As more and more of
world's business starts taking place online, we're left to wonder how our own web pages will stand up and out in jumble of everybody else's.Small businesses don't always have option to buy expensive graphics or to hire a great web designer. Or even if they do, they have to take into account whether their potential customer's browser will support a high tech page. On other hand, we all want our web site to look as great as our competitors. So what do you do? Here are a few tips to help you decide which type of site is best for you.
As browsers get more sophisticated and modems download faster, web sites are getting fancier. My old advice about put a logo at top of your web page and keep rest "text" is looking out- dated.
On other hand, MANY of your web site visitors have slow phone lines with no improvement in near future. With web design expectations higher but lines still slow, it puts many of us between a rock and a hard place.
Some ways to jazz up look of your pages without making them slow loading:
1. Use one to three SMALL gif or jpeg graphics on a page, but don't go overboard. Try to repeat graphics when you can from one page to next. Once a graphic has loaded into visitor's computer, it doesn't have to load again.
2. Create an interesting page by formatting your text into headlines, bold, indented blocks, and limited colored text. You can also set off important points with small graphic balls or arrows. These don't take much time to load and can add interest to your page.
3. Put parts of your page in a cell and give it a different background from rest of your page.
4. When you find a logo you like, email owner and ask who created it. I find that many site owners create their logo themselves and don't mind making one for you at low cost. A great place to get a cheap logo is at GotLogos.com-- they'll design your logo for only $25.
Some time back I beefed that too many web sites didn't have enough words to explain their offers. "Some sites are all pictures with very little copy. It's hard to figure out what site is selling and why you should buy it," I complained.
