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Here you are! You waited with great anticipation for this moment - Holidays are here!
There it is - your motorhome. Fully equipped, beds are made, a breakfast basket on the little table by the window, the tank is full and you are ready to go.

You probably have some questions when you handle a large vehicle for the first time. The change from driving a car to “piloting” a Motorhome requires some special attention and concentration. Always obey rules and regulation and use common sense.

The Motorhome is longer, larger, higher and heavier than cars you are used to driving but they are easy to handle. After the first km’s of driving you will find that they respond beautifully and are fun to drive. So don’t worry!

Please read the motorhome’s instructions carefully before you get behind the wheel. You will avoid mistakes and your travel through our beautiful country will be pleasant and trouble free.

Many of the hazards encountered on the road result from incorrect loading of an otherwise safe Motorhome. Overloading is the most common cause of accidents. A slight over load or poor weight distribution can seriously restrict steering and braking. It can also result in sudden blowouts an breakdowns. You can help control this situation.

To minimize swing and wobble keep the vehicle’s center of gravity low. Store heavy items low, forward and between the axles: lightweight items high. Try to balance the load between the vehicle’s two sides. Make sure everything is in place and easy to get at when needed. Secure all cargo inside and outside the vehicle or it will shift. Always leave room for the usual ground gear: leveling plank, wedges, water hose, jack and tools.

Avoid carrying spare gasoline; if you must, carry it in the storage container possible, tape the lid shut to prevent spillage and protect it with a shield.

While you are at the gas station check your motor oil, automatic transmission oil, radiator water, battery water and tire pressure. Heat in the desert can affect the tire pressure, over or under pressure can cause problems in steering your Motorhome.

Check your travel route every morning before you start. Plan for a camping place for the night for rest stops and dump stations. Also consider gasoline stops, especially if you travel in the desert.

Reserving a campsite in advance can save a lot of frustration later, especially during high season. When traveling without reservation, the earlier in the day you stop, the better are your chances to get to a good campground.

When driving into the campsite, especially at night, scout around the area of you on foot. A large log, a hydrant or other obstacles can punch through the paneling, tearing pipes or wiring and causing costly repairs.

Make sure you park level at the campsite. A board under one wheel or under one side might be all you need to do this. Check for rocks and jagged outcrops near the entry door. Avoid loose wires or hoses around the Motorhome. Check fuel lines and all connections before you use your appliances. Use a soap and water solution to detect leaks, NOT a match!

Should there be a leak somewhere, (it can happen because your Motorhome is constantly in motion) be sure to air the entire unit thoroughly, before using any matches or open flame. Your Motorhome is equipped with a fire extinguisher. Use it if needed. Dirt and baking soda are also great and effective agents to fight a fire. Do not use water! It can be very dangerous. Water on a gas or oil fire results in a bigger fire. Water on an electric fire can result in death or injury.

When you leave the camping place, it is a good idea to check your packing list for all items. It also helps to check the members of your travel party. You’d be amazed, how many travelers forget wives and kids. Disconnect all wires and pipes, shut off appliances (except the refrigerator). Drive the Motorhome off the boards or other supports and stow away. O around the Motorhome campsite for any articles left there. Always allow a little more time than you think you will need, to get started. Check your planned route and rest stops.

Written by Birgit Jurock (birgit@jurock.ws) for Happy Holidays Motorhome Canada at http://www.canadamotorhome.ws

Birgit Jurock lives in Roberts Creek on the
Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, you may reach her at birgit@jurock.ws.

The internet has bridged and connected people around the world. It allows you to talk to the other person from another continent across the globe. It is a marvelous technology and tool in this modern age and time. You can make lots of money online by selling digital info products and other tangible items through eBay. You can even bid for freelance jobs and write articles for your clients across the world. All it takes it using the ubiquitous email programs like Outlook or Gmail account. Likewise, music has been shared online and uploaded to some web sites such as www.audiobiblio.com.

On top of sharing and uploading music, you can also make new friends with people around the world. You can browse their profiles, gender and location and send them a message like thanking them for the music that they have uploaded to www.audiobiblio.com. This is a site that connects people and music. Music enthusiasts will love this site for its nifty features such as uploading music files up to 20GB in size and sharing them. You can then listen to music from the internet café on in your lap tops as you are traveling.

It has been known that listening to music is very relaxing and calms the weary soul. It helps to release feel good hormones known as endorphins to the brain cells. You will feel less depressed and stressed when you turn on the music, preferably sentimentals and oldies. And you can also listen to music from the comforts of home by browsing through www.audiobiblio.com.

People are also more productive and more alert when they listen to music. Students under exam pressures listen to music as they mug and study hard to pass exams. Music can be played from anywhere, in your homes, your offices, in the car, or just hook up to the internet with the lap top.

Voices!

So many voices crying out for adherence and so many people confused about values, virtues and life.

What voices are calling out to you and what voices are you listening to?

My daughter is just now enjoying her first year in life. As I listen to the voices calling out to young ladies these days, I can’t help but wonder what the popular trend will be when she has to decide which voices she will lend an ear to.

As she enters young adulthood, I hope this is what she finds.

I hope the popular trend of the day is a video craze called, “Girls Gone MILD!”

No, that’s not a misprint!

I hope it is popular because it depicts women in the following ways:

* As more than full-of-brandy eye candy and toys-for-boys
* As pillars in the community instead of pillows for the community
* As being more concerned about innocence lost than being “not that innocent”
* As valuing their bodies and it shows by how they use them instead of showing them using their bodies to be valued
* As valuing being wanted for a lifetime of nights and not just a night of a lifetime

* As adhering to the belief in moral decency instead of the belief that it is indecent to be moral
* As being applauded more for lifting their skills to the world than lifting their skirts

High hopes, you say!

Yes, maybe high hopes, maybe wishful thinking, or maybe I’m just adding my voice to the mix.

(C)Copyright advice-for-lifetime-relationships.com by Stanley J. Leffew
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!

Stanley J. Leffew is the Author of, “How To Be Wanted For A Lifetime of Nights and Not Just a Night of a Lifetime”. His website is based on this same theme. Find out for yourself why feeding desire and leading-with-the-body in life and relationships fails to satisfy the longing of the human heart to connect by visiting http://advice-for-lifetime-relationships.com.

One of my associates sent me a promotional email she’d received. “I know this marketing communication doesn’t work,” she told me, “but why doesn’t this make me want to buy?” I took a look, and what I saw was familiar and sad. The promotional piece was for a weekend retreat. I could feel all the good intentions behind it, but the words just lay on the page like tired puppies. Worn out. No zip. No life.

As solo business owners, we are often at a loss to understand why our words aren’t getting a better response. Although an offer can fail for many reasons, I always recommend you look first to your marketing communication.

Why? Because if your message doesn’t connect, you won’t get much payoff from more exposure. Once your words really speak to people, you’ll get more bang for your buck from more marketing activity or better alignment.

Here then, are the top 5 reasons your marketing communication may fail to strike a chord.

1. No Clear Focus for What You are Offering.

When we aren’t clear on the ultimate outcome that we are delivering, we sometimes try boosting our appeal by offering to deliver everything under the sun. In this case? The retreat offered: renewal, creativity, connection, peace, appreciation of life, awareness, balance, and self-discovery

Phew! It’s so many different ideas my poor brain can’t wrap around it all. There’s no central theme or image I can use to fix in my mind what she’s offering. Instead of thinking “wow! I’d get a lot from this experience,” I walk away thinking, “I am confused, and I wonder if the retreat leader is too.”

2. No Verbal Markers that Say “I am talking to you!”

When we try to be a fit for everybody, we end up being a fit for nobody. Even when we think we believe in the law of attraction, our words often reflect our indecision or confusion about whom we want to reach. One sure sign that you aren’t clear? When there are no concrete “identifiers” in your copy. By identifiers, I mean phrases like “as a working mom,” “as a business owner,” “in the workplace,” “navigating the world of academia.” These concrete markers confirm for the audience that your marketing communication was written for them. It makes it personal.

3. No New Insight into Your Audience’s Struggle

It’s no longer enough to let your audience know that you feel their pain. You have to quickly demonstrate that you have valuable insight into that pain. That you’ve made some connection they haven’t about why they are stuck where they are. That gives them hope that what you are offering aren’t the same old tired solutions that they’ve heard of before.

In this marketing piece, I would have liked to have heard answers to questions like “What is it that leads us to be so disconnected from ourselves?” “Why is renewal needed now more than ever?” Even something as simple as “The harder we work, the more we need quiet, open space to recharge our batteries” would have made me go, “hmm, could that be true for me?”

