16 years I’ve been a web designer and entrepreneur and I’m still amazed at the number of websites that are continually being launched without one thought or consideration as to the sites design layout. Proper presentation of your content and easy user navigation are crucial to any online businesses success or failure. Failing to devote a dedicated amount of time toward designing your website’s look and feel to effectively present your content and guide your sites visitors to the areas of your site that are considered important means you are leaving a lot of money on the table.
On the internet, first impression is everything. If you don’t capture the attention of your visitors within the first 7 to 10 seconds, you can guarantee they won’t be back for a later visit. I hate to say it this way, but for as long as I’ve been doing web design, “sex sells” or in the case of web design standards, “eye candy sells”. That is to say, that a properly designed website layout which professionally represents you, your business and/or your products and services efficiently in an engaging and creative manner will greatly increase your chances of gaining repeat visitors which eventually convert to repeat customers.
For more on why you need to up your game have a look at the guest article Nathan Hangen wrote over at my friend David Risley’s blog entitled “Why You Need To Raise Your Game – NOW“.
The Secrets to a Great Design
A great website design can be achieved within a relatively short and timely manner using the right methods and tools. I like to create online environments for my projects that require the sites visitors to be much more engaged, drawing them further into the site and capturing their attention rather than simply presenting content to them. This is similar to how a sales funnel functions, allowing me to direct site visitors toward the content I want them to see.
Let’s talk about some aspects of a great design that will make it much easier for you to achieve a very professional look and feel with little to no programming or design experience. Pay close attention cuz I’m about to share with you some of my web design secrets which I typically charge my clients an easy $30,000 for!
Color Management
Believe it or not, color is the number one feature of a website that can kill your sales if not done properly. Unreadable text and dully presented call to action methods can seriously diminish the quality of your site and its ability to convert visitors into buying customers. You need to get the colors right before any further progress can be made in designing a professional looking site which presents your content effectively and converts visitors into buying customers.
To select a professional color scheme for your site that is guaranteed to be eye pleasing and will present your content in a professional manner use Adobe Kuler. It’s a free color management tool I use to create my own color schemes or select from thousands of predefined color schemes for my projects. As a matter of fact, I used Kuler to select the color scheme for my blog!
Layout Design
Content presentation and placement is also a key factor which has far reaching implications if not done properly. Before you begin to create your website or blog, or prior to making any changes to your existing site, it is important you define how you want your content presented so you can effectively direct your visitors to the content they seek in a manner that allows you to convert them into a buying customer. Where will your call to action features be placed and how will the content relevant to your call to action be presented? What areas of your site do you want your visitors to be attracted to and how will you direct them to those areas?
These are just a few of the questions I ask before starting a web design project. The answers to these questions are very important because content placement is key in driving traffic to the areas of your site that you deem important and will help you convert your traffic into buying customers. For example, you want an email list opt-in box prominently displayed on the site, typically in the upper right hand corner of your site with a clear incentive encouraging visitors to subscribe. Featured content should be displayed prominently at or near the top of the site and your overall content should be organized and displayed in a clean, professional and orderly fashion.
A basic site usually consists of a header, 1 to 3 content columns (1 content display and 1 to 2 sidebars), and a footer. My website designs, with the exception of this blog, are typically online environments rather than your standard website design. For example, my multimedia company’s new website is being developed in 3D and is set in a small, mysterious town which has a Thomas KinKade feel to it. The different content areas are stores in which you have to click a storefront to enter. Like I said, environments rather than a website 
Graphic Design
You can get away with a great color scheme and good content placement, but when it comes to graphics on your site, there just isn’t any substitute or middle ground for, good and bad graphics. I’m a perfectionist, and am well known for the quality of my work, so to me at least, there is no substitute for a good looking site. If you really want to make a good impression, then having a website that not only has a good color scheme and presents the content in an efficient manner, but also, well… just looks DAM GOOD, greatly increases your chances of gaining respect, trust and converting customers to buyers. These days, any scammer can put up a website with a cheesy template look and feel and claim to be an expert, but it is those who take their internet business seriously and want to present an eye pleasing, yet professional look and feel to their potential clients are the ones who are going to gain the respect and success they desire.
You can hire a freelance designer from eLance to create a custom design and integrate it into your blog, or you can hire me to do it. By having me do it, you’ll receive the full resources of my highly respected web deign and multimedia company which is known for its high quality work and professionalism. I provide a blog customization package that goes way beyond simple theme design and will make you look, lets just say, FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC!!!
The Best WordPress Themes to Make You Look GOOOOD!
There are literally thousands of themes available for WordPress, many of the are free. However, If you truly want to make your WordPress blog look good, you’re going to have to pay a little money. Premium WordPress themes are available for purchase usually for a small fee and can greatly enhance the functionality, look and feel of your WordPress blog. You can conduct a Google search for “premium wordpress themes”, or you can select a theme from the following providers:
For as along as I’ve been doing web design as well as blogging, I’ve only come across two premium WordPress themes that provide you with the best, most capable and easily customizable features for the NON-CODER, NON-WEB DESIGNER. If you’re looking to have way more control over the look and feel of your blog as well as customization features of your blog, then these two themes are the way to go hands down. Each one contains extremely user friendly features to change colors, layout, content presentation and more. For more advanced features they provide programming hooks that require a little code know how. If you’re looking to take advantage of the more advanced features of each of these themes, they both provide an extremely helpful support community, or you can hire me and I’ll take care of the customizations you require!
Either way you go is a good choice, but have a look at both and decide for yourself which one is best for you. I believe them both to be very powerful and I guarantee you, there isn’t any other premium theme for WordPress out there currently which gives you the customization, personalization and flexibility these two themes do.
What it all really comes down too, is you can no longer accept the status quo for your website and expect it to convert sales. You must take your blog seriously and run it like a business just as you would with your standard brick and mortar business if you want to make any real money at it. Put your personality into it and make it your own. Show people who you are and what you are about through your blog, but present it in a clean, professional, yet eye pleasing manner that will make them want to come back to learn more.
I hope you found value in this post and look forward to hearing your thoughts, comments, questions and feedback in the comments below.
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To Your Success!
Sean Smith
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