Where to Start

The first thing you need to do is navigate to http://www.google.com/adsense and either apply or log in with your existing account and password. What follows is a page presenting the Google AdSense Terms and Conditions which you must agree to in order to proceed.

You are presented with a report page which you can use to get a detailed status on how your AdSense advertising is doing. This allows you to improve your site’s contents and layout to maximize your AdSense earnings.

On the top of your page you also have link to the setup section where you can generate the code that will need to be pasted on your website in order to have AdSense banners on your page.

You can use AdSense for text (the said ads), using a search box or with referrals. Your choice among these options depends on how users will navigate your site.

Finally, there is a “My Account” tab which allows you to set up details concerning your account, payment and tax information.

To add a text ad on your site, go back to the “AdSense Setup” tab and click the “AdSense for content” link. Make sure you have cookies enabled in your browser.

You can make a choice between ad units and link units. The former contain text and or images concerning a certain site for each unit, most with a detailed description, the latter only contain links to certain types.

Of course, it’s a bit hard to know which type you should use so you should probably experiment with both for a while before you decide.

You can also view an example of how the unit will look to the right of your page. However, you may only use three ad units and one link unit on any given page. This is believed to be a step which Google takes for quality control.

Formatting Your Ads

The next step is to choose your add format and colors. You can basically select any color palette you choose with Google offering some of its own if you don’t have the time or skill to create one. You can constantly view how the palette will look through the aid of an example. The one that works best in terms of appearance and revenues will vary with the look, feel and content of a website.

However, your ad formats are limited to a choice of eleven formats. There’s an “Ad Formats” link which takes you to a page that lets you see all even of these in action so you can decide best which one suits your site. Sometimes the most intrusive, doesn’t work best however again, this can vary from website to website.

After you finish with customization, you can click “Continue” from the bottom of the page.

You are now presented with a section entitled “AdSense for Content”. You can click anywhere in the text and that shows the JavaScript required to get AdSense running. This will automatically select the text in the box.

You can then copy it and paste it into your pages directly. If you use dynamic pages, you should paste this code within your template so as to ensure that it gets displayed on any page of your website. Some advertisers choose not to display Adsense on every page, and this is understandable. An example of this is a company that has adsense, may also have terms and condition which would inevitably provide legal resources which would probably be deemed inappropriate.

Final Touches

What is then left for you to do is get content on your page (provided you didn’t have any already). Google AdSense crawlers will soon visit your site, making sure that the ads displayed are relevant to your site’s content.

And you’re all done. For a simple page this should indeed be a matter of a few minutes, which is precisely what makes AdSense the choice for so many. Although it is quick, its mass appeal also makes it the best. Through being the most popular, advertisers and publishers alike see Adsense and Adwords as their natural first choice.

Author: Damien

I’m Damien, a 30 year old web designer and sometimes developer writing about everything related to web design. I am the owner of MyDesignBytes.com. You can always catch me on twitter.

It could be to directly sell a product, or perhaps to get people to join your mailing list, take part in a game or competition, or even call a sales representative. Whatever it is, you must identify it clearly. Every part of the site should be designed with the aim of fulfilling this objective.

Identify your customer. Who are they? Picture them. What’s their job? Income? How old are they? What are their interests? Their personality types? Write this information down and refer to it often. Build your site for THEM. Not you.

Plan It Out First

Now you know the site’s purpose and it’s intended audience, you can think about various sections you will need, and the topics to be covered in each. Aim for a maximum of five or six main sections. More than that and visitors will have trouble remembering them.

Draw a plan of your site on paper, with arrows to show how the sections will link together. Links should fan out from the home page like branches on a tree. Visitors should be able to reach any page within three clicks (and return home in one).

Sketch the different page layouts you will need. Keep these to a minimum for continuity within the site. You might have one layout for your homepage, a generic layout for each of the section indexes, and another standard design for sub-pages. Try several alternative styles and select the best.

Help The Robots To Help You

If using a tables-based layout, put navigation links and drop-down menus, etc., to the right of the page. If you put them on the left, the code will appear at the top of your HTML file. Search engines place a lot of emphasis on the information they find there, so why start at a disadvantage? Have your keyword-rich content at the top, not links.

(If navigation must be on the left, clever use of the ‘rowspan’ command can order your code, but ensuring consistent alignment of the tables in different browsers is tricky. Craig Fifield has a simple example at http://siteowner.com/tabletrick.html ).

