If You Must...

Naturally, I'd prefer it if you would hire me to design or redesign your site. But if you must go the DIY route, here are a few tips.

Even if you're using FrontPage, Composer, or another WYSIWYG editor, learn a little basic HTML. It's simpler than you might think. An excellent resource for this is www.webmonkey.com. WYSIWYG editors are notorious for making heavy, messy code. (That means they often put in more code than is strictly necessary, making your pages load slower for those on dial-up).

If you know a little basic HTML, you can create your site in an editor program, and then go in and clean up the code, making for a cleaner, faster site.

Make sure you save your pictures at exactly the size and resolution you need them to be. Most digital pictures are saved at a much higher resolution and larger size than is necessary for the web. If the pics on your site take forever to load on dial-up, you can bet your sweet bippy they're bigger than necessary. If you've got Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, open the pic up and change the image size to exactly what you need for your site, and change the resolution to 72 dpi. If you don't want to shell out for Photoshop, there are freeware programs available like ReaJPG.

And if all else fails, stop pulling your hair out and call a geek like me to take care of it for you. So you can get back to the business of running your business.