As business people we look at many propositions that will help us take that next, much desired growth step. We hear that we must "brand" ourselves and be easy to do business with. The list of ideas goes on and on.

THE GOLD MINE IN YOUR BACKYARD

Many people overlook how hard (and expensive) it is to create a new customer. Yet, we focus most of our time and energy in just this area, thinking that if we just could get more customers we would achieve our goals. But what about getting more OUT OF your customers?

If you have been around for a while you have a customer list. That list is GOLD. Please understand that I am NOT talking about renting out your customer list of email addresses. What I AM talking about it approaching those customers, who know you and trust you already, with a totally new and different product.

Why should we limit ourselves to selling only one type of product or service when by adding an additional item to our current offerings we can TAKE ADVANTAGE of relationship that exists now? Will your customers resent this move? Not if you do it with some style.

In this second part I will cover designing page elements of your site. The look and feel of a site is very important, and it must convey what your site is about.

A site for an artist would be a lot different in style to a site selling electrical goods.

Having planned your site already on paper you know where you want page elements to go, but now you must give some thought to their design. What will they look like? Do you want a simple background to your page or do you want something a bit different?

One of most important things to consider is download time of a page. Most people won't want to hang around while complicated large graphics slow down time it takes for them to view your site.

Keep background simple. White of a very pale colour with dark text is best. If you do want an image don't go for anything complex or large. Make image file size as small as possible and make it very pale so that you can easily read type over top. Don't make background image fight against text!!

Typeface Only use one typeface in your website. Just decide on a typeface and stick to it.

Text Just use a normal size type for main text on your page. The page heading should be a larger size and maybe in bold as well. Use a dark text on a light coloured background. Reading text on a computer screen is always harder on eyes. Most people wouldn't appreciate red text on a green background!! They would probably leave your page very quickly.

Break page up with lots of headings and small clumps of text. People read differently on a computer screen in comparison to reading a book or a paper. They tend to scan a page looking for interesting bits of information that stand out.

If you want to highlight any words that are very important either use bold or a second colour. Don't underline text as it will look like a link.

Navigation The main navigation bar is usually on left of page or under header.