43 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid

There are several lists of web design mistakes around the Internet. Most of them, however, are the “Most common” or “Top 10” mistakes. Every time I crossed one of those lists I would think to myself: “Come on, there must be more than 10 mistakes…”. Then I decided to write down all the web design mistakes that would come into my head; within half an hour I had over thirty of them listed. Afterwards I did some research around the web and the list grew to 43 points.
The next step was to write a short description for each one, and the result is the collection of mistakes that you will find below. Some of the points are common sense, others are quite polemic. Most of them apply to any website though, whether we talk about a business entity or a blog. Enjoy!
1. The user must know what the site is about in seconds: attention is one the most valuable currencies on the Internet. If a visitor can not figure what your site is about in a couple of seconds, he will probably just go somewhere else. Your site must communicate why I should spend my time there, and FAST!
2. Make the content scannable: this is the Internet, not a book, so forget large blocks of text. Probably I will be visiting your site while I work on other stuff so make sure that I can scan through the entire content. Bullet points, headers, subheaders, lists. Anything that will help the reader filter what he is looking for.
3. Do not use fancy fonts that are unreadable: sure there are some fonts that will give a sophisticated look to your website. But are they readable? If your main objective is to deliver a message and get the visitors reading your stuff, then you should make the process comfortable for them.
4. Do not use tiny fonts: the previous point applies here, you want to make sure that readers are comfortable reading your content. My Firefox does have a zooming feature, but if I need to use on your website it will probably be the last time I visit it.
5. Do not open new browser windows: I used to do that on my first websites. The logic was simple, if I open new browser windows for external links the user will never leave my site. WRONG! Let the user control where he wants the links to open. There is a reason why browsers have a huge “Back” button. Do not worry about sending the visitor to another website, he will get back if he wants to (even porn sites are starting to get conscious regarding this point lately…).
6. Do not resize the user’s browser windows: the user should be in control of his browser. If you resize it you will risk to mess things up on his side, and what is worse you might lose your credibility in front of him.
7. Do not require a registration unless it is necessary: lets put this straight, when I browse around the Internet I want to get information, not the other way around. Do not force me to register up and leave my email address and other details unless it is absolutely necessary (i.e. unless what you offer is so good that I will bear with the registration).
8. Never subscribe the visitor for something without his consent: do not automatically subscribe a visitor to newsletters when he registers up on your site. Sending unsolicited emails around is not the best way to make friends.
9. Do not overuse Flash: apart from increasing the load time of your website, excessive usage of Flash might also annoy the visitors. Use it only if you must offer features that are not supported by static pages.
10. Do not play music: on the early years of the Internet web developers always tried to successfully integrate music into websites. Guess what, they failed miserably. Do not use music, period.
11. If you MUST play an audio file let the user start it: some situations might require an audio file. You might need to deliver a speech to the user or your guided tour might have an audio component. That is fine. Just make sure that the user is in control, let him push the “Play” button as opposed to jamming the music on his face right after he enters the website.
12. Do not clutter your website with badges: first of all, badges of networks and communities make a site look very unprofessional. Even if we are talking about awards and recognition badges you should place them on the “About Us” page.
13. Do not use a homepage that just launches the “real” website: the smaller the number of steps required for the user to access your content, the better.
14. Make sure to include contact details: there is nothing worse than a website that has no contact details. This is not bad only for the visitors, but also for yourself. You might lose important feedback along the way.
15. Do not break the “Back” button: this is a very basic principle of usability. Do not break the “Back” button under any circumstance. Opening new browser windows will break it, for instance, and some Javascript links might also break them.
16. Do not use blinking text: unless your visitors are coming straight from 1996, that is.
17. Avoid complex URL structures: a simple, keyword-based URL structure will not only improve your search engine rankings, but it will also make it easier for the reader to identify the content of your pages before visiting them.
18. Use CSS over HTML tables: HTML tables were used to create page layouts. With the advent of CSS, however, there is no reason to stick to them. CSS is faster, more reliable and it offers many more features.
19. Make sure users can search the whole website: there is a reason why search engines revolutionized the Internet. You probably guessed it, because they make it very easy to find the information we are looking for. Do not neglect this on your site.