Create A Site That Downloads Fast

Don’t use FONT tags in your HTML. Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to specify font face, weight and color, etc. The vast majority of surfers are using browsers that understand the basic implementation of CSS that covers font information.

File sizes are greatly reduced without FONT tags, making pages download faster. Plus, if you ever want to make adjustments, modifying a single line in a style sheet file can effect font styles on every page. To learn more about CSS visit:

http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

Keep the number of graphics and their file sizes to a minimum as they add considerably to page download times. Use fewer colors and compress images as much as possible. Once downloaded, images are stored in the browser’s cache for instant retrieval. Take advantage of this by using the same images on multiple pages.

Avoid large pictures. If their usage is central to your site’s theme, compress and save them in interlaced format. Though actually taking slightly longer to fully download, this will cause them to gradually ‘fade’ into the page, so your visitor isn’t left staring at a blank space.

Using Keywords And Text

Research keywords your target audience will type into the search engines to find you. Spend some time on this. Create a list of words and their synonyms. Divide them up to match your topics. Highlight the most important words and phrases in each.

Write the copy for each of your topics. Initially, just let the words flow. Write down anything that comes into your head.

Go back over your copy and refine it. Again and again. Highly focused pieces will help you with the search engines. Work your keywords into the text and identify possible headlines. Use short sentences and make it as crisp as you can. Write in a language and style that will appeal to your target audience.

Start Creating

Now you’re ready to start creating pages. Paste your copy into the appropriate template. If it’s a sales letter, allow the copy to run its entire length on a single page. Otherwise, look for a suitable break point at around one-and-a-half screen lengths. Use an unanswered question or incomplete sentence here to stimulate your visitor to click to the next page.

Short pages can be annoying to visitors. With a slow connection, they will spend a lot of time waiting for pages to load. However, it’s harder to get good search engine rankings with long pages.

Use a level one heading (H1) containing your most important keywords at the top of each page. Search engines consider these important in determining relevancy. Have plenty of keywords in the first paragraph or so of text. Keywords in file and directory names may also help your ranking a little in some search engines.

With a little thought and preparation you can design a good Web site from the outset. One that does the job it was intended for, and stands a fair chance of getting decent search engine rankings. You’ll also have a site that is easy to modify, just in case you didn’t get it quite right first time!

Author: Damien

I’m Damien, a 30 year old web designer and sometimes developer writing about everything related to web design. I am the owner of MyDesignBytes.com. You can always catch me on twitter.

Adsense is an incredible service offered by Google to help you make money and help others advertise as well. Basically, with Adsense you choose several ads that blend or complement the information talked about in your blog. Then, when individuals click on the ads that are present in your blog, you receive money! Best of all, Adsense is free to use on your site, so this is a great opportunity to make money without really having to do very much.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate programs are another great way to make money as well and work on the same premise of Adsense. The web surfer has to click on the affiliate website’s link and when they do so they are redirected from your blog to the link they clicked on. You will get paid affiliate income for the click, and if they make a purchase when they are on that website you will get paid affiliate income again.

Blog Ads

Blog ads can help you make money as well. Blog ads are not too different from Adsense or Affiliate marketing, but they are in the sense that blog ads connect web surfers with advertisers. Then, when any ad placements are made a commission is exchanged.

Business Blog

You can use your blog to simply converse about any topic that is important to you, but you can also use your blog as a tool to help you make money. Advertise your business services; make your blog a business blog by focusing at least part of your blog on your business services. This way, you can still communicate whatever it is you need to and make money as well.

Conclusion

When it comes to making money from your blog you can do so easily with these tried and true tricks of the trade. Whether you utilize Adsense, affiliate marketing, blog ads, a business blog, or a combination of all of the above, you will certainly benefit and make money. Don’t delay and start implementing these types of money making strategies in your blog today. Not only will you make money, but your blog will become more popular as well.

Author: Damien

I’m Damien, a 30 year old web designer and sometimes developer writing about everything related to web design. I am the owner of MyDesignBytes.com. You can always catch me on twitter.

What can a business card do for your business?

Before asking the inevitable questions about the design of your business card, you should ask what its function in your overall marketing plan is supposed to be. A properly designed business card has at least four important marketing functions. Here they are:

1. It helps you to introduce your company.
2. It provides critical contact information about you or your company.
3. It conveys your most important sales message.
4. It communicates your corporate image.

1. An introduction to your company…

This may seem obvious, but think about it for a minute. Think of your business card as a tool for opening doors. Think of yourself at a meeting, or even at a social event. What better way to introduce yourself to a person than to hand them your card?

