Keep It Real

Consider these points when you're building your site:

• The Web is constantly changing. Old content gets stale quickly.

• Not all people have the same browsers or the same kinds of monitors. A site that works great on your PC with a cable modem and a 19" monitor many not do as well on a laptop with a 56K modem.

• We're all sharing bandwidth and resources. Large graphics take time to get "across the wires" and they take up space in the browser cache when they finally get to the PC. We're also all competing for surfers' attention. If your site doesn't give folks what they're looking for quickly, they may go elsewhere -- quickly.

• Nobody has to visit your site. Make it worth their while.

• The law is the law. Know what's allowed online, and what's not.

• It's a jungle out there. Anyone who can get online, just might. You don't know who's visiting your site -- if it's the little old lady down the street, or a character you'd avoid under "real world" circumstances, or a hacker looking to pass some time. Make sure access you give to your site and your personal information is the kind of thing you wouldn't mind posting on a telephone pole in any ole part of town. And don't give your credit card or password information to just anybody.

• Use common sense. The Web doesn't have to be a scary place. Building and maintaining a website doesn't have to be a continually unpleasant experience. Pick your designer well, plan your site intelligently, and expect to keep your site useful for the long term. What would you want to happen, if you visited your site?

• Have fun! The Web is a great place to be, so enjoy yourself!

Keep it clean | Keep it fresh