Is Your Web Site Design Hurting Sales?

Time:2010-01-26 20:32:02 Source:Ezinearticles Author:Jason Markum

In this article I want to talk to you about your site's look, feel, and professional image.

I came online for the first time nearly 14 years ago. I was floored, I was amazed, this "Internet thing" was the coolest thing in the world!

I didn't know how all those people had built all those web pages, but I knew I wanted to build my own.

Back then, finding information on how to build a site was nearly impossible. Most people had never even heard of the Internet, and hardly anyone had written any books on the subject.

Colleges weren't even teaching web design yet.

After much tedious searching (search engines weren't what they are now), I stumbled onto a place called Anglefire that let you build your own site and hosted it for free...it also taught you HOW to build a site. There were a few places around like this....Geocities, Tripod etc.

I spent several months learning to build my own web site. I learned how to upload graphics and make them appear on the page...I slowly learned very simple HTML.

I've programmed computers since I was about seven years old, so learning HTML was easier for me then it probably would be for your average computer user....but it was still very slow going!

I finally finished building my first web site and I was just about as proud as a person could be!

I had conquered this Internet thing...I had staked out my own little corner, I had made my mark!

And the web site? It looked.....TERRIBLE!

It was absolutely horrible looking...it served no purpose. It was just a little personal site that said "Welcome to my web site" and had a couple of funny animated pictures. It had a loud background, flashing blinking text...no layout plan....clashing colors. In short, it was very ugly.

I didn't care, I was really proud of it. I showed it to everyone. Heck, my mom thought it was great!

Shortly after that I started to look at the Internet as a business and I built my first business web site. It looked only slightly better than the first site I built. I didn't care, I was just as proud of it as I was the other.

Over the years I've seen the same metamorphosis with many of my consulting clients. They come online, they slowly start to learn how to build a web site, and they've generally gotten to the stage where their site looks slightly better than if a grade school kid had scribbled something with crayons.

But they're really proud of it. THEY made it...THEY went through the Herculean effort to learn HTML or learn how to use editing software of some sort. It's their baby....

I know EXACTLY how they feel.

But the problem is, their potential customers don't care about any of that. They only know that they've stumbled onto a web site that looks.....well.....not so good.

It only takes a person a couple of seconds to decide that a web site isn't professional, and click off of it.

We spend so much time, effort, and money on marketing and advertising to get a person to come to our site, it seems like a shame not to spend a few bucks to have a professional looking web site.

I know, if you're just starting out money may be tight. But this is really not something you want to skimp on.

I've got a pretty good solution for the money conscience person (hey, I'm one of you!).

What you do is this... Create your own web site....do the best you can.

Use frontpage or any of the hundreds of HTML editors. Then once the site is done, hire someone for two or three hours to go in and clean things up a bit.

You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars hiring a firm to build you a web site. Head over to your local community college and trek over to the art department and slap a paper on the bulletin board.

Design Work Wanted:
2-3 hours of web design work
$40 per hour.
Call 555-5555

Those kids are probably talented enough to give you pretty good quality work and it won't cost you much of anything.

We're talking $80-$100 for some design work from a local college kid to turn your web site into a professional looking site. A site that someone will be comfortable purchasing stuff from.

It's more than worth the investment! Think of it this way....you don't HAVE to have a professional looking site. But I guarantee your competition will....and given the choice, who do you think your customer would rather buy from?

Jason has been writing articles online for nearly 14 years. When not writing about internet marketing, he also runs a quality office supplies web site where he finds lots of deals on a wide variety of office supplies staples and other office accessories.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Markum

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