While almost anyone can have a web site these days it's much harder to have a good website. From design aspects to readable content many sites fall flat. Below I've arranged a Top 10 list, because everyone loves a Top 10!

Include a detailed About Us page The About Us page is a good place for new visitors and target traffic to find out who you are, why they should read your content or buy your products, how valuable your site can be, and also general information about your company, web site, or you.

It's a good idea to include contact information or at least a clear link to your Contact Us page. Keep concise and accurate. People want to read about you but they don't want a novel. Add important information on this page and point them to other pages for more in depth coverage.

Include a Contact Us page Visitors (shoppers, target traffic) need an easy way to get in touch. Have a clearly marked link for contact information and include every avenue you receive communication through. Telephone and fax numbers (both local and 800), e-mail addresses, physical addresses, etc. all should appear on this page.

To help navigate further, clearly indicate which contacts go where (i.e. Admin, Tech, Sales, etc.) This will decrease frustration on both ends and allow better communication to flow. You want to show your visitors that you are competent and friendly, being easy to contact is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal.

Add a News, Press Release, Blog, and/or Articles Page These pages inform customers of current events, products, endorsements, and other company happenings all in one place. Make sure to maintain these pages with fresh content that is reader friendly so your target traffic is more likely to come back, bookmark your page, and they may even provide word-of-mouth advertising. Free advertising!

As a bonus, search engines love these types of pages. New, fresh, relevant content is the stuff of search engines (well, there's obviously more to it than just content). Each time a search engine spider crawls your site and find new content it ups your chances of ranking higher in the organic search listings. More free advertising!

A Relevant Page Title As uninteresting as this may sound your page title holds a lot of weight. If you're unfamiliar with a page title it is the name appearing in the blue bar across the top of the page. If your says something like "Untitled Document" I'm talking to you.

Page titles should be different for every page in your site. They should clearly and accurately describe your page, and you should try to use keywords in the page title.

Search engines display the title of your page on SERPs. The catchier and more accurate your title the better the chance you'll hit target traffic.

A Relevant Page Name Again, not so interesting as flashy designs or up-to-the-minute content, but it's a necessity to get your target traffic to your page to see or read the goods.

It's better to have straightforward page name showing in the URL than names with ? or other symbols and numbers. For example, a search engine will go to www.yourdomain.com/about us.htm it will only go to the ? in www.yourdomain.com/aboutus?094837 . You want search engines to find your pages. You also want humans to be able to read your names. Keep it simple and clean.

Good Grammar, Correct Spelling, Complete Thoughts, Sentence Structure Everything you were supposed to learn in grade school, use it now. Not only should your site have relevant content - the more the better - people should be able to read your content. Choppy or runon sentences that seem to go nowhere cannot provide the type of readership concise, correct sentences can.

Misspellings, wrong word usage, bad grammar are all distractions. You do not want to distract your readers, you want to captivate them. Slang and derogatory language also distracts. If your site is a business site avoid slang and offensive language all together - unless that's your selling point. Jargon is different, just don't confuse readers more than necessary.

If you aren't in command of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. or if you'd rather focus your efforts elsewhere, that's fine. It's a good idea to beg, plead, hire, or force someone else to take care of this part then as ignoring the problem won't make it go away though it may have that effect on site traffic.

Professional Design, Colors, and Images Design should be implemented with usability in mind. Not all visitors will be as web savvy as you'd like, create easy navigation and links to all your pages. A search bar for your site is also a good idea.

Colors should be inviting, not blinding. Use colors to emphasize your brand, product or content. Don't overpower the visitor with colors. Use colors to make text pop without being distracting or hard to read.

Images should be friendly and relevant to your site. Images of people work better than objects and clip art rarely has a positive effect. Make sure your images can load within a reasonable amount of time, you don't want to lose visitors because a single image caused an incredible amount of load time, or worse froze the visitors browser.

Make Sure ALL Links Are Working Links This should be a no-brainer, however it is always a good idea to check and double check your links. Fix any broken links A.S.A.P. Your reputation counts on it.

Think of any site you've been to with a broken link. Disappointing isn't it? You probably left or at least had a negative image about the company. Avoid this mistake and check, recheck, and check your links again.

Use Your Log Files Log files offer a plethora of information on your web site, your visitors, what works and what doesn't. You can't afford to miss out on this information - if you can afford it you shouldn't anyway.