20. Avoid “drop down” menus: the user should be able to see all the navigation options straight way. Using “drop down” menus might confuse things and hide the information the reader was actually looking for.
21. Use text navigation: text navigation is not only faster but it is also more reliable. Some users, for instance, browse the Internet with images turned off.
22. If you are linking to PDF files disclose it: ever clicked on a link only to see your browser freezing while Acrobat Reader launches to open that (unrequested) PDF file? That is pretty annoying so make sure to explicit links pointing to PDF files so that users can handle them properly.
23. Do not confuse the visitor with many versions: avoid confusing the visitor with too many versions of your website. What bandwidth do I prefer? 56Kbps? 128Kbps? Flash or HTML? Man, just give me the content!
24. Do not blend advertising inside the content: blending advertising like Adsense units inside your content might increase your click-through rate on the short term. Over the long run, however, this will reduce your readership base. An annoyed visitor is a lost visitor.
25. Use a simple navigation structure: sometimes less is more. This rule usually applies to people and choices. Make sure that your website has a single, clear navigation structure. The last thing you want is to confuse the reader regarding where he should go to find the information he is looking for.
26. Avoid “intros”: do not force the user to watch or read something before he can access to the real content. This is plain annoying, and he will stay only if what you have to offer is really unique.
27. Do not use FrontPage: this point extends to other cheap HTML editors. While they appear to make web design easier, the output will be a poorly crafted code, incompatible with different browsers and with several bugs.
28. Make sure your website is cross-browser compatible: not all browsers are created equal, and not all of them interpret CSS and other languages on the same way. Like it or not, you will need to make your website compatible with the most used browsers on the market, else you will lose readers over the long term.
29. Make sure to include anchor text on links: I confess I used to do that mistake until some time ago. It is easier to tell people to “click here”. But this is not efficient. Make sure to include a relevant anchor text on your links. It will ensure that the reader knows where he is going to if he clicks the link, and it will also create SEO benefits for the external site where the link is pointing.
30. Do not cloak links: apart from having a clear anchor text, the user must also be able to see where the link is pointing on the status bar of his browser. If you cloak your links (either because they are affiliate ones or due to other reasons) your site will lose credibility.
31. Make links visible: the visitor should be able to recognize what is clickable and what is not, easily. Make sure that your links have a contrasting color (the standard blue color is the optimal most of the times). Possibly also make them underlined.
32. Do not underline or color normal text: do not underline normal text unless absolutely necessary. Just as users need to recognize links easily, they should not get the idea that something is clickable when in reality it is not.
33. Make clicked links change color: this point is very important for the usability of your website. Clicked links that change color help the user to locate himself more easily around your site, making sure that he will not end up visiting the same pages unintentionally.
34. Do not use animated GIFs: unless you have advertising banners that require animation, avoid animated GIFs. They make a site look unprofessional and detract the attention from the content.
35. Make sure to use the ALT and TITLE attributes for images: apart from having SEO benefits the ALT and TITLE attributes for images will play an important role for blind users.
36. Do not use harsh colors: if the user is getting a headache after visiting your site for 10 consecutive minutes, you probably should pick a better color scheme. Design the color palette around your objectives (i.e. deliver a mood, let the user focus on the content, etc.).
37. Do not use pop ups: this point refers to pop ups of any kind. Even user requested pop ups are a bad idea given the increasing amount of pop blockers out there.
38. Avoid Javascript links: those links execute a small Javascript when the user clicks on them. Stay away from them since they often create problems for the user.
39. Include functional links on your footer: people are used to scrolling down to the footer of a website if they are not finding a specific information. At the very least you want to include a link to the Homepage and possibly a link to the “Contact Us” page.
40. Avoid long pages: guess what, if the user needs to scroll down forever in order to read your content he will probably just skip it altogether. If that is the case with your website make it shorter and improve the navigation structure.
41. No horizontal scrolling: while some vertical scrolling is tolerable, the same can not be said about horizontal scrolling. The most used screen resolution nowadays is 1024 x 768 pixels, so make sure that your website fits inside it.
42. No spelling or grammatical mistakes: this is not a web design mistake, but it is one of the most important factors affecting the overall quality of a website. Make sure that your links and texts do not contain spelling or grammatical mistakes.
43. If you use CAPTCHA make sure the letters are readable: several sites use CAPTCHA filters as a method of reducing spam on comments or on registration forms. There is just one problem with it, most of the times the user needs to call his whole family to decipher the letters.