4. No Visible Plan for Delivering on Your Promise

Once you’ve shown that you know your audience, and you have a juicy and specific outcome to offer them, the communication shifts. Your reader is no longer asking, “Am I interested?” She is asking, “Do I believe this person can deliver on what they are promising?”

Testimonials are one way to establish credibility, but what testimonials don’t do is create a picture for your audience of how you lead them step by step to the destination you’ve promised. When the way you deliver is a mystery, you’re asking people to take a big leap of faith. When you describe your logic, process, or philosophy in a limited number of steps, your audience can see how your steps or ingredients add up to the outcome you are promising.

For example, if the woman offering the retreat had listed the “five stages of renewal” or the “three ingredients of creative discovery,” her readers would have immediately believed more strongly that she could deliver.

5. No Fire in your Belly

To me, words are transparent. They reveal every nuance of who you are, how you see yourself in relationship to the world, and how you feel about your work. Since so many creative professionals say they hate marketing, it is a surprise that the communication they write comes across as strained and tense?

On a gut level, you readers will feel if you are writing from the place of consuming excitement about what you offer or from a place of caution and ambivalence. The more you let your words carry your passionate and full-hearted energy, the more your message will have an indefinable “something” that stirs the readers’ soul and sparks their interest in what you offer.

Copyright 2004-5. Isabel Parlett. All rights reserved.

Isabel Parlett is a cutting-edge communication expert who helps innovative professionals stay current with the changing language of business. Get her free e-mail mini-course “The Secret Language of the New Economy” at http://www.parlancetraining.com

Inflammatory disease of the bowel- regional enteritis (Crohn’s disease) and ulcerative colitis- are often associated with arthritis. This occurs because inflammation in the bowel and the joints may share a common immunological abnormality.

Patients can present with abdominal pain, weight loss, and diarrhea.

Clinically, the arthritis that accompanies inflammatory bowel disease occurs in two different ways. The first pattern typically affects the larger joints of the lower extremities such as the ankles and knees. The heels may also be affected. Sometimes the fingers or toes can swell and look like little sausages. This type of “peripheral” arthritis occurs in about 20 per cent of patients who have inflammatory bowel disease. The activity of the arthritis parallels the gut activity.

In the second type, the arthritis can affect the low back- the sacroiliac joints that join the pelvis to the lower spine. This type of arthritis occurs in about 15-20 per cent of inflammatory bowel patients. A genetic marker called HLA-B27 is present (found through a blood test) in 50 per cent of patients who have inflammation of the sacroiliac joints. Stiffness in the low back along with limited range of motion is seen. This type of arthritis does not parallel the gut activity.

The diagnosis is usually suspected from the presence of bowel symptoms such as diarrhea and abdominal cramping. Rarely, the arthritis may precede the bowel symptoms.

The diagnosis is confirmed by laboratory testing, x-rays, bowel visualization (colonoscopy), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The treatment for the arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel disease is remarkably similar to that involving other types of arthritis. Typically anti-inflammatory drugs and disease-modifying drugs are both used. Anti-inflammatory drugs should be used with caution since they may cause the bowel disease to flare up. More recently, biologic drugs have been used with success to treat inflammatory bowel disease. The arthritis not surprisingly, also responds.

Dr. Wei (pronounced “way”) is a board-certified rheumatologist and Clinical Director of the nationally respected Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center of Maryland. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and has served as a consultant to the Arthritis Branch of the National Institutes of Health. He is a Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology and the American College of Physicians. For more information on arthritis and related conditions, go to: http://www.arthritis-treatment-and-relief.com

The purchase of shoes is an area that cannot be stressed enough in the nursing field. In the past nurses wore the traditional white shoes that set a nurse apart from other professions. Over time, this has changed, and there are several other styles available, with some nurses even choosing to wear either white or black sneakers instead of the traditional shoes. The issue with shoes is that you must toss style for comfort when you are on your feet all day long. Many women, especially the younger ones, prefer style to comfort, but in the years to follow this line of thinking will take a toll on not only their backs but feet as well.

