Find a balance between information on one page, and number of clicks for navigation: So much of what you need to do to have a successful website is based on balance. Finding a balance between style, and simplicity, ads and space etc.

When it comes to your website, you want to try and keep people from having to click around as much as possible. The less people have to find where they need to go, the more apt they are to stay and view your content. If someone is having to click around 6-7 times just to get one piece of informations there’s a good chance they’ll just go somewhere else.

Of course there’s a flip side, as you can run into stuffing information onto a single page. People might hate having to click through links, but they hate scrolling through a page just as much. A good rule is to try and fit as much information as you can onto two screens. Your users should only have to scroll the mouse wheel down and up one time.

Keep Your Text Lines Succinct And Columns Narrow: The way that the human eye works, everything is based on perception. We perceive information a certain way based on how it’s present to us. For example, some like to listen to absorb information while others like to see it.

When people are trying to look at the information on your site, it’s vital that it’s easy for them to take in. Something that is overlooked from time-to-time is the size of the columns that your information is displayed on. If you’re the owner of a blog this tip is of grave importance.

No one likes lines of text that take up half of their web browsers. There’s a reason that newspapers, and magazines have narrow columns with minimal words per line. It’s easier on people’s eyes to keep up with shorter and minimal lines of text.

If you take the time to browse around the internet at a steady pace, you’ll find some interesting patterns emerge. One of those tendencies is how badly people are searching for page views, and are trying really hard to increase PR. You find it most readily apparent on blogs, particularly in emails from people wanting me to add them to a blogroll.

In the future could this grueling battle of increasing page ranking be obsolete?

If you listened to Bruce Clay, a renowned search marketing analyst, about a month ago you might have thought page rank is dead. Or atleast is dying.

(Skip to 4:06 for Clay’s “Ranking Is Dead” statement, and explanation)

Bruce Clay has since followed up his statement, and let people know exactly what he meant by the statement. He states that, “There is always going to be a reason to have ranking.”

So, what will be the true fate of page ranking? Will having the need to be on top of Google for particular keywords lose out to localization and personalization?

I believe that there will always be searches that will be determined by page rank. If you type in ‘make money online’, I don’t think any amount of personalization will overshadow the ranking for a particular website. On the flip side, a lot of searches will be made obsolete by ranking. If you type in ‘pizza delivery’, your results will bring up sites catered to your location.

I think that by watching both videos of Bruce Clay, and reflecting on my own opinions it’s rather obvious. While page ranking might not hold the merit that it once did, it’s definitely not dead….yet. Should you start focusing more on personalization, and localization of your website? Absolutely. But keeping an eye on page rank is still important, and shouldn’t be ignored.

Create A Few Template Ideas: Jumping into an idea is never a good thing. Designing websites is no exception to this rule. You’ll want to take your time and make sure you have multiple ideas from which to draw inspiration from.

When coming up with your ideas, you can write them out or create a template in a image editor. I personally use photoshop, that way I have the most extensive tool at my disposal.

Include Ads While Being User-centric: This tip is all about striking a balance between making money and having people keep visiting your website. As your website grows, you’ll undoubtedly keep trying to come up with ways to monetize your success.

Putting ads on your site is just about the only way to go for most people when turning a profit. When you start putting ads up on your site, always keep your user in mind. Make sure your ads are prevalent to the content of your site. Also, don’t go overboard with your ad placements either. While having more ads means more money, that doesn’t mean people are going to visit your site and stay.

It can be tough deciding on an Affiliate Program, as a means to generate profit for your site. There’s Google Adsense, but many have found problems with they payout. ClickBank is a pretty safe alternative, but just like any affiliate program there is no gurantee.

Here are some cool features that you will have through ClickBank:

- Earn recurring revenue through subscription products

- Choose from over 10,000 products to promote

- Single-page order form optimized for digital product conversions.

- Real time sales stats, with ROI and campaign management tools.

- Direct deposit of your earnings, now with weekly payouts!

I’ve done a test of the program, and I can speak for it. The ROI, and stats are a definite plus. As well as the direct deposit and weekly pay. Anything beats not atleast trying, right?

While randomly browsing YouTube, I found this wonderful intro movie about starting your website. If you’re just starting up your site, this video will get your headed in the right direction.

When trying to turn a profit with your website, nearly all of your money will be made from advertising. Unless you’re using your site to sell a vast amount of products. Generally though, advertising is going to be your major source of income.

When deciding on your advertising strategy it can be hard not to get dollar sign lit eyes. When this happens you can easily lose focus of what it means to have a nice website. Nothing is more apparent of this, than pop-up ads. I’m still puzzled as to why they’re still in existence. They are intrusive, and I would stack them up there with telemarketers pre-cell phone era.

Pop-up ads made more sense during the early era of the internet. People were a lot less apt to navigate away from pop-ups, and were more naive to the web. Now, they garner either sighs or giggles. Ad clicks won’t be generated by flashing bright colors, and making the user’s browser open up a new window. It will most certainly lead to the user going somewhere else, and never returning to your site.

When trying to come up with a good advertising strategy, try and be creative. Stay ahead of the curve and think up interesting, and dare I say fun ways to reach your target market.

Take advantage of all of your pages: When creating your website, there shouldn’t be any wasted space. There’s no need for it, it does no benefit for you or your users. So, when designing your site keep in mind of the entire space of your layout.

If you create a new section, see how that’s going to effect the rest of your layout. If it leaves a monstrous gap somewhere else you might want to rethink what you’re doing.

Keep It Classy: You want to know the easiest way to find a trustworthy car dealership? Take a look at how they’re advertising their car lot. If they’re using inflatable wacky arm dolls, then it’s safe to say you’re looking at a pretty sleazy joint. If you find a place that presents their deals in a coherent and eye pleasing manner, you’ve found a place worth checking out.

This idea translates into the online world. If someone opens your site, and the first thing they see is a scrolling marquee with 50 different blinking colors, they’re going to click the big red ‘X’. So, keep it simple and make sure you’re engaging your users on a real level. You need to give your users some credit in knowing what they want.

Some say that imitation is the laziest form of being creative. I like to think that for websites this idea takes a backseat. There’s nothing wrong with using templates as a chassis for designing your own.

Here are some great places to look for some nice looking site templates:

Template Monster

Free Website Templates

Website Templates.com

Templates Factory

Template World

Here are some great tips on what mistakes to watch out for when starting a site.

Once you’ve gotten done with the design portion of your site, you’ll undoubtedly be wanting to put it somewhere. For most designers this is the tricky part, because most designers (myself included) are creative thinkers. Not business minded.

So here are a few sites to check out, when looking for a domain, or place to host your site

Domain Sites

SEDO.com

Afternic.com

GoDaddy.com

Site Hosting

SiteGround

Yahoo Web Hosting

Network Solutions