Tips on How to Build an Effective Homepage for Your Website!

 This was previously published by me (pen name Marie Heyns) on Triond on May 4th 2012

Since your homepage is people’s first encounter with your website, it is of vital importance that it makes a lasting impression as this greatly affects their decision to revisit it. The homepage is the page that can either leave users intrigued with a desire to learn more about your organization or it can cause them to become irritated, confused and ultimately to abandon your site. This article contains some tips for designing an effective homepage.

1  First of all, you have to define who you are or what the organization is about. Make sure you clearly display your company name, logo and tag line preferably near the top of the page. Generally users will scan your page starting at the top-left, so this is ideal place for your logo. Clearly show your identity and make sure it is aligned with what they are expecting. Also clearly state if your site is local or national, a small business or a corporation and if it is modern or traditional.

2 Avoid sleazy elements such as a lot of scrolling text, animated GIFS, blinking, flashing objects or sound that auto-loads. Sounds and animation are very distracting. Visitors with slow connections may feel resentful that you’re wasting their time by forcing them to load animations and sound files before actually seeing your page. It is conventionally thought that people are drawn to an animated ad, but in reality quite the opposite is true.If you assault readers with blinking ads, they are more likely to leave your site immediately without clicking on a thing.They are also far less likely to bookmark such a site, link to it, recommend or return to it.The exact same is to be said about scrolling text. Not only do people find it most annoying, they also can not read it at their own pace but are forced to read it at the slow or fast speed it scrolls down in. Scrolling text never serves the visitor, it only shows the owner of the website tried to look cool.

3 Another thing to avoid is to install pop-up windows as this is almost always the most annoying to any visitor. Nobody likes to be bombarded with a lot of pop-ups. By adding pop-up windows you will ensure that your visitors never return. Most people tend to forget their own experience of browsing the web and clicking on a site that overloads you with pop-ups when they start designing their own homepages. Always think what annoys you most of other websites and ensure you do not include that on your own site.

4 Organizing your homepage is extremely important and you need to put some thought into that before making it. Make it easy to find stuff on your homepage. Don’t haphazardly clutter your page with all kinds of tit-bits. Think of what content you want to put on it and how it should be organized. A haphazardly thrown together page is neither interesting to read or look at nor is it a page anyone would ever want to revisit.

5 Minimize clicking as much as you possibly can as this is another big reason why so many sites on the web are not revisited. If visitors are forced to click around your homepage, they might not leave immediately, but will definitely get annoyed and will most probably not view as much of your content as you would have liked them to. On the other hand, also don’t let your homepage be a ’splash page’ (a page that just “welcomes” visitors and has no meaningful information on it) neither. A far better idea is to put meaningful amounts of information on each page of your website, starting with your homepage but keep in mind to minimize clicking and scrolling.

6 It is equally important that you prioritize your content and display items on the homepage that are held in the highest priority. A good idea is to let the most important content be large and closest to the top-left portion of your homepage. If you need to display several important services, products or pieces of content, make sure they are weighted accordingly to size and location within the page.

7 Do not bog your homepage or website down with too large image files. Compress your image files with a graphics software so they take up less room and therefore less time to load into your visitors browsers. There a several graphics software that shrinks your graphics to an acceptable size. Programs such as Gifbot is not only quick and easy to use but shrinks your graphics right there on the web page. You can also download graphics software such as Windows HVSGifCruncher and JPEG Wizard and for Macintosh it is GraphicConverter.

8 Use simple backgrounds or contrasting colors as it is very hard to read dark text on a dark background and light text on a light background. There are also a few color combinations that simply just don’t work. For example putting red text on a dark blue background makes it awfully hard for visitors to read and chances are pretty good they won’t even attempt it. Also ensure that the text is large enough for people to read comfortably since nobody likes to have to squint when they read something.The most comfortable sizes to use are 12 or 13 px Arial or 11 or 12 px Verdana.

9 A display of professional and visually pleasing graphics on your homepage will go a long way in showing the visitors that your organisation has the wherewithal to take the time and spend the money to produce an aesthetically pleasing experience for them. This in turn is a good indicator to them that the same care and attention has been paid to your products or services. Also always provide up-to-date content, keeping it relevant and fresh and if the information is a lot, offer users a “read more” call-to-action.

10 The Internet has become increasingly competitive so it is therefore vital to get users to your site and keep them there. An excellent way to achieve this and compel users to visit further into your site, and if needed to offer up their email address, is to provide them with some kind of incentive. The incentive can be anything such as an e-book, access to exclusive content or special discounts on items, etc. Incentives always add value to the experience a user get and thus will ultimately improve the success of your website.
Remember to always ensure that you focus on delivering a satisfying and pleasing experience and pay enough attention to the smallest detail that might otherwise be overlooked. Every single little detail on your homepage is all important to ensure the success of your entire website.

