* JPG files can be easily compressed by increasing loss percentage - just check that you are retaining enough image quality though. * Reduce number of colours in a GIF image to make it smaller. * Save photographs as JPG files and clip art type graphics as GIFs. * Decrease actual pixel size of your image. Although you may have high resolution on your computer monitor, your site visitor may not. Consider keeping your high quality image under 800 x 600 pixels.

2. What About Animated Graphics? With popularity of Flash movies, animation file sizes can be huge and a person with a slow modem may never get to see your masterpiece.

Simple graphic animations can be optimised in a similar way that static GIF's can. Reduce number of colours, remove redundant pixels and keep them simple! Look around at other sites for ideas for effective GIF animations if you have trouble keeping your own creative genius under control.

Flash graphics are a topic on their own, but they do require user has a plug-in so they are able to see your creation. Some people will not get plug-in, just so they can see your creation, so it may be wise to consider putting your most important content into another format.

3. Creating Backgrounds And Fonts

If you have a favourite, but obscure font you want to use on your web site, then you should use it in a graphic. However, it needs to be kept simple (there's that word again!). It really needs to be readable, so consider font size and effects you will use on it.

Don't create garish font/background combinations. Dark purple font on a navy background cannot easily be seen, and red on blue is difficult for many to read too. For more information about font design errors, send a blank e-mail to mailto:wdm-fonts@brealweb.com

So when you're making your next graphic masterpieces for your web site, remember these suggestions, and your site will be pleasing to your visitors.

Consider automatic e-mail responses. Many times I have been sent an automatic response informing me someone will answer my query shortly. If that is what you are telling your potential customers, are you actually following up?

5.NAVIGATE I get to your site. Now what? Am I expected to know what I'm looking for? How do I know what's on your site if you don't provide me an easy way to get around? Provide simple navigation at start, so your visitors can get into your site quickly. Too many options are daunting and not enough are frustrating. You need to achieve a balance that will depend on your content. Research suggests a maximum of eight links on front page is best for your site visitors.

Can you break up your content into sections and tag way to each section, expanding when you get there? One word of warning: don't make your visitors go to six or seven pages before they get any information. They won't do it and when they leave, they will never come back.

6.INFORM No matter what type of web site you have, you are there to inform your visitors. If you offer a product or service, let people know how much it costs, its sizes, colours, models and all other relevant information. If it is very detailed, use a summary with a link to more detail. Remember your online customer can't touch or feel, smell or try out your product. If you don't put this information directly on your site (if it's sensitive or requires further details to make a quote), then it's even more important that you have somewhere they can ask! When they do ask - ANSWER them!

Where are you? Your visitors are not from one geographic area. Being outside of US, I see sites all time that fail to offer any assistance to international viewers. This is a major oversight because you WILL get visitors from other countries. Provide currency exchange and delivery information if necessary or state your service or delivery areas clearly where it is easy to find.

7.DELIVER If you have a physical product, where are you prepared to send it? Where on your site have you told your customers? If you can only ship to a limited geographical area, make sure it is displayed prominently.

I recently compared companies about a particular product I intended to purchase online. I made my decision and completed entire ordering procedure providing all my details including credit card number, before discovering company only shipped within US. I had looked in their ‘about' and FAQ's to see if they had restrictions on shipping but found nothing. It was only provided when shipping was being calculated. I found this frustrating and annoying because I had wasted my time. Do you have a similar geographic restriction? Is it prominently mentioned?

You can't get everything perfect for everyone, different cultures require different information, but you can strive to be helpful and courteous. After all, excellent service counts.