by Magno Urbano

In this article I describe a few tips I learned in all the years I create web sites (since 1996!).

These are tips you should never do, if you want your site to be successful or should do in case you want it to fail…

1. Believe that everybody loves your site

A visitor wants information, entertainment or fun. A site that did not contain any of these ingredients, will fail.

2. Create the visitor a problem

The following things create problems to a visitor:

• a site “under construction”;
• a site with wrong information;
• a site that just works in one type of browser;
• a site “optimized” to work in a specific resolution…;
• a site with background music that cannot be stopped;
• a site completely built in Flash or with Flash introductions…;
• a site that needs some kind of plugin to work;
• a site that just works in one operational system;
• a site that can be read due to stupid color combinations;
• a site with so much bright or flashing stuff the requires the use of welding goggles;
• a site with letters the size of atoms, that nobody can read;
• a site without sense or goal;
• a site with all kind of crap flying around… stars, pissing dolls…butterflies… etc.;
• a site with Java (Java can be cool, but someone has to solve the loading time of this thing!);
• a pissing annoying site;
• a site with annoying repetitive images that never stop;
• a site with boxes or other stuff popping and delaying the user;
• a site that requires 5,826 clicks before allowing one to reach the content;
• a site with zillions of pages and no search box;
• a site with pages so big they are measured in light-years…;
• a site with introductions that cannot be skipped;
• a site with introductions that appear each time a user visits it.

3. Do not believe in the content

Flash is something considered cool. So, everybody wants do create a site in Flash. So, there’s a flood of “cool” sites in Flash that are completely empty. Just a crappy interface with zillions of “cool” buttons and “cool” effects and nothing to see… if you want visitors focus on content.
4.  Do not update the siteSo, you created a wonderful site and now what? You have to update it frequently. If you cannot update it daily, update it as often as possible, but once started never miss a date.
6. Create your site on FrontPage, Microsoft Word or Publisher

If you hate your site, use a Microsoft product to create it. In fact, I should extend this rule to “if you hate yourself use a Microsoft product”.

A page created with one of these programs will have 10 times its size. If you are not sure which program to use to create your site, at least you now know which one you should never use in any case.

Do not even use these programs to edit a page created in another program. They will add so much crap to the code that you will spend half of your life cleaning the mess. For God’s sake!

7. Contract an empty head John Doe to create your site

When a guy is going to a brain surgery he chooses the best surgeon he can find. Why in the hell some guys contract anyone to do a site just because he/she have talent with computers?
Why contract a designer if you can hire Little “Empty Head” Bill to build your site for free?

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