How To Keep Your Brand Consistency As A Blogger

A brand is way more than your logo and slogan. The overall style that defines you as a blogger can tell people to expect this and that from you. People tend to like what they recognize. We give trust to things that all to something familiar. If you make it easy for anybody to perceive who you are and you stick to that persona you’ll surely make a good impression in the long haul.
To state it upfront: diversity is undeniably good when you are a blogger. You can settle upon a wide range of topics to write about, you get to revamp the site from time to time and explore new ways to express yourself on the social media. A brand’s life is more relaxed in the blogosphere than, for instance, in the B2C world where each product has to create strong recognition in order to sell. We all know that.
However, what I am going to say (in the next 200 words or so) is just this: once you have defined your own style, stray from it no more so that you’ll earn readers’ trust and build a loyal fan base.

Clean your blog’s appearance

When it comes to the design of your website, every detail should make a harmonious statement. Choose an assembly of no more than maybe 2-3 matching fonts (Kernest can help you combine them aesthetically). Decide the class parameters for links and set some unitary rules over when to use bold and italic in the body of the articles.
Images and color palettes used on the site also need to be coherent all together. And the core element, your logo, should be nothing less than wonderful. It’s a good idea to hire a designer on this, to be sure the graphics will be distinctive and appealing. If you’re on a tight budget, 99designs can be a great alternative.

Create a post trademark

It may be a crossed interview held simultaneously by two bloggers with a single interviewee. Or a face-to-face type of post like Daniel does. Or anything you would find relevant. Find a special formula of post and regularly spice up your blog with it. This is a trait of A-list blogs that you can easily put into practice.

Admit your own biases publicly if they exist

It’s pretty hard to keep 100% unbiased – and actually few blogs try to. The essential thing is not to camouflate your partialities behind a fake objective tone, or you will lose credibility. First of all, choose carefully who you advocate and make sure you do believe in that party, so that you can write about it in a convincing manner. After that, go ahead and tell people: “This is me and those are my beliefs; now hear what I have to say”.
For instance, if you’d like to advocate Microsoft and hence you love Internet Explorer, make your readers aware of that, so that they won’t be intrigued that you refused to review their app just because they’re on the Firefox bandwagon. You got my point. Maybe you’re not in for Pulitzer award, but anyhow it’s good to be honest.

Use whitelabels

Customize and adapt everything that may interfere with your public presence and wipe out parasite messages. For instance, we often use third party services to create and disseminate web forms and surveys, newsletters or press releases. In respect for your own image, all materials that are sent to the public should display your own logo and bare the minimum identification elements of the original service.
I really am tired of those newsletters I occasionally with a prominent Vocus mark on their headline. It takes me some 5 seconds to realize the message is actually from a financial blog I subscribed to, and this thing sucks. Consider spending a few bucks more and maybe buying a license for the sake of having a whitelabel material that you can customize for your own brand.

Design a brand-centered Facebook fan page

Apart from the website itself, Facebook is the second best piece of web real estate for your blog. Customize your fan page to display the distinctive appearance of your blog. The cover photo can be a sample of your site’s header or a combination of graphics that resemble it, like Lifehacker has. You can unleash your creativity with the Welcome tab HTML – make it speak clearly about your brand!