There is a great deal of controversy among health care professional about what shoes are the best for being on your feet eight to twelve hours a day, but the majority seem to feel that Nurse Mates are far from being the most comfortable. In fact, of the reviews published on this subject, many nurses and health care professionals complained that their feet actually hurt at the end of their shift. Although in the past Nurse Mates seemed to be the industry standard, many are headed toward the New Balance walking shoe or the Naturalizer for comfort and durability. Another popular brand is Dansko, which is reported as being quite expensive but also very comfortable and durable. A great many seem to also endorse the use of Dr. Scholl’s gel insoles for taking the pressure off the back while working long shifts. Several professionals also endorse the use of custom made orthotics, but the cost at $150 a pair can be out of line for many people.

Since each person’s feet adjust to different situations differently, the best thing you can do is go to a store at the end of your shift while your feet are tired and swollen from the day’s work and try on several pair of shoes. Once you find the ones that feel the best on your feet, you may choose to go online and order them at a cheaper price than the shoe store has to offer. The important thing to remember is that when you work on your feet, you must take care of them, no matter what the cost may be. Ill-fitting shoes will not only do damage to your feet but to your back as well because of the way you will walk to ease the pain in your feet from the shoes. Even if you buy a cheap uniform at the second hand store, buy the best shoes for your individual feet and don’t give a second thought to the cost. After all, if you can’t stand on your feet in the nursing profession, you can’t do your job.

Sandy Sizemore writes on many consumer related topics including health care. You can find discount nursing uniforms and the best nursing shoes and more by visiting our health care website.

The exertion involved in going to a physical casino is more than enough to give it up if it can be avoided. For this, you don’t have to leave the house to experiment with online roulette since it can be easily accessed from your own home provided you possess a functional laptop or pc plus a broadband internet connection. Yet, you should remember that there are a few guidelines and things which you will want to study concerning online roulette, specifically if you happen to be a neophyte.

Don’t miss out! Catch the web’s top free casino action here!

The topmost thing which I as a discriminating Internet gambler should definitely pursue is an online roulette website of the type capable of offering the best winning odds. Establish for certain that the online roulette website has partnered with an honest auditing firm in order to audit the actual wagers’ payout in a documented manner. You must confirm that the virtual betting website is actually licensed, for instance by checking the official warrant as filed on the casino site webpage. If you cannot pick out any official warrant on that virtual betting website, don’t even try to test the odds with that website.

Furthermore, another chief bit of advice would be to try your hand as a start in minute amounts rather than forfeit so much that it hurts off the bat. Check, first of all, the health of this particular virtual betting operation before triggering any severe menace, specifically in terms of money! Finally, here is another critical hint concerning virtual card playing. It can only be always to call to mind that online casino betting is about recreation and not about making a buck. Wagering isn’t a chore, but, instead, a hobby which can make you delighted and living gratifying. So, simply having followed the advice above, set out and give yourself up to the attraction of virtual betting…

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net. Word count is 1145 including guidelines and resource box.
Robert A. Kelly © 2005.

Managers: Let’s Call a Spade a Spade!

Brochures, broadcast plugs and press releases - don’t call them public relations. Call them what they really are, valuable tactical devices which public relations calls upon from time to time to move a message from here to there.

Nothing more, nothing less, and certainly not public relations’ Mother strategy which (1), marshalls the resources and action planning needed to alter individual perception leading to changed behaviors among a business, non-profit,or association’s most important outside audiences. And (2), goes on to help a manager persuade those key folks to his or her way of thinking,
then (3) moves them to take actions that allow their department, group, division or subsidiary to succeed.

The management reality behind such an achievement is the underlying premise of public relations: People act on their own perception of the facts before them,
which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and
moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is usually accomplished.

The good news for those managers is that the right public relations planning really CAN alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors among key outside audiences.

You may be such a manager. If you are, try to remember that your PR effort must demand more than special events, news releases and talk show tactics if you are to receive the quality public relations results you deserve.

You’ll be glad you took such a step when capital givers or specifying sources beginning to look your way; customers begin to make repeat purchases; membership applications start to rise; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures start showing up; politicians and legislators begin looking at you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities; new (and very ) welcome bounces in show room visits occur; prospects actually start to do business with you; and community leaders begin to seek you out.

Your public relations professionals can be of real use for your new opinion monitoring project because they are already in the perception and behavior business. But be certain that the PR staff really accepts why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Above all, be sure they believe that perceptions almost
always result in behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.

Go over your plans with them for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Ask questions like these: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the interchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced
problems with our people or procedures?

