managing your site and that you want to provide a good service. This will help create a positive impression and turn visitors into customers.

Most people do not buy or join first time they view a web site. Sometimes they come back several times before surrendering money for that which your site offers. This is main reason why you want a sticky site.

If you can successfully make your site sticky enough to bring your visitors back to your site repeatedly, you're guaranteed success. Just keep bringing visitors to your site, and then back again, as flowers do with bees and butterflies.