If this is your first time to put up a website, and you're thinking of getting into some easy website design, there are some things that you should know. There are certain things that you should avoid, as a designer -- these elements may seem like a good idea to you at first, but they'll make your website unattractive. And if your design looks bad, then your visitors will be less inclined to stay long enough to see what your site is all about.

1. Animated GIFs and scrolling text. These were popular, when the Internet was young, and they seemed cool at the time. If you want your visitors to take you seriously, lose those GIFs. Both animated GIFs and scrolling text serve as distractions, and makes your site looks uninspired and dated.

2.Low contrast/Big fonts. Putting dark letters on a dark background, or light ones on a light background, hampers the readability of your page. And don't try to increase readability by making your fonts larger. Just use contrasting, tasteful colors - stick to around 12 points of Arial or Verdana, as these fonts are the most easily recognized by all browsers.

3.Large file sizes for images. Users today expect their websites to load as fast as possible, so they can immediately see the site content. Most users now have a short attention span- if they have to wait for your page to load for more than a few seconds, then they'll start getting restless and may just move on to another page. Make your file sizes smaller. Keep your image file size to about 50KB per photo for medium-sized images. There are many graphics programs available online for free download, to assist in easy website design.

4.Long blocks of text. There are many ways you can make your text unreadable by using the wrong layout. Text must be put in columns, and not all the way from the left to the right. Column-based layouts are easier on the eyes- readers tend to lose their place while reading very wide text blocks. But don't make your columns too long, either. Columns that go longer than one screens' worth of space (about 768 pixels on the majority of monitors today) should be divided, and the excess content moved to another page.

These are only a few of the design mistakes that inexperienced designers make. The rule of thumb for people who want easy website design is: design for your target market. Don't put animations because you think animated GIFs look cool. Learn to look at your designs from a user's perspective. The page that attracts users is attractive, well thought-out in presentation, and fast-loading. Your average user browses through dozens of pages in a day, and you want to make his online experience as comfortable as possible.