ABOUT WEB PAGES

The purpose of a web page is to present information to a large audience via the World Wide Web (WWW). The easier it is to load and show the information the more people will read the information. The rule of thumb is any web page that takes longer than 20 seconds to become readable loses 70 percent of the surfing audience. In other words they just click on to something else and skip the page. So it is important that one's web page load in the shortest period of time.

Graphics or pictures (jpg's and gif's) increase the load time. So they should be used sparingly but effectively. A well chosen picture or logo is worth a lot in page appeal. But loading a page to the gills with graphics substancially slows down the load time and sends surfers clicking off over the horizon. On a personal page a nice snap shot is best and inexpensive to acquire. Kinko's and many film processing stores will scan your snap shot into jpg or gif format so that you can email it to where ever. Studio portraits are good if they show the real you. Glamore shots are viewed by many people as attempts to create a theatrical effect and tend to be a turn off.

Adding sound to a web page is considered cool by a lot of people. However, sound can substancially increase your load time. You will lose a large percentage of your audience if your page gets bogged down loading a sound file. The loading sound file sometimes freezes the person's screen while in progress and that really T's people off. I originally used a lot of sound at first. Now I have eliminated it from just about all of my web pages.

The initial opening Homepage should be created to load rapidly (within 20 seconds) with a few graphics to make it interesting. Then once you have the persons interest links to other pages with more graphics are workable. With 11 Megs of space you have lots of room for additional pages and if the person's interest has been captured they will more than likely click on your links and wait for the subsequent pages to load with all your other goodies.

Keep in mind most of your audience do not have the latest state of the art high speed processers or internet access systems.


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