Tips for building a website

• Design for 800 x 600 pixels. I know that's small, but there are still a lot of small monitors out there and somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% of all computers have their resolution set to the default- which is 800 X 600.
• Put your logo on all pages. Keep your navigation consistent across all pages so that the user can navigate intuitively. 
• A privacy statement and a notice to consumers disclaiming liability is essential. 

Make sure you include a privacy statement, info about yourself, a telephone number, location and hours of business.

All transactions must be secure.

Make navigation intuitive. There are millions of people who are new to the net every year. Don't lose them with arcane symbols and visual language they might misunderstand.

Use images! You're a photographer! Use small icons for navigation if possible.

Use alt tags and titles for images

Use metatags and keywords and page descriptions for the search engine spiders.

Compress images for quick downloads. I know you want your pictures to look their best, but no one will see them if they are too large. Compress jpegs to 5 or less!

Make all links the same color. Don't confuse people.

Edit text carefully. Typos and grammatical errors look unprofessional, Hire an editor if necessary.

Edit pictures carefully. Ask "does it really need to be on the site?"

Try not to use frames. They hide the url of a page and make it hard for people to bookmark pages they want to return to.

Give pages sensible titles. They will appear in the browser and printouts.

Keep url names short and intuitive. Name it gallery.html, not glry.html.

Minimize clicks. Every click you put between the start and the destination is a filter and people get left behind.

Add useful content. How about an article for brides on recommended poses?

Set the server software so people don't need to enter "www".

Add something new every now and then. Let them know you're alive.

Have a guestbook or a way to collect email addresses. Send out a short text email when you add something or enhance the site. Keep it to text. Many people cannot read html email, and many others block email with attachments.

Avoid linkrot. Test all links. There are tools to test for you.

Consider getting high speed access to your studio so sending pictures and pages to the site will go faster. Look into DSL, cable, or satellite.

Make all your links to internal pages relative not absolute. This will allow you to test on any server or move the whole site from one machine to another without breaking links.

Put your url and email address on all your printed matter. Business cards, letterhead, envelopes, brochures, etc.

Study your logs, but make sure your analysis software is omitting you and other regulars.

Use digital image metadata to store your name, copyright, email, and keywords. Some programs, like Canto Cumulus, allow you to embed info like this in the image file so it can be found by search engines that know how to read it.

Create personal, humorous error pages. "Oops!" Is better than "Error 404". Put your email address on the error page a

Tell your host about any nudity or violent images on your site before people complain.

Test with Windows, Mac, Explorer, Netscape, Opera, AOL, WebTV. Have friends test.

Promote the site with search engines and mutual links.

Plan on the site taking time and money. You just can't slap it online and ignore it. Make sure you or someone on staff has time to do the job right.

Learn how the web works. Surf. Buy. Search. View source.

Get help when you need it.

Take criticism as valuable. Pay attention to it. Praise is meaningless, criticism is priceless.