Although I wouldn't call myself a website design guru, I know what works and what doesn't in creating a successful website. I'm a super-fast learner, and I want to pass on my knowledge of website design to you, in only a few short paragraphs. Of course this isn't meant to be a full-fledged course on website design -- I hope to tell you the main things that you should be doing to design an effective website.

First of all, what determines whether or not your website is "effective?" Whether or not your visitors come, are pleased by what they see, and return! And, whether or not they feel your website is excellent enough to tell their friends about, write about in their ezines, or submit to any of the "Best of the Web" awards out there is a good starting point. Here are the things that your website absolutely MUST HAVE to be successful in the home business world

1.) An easy-to-understand navigational system.

Can your visitors get around easily, or are they easily lost? Do you have a link to get back to your home page and/or "table of contents" on EVERY page or only a select few? What if someone decides that your website is so great they decide to link to one of your secondary pages?

Ten times out of eight, other Webmasters WON'T tell you when they've linked to you. So, if they link to a page that isn't connected to your home page ... how are they supposed to find it?? It doesn't occur to most people to take the base of the URL they've visited. 90% of the time, you've just lost a potential customer.

2.) Your name and email address listed on your website.

Having an email address is just not enough. Who are your visitors supposed to address their mail to, and exactly WHAT are you hiding from?? What's the point of NOT putting your name on your web pages? Do you just forget, does it not occur to you, or are you afraid people are going to be able to figure out where you live and come stalk you just by having access to your first and last name??

Whatever the reasoning, it's absolutely ridiculous. Not having your full name plainly listed on your website is ruining your credibility and the credibility of your business. So, let me break it down for you ...

JUST DO IT! If you don't plan to list your full name and email address on your website as the BARE MINIMUM, you may as well pack it up now and call it quits.

3.) A compatible screen size for most, (if not all), browsers.

800x600 pixels is an ideal standard for your web pages. You can control the width of your website by using tables, and setting the width of the outer table to the maximum size. So in this case, you'd set the table width to 600 pixels. If you're using percentages instead of straight pixel width, set the percentage to no more than about 85-90%.

4.) A reasonable background image and color scheme.

Those orange and green backgrounds with bright red text are just NOT with it -- no matter what the amateurs say. Stick to a background/text color combination that's actually READABLE. That makes sense, right?

If you have to squint just to read the words on your pages, your background is WAY out of line, and your site needs a major color scheme makeover! Use BLACK text, or very dark colored text on a WHITE or very light colored background. Save the white on black backgrounds for pages that DON'T have a lot of text on them.

But, if you feel that you absolutely MUST have those stars, triangles, or dinosaurs cluttering up your background, make sure that you set the image as the background for the page, and put a plain WHITE table on every page that will contain text. If done right, this can be a very pleasing addition to any web page.

5.) Use mood colors.

This one isn't mandatory, but it can be helpful when setting the tone of your website. For example, green is usually referred to as a "concentration" color. So, on pages that have a lot of text, use a green background pattern (with your text in a white/light colored table) or green highlights throughout the page. But, be careful ... dark green is seen as a money color, while the regular, "standard" green is the concentration color.

You can use color to your advantage in website building, to make your visitors feel energized, relaxed, focused, more ready to make a purchase, or almost any other effect. You're only limited by your imagination! (And, of course ... color blindness.) ;-)

If you follow those five basic website design tips outlined above, designing your first website (or touching up an existing one) shouldn't be such a horror! Read all of the website design articles that you can to get a good working knowledge of design.