The primary graphics on your website will be for your products or services. You should therefore choose pictures that are both clear and sharply focused.

For products, it is best to use individual shots of each item. We do not recommend groupings, as people often have a hard time focusing on the specific item they are interested in purchasing. You must make it as easy as possible for your customers.

One of the biggest mistakes that you'll see as you surf around the web are pages with way too many pictures, so they take forever to download. We do not design pages like this.

Our recommendation is to use 4 or 5 smaller images on each page that are about 240 pixels wide or high (about 2.5 inches). Then, when the person clicks on one of these, a larger version will download for more detailed viewing.

If you assume that each page will hold a maximum of 5 items, then you can easily figure how many pages you need just for your graphics - 15 items would require 3 pages; 18 would be 4 pages, etc.

If you are working within a specific budget, then remember that the more items you add, the higher the cost of construction. Therefore in this case it is our advice to start out with between 5 and 15 very strong selections, then as the site gains in popularity, add additional choices.

So as you count the number of graphics for your site, begin with the number of product pictures. Then add to that your logo (if you have one); a picture of yourself (we recommend this, but it is optional); your studio or place of business (optional); etc.