Monday, September 22, 2008

Design Your Website to Generate Money

Design Your Website to Generate Money


If the essential purpose of a website is to generate money, then the prime step should be to turn site visitors into customers!
When internet users land up on your website, what do they do with it? The answer is simple- Whatever you want them to!

To make this a reality, you need to lead the by hand. Define a clear Action Path for your visitors, which include precise visual clues to lead them through your information to the prize shopping cart or subscription plan.

Here is how to define an appropriate action plan for your website

Space is a powerful element in website design and can be an influential factor in how visitors use the website. The appropriate placement of elements can play a vital role in defining user behavior on the site.

The prime rule in defining Action Paths is not to make visitors scroll to find actions. Keep all the call-to-action tabs like ‘Click Here’ or ‘Subscribe Here’ above the fold.
The majority of the world population reads from left-to-right and top-to-bottom. So, keep all the vital elements within these areas. Also remember that elements of design supersede text elements, that is to say that images are more important and prominent than words.
In a split second that users take to scan through the text, they take in scattered bits of data such as the headings, pictures, search box, links etc.

Balance is not the same as regularity. While regularity ensures a clean layout and consistency in the web page, balance is essential for users to concentrate on certain elements. It’s better to create an asymmetrical space when you are trying to draw attention to specific actions on the web page. And the best way to do this is by creating a balance between images and white space. And an obvious consequence of making visitors at easy with their pathways is retaining them on the site and generating further business.

White space is the space between columns, the space around images and the space between text blocks. Leaving certain sections of your website empty makes visitors’ concentrate on other areas of the page. Lending space to the design gives a flow and allows for a comfortable user experience. A comfortable user-experience promotes your credibility and prompts them to invest their faith and money in your company. Thus, your visitors will be your customers.

The colors that you use on your website play a vital role in its online success. It not only sets the tone of the web page but also calls attention to specific sections. And colors influence the psychology of people too. Different colors trigger off different emotions in people. So a wise choice of colors can help you make the users what you intend them to do. For example, setting your call to action in red, or a color that contrasts the general scheme of the page stands apart and focuses visitors.

Create a noticeable pattern through your website. This way you create a sense of expectation in the users and they become more comfortable.
Patterns can be of several types like ‘title-content-title-content’ format, lists or tabular data. Blue underlined links are perhaps the most powerful pattern type in recent times. a major advantage of adhering to web standards is that visitors know what they are meant to do immediately.

No comments: