by: Martin Lemieux

In this article, I will attempt to cover basics of creating a great quality web design template for your site. Now it's a known fact that layout or "eye candy" as I put it will determine whether your visitors will stay more than 15 seconds or they will just become another statistic.

That's right, if you don't catch your visitors attention right away, statistics shows us that your visitors will come and go within 15 seconds or less.

That doesn't leave you with a lot of time to grab someone's attention!

Some of you may be asking yourself:

Well why does this happen????

See when you think about it, 15 seconds to "browsing eye" is like an eternity. In other words, it takes about 15 seconds for average person to browse your main page and determine whether they will explore your site further!

So with that being said;

How do we grab your visitors attention????

Every new client of mine is asked to perform same tasks. I ask them to explore their competitor’s web sites and look for specific triggers that would make them want to click on or buy right away. More times than none, my clients will notice specific "Headlines" or "Graphics" that really peek their interest. In doing this, you'll have 1st hand knowledge on what you expect your visitors will see and possibly expect themselves.

Step 2, I'll ask my clients to do one more process just like previous one. I'll ask them to make a list of all "eye candy" that really caught their attention and write me a little note as to why it caught their attention. In doing this, it will give your web designer a 1st hand knowledge on what to implement within your site!!!

With these great tasks, you've made your job and job of your web designer a lot easier to target your audience.

Sites that sell "Web Site Templates" :

You may have seen some sites that sell your right for a specific "Template Style". There are 100's of resources out there. I need to clarify something for you, these templates are targeted at web designers only!!! Reason being, files that you receive will no doubt require some expensive and time consuming software just to open them.

Now being a designer, I’m not about to "knock" pre-made templates but there's a couple of things you may want to consider:

1) Although templates you may encounter are very impressive, you will be sharing your layout template with 100's, maybe 1000's of other sites. The reason why they are so cheat is because those "specific templates" are sold and re-sold as much as possible!

A Web Site: To Have or Have Not By: Tim Minnick http://www.intertecweb.com

Maybe you own an established business, or maybe you own a "new" business, or are thinking of buying a business, or starting a business for yourself. If you are any of these people, this question may or may not have crossed your mind, "Do I need a web site for my business?".

This article seeks to help you make that decision, notice I didn't say, this article seeks to answer that question for you. If you own a business or are thinking of buying or starting a business, you're an intelligent individual, perfectly capable of making that decision for yourself. I'll just present you with some information, objections and opinion and let you draw your own conclusion.

First, let's look at a couple of most common reasons business owners think they may not need a web site, these are real objections from business owners with whom I have spoken concerning a web site for their business. For your business' sake… I certainly hope not, but maybe you think same thing:

1.We don't have a computer and don't have Internet access at my business, so we don't need a web site. Please don't take offense, but a web site isn't for you to sit in your office and look at, thinking, "my, isn't that pretty". A web site is for your customers or potential customers to learn about you, your business and what products and/or services you provide. It's an opportunity for you to inform your customers, bring in new customers and most importantly an opportunity for you to increase your business' bottom line. After all, isn't your business bottom line what makes you money?