1. Maintain an easy to follow Navigational system throughout your website. 2. Do not use frames unless it's really important. Visitors detest getting stuck up in frames and Search Engines find it difficult to index websites with frames. 3. Avoid using scrollbars horizontally. There is nothing more annoying than having to scroll both vertically and horizontally at all screen lengths. 4. A full Flash Website may look very appealing, but that's the last thing your visitors are going to wait for to load. Instead try embedding Flash on your pages to get the same look. 5. To minimize download time, use divs with different background colors to add life to your pages, instead of using too many graphics. 6. Do not cluster too many animated buttons and banners throughout your site. Your visitors will not be able to browse comfortably with all that blinking going on and will surf elsewhere. 7. Keep updating your website. People will not return if they find the same old stuff lying there. 8. Put up a message board, opt-in, feedback form, guestbook etc. to add a touch of interactivity to your website. 9. Make it a point to return the visits and/or answer all e-mails/messages within a reasonable period of time. 10. Provide links to other websites, even your competitors, if possible. This shows you are not conceited and are willing to help your visitors to find what they need. This little gesture goes a long way to earn you goodwill. I hope you find these rules helpful Cheers
Thanks! Great advice. Don't forget to monetize your site too. Don't overdo it, but you can add promotional banners to your own products or to affiliate products in your same niche, so they appeal to your target market. And don't forget to add an "affiliates" link at the bottom of the page, so people who like your product can sign up to promote it for you.
Always the same stuff. Every week/month. "What is a webmaster?" you should ask yourself. "What is he doing?", "Which languages should he know?". Webmasters should know how to code (X)HTML/CSS/JS and maybe a server-side scripting language. Look at all those "webmasters" today... are there any "real webmasters" out there? Not much... All those "wanna-be-webmasters" do not know how to code (X)HTML/CSS/JS at all, they use WYSIWYG programs or crappy templates. Their only gain is: placing ads on their just opened PR0 sites and then try to get some traffic. They do not follow ANY rules, crap content, crap design, invalid code,... and when they have any problems they ask in forums like this. It's really a shame that so many "webmasters", "webdesigners", "webdevelopers" and "professionals" do not even know basic (X)HTML/CSS Call me "oldschool" but at least I know how to "produce" valid (X)HTML, CSS and some JS!
I was stickin to the design part but yeah, when talking about making money with your website, yeah, then monetizing it through product links or affiliate links will be the thing to do; Another way is to actually sell links, that will allow to make money with the rule number 10, while leaving the visitors happy