I’m not talking about shoving your card on people who don’t want it. I’m talking about using your card as a tool to make useful connections with people who are likely to appreciate the introduction.

This suggests you should think of appropriate introductory “openers” to accompany your card. For instance, say you’re at a business connections meeting. Since the purpose of the meeting is to meet people and do “networking”, you might try a simple card swap strategy: “Hi, I’m Harriet Phillips. I’m swapping business cards with as many people as I can. Here’s my card. May I have one of yours for my contact file?”

Every situation will be a bit different, but the function of the card remains the same: it provides you with an excuse to introduce your business to people who might be able to use your services.

2. Provide critical contact information on your card…

Before you put your card into the hands of prospects, you want to make sure it communicates the most important things about you and your company.

Deciding what information is “critical” will vary from situation to situation. The basics are pretty obvious: your name, your company name, your business address, and the most effective way for people to get hold of you? probably your telephone number and email address.

Rather than putting your cell or pager number on all your cards, you might make a point of writing it on the card when you think it is appropriate: “Here, I’ll give you my cell number, just in case you can’t reach me at my office number.” That gives the impression you’re giving this person special treatment.

3. Include Your Most Important Sales Message…

Even more important than giving prospects your basic contact information is conveying your Most Important Sales Message. Business people often miss a golden opportunity to make their business card a powerful sales tool.

If you don’t have a “Most Important Sales Message”, you should create one. It is a brief, succinct statement of what your company is about. It is the answer to the question: “What does your company do?” If you don’t have a “Most Important Sales Message”, you should create one. It is a brief, succinct statement of what your company is about. It is the answer to the question: “What does your company do?”

Sometimes this kind of answer is called an “elevator speech”. You’re on an elevator and somebody asks you “What does your company do?” You have six or seven seconds to give a memorable reply. Good elevator speeches go beyond hackneyed answers like “We do web marketing” or “We make bowling balls.” They are confidence-inspiring marketing statements: “We create websites that sell tons of products for people.” or “We make the world’s most beautiful bowling balls.”

Your Most Important Sales Message will often be a “product” (as in the bowling ball example above), but it should always be accompanied by a “pitch” of some kind or another. Often this will be what we usually think of as a slogan.

For your elevator speech you need a seven second slogan. For your business card you will need the same slogan in four or five words at the most. It must be boiled down to an string of words that not only sounds good, but looks good on the card: “Websites that Sell Like Crazy”, “The World’s Most Beautiful Bowling Balls”, “The Discount Real Estate Guy”, “The Source for Cottages and Summer Homes”, “Beautiful Color Vinyl Banners.”

4. Be Consistent with your Corporate Image…

Finally, make your card consistent with your corporate image and the rest of your marketing materials. Usually this boils down to basic things like your choice of colors, typeface, and layout style. And of course you will want to include your company logo.

Usually your marketing consultant or graphic designer will want to plaster your logo on all your marketing materials, using the logo as a substitute for real marketing design. “We must convey a consistent corporate image” is the usual mantra. What ever you do, don’t ask “Why?” That question opens the way for tedious theorizing about “the long term importance of developing a corporate image.”

You would be better to agree. “Yes, by all means, we want to present a consistent corporate image.” And then add, “But I want this card to do some selling for me, so I would like to give the sales message a bit more prominence than usual.”

In other words, use the usual corporate colors, typeface and layout style. Include the logo too. But give prominence to the sales message. Show a picture of your product. Or if you think you are the product (as most real estate agents seem to think), then include your own picture. But don’t forget to enhance the photo with that slogan we talked about in the previous section.

And now that you have a killer card, get out there and start handing them out.

Author: Damien

I’m Damien, a 30 year old web designer and sometimes developer writing about everything related to web design. I am the owner of MyDesignBytes.com. You can always catch me on twitter.

“Logo Design” Begins at Home

Yes, your home is the place where you take the first step of your logo design process. Look at the different bottles and pouches you are using everyday in the kitchen, look at the logos they have, look at the logos on your electronic equipments, check the logo on the bag that you got from the shopping mall yesterday. Everyday we come across 1000s of logos but we remember just a few, if we look around, we can find different types of logos around us. Also, visit the local supermarket to check the logos on the array of products they have. It is always better to check out the logos of your competitors who are in the same industry. While doing this, you are sure to find some logos that stand out from the others and this is going to help you conceptualize your logo design.

Once you have made up your mind on how you want your logo to be, its time you write them down clearly demarcated into small objective points which can work as instructions for your logo designer.

One thing you should be careful, while going through different logos of other companies you must not be so influenced by any of them so that your logo becomes a replica or modified version of another logo that you saw. A good design often affects our sub conscious mind and we unknowingly duplicate certain parts of it. It is extremely important that your logo design is unique. A unique logo design increases the likelihood for getting a trademark protection. It is advisable that you take the assistance of a trademark lawyer for your trademark search and to ensure that you do not run into the risk of infringing some other companies trademark symbol or logo.

Using ClipArt

If you area small local business or a mom-n-pop shop you might not be that keen in investing towards a logo and establishing your brand (though I sincerely believe that’s very wrong). In such situation, you can try using some high quality royalty free clip art combining it with a suitable typeface to put your company name. You can also use more than one clip arts to create the total graphics for your logo.

However, you should keep in mind that clip arts would never give you the effect of a custom logo and they can be easily duplicated or stolen. Even if you are modifying a clip art, it is almost impossible to get a trademark on that. In future, once your business grows to the level when you need to have trademarked logo you will have to get a total new logo (may be something closer to the one you have) and start with your branding efforts once again to establish that new logo.

To avoid all this problems it is advisable that you get a unique custom logo and it is not always that you need to spend a lot on your logos. There are companies on the web that offers custom logo design at reasonable prices.

Some More Logo Design Tips

1) Keep it simple: Remember, simplicity is the key. Most of the great logos are absolutely simple and it is always easier for us to remember and recognize a simple design than to identify a complicated artwork. If you want to have some complex illustration for your logo, try to minimize the number of lines and make it as simple as possible keeping in mind that the viewer should be able to understand what has been drawn.

2) Typography: You should be careful while deciding on the typeface that you intend to use for your logo. Choosing the correct typeface can make a lot of difference. For example, a finance company depicting strength and stability would like to use some bold, thick font. Also, the letters can be twisted to create simple yet nice logos. Some ideal examples of logo that contains only letters are “SONY” and Dell – remember the twisted “e”?

3) Always Use Vector Graphics: Always ask your designer to provide you the logo as vector graphics. The advantage is, vector graphics can be resized without any loss of details and image quality. You can resize it as per your requirement. In addition, vector graphics take lesser memory capacity in your computer.

4) Choice of Color: You should be careful while deciding on your logo colors. It is advisable to restrict yourself to RGB or CMYK colors so that your logo looks equally good in print as it looks on web. Also, ensure that your logo looks good in black and white as well, mind it, you will also have to use your logo on while faxing any of your marketing material or corporate documents.

Finally, it is always better if you are employing any specialized logo design firm to create your logo design than doing it yourself. It is their profession so they would know it much better than you do and neither is logo design always very costly. Definitely, there are companies that charge you $500 for a logo, however there are also companies that offers equally good services with very affordable pricing. It is just a matter of locating that designer and you can be on your way to having a wonderful custom logo design.

Author: Damien

I’m Damien, a 30 year old web designer and sometimes developer writing about everything related to web design. I am the owner of MyDesignBytes.com. You can always catch me on twitter.

Pages Yahoo! Wants Included in its Index

- Original and unique content of genuine value
- Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary
- Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable
- Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a web page
- Good web design in general

Right in their Guidelines Yahoo States “Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a web page.” By Title MetaData they mean the text between the Tags in your HTML Page. By Description Yahoo means the actual Meta Tag Name=”Description”. So Meta Data at least as Far as Yahoo is Concerned is Not Dead.

Let’s Examine Some of the Key Points that Yahoo states are important in their help file and see how we can employ some simple methods to meet Yahoo’s Guideline.

Original and unique content of genuine value

Yahoo is looking for well written Keyword rich Content that has useful information. Concentrate on 1 Keyword or Keyword Phrase per Web Page. If You web Page is less then 500 Words use a
Keyword Density of about 2-3. If your Web Page is Above 500 Words Use a Keyword Density of About 5. Try to Keep your Web Pages under 750 Words.

Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary

Yahoo and Google are working hard to get rid of those Robotic Page Writers. Your pages should be fairly well written, It is OK to Optimize for search engines as long as your content is Human Engineered Well.

Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable

Try and have 3 or 4 Links to closely related Content. It is ok to link to other web Pages within in your site but 1 or 2 external links should be mixed in when Possible. Make sure you use your Keyword or Phrase in the Anchor text for your Link.

Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a web page.

Your Title and Description Meta Data Should Accurately reflect your web page Content. Every web page from your site should have unique Title and Description Meta Data. Both Title and description Meta Data should use Keywords and Keyword Phrases. Don’t use the same keyword or phrase directly next to each other.

Title Meta Data

Keep your Title less then 80 Characters if at all possible. Place your Title Meta Data First. Place the exact same Title at the very top of your Web Page Preferably inside the H1 Tag.

Description Meta Data

The Description Meta Tag should appear directly under the Title Meta Data. Keep your Descriptions between 100 and 150 Characters if possible. Your Keyword Density in your Description should be about 10. Make sure your Description accurately reflects your web page. Where possible the text in your description Meta Data should actually appear Word for Word near the Top of your Web Page.

Power User Super Tip – Where it fits use your description within h2 tags as a Sub Page Header Directly under your title.

Good web design in general

Some key points is to make sure your web site is thematic and pages are related to each other. For every page you create to target a Keyword phrase have 3 or more (as many as 10 related pages). Either add new pages once or more a week or significantly change current pages. Make your Web Pages easy to crawl. Have a well organized Drill Down Site Map.

In conclusion SEO is not dead. It’s ad important today as it was ten years ago. Even though added algorithms and ideologies will always be added to the equation, the basics will always be necessary.

Author: Damien

I’m Damien, a 30 year old web designer and sometimes developer writing about everything related to web design. I am the owner of MyDesignBytes.com. You can always catch me on twitter.

File Storage Space/ Disk Space

How much disk space do you need? That depends on how many files (pages) you plan to upload to your hosting space. If it’s a personal or ecommerce site (a site that sells products) with just a few pages and graphics, than 25 MB of disk space a month should be more than enough. If it’s a multi-page site such as an online shopping mall, then 2000 MB would be safe.

Storage space is specified in kilobytes KB, megabytes MB, or gigabytes GB, a megabyte is 1000 kilobytes and a gigabyte is 1000 megabytes.

Bandwidth / Traffic / Transfer

All words above are used interchangeably. It’s the amount of data that flows through your site, the amount of hits or how many people visit your site. If you’re expecting a few hundred hits a day then 10, 15 of 25 GB of Transfer should be enough. If you’re expecting hundreds of thousands of hits every month then you should get a hosting account with as much Bandwidth as possible.
Bandwidth is usually expressed in Gigabytes.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface, is a protocal script used to make your site dynamic. Flash banners, moving objects. With the right web design program or scripting knowledge and a host that offers CGI you can easily bring your site to life.

Frontpage Extensions

Now-a-days more sites are offering Frontpage extensions. Microsoft Frontpage is a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) web design program that lets you easily create web pages while the software does all the coding behind the scenes. The great thing about using Frontpage and having a host with Frontpage extensions is once you design your webpages all you have to do is click one button that says “publish site” and all your pages go from your computer to your hosting space with one click.

Shared Hosting / Dedicated Servers

Shared hosting, or sometimes called basic hosting means that the webspace that you rent will be shared on the same web server with other clients of the company you’ve purchased web space from. This is the most common.

If you purchase a Dedicated server it means your website will have it’s own unique server. This is the preferred choice for sites with a huge amount of traffic and many graphics that would take to long to load on a shared server.

Finding a Web Host can be confusing if you’re not sure what to look for. If you’re planning on having an average website with a few hundred hits or fewer a day, than shared hosting is the way to go.

Author: Damien

I’m Damien, a 30 year old web designer and sometimes developer writing about everything related to web design. I am the owner of MyDesignBytes.com. You can always catch me on twitter.

The first factor to consider

When choosing a web hosting company, the first factor to consider is how much space they will give you for your account. If you merely want a single page on the Internet with little or no graphics, you can get by with purchasing an account with the smallest amount of space available. However, if you are planning to create a full e-commerce site with multiple pages and order forms, you will need to make sure you have enough server space to support your entire operation.

Do this yesterday

Before you sign your web-hosting contract, you will first have to choose and purchase a domain name. Though many of the names you might want are already taken, you can often find one that suits your needs, especially if you get creative with it. For instance, if your business is called Cards For You and that domain name is already taken, you might consider choosing More Cards For You or Cards For You Today. The possibilities are endless, and with a little thought you will be able to think of a snappy domain name.

Purchase a domain

You can often purchase a domain name through your web hosting company, or you can purchase it through a private domain name retailer. These companies are very easy to find. Often times, if you type the domain name you want into a search engine, a domain name seller will pop up if the name is not already taken. You can purchase a domain name for a year at a time, or for several years, depending on how much you want to invest at the get-go. A quick note: search engines often look to see how long you’ve purchased the domain name for, a domain purchased for one year might go offline next year. We recommend purchasing two or three years at a time.

