SucceedWithoutAPublisher.com

Web browsers

Just as every person in the world is different, so are the many computers that are connected to the Internet.

Your customers will have all sorts of problems, and you will be expected to answer questions on browser compatibility and other technical questions. If you are a sole proprietor then you should be aware of them.

People viewing your web site on Netscape may not necessarily see the same information as people viewing it from Internet Explorer or AOL.

Then there is a tiny percentage that uses older browser versions and non mainstream browsers such as Unix. As much as possible, you would want to cater to the majority, but you don't wan to alienate the minority.


If you are hand coding your web site, you need to test your web site on different browsers before you start full-throttle marketing. This will cut down on browser related problems.

Graphics

As I said previously, you don't need to have too many graphics on your web site. The only thing you should strive for is to have your web site to looking professional and clean.

You should also be careful of taking images off of other web sites. Doing so is a violation of copyright laws. Instead, you should observe how other people use pictures and how they organize their content and web layout. Then, scope out the good ideas and incorporate them in your own web site design.

Make sure that your graphics are of top quality. Graphics that are used on the web are saved in the .jpeg format. Any other format will have your images looking slightly blurry.

It's fairly easy to create your own images. There are many graphics programs that you can use, but if you want a really good quality program, I would recommend using Adobe Photoshop. This is the program that professional web designers use.

But if you don't have this program and are thinking of using clipart… well I suggest that you rethink this further. Much of the clip art available in your word processing program, and most of the free ones you find on the net are low quality. Although some of these pictures are cute, they will make your site cheesy and unprofessional - something that you want to avoid at all cost.

Microsoft.com offers slightly better quality clipart, so you might want to check them out. If you want a high quality image, you can always search for sites that sell royalty free images. One site that comes to mind is www.corbisimages.com

Just follow a basic and clean look, and you can't go wrong.

By Chantal Lima