Some people say that using a splash page as your home page is a bad idea. And that's true. You shouldn't use a splash page as your home page for search engine optimization purposes. Search engines love content, and having a splash page as your home page defeats your purpose of ranking well in the search engines, if that is one of your goals.

A splash page actually is a good idea - if you don't use it as your home page.

For example, a splash page on a traffic exchange is an excellent strategy and it's actually one of the best ways to eke out results from traffic exchanges.

You can set your splash page as an extension. For example, yourdomain.com/splash.html. Then use that for appropriate marketing channels. A splash page works well to get a visitor interested in a site because it's consistent two-step marketing. Get someone to do something, and he is likely to follow-up on whatever you tell him to do next!

So go and create a simple splash page now and use it for marketing channels like traffic exchanges, classified ads, pay per click ads etc. Splash pages are uncannily effective when the situation calls for something less cluttered and more attention grabbing. For the traffic sources mentioned above, splash pages definitely fit the mold.

Hire a graphic designer to create a snazzy graphic for you to use on your splash page. After all, the goal of your page is to capture immediate attention! You can even create a simple Flash movie or even include a video there.

That should be the main reason that you create a website so that it will work for you in your chosen endeavor. When you build a website it is important to understand what makes a website work.

Firstly when you go online in the research mode you type in a keyword relative to your question. Then a number of sites come up with content relative to that keyword. Then you visit a site and see if it contains the answers you seek.

The best sites are highly relevant to your search and provide content that addresses your needs. This content is laid out in a way that makes sense. Navigation is straight forward and there are few distractions. As a result you get the answers you seek and because it is presented logically in a way you can understand you relate to it and as a result you follow its recommendations.

This is exactly the way you want to build your website. Good content is king but not only that - content that is relevant and solution orientated rather that sales orientated will deliver better results. This way you become your visitor's friend and we all listen to our friends.

When people can understand and see results credibility develops. Then share a few secrets here and there and you will have a friend for life.

Get this right and you will build a website that will work for all parties concerned. This may sound a little complicated but it actually is not. We are all human beings and we have far more things in common than not. So observe how you use the internet and what your expectations are then you will understand what others expect.

To learn how to put all this together select any of the following links.

For newbie's starting out with an online venture the notion of building a site can be a challenging one. There is so much information out there it's hard to know where to start. What direction should you go in to yield the best results?

Where you really need to start is with yourself. Write down what you wish to accomplish and put together some form of outline that will help you stay focused. One thing is for sure when doing anything online and that is you will find yourself getting distracted here and there when seeking out information.

This happens to us all but if you have an outline posted in front of you then it will be easier to stay focused. To make life easier on yourself you can use a site builder to build your site.

The advantage of a site builder is that it will help you to construct your site without having to worry about the technical details. The good site builders will also help you to construct your web pages properly so that your reader can understand your message and the search engines can figure out what your pages are about.

This will help your site to get indexed and into the search engines which overtime will provide you with free targeted traffic and if your webpage's are set up right this traffic will make you money.

In some cases site builders come with hosting as well. Once again this provides you with less to worry about and you can get on with the task of building your site around your favorite topic.

To conclude keep it simple, stay focused and you will achieve your goals.