Remain a real person

A friend’s advice: don’t let your own personality be assimilated to the blog itself. You are the head of it, but you may lose opportunities of networking and personal development if you incorporate your image totally in your work. Put up a profile for yourself on social networks, apart from your business pages. This way you will add value to your business online presence, by proving there is a real human behind it.
Good luck!

Microsoft Security Essentials vs Avira vs avast! vs AVG: Best free anti-virus/anti-malware program for Windows [3rd Edition]

Without a doubt one of the most popular questions I am asked is "which security software should I use for my computer?" Often times the person asking me the question is looking for a free security solution as opposed to a paid one. To address this question, I have already created a post on best security software. However, now - in this article - I am going to directly address the issue of "should I use Avira, avast!, or AVG?" Of course there are many other free anti-virus/anti-malware software. However, I feel these three are the most popular and most commonly inquired about, hence why I picked them.

Update on December 3, 2010: Because of its growing popularity, and requests made to me by many people, Microsoft Security Essentials is now included in this comparison.

When evaluating security software and trying to decide which one you want to use, there are two main areas which you should look at: Features and performance. So, lets get started.
Table of Contents
Summary of Update
Features Comparison
Performance Comparison

Detection Rates
Malware Removal Effectiveness
Computer Impact

Final Verdict
Download Links
Summary of Update
In the 3rd edition of dotTech's guide on Best Free Windows Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware the following changes have been made:

• Features Comparison section has been updated to reflect new features added to Avira Free, avast! Free, AVG Free, and Microsoft Security Essentials since the 2nd edition of this article was written. All four made tweaks and modifications to their existing features; the major new features are:
• Avira Free - "WebGuard"
• avast! Free - Behavior blocker, "Auto Sandbox", "Script Shield", "WebRep"
• AVG Free - Largely unchanged
• Microsoft Security Essentials - Behavior blocker, "Network Inspection System"

• Performance Comparison section has been updated to reflect new on-demand and retrospective detection rates for Avira Free, avast! Free, and Microsoft Security Essentials. AVG Free did not participate in the latest retrospective tests so AVG Free's detection rates have been updated only for on-demand tests.
• Performance Comparison's sub-section Speed and Computer Usage has been rewritten with a new source and renamed to Computer Impact.
• Performance Comparison now includes a new sub-section, Malware Removal Effectiveness.

Features Comparison

(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)

In terms of features, as you can see in the chart above, all four programs provide the necessary fundamental protection. However, it is worth noting that neither of the programs provide full/advanced phishing protection; you will have to cough up money for paid versions to get full/advanced phishing protection. Or, you could just be careful about what links you click; and double-check to make sure the website you are at is who it claims to be since phishing success heavily depends on social engineering and user ambivalence.

Furthermore, while all four programs provide the fundamentals, avast! is the most notable one for going "above and beyond" the basics and providing a little extra bang for the buck (or lack thereof). In other words, avast! provides more "extra" features than the other three, although AVG Free also has some nice extras. It also should be noted Avira Free's "WebGuard" requires users to install Avira Toolbar, which is powered by Ask.com; and Microsoft Security Essentials has an interesting feature called "Network Inspection System" -- a guard against network-based exploits.

Lastly, even though Microsoft Security Essentials is the only one to not prompt users with advertisements it must be noted that the ads in avast! Free are non-intrusive and embedded within the main console window - they are not the popup ads Avira Free is notorious for and AVG Free sometimes displays.

