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What Every Dedicated Webmaster Needs to Know
The following information is what I consider to be just a few very important steps of Web Design & Marketing. Each of these steps will help insure a person or companies' success by projecting a more valuable professional image, as well as make it easier to make the all important sell.

Number 1. In ALL things thou shalt SPELL CHECK!
nothing and i do meam nothin' wil make you look worst than misspeled words
and bad grammer; folowed by...!
Practically everyone has Word or Word Perfect. Write your copy, emails, etc. in one of these programs and utilize the spell checking and grammar tools. Once you’re done, copy and paste it wherever it needs to go. (Extra Tip: Save it and do backups so you'll always have a copy. If you've ever had to export your emails to disk because you now have to reformat only to find you now cannot import them back you'll be glad you did.)

Number 2. Standardize and apply the KISS rule as much as possible.
Easy navigation through your site is VERY important! As much as already been written on this subject there are webmasters who continue to make it difficult to get to the product of information. To coin a phrase from the guys at www.websitesthatsuck.com, "Mystery Meat" navigation is STUPID!" Creating a uniform site where links are clearly labeled, easy to find, and pertain to the subject is the way to go, even for the sake of cool. Also, the least amount of "Layers" to get to the "Sale" is very important. As a rule: If your customer is not able to enter credit card information by layer four, you’re not doing it right!

Number 3. Personalize!
From "About Us" pages that include pictures of you and your business to email responses that use the customers name and a sincere thank you, personalize at every opportunity. EVERYONE hates being another number, push button phone directories followed by being placed on hold and people who act like they are doing you a favor by taking your money. Every effort you make to recognize your visitors/customers as important human beings that are vital to your success will help set you apart from those that don't. Let people know who you are and that they are important to you. PS: Don't forget to get your Christmas Card Mailing List together early this year.

Number 4. Be prompt with a response.
A quick, "I don't know but I'll check" is worth 100,000 no replies. Even an autoresponder set to just tell people you got their inquiry and you'll be in touch soon are very important in establishing trust. The longer you take to reply, the more your customer thinks they don't matter to you. Nothing is better than to ask a question via email and within a half hour or less have a response. If you’re not able to do this, you should start planning now on how you can now.

Number 5. Easy on the eyes please!
Here’s a test. Take a blue page and put red text on it. Wow! It almost glows in the dark! Sort of like 3D! And that’s cool about 2 seconds till your eyes begin to cross. Easy to read fonts, complimentary colors, and good spacing are much better. The idea is to be appealing. Another important (usually overlooked) point is designing for different screen resolutions. What do your pages look like at 640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768 resolution? Do you know? Reset your monitor resolution and take a look. What about AOL users or MSN Explorer users and such? What do they see? Before you ever build your first page you should study up on this subject.
Hit a search engine and type in "web page resolutions" now.

Number 6. Include full web address
When sending out any emails and newsletters that refer to articles posted on your web site, ALWAYS make sure that you include the full web
address: http://www.yourdomain.com instead of: www.yourdomain.com. This will create a clickable hyperlink to the info or article that will eliminate three additional steps for your viewers to perform, thus making it easier for them to get to your page, which is your goal. :)

Stuart Gregory
Omega Web Works
http://www.omegawebworks.com