In the old days of the Internet (1995) people said the
phrase "build it and they will come"

This has changed however.. with more and more sites on
the net you have to do something that will attract
people. I have found some things that have worked.

Look at all the largest sites on the Internet. Yahoo,
Altavista, Lycos, and Jayde you will see something
very similar with them. There is hardly any advanced
graphics or Javascripts on these sites. It is very
straight forward with simple text based menu with
simple compressed graphics.

I will use Yahoo as a example. It is the Largest site
on the Internet in terms of traffic. The site layout
is VERY straightforward with no moving graphics or
Javascript. This is something that people should note
when designing a site. GRAPHICS TAKE TIME TO
DOWNLOAD!

When I visit a graphic intensive site I might take the
time to wait until the download is complete if the
graphics are really cool... but trust me.. the second
time I go to the site (if there would be a second
time) I will hit that stop button faster than you can
say "long download"

Design your site as if it is a portal or search
engine. Portals have dealt with huge volumes of
traffic and have done their research. It's the cheap
way to do market research.... my college professor
once told me that if I were to open a store.. choose a
location right next to a new McDonald's. In order for
the McDonald's to be built a invest a serious amount
of money for market research is spent.. how much
traffic does the street get.. how close is it to
businesses (the people on their lunch break have very
little time for lunch and have a tendency to eat fast
food)

Trust me when I say that Yahoo or Altavista does their
research. Their livelihood depends on how their
visitor reacts to their site. They measure click
through from the main site to other areas.. they even
measure the spacing and the fonts to make sure it
appeals to their massive audience as well as design
their site for the least amount of bandwidth traffic.
They don't want to slow down their site. So their
site is VERY efficient.

About the Author
Jerks.Com
http://www.jerks.com