Performance Comparison
Detection Rates

(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)

(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)

When viewing the above test results, keep a few things in mind:

• The On-Demand Anti-Malware Tests are tests done on the security software with all their features enabled (with all settings set to the highest possible). The Retrospective/Proactive Anti-Malware Tests are tests done specifically on the security softwares' heuristics capabilities; their capabilities to protect against unknown/new malware that have no signatures. It needs to be mentioned that heuristics is not the only feature that security software use against unknown/new malware. Other feature, such as behavior blocking, also help detect unknown/new malware; however only the heuristics feature (and no other features, such as behavior blocking) was tested in the Retrospective/Proactive Anti-Malware Tests.
• For the The On-Demand Anti-Malware Tests
• Microsoft Security Essentials had "very few" false positives; Avira had "few" false positives; avast! had "few" false positives; and AVG had "many" false positives.
• Avira scanned at "fast" speed; avast! scanned at "fast" speed; AVG scanned at "average" speed; and Microsoft Security Essentials scanned at "slow" speed.
• The tests were conducted 1-5 months ago. In other words, Avira, avast!, AVG, and MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) may have improved (or degraded) their performance since these tests were conducted. These are the versions of each program used for both of the above tests:

• The tests were conducted using the free version of Avira ("Avira AntiVir Personal" is another name for Avira Free); free and paid version of AVG, respectively for each test; and free version of avast!. Microsoft Security Essentials, of course, is free by definition.

Because of the above mentioned points,

• The performance of each software today may be different than when the tests were conducted.
• The performance of the free edition AVG may perform slightly differ than what is shown above since paid version for AVG was used for one test.

However, keeping that in mind, for the purposes of a simple comparison these test results work just fine because they give general indications, which is what we are looking for.

That being said, the results are a clear indication of Avira's detection superiority. Not only does Avira have the highest on-demand detection rates, but it also tops the chart for retrospective tests; all with fast scanning and few false positives. avast! comes in a close second with healthy on-demand and retrospective rates, fast scanning, and few false positives. MSE is fourth in on-demand detection but does very well in retrospective tests and comes out on top when it comes to false positives. (It should be noted MSE's lower on-demand rates help it do better in terms of false positives: It detects less so there is less chance of it to have false positives.) AVG, in my opinion, is the most disappointing of the lot. It doesn't do too badly in on-demand but does terrible for retrospective and has many false positives.

Based off just these test results, Avira and avast! are definitely my two top picks, with MSE a close third. However, the tests were conducted in a lab setting for benchmark purposes. In other words, they don't exactly reflect "real life". In real-life usage the protection between all four program will be similar because most user activity will fall within areas covered by all four. I may be a bit bold when I say this but the differences between all four software will typically only be felt when conducting benchmarks or tests.

Malware Removal Effectiveness

(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)

Being able to detect malware has value in of itself; simply knowing you are infected is worthwhile. However, an anti-virus/anti-malware program that cannot remove malware is probably one you don't want to have. Hence in the 3rd edition of dotTech's guide on Best Free Windows Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware we look at the results of a malware removal effectiveness test.

Before we discuss the results it must be noted this malware removal effectiveness test had limited scope -- it only used ten samples. It is hard, and frankly not fair or logical, to draw authoritative conclusions based on a test that only used ten samples. However, for the purposes of a non-authoritative indicator, this test will do just fine... as long as you keep in mind the limited scope.

That said, Avira once again tops the charts. MSE comes in a close second with AVG and avast! lagging as distant third and fourth, respectively. As I said, this test used only ten samples so we can't say avast! or AVG are incompetent at removing malware while Avira or MSE are the best. The results very well could have been different if different ten malware samples were picked. (That is why having a large, randomized sample size is important in any test.) However, I believe it is fair to say with its combined stellar performance on-demand and retrospective detection rates and malware removal effectiveness, Avira more than makes up in performance what it lacks in features.

Computer Impact

(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)

(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)

(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)

NOTE: Avira Free 2012, avast! Free v6, AVG AntiVirus 2012, and Microsoft Security Essentials v2.1 were used for the above tests.

Generally speaking, the computer impact of all four software is about the same. True, avast! does come out on top but only by a small margin; and this small margin will only be noticed when benchmarking -- not in real-life usage. Really the only test worth noting is opening Word and opening PDF. In this test avast! out shines the other three on the first run (subsequent run they all perform the same). All other aspects of the Computer Impact test end up with results that are too close to draw lines between.