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5 Worst Places in the World to Be a Woman

Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan - May, 10 2008: Afghan women walking with their children at the Blue Mosque.
by Marleysa (pen name Anna Bayrakdar - previously published in 10thousandcouplesmagazine on May 2012)
According to the World Economic Forum, as much as 85% of countries have improved conditions for women over the past six years, but there is still a very long way to go for the following five worst places in the world to be a woman in. A recent global survey taken in many countries has short-listed countries such as Afghanistan, D R Congo, Pakistan, India, and Somalia as being the worst places to be a woman.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, chosen as the worst place of all to be a woman, is a country of conflict and strife, and is poorly governed. The simple facts are that approximately 87% of Afghan women are illiterate since schooling for women is frowned upon in their culture. Add to that the fact that approximately 70% of Afghan women are forced into marriages at the young age of 13, yet another custom or cultural tradition, and you begin to understand why it's considered to be the worst place for women to be.
Another fact is that with very poor access to doctors, about one in 11 women has a very real chance of dying in childbirth.
Another contributing factor is the domestic abuse of women, which is seen as just part of women's daily life with hardly any protection, if at all, or help from police or any other governmental authority. Women in Afghanistan are seen as the "property" of their husbands and therefore have no economic rights. In recent years, a number of women have resorted to self-immolation (burning themselves with acids) as a way to escape from bad husbands or forced marriage arrangements.
Women that do try to speak out or take on public roles such as policewomen or news broadcasters are seen to be challenging ingrained gender roles. These women are often intimidated to stop or simply killed.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo
The D R Congo, also widely known as the "rape capital of the world," is second in line as one of the worst places in the world for a woman to be born. This war-stricken country, where men use kidnapping and rape as a weapon of war, has ruined thousands of lives. The armed forces in the conflicts between North and South Kivu Provinces are constantly targeting women. In 2009 alone, more than 8000 women or girls were raped by these armed forces, according to the UN.
Women in this country are continually treated as second-class citizens with almost no opportunity to ever enter politics. Since the culture here is also to force very young girls into arranged marriages, until very recently, education for women was almost nonexistent. Through the campaigning of various factions, this seems to be slowly changing, and more girls are sent to school now.
Pakistan
Third on the list of worst places to be a woman, Pakistan has a huge problem of domestic violence against women. As many as 90% of women here experience domestic violence on a regular basis. But even worse than the domestic violence is the fact that more than a thousand women and girls are victims of so-called "honor" killings every year.
Another horrifying but all too common practice is that of burns from acid-throwing that women have to endure as "punishment" for spurning marriage proposals or unwanted sexual advances. Men take this spurning as an intolerable humiliation and often retaliate by throwing acid into a woman or girl's face. in order to horribly disfigure her as "punishment." But alas, a glimmer of hope for women has arisen with the forming of the non-governmental organization Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF). This organization, with the support of a UK charity Acid Survivors Trust International, helps with medical care and battles for justice. ASF is campaigning for new laws to restrict the trade of battery acid (often used in girls' faces) and to provide rehabilitation for the victims.
India
Fourth on the list of worst places to be a woman, India is yet another country with a tradition of forcing young girls under the age of 18 into unwanted marriages. But even much worse than that is the horrific fact that as many as 50 million girls are "missing" just within this past century, due to female infanticide and foeticide. This clearly reflects the absolute low status accorded to women in India.
Sex-selective abortion cases have become a significant phenomenon in several parts of India. The reasons for killing baby girls are mainly economical. Girls need a dowry to be paid to a future husband, and in this poverty-stricken country, the cost of a dowry and an ignorance of family planning are the predominant reasons for these hideous crimes against baby girls.
Somalia
Somalia, the fifth worst place to be a woman, is a place where 95% of young girls face genital mutilation, usually between the ages of four and 11. Given the fact that there is a very poor health system, as few as 9% of women are ever able to give birth in a health facility, making the maternal mortality rate very high.
Here, as in many other places in Africa, women are often not allowed any education to speak of. Domestic violence is seen as just another part of daily life, and women live in constant fear of being kidnapped, raped, or killed. Add to that a total lack of proper health care or basic needs, and cultural inferiority as a reality for women, and one can fully understand why this country is considered to be one of the worst places in the world to be a woman.
To conclude, these are but a few of the horrors that women still have to endure in some countries and that we, as a caring world, need to look at seriously. Action needs to be taken to help emancipate more women around the world.

Preferred Writers Group: 5 Worst Places in the World to Be a Woman: Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan - May, 10 2008: Afghan women walking with their children at the Blue Mosque. by Marleysa (pen name Anna Bayrokdar).

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