Best idea: Get a program that converts the lengthy text into readable documentation. It'll save you time and energy while getting you the information you desire. Log files will describe customer behavior, they will show you broken links, and you'll see where customers flow freely and where they abandon the site. The invaluable information is at your finger tips. Use it!

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificates These can be used on any site asking for sensitive information. Not every web site needs this, however if you plan to collect any visitor information it is a good idea to have some SSL pages. Though not every page need be SSL.

Pages requiring e-mail, names, telephone numbers, addresses, credit card information, social security information or any other information visitors may not readily be giving up online should be securely collected via SSL.

About the Author:Kristen Owen, CEO of ContentWorth has written quality, unique articles for years. For information on articles and other services please email Kristen.

By T.H. Translated By Sandrine Ageorges June 5 – June 11 Issue

In August 1963, 250,000 people marched on Washington to demand jobs and freedom for millions of black Americans. Is the movement to legalize Latinos undercutting the achievements of these earlier protesters? (above). May 1 protest in Los Angeles. Are Latinos somhow supplanting Blacks? (below) Three students from Clinton High School picket their school as it becomes the first state-supported school in Tennessee to integrate, August 1956. (above) . ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The United States, as we all know, is a country of immigrants. Three main communities shape today's population: the Whites, the Blacks and the Latinos. If the first category is the most privileged in terms of civil rights, the other two communities have always more or less been marginalized, even if the Constitution grants them (on paper) equal rights and duties as their fellow fair-skinned citizens.

The social status quo that has been maintained during recent decades appears to be headed for turbulent times, and is likely to threaten the "home front." The vast protests held by Latinos during March and April to demand legalization for millions of underground immigrants is seen by some observers as a warning bell. And the warning is underlined by the new-found influence of America's Latino community. The law of numbers in the country of Uncle Sam - as is true everywhere - is a powerful influence on he politics of the State.

This boisterous demonstration of strength by this overwhelming human tide is a matter of great concern to the Black community. African-Americans seriously dread seeing a Latino breakthrough detrimental to their own social and economic situation, which is already regarded as serious. They especially fear that the programs and the reforms adopted in their favor during the 1960s, after the tremendous sacrifice and violence suffered by the Civic Rights Movement – will be abandoned - purely and simply to benefit the newer immigrants of Hispanic origin, relegating Blacks to the rank of third-rate citizens.

Blacks refuse to compare recent Latino protests to their movement in the 60's. African Americans recall that they weren't immigrants, but fully-fledged American citizens that took to the streets after suffering centuries of slavery, rape, lynching and discrimination. We didn't choose to come to the United States, we were brought here as slaves. And we were deprived of our basic rights although we were citizens of this country. Many of these problems have remained unresolved since the 60's. But now we may be relegated to the status of a secondary concern, said one Black university professor.

The Black community dreads above all that it will see its economic condition worsen due to competition from Latinos. In 2004, 72% of America's Black community between the ages of 20 and 30 having had abandoned high school and were unemployed, while only 19% of Hispanics were in a similar position. Latinos survive better because of their accommodating attitude toward employment, which fit in nicely with capitalist ethics: they accept working long hours at low salaries. They hardly ever complain and rarely avail themselves of the social protections that normal employees would.

To summarize, Black Americans are worried and are asking themselves: Will the power of Latino immigrants diminish the value of their secular struggle and speed their marginalization?

If you're looking for a highly effective method of increasing your Internet sales, then mini-sites may be your answer. Mini-sites are one of the most effective marketing tools online. Not only are they effective, but they're also very inexpensive and easy to create.

The concept is simple. Create a one or two page website that completely focuses on one specific product or service. Everything within that page should have one purpose -- getting the visitor to take action. This page should be neatly designed in standard HTML with no Flash or fancy plug-ins and very few graphics. There should be no banners or outside links of any kind and nothing that will distract your visitor's attention.

The sole purpose of a mini-site is to attract highly targeted traffic to your website. The more targeted the better. For example, if you have a website that sells a number of products, a good mini-site would focus on one specific product instead of all of the products. You could create a mini-site for each product you offer.

Each mini-site you create should be optimized for that one specific product or service. Concentrate on just a few keyword phrases, as this will help you to tighten your targeting. Remember ... the tighter the targeting the better.