(For those that don't know, PC Mark is a professional, industry-recognized benchmarking tool. The higher PC Mark score, the better. However, when it comes to PC Mark, few points here and there have no significant meaning. If PC Mark scores were drastically different, such as 50 or more, then it would be worth looking at.)

Note: All tests referenced in all Performance Comparison sub-sections of this article were not conducted by dotTech. They (the tests) were conducted by AV-Comparatives.org, an authority on security software testing. I attained permission to re-publish AV-Comparatives' results on dotTech when I originally wrote this article.

Final Verdict
While there are some noteworthy aspects - such as Microsoft Security Essential's low false positive count or avast!'s lowest computer impact or Avira's best detection and removal performance - there is no one "winner" between Microsoft Security Essentials, Avira Free, avast! Free, and AVG Free. To try to determine which one is the "best" is like trying to split hairs; it is hard to do and it hurts. In real-life situations, all four programs will provide users with excellent protection.
However, with that being said, if I were to rank these four I would rank Avira and avast! as my top two picks; Avira for its detection and malware removal and avast! for its features and lowest computer impact. Microsoft Security Essentials and AVG come after Avira and avast!, with each providing one or two unique features that have potential to win over users.
Now, what program you should use comes down to your specific needs and desires. Want the most features? avast! Free is the way to go. Are you looking for the best detection rates and don't care about anything else? Avira Free is for you. Want a simple anti-malware program that provides great protection without nagging ads? Microsoft Security Essentials beckons you. Worried about network security? Microsoft Security Essentials' "Network Inspection System" may serve you well. Are you a social network addict? Go with AVG Free for it has "Social Network Protection". Hate false positives? Avoid AVG and consider Microsoft Security Essentials. Dislike slow scan times? Don't get Microsoft Security Essentials. Surf the web a lot, besides your frequent websites? avast! Free's "Web Shield" provides better specialized protection in that area than the other three programs. Download lots of software? avast! Free's "Auto Sandbox" may be your next best friend.
I have provided you with the facts; now the choice of Microsoft Security Essentials, Avira Free, avast! Free, or AVG free is in your hands. Whichever one you pick, rest assured all four will serve you well.
Download Links

Avira Free AntiVirus

Supported OS: Windows 2000+

Avira AntiVir Personal homepage [download link]
avast! Free Antivirus

Supported OS: Windows XP+

avast! Free Antivirus homepage [download link]
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

Supported OS: Windows 2000+

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition homepage [download link]
Microsoft Security Essentials

Supported OS: Windows XP and higher

Microsoft Security Essentials homepage

Top 25 Web Design Blogs

The Top 25 Blogs is becoming a trademark around here. We have already created the Top 25 Blogs About Blogging and the Top 25 SEO Blogs. Now it is time to cover the web design niche.
I have a lot of fun compiling these lists because it allows me to discover a bunch of new blogs, most of them with excellent content. It is also interesting to see how the different blogs on a specific niche perform under the parameters. Once again we based the analysis on Google’s Pagerank, Alexa rank, Bloglines subscribers and Technorati authority. The details about the algorithm can be found below the table.

#1	A List Apart	8	10	10	10	38
#2	Smashing Magazine	6	10	10	10	36
#3	456 Berea Street	7	8	10	8	33
#4	Meyer Web	8	7	9	7	31
#5	Simple Bits	7	7	10	6	30
#6	Pearsonified	7	6	7	10	30
#7	Tutorial Blog	5	8	7	8	28
#8	CSS Beauty	7	8	7	5	27
#9	Snook.ca	7	7	7	6	27
#10	Bartelme Design	7	6	9	4	26
#11	The Man in Blue	7	5	10	3	25
#12	Andy Budd	8	3	10	4	25
#13	Particle Tree	6	6	8	5	25
#14	Warpspire	7	4	3	10	24
#15	Brian Gardner	6	7	1	10	24
#16	Sitepoint Design Blog	6	10	4	4	24
#17	The Undersigned	7	3	3	10	23
#18	Bitt Box	5	7	5	6	23
#19	Fadtastic	5	3	5	10	23
#20	Colour Lovers	0	9	5	8	14
#21	David Airey	4	7	3	8	22
#22	Design Meltdown	5	6	7	4	22
#23	Clagnut	7	3	8	3	21
#24	Dev Lounge	6	6	4	5	21
#25	Smiley Cat	6	4	7	3	20

