Make your site clean, welcoming, and easy to navigate. If you are selling your own product or services online (or perhaps you want to in the near future), you need to present an individualized site. While a great Look does not make a sale, it does set a positive mindset, which sets the stage for an exchange. In other words, an effective Look or style if you wish makes people more receptive to your sales message.

Keep in mind that your goal with this site is to get the click... whether that is to your order page, contact information page (for a follow-up phone call/e-mail), merchant-partner's site or on a Google ad. Your content and style should give readers a confident feeling that you are indeed the person that will solve their problem and they will solve yours by dropping so money in your till. You are not in the extreme Olympics here so try not to make radical updates too frequently. Keep in mind the comfort zone that familiarity creates -- repeat visitors know what to expect and where to find it. Make adjustments only when there is a need -- not just because it's easy to do so or totally cool to do.

Take it easy on the color palette. The use of too many colors is distracting to your

visitor and it is a telltale sign of an amateur. Pick two to three complementary colors

and then use a splash of color when you are really trying to make a point.

Also take it easy with gnarly special effects. Even though the ?cool? factor is alluring, you are not trying to become the Fonz here you want to make money so special effects should be used for impact, not as the basis of your design. Don't be tempted to apply all the effects just because they are available.

You want to make you design part of the whole site concept and not just carefully selected bits and pieces of it. It's important that your visitors get the big picture of what you want to convey and not just a small piece of it. As much as possible your viewer needs to enter a comfort zone when he enters your sites because if he's comfortable he will stay longer and click more often.

It's a known fact that the Big Search Engine and Net marketing gurus (who make big

money from the Net each and every year) use and only recommend ?minimalist?

designs. Why? Simple designs are the most Search-Engine-friendly the spiders just love ?em! From a human visitor's point of view, they exude quiet confidence and credibility and to them that means more money, more money?.more money.