The cost of using professional survey firms to do the opinion gathering work will be considerably more than using those PR folks of yours, who are already in the
perception business, in that monitoring capacity. But whether it’s your people or a survey firm asking the questions, the objective remains the same: identify
untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

It’s time to establish a goal calling for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. Will it be to straighten out that dangerous misconception? Correct that gross inaccuracy? Or, stop that potentially painful rumor cold?

It goes without saying that setting your PR goal requires an equally specific strategy that tells you how to get there. Only three strategic options are
available to you when it comes to doing something about perception and opinion. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be
none, or reinforce it. The wrong strategy pick will taste like pancake syrup on your Finan Haddie, so be sure your new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. You certainly don’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a strategy of reinforcement.

Here, good writing comes to the fore. You must prepare a persuasive message that will help move your key audience to your way of thinking. It must be a carefully-written message targeted directly at your key external audience. Select your very best writer because s/he must come up with really corrective language that is not merely compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear
and factual if they are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

At this point, you must select the communications tactics most likely to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. There are many
available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others.
But be certain that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.

Since the credibility of any message is fragile and always up for grabs, how you communicate is a concern. Which is why you may wish to unveil your
corrective message before smaller meetings and presentations rather than using higher-profile news releases.

Inevitably, the need for a progress report will cause you to begin a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. You’ll
want to use many of the same questions used in the benchmark session. But now, you will be on strict alert for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

A source of comfort for you, should program momentum slow, will be the fact that you can always speed things up by adding more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

Calling tactical devices just that, avoids confusing them with the broader, more comprehensive mission known as public relations. A mission that allows managers of all stripes to alter individual perception in a way that leads to changed behaviors among key outside audiences, thus insuring the success of that manager’s operation.

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:www.PRCommentary.com

Movies are rife with new places and circumstances for having sex. We watch our favorite actors copulating in elevators, on airplanes, in semi-public, in space, in the jungle, in a limo, on the floor, the kitchen table - anywhere that it is possible. At times thrilling, it also often looks uncomfortable or impractical. In fact, most of the sex we enjoy through life, after the cars and hidden places of our youth, is in bed.

Does using the same scenery mean that the play must be boring and derivative? Not necessarily. Without intending to hurt the feelings or egos of set designers, the focus of any production is on the characters and the action. Next to that, everything else pales.

So how do we inject some creativity and novelty into our sex lives to avoid endless repetition and an eventual decline in the level of our excitement?

We can manipulate our circumstances to break the routine of a few nights a week of sex before sleep. Change the timing of our intimacy and the routine dissolves. After the advent of a baby, for example, many husbands complain that their wives no longer concentrate on the action, one ear always cocked for a tell-tale cry. Time your moments together for when the baby sleeps longest, perhaps the early evening or Sunday morning. Take the baby to the babysitter’s house or to the grandparents and use the free time to rekindle the sparks that have inevitably been dampened by the demanding stranger who has invaded your lives.

If you have a fireplace, put on a log and start foreplay on a soft rug in front of the flames. You can move to the bedroom later, for the comfort, but the desire will be freshened by the fireside initiation. If you have older children or relatives living with you, often the only refuge available is your bedroom at night. See if you can send the kids to the movies and your mother-in-law to the local Church bingo and seize the opportunity to again act like a carefree young couple with only each other on your minds.

Most importantly, practice concentration on the “now.” We all have so many things on our minds that our thoughts flit endlessly to the problems at work, the financial stresses we are under, and the need to get chores done and things fixed. Men, for multiple physiological reasons, seem better able to concentrate on sex for the relatively brief time it takes for them to move from arousal to action to completion. Women usually take longer to arouse and longer to reach a climactic conclusion. It therefore requires more effort, for a longer period of time, for women to disengage from mental processing to bodily sensations and feelings.

A sensitive mate acknowledges this and helps the process by allowing for longer lead time, starting the intimacy and arousal foreplay long before the act ever starts. Failure to do so too often results in denial (”I’m not in the mood; I have a headache”) or limited engagement (”We need to paint this ceiling; I have to get up so early tomorrow”).

If both parties can communicate what works for them, and help to mold the behavior of the other in order to enhance the experience of both, then the routine becomes an eagerly anticipated event that allows for mutual sharing, enjoyment, and fulfillment.

1. Splash pages

Most of the time splash pages are uncalled for. There are only a handful of reasons why you may ever need to use a splash page on your website but these reasons don’t seem to apply to most of the splash pages you can see on the Internet. The worst example of a splash page is when a company creates a page and adds their logo with no content. They may also add a ‘click here to enter’ button link when there is no reason to have not entered already.

