Why is it so crucial? Given a choice of restaurant, which one would you enter? The one with entrance under construction, bizarre color scheme and hand written menu? Or one with an immaculately dressed host standing in doorway welcoming you to a table where even color of menu coordinates with rest of decor which is, well, just right?

Lesson: first impression has tremendous IMPACT on how visitors to your site perceive it from there on. The exit is only a click away for unimpressed!

Take a minute to review my story and see if it rings a bell with you. Above all, learn a VERY important lesson:

I started on internet about a year ago full of enthusiasm to get my first web site up and running. I dabbled with FrontPage. The first results were encouraging - so I thought. Then I started noticing other web sites out there - professional ones. Hmmm. Now I was not quite so content. Compared to some other sites I saw, whole thing began to look rather 'amateurish'. After countless frustrating hours fiddling with various programs, kicking computer and feeling more and more frustrated, my site still looked like work of a greenhorn!

I liked color scheme of black, red and orange for some reason. After a couple of months some thoughtful person who had visited my site sent a brief message: "Sorry to say, I could hardly read a word on your site! Your body text is orange, one of worst choices you can make!" I was shocked. The page looked so nice in my Internet Explorer window. So orange was a big mistake! Time for a redesign.

OK. Off we go again. I changed colors to red and grey with body text in a dark grey. Very smart I thought. After hours and hours laying out many pages and formatting paragraphs I was well pleased with results. I came across a copy of Netscape's browser and decided to install it to see how my site looked to a large chunk of internet community who did not use Internet Explorer. HORROR! What a mess! The page that looked good in IE4 was totally disjointed in Netscape. The paragraphs were all uneven and tables didn't even line up. Picasso would have been proud!

My dissatisfaction was growing. On top of that, I read a comment from a savvy internet entrepreneur who said there was only one design program he was aware of which delivered clean html code which looked good in all browsers. Which one? Dreamweaver from Macromedia. Gulp! You mean I had spent last four months sweating with FrontPage only to be told that design program of choice is a different one? Could I stomach another sharp and tedious learning curve?

You can create your own graphics that can look just as nice as some of professionally created graphics for a fraction of cost.

In order to create your graphics, you will need to invest in a good graphics program. You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy graphics design software. Paint Shop Pro is a wonderful graphics program and is only program you'll need to design professional looking graphics. You can download a free 30-day trial and register software for only $99. http://www.jasc.com/download_4.asp

The first and probably most important graphic technique we're going to discuss is text. This is probably what you will use most. Not just any text, but text to be used with your logo, banners or page titles.

When you're ready to begin, open Paint Shop Pro and click on "File" then "New" and type in a width and height for your image. Make sure your "Image Type" is set to 24-bit and select your background color. You can leave other settings at their defaults. Make sure you give yourself a large enough space to work with, as you can reduce it later.

Your first step will be to select a good font. Depending upon effect I want to achieve, I use one of three different fonts; Impact, Verdana, or Arial Black. If you don't have these fonts installed on your computer, you can find them here: http://www.microsoft.com ypography/fontpack/default.htm

The first text effect we will be creating will display your text in a large font size with a drop shadow effect. This drop shadow effect can also be used with any other images you create.

Your first step will be to select your text color. To change foreground and background colors, double click on top and bottom color squares on right. Your text will be displayed in color within top box, which is foreground color. For this example, I will be using a light color as my foreground color.

Once you've selected your text color, click on text tool on left side (It looks like a capital "A"). This will launch your text window. Select your font and text size from drop down menu and type in your text. I will be using "Impact" bold, size 24. Make sure you select "Antialias" and "Floating" then click "OK."