10 Golden Rules in Website Design - Rule # 2

When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally and serves its purpose. Here is the second of ten important rules of thumb to make sure your website performs well.

Do not use excessive banner advertisements

There is nothing more off putting than being greeted by a wall of advertising banners when you enter a website. It practically screams "I only want you to visit my site so I can make money off of you".

Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements, so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valuable content and weave relevant affiliate links into that content. Let your visitors feel that they want to buy something from your site instead of being pushed into buying it.

You can do this a number of ways. For example, having a "for more information please visit..." box tied to an affiliate link is probably the simplest. That way, you're doing visitors a favor and pointing them in the direction of something that can help. The fact that it might make you some money becomes a secondary issue.

Installing Google AdSense on your site is another. These small, classified ad. type advertisements offer visitors information based on keywords found on your website. Every time someone clicks on the ad., you get paid. They're a good way to monetize non-sales websites - blogs, for example.