Blogs considered: the list considers only blogs that have a high percentage of web design related content.
Google Pagerank (0 to 10): the actual Pagerank was used on the algorithm.

Alexa Rank (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on the Alexa Rank (i.e., 150k and up, 150k-100k, 100k-75k, 75k-50k) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).
Bloglines Subscribers (0 to 10): Subscriber ranges were determined (i.e., 1-50, 50-100, 100-150, 150-200) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

Technorati Authority (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on Technorati’s Authority rank (i.e., 1-100, 100-200, 200-400,400-600) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

How to Make Your Blog Stand Out

Whether you’re blogging for profit, pleasure or promotion, your primary goal will always be to get as many eyeballs as possible on your posts. As the bigger kids on the blogging block – like Daily Blog Tips – have proven, it’s possible to start from scratch and attract a substantial, highly profitable following over time.
Some of the most popular niche sites such as Mashable began as hobby blogs and now serve up millions of page views per month. If you want to get to that level, there are a few things you should keep in mind when structuring your blog’s content and layout.
Niche It Up
First and foremost, memorable blogs tend to zero in on a lower-level niche at a particular level of specificity. For instance, you won’t have much success by focusing a blog on “technology”, as it’s too broad a topic. Google, Bing and the like will favour the heavyweights when it comes to search engine rankings and visitors are more likely to drift towards a trusted source. A more reasonable niche to pursue would be “creative industry technology”. It’s a lot easier to corner a smaller niche than it is to dominate a broad swath of the market, and you can deliver higher-quality content to your readers by narrowing your focus.
Avoid the Clichés and Find Your Voice
One of the main problems with most bloggers is that they use a generic approach to crafting blog posts and entries. While such utilitarian writing styles have their place in standard reviews, tutorials and news items, they don’t really resonate with readers and are extremely forgettable. When is the last time you saw a post on Yahoo News or even Mashable that really stood out to you? Bloggers like Seth Godin and James Altucher have a distinctive writing style that’s easily recognisable, which is something you should attempt to emulate in your own way.
Take Risks and Be Passionate
When you take an unconventional stand, people respect your integrity and will debate you on your point of view. Don’t be controversial just for the sake of being edgy, but avoid vanilla-flavored boilerplate op-eds that are forgettable. In addition, you should blog about something that really lights your fire intellectually. When you work on something you love, your passion shines through the underlying content and attracts a dedicated, die-hard core of readers that are extremely loyal. Furthermore, those fanatical readers often do your evangelising for you and promote your blog in an organic manner through social media channels.
Build a Destination & a Reputation
Probably the most brilliant thing Apple ever did with the iPhone was to create an all-inclusive platform for users. In other words, they crafted an entire ecosystem instead of just an operating system or a piece of hardware. Alongside iTunes, the iPhone forms a one-stop iOS destination for apps and media content. Your blog should be a one-stop shop for information on your niche that your readers will immediately jump to when they need advice. Make sure your deep content is well-indexed and easy to find, and invest time in perfecting internal linking to increase time-on-site and boost page views.
Parting Words
The most important thing to remember is that very few people strike gold on their first attempt on any given blog. If a successful, high-traffic blog is integral to your overall business plan, you’ll just have to tough it out and plug away until you discover the magic formula. Finally, always remember that all the fancy software and SEO tactics in the world can’t replace quality content that delivers value. Craft relatable content that first and foremost helps your audience, and the traffic will follow sooner or later.