If a website was a printed brochure then it may be fine to put a company logo on the front cover with no text to accompany it - however on the Internet it is a bit of a no-no. Print and web are different mediums and as such require different approaches.

I say get to the point and get to the point fast, as you only have about 8 seconds to impress the typical visitor so you don’t want to throw obstacles like splash pages in their way.

2. Create large file size Flash Intros

Its ill advised to put a heavy loading flash movie right at the top end of a website, especially if you actually want people to read pages on your site. A flash intro can look impressive but used irresponsibly can alienate a proportion of users. Even for those interested in motion graphics the novelty will likely wear thin after a couple of viewings so you need to offer a skip intro button if you use a Flash Intro Movie.

At the same time you can make sure you do get value from any Flash motion graphics you commission. Think of a flash movie more as a commercial and they become more useful tools. Get the intro made as a general purpose sales movie and you can put it on CD ROM or include it as part of any online or mailing list promotion.

3. Make pages full of exceedingly small text

Really small text is an often ignored but growing problem. Webmasters can spend time and effort creating content for their website, upload it to the web server so the world can see what they have to say, but then they decide to show it in a tiny font size.

There is a simple rule here; text needs to be easy to read if you want people to absorb your message. It’s respecting the user to provide any content you wish them to read in a size that is suitable for the web. Font size 2 would be the smallest size you would want to use. If your target audience is over 40 then it is recommended font sizes are increased to point size 3. Do not assume your website visitors all carry a magnifying glass with them - keep body fonts at a sensible size.

4. Very long or complicated enquiry forms

Most folks have a million and one things to do, and one big reason people like using the Internet is to SAVE TIME - so bare this in mind.

Whilst website owners need to capture a certain level of customer info on lead generating websites, visitors like things to be quick, easy and simple. So an online form with 25 mandatory input fields so a user can make an enquiry is not a good idea.

Keep online enquiry forms down to essential info only. Keep it simple but get the information you need. Quick and easy signup forms can still be effective and you could always chose to offer a short form and a longer option - that way the user can decide which option is best for them.

5. Complex rollover navigation systems

Complex rollover navigation bars using JavaScript or a similar code can seem like a great option and you can be excused for wondering why this is seen as a bit of a no-no.

The reason why these rollover or drop downs are not always such a hit is that after analysing user behaviour on a number of websites, it shows that very few people seem to use rollover button options more than one deep. In essence the idea that these navigational tools made things easier for users seems a little flawed.

The simpler the navigation is, the more it will connect with users. Limit the options and use clear common sense descriptive labelling for buttons and this will often out-perform a complex roll over approach. Keeping the navigation simple also makes for smaller file sizes and quicker loading pages.

6. Excessive movement & animation

Contrary to popular belief, constant movement and flickering may not be a successful way to engage a website user. The reason being is that web users are developing a level of ‘advertising immunity’ or what Jakob Nielsen of www.useit.com has referred to as ‘banner blindness’.

Banner Blindness is a technique surfers have developed to filter out adverts and promotional material. They have learned after some experience that these types of ads are generally unhelpful and so are less likely to click on them. So if you use a lot of moving pictures and flickering images on your website you can run the risk of key areas of your website being ignored.

Where once banner ads got reasonable click through rates, the number has fallen dramatically in the last few years. A safer way to promote important areas of the site is via static buttons that are clearly identifiable and use descriptive language to tell the user which page they lead to.

7. Lots of links out to other sites from your homepage

When time and effort is put into attracting a visitor to your site why would anyone want to give that user a chance to leave the website on arrival? It makes sense to avoid placing lots of links out from your homepage to other sites - unless you’re an advertising or affiliate website.

Visitors are your prospects. You work to get them there and your job is to keep them there and direct them to your key destination pages. If you need to link out to partners from a top-level page on your site, then think about creating an internal page for this purpose and link to that from your home page.

Written by Gareth Davies 2005. You are free to reprint this article with both disclaimer and copyright notice in tact.

Gareth Davies is a web designer and Internet promotion consultant working for GSINC Ltd based in the UK. If you have any questions then feel free to email Gareth at garethskettyATyahoo.co.uk or visit http://www.garethsketty.com/html/e_marketing.html