When designing a new website or redesigning an old one an important part is advertising space, how much do you need to include, where abouts is it going to be located and will it blend or stand out?

I have been faced with this dilemma a few times recently, the cold hard fact is that I need to profit from my websites, no matter how old or new. For the first 12 months I would love to not need a single bit of advertising space so the content could be perfectly placed and the whole navigation system, logo, rss buttons etc could all be exactly where I want them (above the fold, big and clear!) to aid the building of a solid user base. Unfortunately I’m not in a position to do this so I need to be generating revenue as soon as their is even a trickle of traffic!

If we didn’t have to worry about revenue generation then designs could be much more impressive, maybe not in colour and imagery, but certainly in overall layout which would be great for users.

I’m currently setting up a website related to vitamins and minerals, it is going to be a sort of online magazine. In my design I have decided to go for one large block of ads in the sidebar and knowhere else. I normally like to integrate ads in both sidebars, at the top (quicklinks) and then have affiliate links when possible in content as well as a google search function to make money from searches. This represents a big change for me.

Having only one block of ads on my new website I am sacrificing short-term valuable ad space in the hope of faster growth - I hope it is worth it!

The majority of my websites have different areas, even if it is only the main website and then a blog on a subdomain. I have recently been considering the designs I use on different areas of different websites I have, and whether or not I should integrate the designs so they look the same or have different ones.

On this website there are 4 sections: the main website, free image hosting, hdr info, and of course this blog! At the moment the main website and image hosting service have the same basic design (with a few tweaks), and the HDR area and this blog have dramatically different designs. So should I make all areas look the same, or make them look different?

Here is a breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of having a consistent design:

Advantages

• Users will feel more comfortable navigating between areas
• Users will build up more loyalty because it is obvious the different services are ran by the same website
• Consistency throughout the site looks more professional
• When users land on different areas from different channels they will recognise the overall ‘website identity’
• Refreshing the design is easier because you only have to worry about one design and only have to edit one file

Disadvantages

• Makes the website feel ‘smaller’, different designs make it clear the areas provide different services giving the whole company a larger feel
• You only get to play with one design, instead of trying cool new things on lots of designs
• The limitations of the design are felt across the whole site, rather than just one or two areas
• The design may not be ideal for all services

That’s all I can come up with right now – 5 advantages and 4 disadvantages. I guess that means it is more beneficial to have a consistent design.

I’m still considering this situation and am going to take action in the coming weeks upon what I decide.

I am not qualified in any kind of computer coding or programming, in fact I’m not formerly qualified in anything! The truth is you don’t need to be to run a successful online business. There are plenty of people who are qualified and have the ability to create the website you want (and need to be successful).

However one thing I do recommend is getting to grips with the basics of HTML and CSS. Learning the basics has several big advantages. For example a few lines of CSS and you can instantly change the text across your site; color, size, font; whatever you want you can change it. And these little changes can make your site look better and sometimes fresher.

Learning HTML and CSS basics will also have SEO benefits. With CSS you can reduce the amount of HTML you have on your pages, this moves the main content (text) further up the file which has SEO benefits – and visitors know no different!

With CSS you can also reduce the size of your files because of less reliance on HTML. This helps load pages quicker which improves users experience and it reduces the load on your server potentially saving you money in hosting costs!

There are many websites online which have info on CSS and HTML so you can learn the basics within literally a few hours (you will need a good memory though). Learning these little nuggets of information will save you money in programmers and also have the benefits listed above - a very good use of your time!

For more reading check out this seomoz post and this smashingmagazine post.

The web is a busy place, millions of websites all competing for visitors within their niche. Getting visitors to remember your site can be done by promoting RSS feeds and constantly referring to your site as WhateverYourNameIs.com, as well as many other methods. With the web being such a busy place it is important that your design stands out, this in itself can make you memorable.

After first visiting your site, a few months down the line a visitor may not remember your website name/address but may remember the search term they typed into Google to get to your site (it may be saved in their computer). If your site has a boring generic template used by lots of others they may search for your site, find it and think “was this is it? Ill keep looking as im not sure”. If you have a unique and memorable template they will think “yes here it is, great ive found it” and will use your website again instead of a competitors.

The redesign of our main site FreeStockImages.net is now complete, and in the process I decided to compromise purity in order so the site stands out amongst the crowd. The color scheme is ‘red/green/black’, the red and green colors naturally developed because of the header image I had chosen. I don’t think the red titles in each nav are particularly eye pleasing, and the green hyperlinks aren’t the prettiest things either. Overall the design could use different colors and be a lot purer. However the site definitely stands out more as a result, and it still doesn’t look bad (albeit not to everyones taste).

So in conclusion, when designing your website it is important to set high standards regardless of what you are trying to achieve. It is also important to stand out from the crowd, if you have the choice of either;

• The design is perfect, clean and crisp but doesn’t stand out
• It looks good, isn’t perfect but does stand out a lot more then the perfect design

I would go with the second choice everytime, you still have a good design and will have more return visitors mean higher profits for your business.

The main website is now receiving around 15,000 unique visitors a month, and continuing to grow. I also have new features (unique & good quality of course!) to integrate into the site. The problem is the current design! It is a very pretty looking site with the big image of a sunset, but the navigation bar at the top is small and fiddly and now I can’t fit anymore links on it. It also only has one sidebar, ideally for all the content I need two.

So I’m now in the process of completing a new design for the site (screenshot on right of outline). I have plenty of other jobs to be getting on with for my other sites, but I feel this is such an important issue with the site growing and new features potentially letting it grow even quicker.

When I first installed the current design I focused on it looking ‘all pretty and arty’, not thinking what would happen when I came to adding new content and the whole site needing to be more user friendly to accomodate thousands of visitors every week. Now I’m paying for it in time and money, the money lost (IMO) is from potential lost advertising revenue and the visitors not returning like they would with new features/links to bookmark accounts etc.

So when you are coming to do a new site design or improving your current one think of what you will need down the line, and when you need it in the future whether you will have the time or money to find/create a new design!

Im off to finish the new design……….Chris.