Create an Image

Once you have a domain name, you will of course have to create a website to put on the Internet. There are many do-it-yourself web design programs that are fairly user friendly. Software like FrontPage makes web design a cut and paste, fill in the blank soft of affair. However, if you would like a more professional look, you can use programs like Dreamweaver or Image Ready to make your sites. There are always web designers looking for work who are ready to take on your cause if you are not savvy enough to do it yourself. A good place to go is MyDesignBytes.com wink, wink.

What else to consider

Web hosting companies give passwords to allow you access your space on their servers. You can upload files and pages using their own interface programs, or you can utilize the upload tools built in to your web design program. Once you upload a page, it is important to make sure it looks correct on a variety of different web browsers. Because each browser interprets information differently, you may run into trouble if you build a site while only previewing it in Internet Explorer. There are often compatibility issues between Safari and Mozilla browsers that distort site tables and images.

A great place to check browser and O/S compatibility is: http://browsershots.org

However, once you work out the kinks and create an excellent site, all you have to do is pay your web hosting bills, and your site will be available for the whole world to see. Web hosting companies usually offer options regarding payment plans. You can pay for a year at a time, or you can monthly or quarterly to maintain your place on the World Wide Web.

Author: Damien

I’m Damien, a 30 year old web designer and sometimes developer writing about everything related to web design. I am the owner of MyDesignBytes.com. You can always catch me on twitter.

The good:

Interactivity

Flash’s Actionscript opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and designers have used Flash to create interactive features ranging from very lively feedback forms to attractive Flash-based games. This whole new level of interactivity will always leave visitors coming back for more.

A standardized site

With Flash, you do not have to worry about cross-browser compatibility. No more woes over how a certain css code displays differently in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. When you position your site elements in Flash, they will always appear as they are as long as the user has Flash Player installed.

Better expression through animation

In Flash, one can make use of its animating features to convey a message in a much more efficient and effective way. Flash is a lightweight option for animation because it is vector based (and hence smaller file sizes) as opposed to real “movie files” that are raster based and hence much larger in size.

The bad and the ugly:

The Flash player

People have to download the Flash player in advance before they can view Flash movies, so by using Flash your visitor range will decrease considerably because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to view your site. You’ll also have to put in additional work in redirecting the user to the Flash download page if he or she doesn’t have the player installed. Also a good point to mention is there are many versions of flash and flash players, even if the viewer has the flash player you may require them to upgrade.

Site optimization

If your content was presented in Flash, most search engines wouldn’t be able to index your content. Hence, you will not be able to rank well in search engines and there will be less traffic heading to your site. Google is currently the only know search engine that can index flash, but requires you to use XML files in your flash.

Loading time

Users have to wait longer than usual to load Flash content compared to regular text and images, and some visitors might just lose their patience and click the Back button. The longer your Flash takes to load, the more you risk losing visitors.

The best way to go is to use Flash only when you absolutely need the interactivity and motion that comes with it. Otherwise, use a mixture of Flash and HTML or use pure text if your site is purely to present simple textual and graphical information.

Author: Damien

I’m Damien, a 30 year old web designer and sometimes developer writing about everything related to web design. I am the owner of MyDesignBytes.com. You can always catch me on twitter.

The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is very popular. If many people use the same template, your website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid, different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear generic just like your next-door neighbors.

Losing time

To whole point of using a web template is to save time and effort. You just change the title and appropriate details and you’re done. The biggest mistake one makes is to customize the template beyond recognition. While that may be good in the sense that you’re creating a unique graphic, you’re defying the very purpose of using a web template — saving time and effort.

Slow it down

However, on the opposite side, if a template you purchase is suitable but some changes must be made to suit your site’s theme, then you will have to take some time to make the changes. For example, you can find a very nice template that suits your hobby site except the original designer has put an image of stamps in the header. You can find images of garden plants and spades to replace the stamps for your gardening hobby site. However, do only make the necessary changes and don’t redesign the whole template.

Relevance matters

In some circumstances, some people simply make the wrong choice of templates. This is a very subjective issue but you have to be careful in selecting templates to suit your audience. Do not choose templates just because they are pretty, choose them because they serve your purpose.

Author: Damien

I’m Damien, a 30 year old web designer and sometimes developer writing about everything related to web design. I am the owner of MyDesignBytes.com. You can always catch me on twitter.