you just have to make it easy for your prospect to read what you have to offer. Many a web surfer is looking for something that you offer right now and is ready to make that impulse buy, but if you're going out of your way to make it hard for them to do that, you can rest assured another business who 'gets it' will be the one to close that sale.

So what does your site need to look like? Start basic and keep your backgrounds white, keep your text black, and keep

Ever since the Internet started turning businesses into overnight cash-cows, web designers have been delighted to show off their graphic arts skills with websites that literally come to life when loading on the screen -- some of them are nothing short of artistic masterpieces and are pretty awe-inspiring.

However, one of the biggest mistakes an online business can make is to take its carefully crafted sales letter and sink it into the middle of a loud, flashy site that may actually start talking to, or even startle the visitor, with enough neon lights and blinking graphics to make the visitor think they’ve entered a twenty-first century disco.

Here's why this is a mistake: The whole purpose of drawing people to your site in the first place (in a business sense) is so they end up buying your product. They delight in what you have to offer, because you're giving them a chance to solve their problems and that's something they didn't have the answer to ten seconds earlier. And hey, if they like you enough and you're putting forth quality products, you've got yourself a potential lifelong customer who can tell all their friends and family about what you did for them.

But... before this can go any further, they have to read your website. And you don’t want them to have to wait for it to load because you've got some totally cool graphic that takes five minutes to display. Yeah, it probably did cost you a bundle to have it made, but it does nothing except confuse the daylights out of the 62 year-old man wondering why he came to your site in the first place.

The main message here is not to confuse what's 'pretty' with what works. Savvy entrepreneurs who make their millions with hardly any effort have spoken about this for years and while some businesses listen, others are missing the boat. The fact is that it doesn't matter what you're selling – you just have to make it easy for your prospect to read what you have to offer. Many a web surfer is looking for something that you offer right now and is ready to make that impulse buy, but if you're going out of your way to make it hard for them to do that, you can rest assured another business who 'gets it' will be the one to close that sale.

So what does your site need to look like? Start basic and keep your backgrounds white, keep your text black, and keep y

that may actually start talking to, or even startle the visitor, with enough neon lights and blinking graphics to make the visitor think they’ve entered a twenty-first century disco.

Here's why this is a mistake: The whole purpose of drawing people to your site in the first place (in a business sense) is so they end up buying your product. They delight in what you have to offer, because you're giving them a chance to solve their problems and that's something they didn't have the answer to ten seconds earlier. And hey, if they like you enough and you're putting forth quality products, you've got yourself a potential lifelong customer who can tell all their friends and family about what you did for them.

But... before this can go any further, they have to read your website. And you don’t want them to have to wait for it to load because you've got some totally cool graphic that takes five minutes to display. Yeah, it probably did cost you a bundle to have it made, but it does nothing except confuse the daylights out of the 62 year-old man wondering why he came to your site in the first place.

The main message here is not to confuse what's 'pretty' with what works. Savvy entrepreneurs who make their millions with hardly any effort have spoken about this for years and while some businesses listen, others are missing the boat. The fact is that it doesn't matter what you're selling – you just have to make it easy for your prospect to read what you have to offer. Many a web surfer is looking for something that you offer right now and is ready to make that impulse buy, but if you're going out of your way to make it hard for them to do that, you can rest assured another business who 'gets it' will be the one to close that sale.

So what does your site need to look like? Start basic and keep your backgrounds white, keep your text black, and keep

didn't have the answer to ten seconds earlier. And hey, if they like you enough and you're putting forth quality products, you've got yourself a potential lifelong customer who can tell all their friends and family about what you did for them.

But... before this can go any further, they have to read your website. And you don’t want them to have to wait for it to load because you've got some totally cool graphic that takes five minutes to display. Yeah, it probably did cost you a bundle to have it made, but it does nothing except confuse the daylights out of the 62 year-old man wondering why he came to your site in the first place.

The main message here is not to confuse what's 'pretty' with what works. Savvy entrepreneurs who make their millions with hardly any effort have spoken about this for years and while some businesses listen, others are missing the boat. The fact is that it doesn't matter what you're selling – you just have to make it easy for your prospect to read what you have to offer. Many a web surfer is looking for something that you offer right now and is ready to make that impulse buy, but if you're going out of your way to make it hard for them to do that, you can rest assured another business who 'gets it' will be the one to close that sale.

So what does your site need to look like? Start basic and keep your backgrounds white, keep your text black, and keep

bly did cost you a bundle to have it made, but it does nothing except confuse the daylights out of the 62 year-old man wondering why he came to your site in the first place.

The main message here is not to confuse what's 'pretty' with what works. Savvy entrepreneurs who make their millions with hardly any effort have spoken about this for years and while some businesses listen, others are missing the boat. The fact is that it doesn't matter what you're selling – you just have to make it easy for your prospect to read what you have to offer. Many a web surfer is looking for something that you offer right now and is ready to make that impulse buy, but if you're going out of your way to make it hard for them to do that, you can rest assured another business who 'gets it' will be the one to close that sale.

So what does your site need to look like? Start basic and keep your backgrounds white, keep your text black, and keep

you just have to make it easy for your prospect to read what you have to offer. Many a web surfer is looking for something that you offer right now and is ready to make that impulse buy, but if you're going out of your way to make it hard for them to do that, you can rest assured another business who 'gets it' will be the one to close that sale.

So what does your site need to look like? Start basic and keep your backgrounds white, keep your text black, and keep your graphics small and relevant to what your copy is trying to say. Don't run your margins off the page to the point where someone has to use the scroll bars at the bottom of the site to read it. Stay far away from distracting or animated graphics and anything that takes more than a few seconds to load; you'd be amazed at how many web surfers are still on dial-up connections. If you need a visual for this, just imagine any book you've ever read. I highly doubt you can recall any that were written on bright red paper with fluorescent green text, for the simple reason that it would be near impossible to read. And that's the kind of thinking you need to follow with your site design.

Don't over think it, and just keep it simple. As with most things in business, this is almost always the best route to take.