8 Key Tips for Building Successful Website

1. Content (Useful, informative, free, and easy to understand)

If you offer well written, original, easy to understand information, spiced up with good imagery, the chances of getting quality links, social media exposure and high spots in SERPs are bigger. The whole point of the Internet is finding useful, relevant, free information. Everything is about information. If you’re able to convey it in a manner that stands out from the crowd you’re automatically step ahead from the others in the pool.

2. Basic SEO

I vouch for the fact that you don’t have to be a SEO expert to rank your site high on Google search. Just several things to remember here:

• include meta title tags,
• optimal and natural usage of keywords,
• provide good link bait article titles,
• simple navigation through out the site,
• proper usage of H1, H2 and H3 tags,
• include sitemap,
• use Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics to gain insight on what works and what’s not,
• use robots.txt file,
• proper permalink structure,
• avoid duplicate content (CMS issue),
• use canonical tags.
• read the Google SEO Starter Guide (PDF).

3. Design

You want more eyeballs on your website, and you want them to stick with it more often. Except offering quality content you’ll need some good graphics for your site. Number one tip: If you’re serious about your site don’t use free, generic template. I would go even further. Don’t use paid template that is available online for others to buy. Pay someone to design a unique website for you. It doesn’t need to be jaw dropping and very expensive. A simple, pretty enough, and unique look would be good for starters.

4. Competitors

Whatever you do, you have to be more innovative, original, have a better design, better content than your competitors. Simply try to beat the competition. Use them to learn what works for them, and what doesn’t. Don’t be antagonistic towards them. Instead try to befriend them and let them become your mentors. They rule your niche at this moment. Learn what they did in order to achieve what they are now. That doesn’t mean just to read their blogs daily, but to investigate what they are doing. Where is their presence, who is linking to them, what CMS are they using, their SEO etc.

5. Promotion

Promote your site whenever you have a chance to do it, but do not exaggerate (don’t be a spammer). Also several things to remember here:

• use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or any other social platform popular at the moment,
• comment on other blogs related to your niche,
• be active on forums,
• guest post frequently on well established blogs,
• pay for ads if you really have to (Adwords).

This will certainly lead to significant exposure of your site. If you have the previous 4 points in place it’s just a matter of time when the ball starts rolling.

6. Speed

Make your site load fast as much as possible. This is important from two aspects: user experience and a SEO factor. Several things to remember:

• Use good server
• Optimize your code,
• Optimize the images,
• Use sprites,
• Use tools such as Google Speed, YSlow, Web Page Test, Pingdom,
• Gzip and minify your pages and static components where possible,
• Make your pages cacheable (both server and browser side),
• Use CDN for static content,
• If you’re using scripts, prefer asynchronous loading or place them at the bottom,
• Avoid redirects,
• Read in details what Google and Yahoo have to say about it.

7. E-mail addresses and RSS subscribers

Usually young webmasters and bloggers are overwhelmed with information and it might happen to forget to implement thing or two or they may think that some of the tips are irrelevant and not worth. So remember, capture e-mail addresses and get people to subscribe to your feed early. Two-three years from now (if you’re good) you might have 50k email list and 50k RSS Subcribers. And that is a big valuable asset. Trust me.

8. Monetization

This is the cherry on top of the cake. It’s time to gather the fruits of your labor. I’ll suggest don’t do it early. Wait some time until your blog gets traction. The possibilities are virtually endless and experimentation is the key. There are basically three main methods to get money out of your blog/site:

• Placing ads (CPC, CPM, CPA, CPV). Basically you need click, page view, action or video view in order to get paid.
• Promoting affiliate products.
• Selling you own products (ebooks, membership websites, services – design, coding, coaching, etc).

Wrap up
Of course these 8 tips are not everything you should have in mind but I would say they’re essential. Anyhow, the most important tip would be that you do your experiments with everything I said above and come to your own conclusions about what works for you, your blog and your niche.
Vlatko is the owner of Keen Talks. Check it out to find Featured Talks, Lectures, Interviews, and Debates.