Design in your Work From Home Website
Apparently we are in a time of economic toughness. We may be looking for a few extra dollars to get through each month or maybe we just got laid off and we need a whole new source of income. With job cuts across the nation it may seem like we have run out of luck. Many people are turning towards the internet for work at home schemes ready to strike it rich, or at least earn a decent living. There are many design principles that you can use to help give you a head start in this area. Knowing what can attract a visitor and knowing how to use design to control your visitor’s attention can increase your success in your venture into the web home business scene.
There are many different types of businesses that are being run on the internet. They can range from the normal corporate website to the simple content driven affiliate site. The idea of controlling your visitor or at least trying to control your visitor is no doubt one that a website will always strive for. The first step is designing your website to be user friendly. Plan out the purpose of the website, whether it be selling a product or attracting clicks on your ads. Once you have the purpose of the website you want to focus on how to accomplish your purpose. There are a number of factors that fly through a visitors brain that can have them stay or move right along.
Start with the overall visual effect of your site. When you see your website are you pleased or do you automatically feel it is unprofessional or just plain ugly? Although, this is arguable producing a product that is visually pleasing will always automatically give it the upper hand. This can be related to marketing, Apple does a great job of making good looking products allowing it to sell to a crowd that visual aesthetics is of utmost importance. In a website this is also true but not quite to the extent of a traditional marketing sense. The web is also about information and many users disregard design to find the information they are looking for. This leads me to my next point.
Be sure that your content is clear. This will help the user find what he or she wants quickly. If they find what they are looking for there is a good chance that they will come back again when they have a similar topic. One of the best examples is Google. Technology wise Google was not always the most dominant but the ease of use was one of the big factors that it is as big as it is today. A simple search box, you can’t get any more clear than that. In the same way that your content should be clear you should also be sure that your content is actually helpful. This may not be the case for some PPC affiliate marketers, which is out of the scope of this essay, but as a general rule if you’re helpful than you will gain repeat visitors.
You have great content and a great design but business just isn’t too great. This is where trial and error will come into play. Tweaking your design is essential to analyzing your visitors and seeing how they will react to your website. This is where you start to figure out how you can control your visitor into doing what you want, ultimately make a sale or maybe click that ad that will give you some commission. The first thing you may want to consider is having your main focus point in the top of your document. There are many reasons for this but it’s fairly simple to figure out why. A user will see a portion of your page when he or she enters the page and depending on the their screen resolution the bottom of your page may not be there. Keeping your focus point on top will guarantee the user will see what you want them to see, regardless of resolution.
Another design principle you can apply is color theory. High contrasting colors will draw the attention of the visitor. Colors such as red are highly visible and bold. For example you may have a set of Google Ads in an article that is bright red. Your site may be light blue and white which will set the users focus straight to the bright red. Using colors like this is one of the easiest and oldest tricks in the book. You will definitely have to work this out with the overall visual aesthetics of the site but it is up to you to decide whether a higher conversion rate is worth the loss of some aesthetics. If you’re a good designer you can work around both and keep a great looking design while still keeping control of your visitor’s focus.
There are many ways to help you succeed in the website home business world and this was only the start. You can use these design principles in other types of design works such as print design or your next marketing piece. The main idea behind this article is using design to control your audience to do what you want them to do. It’s the same way an artist strives to make his or her audience feel what they feel.