Even if you don't totally believe in these words, you can surely hope that this mindset will help. You might even have famous quotes and uplifting sayings pasted around your desk or office.

You figure "why not?", "it can't hurt".

Some people even spend a lot of money believing that looking successful will ultimately lead them to success.

So I ask you:

Is your website 'Dressed for success'?

Why should it get any less attention? You want your website to be a success, don't you?

If you think about it, isn't your website only visual image your visitors will have of you? (unless you have a web cam, of course)

What image does your website portray?

Do your visitors assume you went with low bid on site design?

Do they wonder if words "website navigation" are foreign to you?

Does your visitor subconsciously move her purse away from her monitor when she surfs by?

Do you really think they are going to install a T1 line so they can come back and view your graphics?

Your website needs to look and feel as if person or persons behind it know what they are doing. It has to make your visitor feel comfortable. It needs to look successful.

If it looks like others are doing business with you, she will be more inclined to do business with you as well. The minute your potential customer spots cobwebs, or one inch of dust on top of your products, she's gone.

Now, I'm not talking glamour and glitz...don't try to dazzle and baffle 'em. I'm telling you to make sure basics are covered.

If you don't have access to a scanner or a digital camera, chances are you've probably already found some free graphics on web to jazz up your web page. If your site is a personal homepage, then feel free to post all Garfield Cat images you want. However, if you're trying to run a small business on web, choice of graphics can drastically affect your professional image. So, rule number one: no Garfields, unless you're selling Garfield merchandise.

Rule number two: don't resign yourself to using pixely, B-grade images--there are surprising sources of quality graphics all over web. One of these is Library of Congress website. Many of their images are free in terms of both cost and copyright. Just be sure to check carefully to make sure image is domain-free before you use it. Most of images tend to be rather large, so be sure to reduce size, and shrink K by using a program such as Ulead's Smartsaver.

Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/