Hi,

Welcome to all our new subscribers who joined us in the last week.
The theme for this week's issue is Web Design and the article provides a few tips of how to improve the "stickiness" of your website for the visitor.  In other words they will stay and look around for a while and not click away.  You may well be aware that 8 seconds is as long as you have to make that first impression count with your visitors and they'll stay and look around a little longer.

This week’s content:

1. This week's Article entitled "7 Tips to Improve Your Website Design"
2. Something for the Newbies
3. Something for the Oldies
4. Recommendation of the week

1.         This week’s article

Title:    7 Tips to Improve Your Website Design

No matter if your website is a personal site with a few pages or a huge corporation website, having a good design is one of the most important things. It matters a lot to visitors and can make the difference between leaving a site or book marking it. Here are a few tips to help improve your design:

1. Pages should load fast. Most people will leave your site if it's not done loading in ten or 15 seconds. And even if you have a fast internet connection, not everyone does and 56k modems still exist.


2. Text should be easy to read. The text size should be big enough, and the background should not obscure your text. If you want to be safe, use black text on a white background. If you want more color, choose very carefully to make sure it's still easy to read.


3. Your website should be easy to navigate. Each link should be clearly identified as such and graphic navigation elements like buttons and tabs should be easy to read and use. You do not want people leaving because they could not figure out how your Flash menu works.


4. Your layout and design should be consistent. If you switch between styles too much, you will confuse your visitors. If the design is too different, people will believe that they are now on a different website since the layout changed.


5. Avoid music and sounds. Very few people like to have music forced on them while they navigate, especially if they are already listening to music or surfing at their job! If you really cannot do without music, turn it off by default and ask visitors to start it themselves.


6. Design for browser compatibility. Many people do not use Internet Explorer on Windows. Make sure your site is at least viewable in Mozilla Firefox and Opera (if possible, you could even try testing on a Mac). Sites that target markets like technology should be more careful, since readers are more likely to use the newest browsers and gadgets like PDAs.


7. Design for all screen resolutions. You may like to surf in 1240x1080 with your new screen, but some people still use 800x600, or even 640x768! A site that looks perfect in high resolution may turn out to be impossible to view correctly in 800x600.

And, if you have a doubt, test, test and test! You can also ask your family and friends for help. Being less familiar with the website, they can help find a lot of things you overlooked.

2.         Something for the Newbies

This is a very simple script entitled "Viral Friend Generator" (VFG) which loads to your server and creates optin forms for whatever you want to offer - a special report or an email course.  It also provides a "Tell a friend" section which they should complete before getting the free item.
Some of the features that make VFG unique and the best of its kind in the marketplace today are:

1. You choose the number of friends you want each visitor to enter into the form before they can gain access to your product.


2. The user-friendly control panel allows you to easily manage all of your VFG campaigns across all your web sites.


3. You can set a minimum number of friends required for your visitor to gain access to your product.


4. Track the number of people who tell their friends and even the number of friends who click the link inside the referral email to join your site!


5. A pre-written email is available to tell your visitors’ friends about your web site, or write your own.


6. Keep your list clean by adding a “do not mail me again” link to the end of the welcome message.


7. Redirect your visitors to any web page you want after successfully completing the form.


8. The sender receives a confirmation email after they submit your form.


9. The sender can also be notified every time one of their friends clicks on a link inside an email.


10. You get full statistics of each visitor’s activity from inside your control panel.

3.         Something for the Oldies

One of the main assets of a sales page is the graphic that shows your product.  With this software you can create these graphics in minutes... Books, boxes, discs, etc. Discover the "Secret Weapon" used by over 2000+ satisfied customers worldwide!
This software creates high quality eCovers that give your sales letter the added boost needed to make your customers decide to get the sale today. Check it out:

4.         Recommendation of the week

I just got this free ebook today and decided that you should read it as well in order to try and avoid some of the most common pitfalls for the Internet Marketer. Download the zip file at:

In the next 4 weeks I intend to change the general format of the newsletter and I hoped that you may have some ideas regarding what should be included each week. I am also thinking of just sending out an email with a link to the newsletter hosted on my server, or on the blog.  I would be very interested in receiving your comments. Please send all comments to [mailto:derek@newbieshelp.com].

I hope you found something of interest in today's issue.

Sincerely
Derek Jones
Newbies Help Newsletter - Editor

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