I have a friend who used to have an interesting thing happen on his website when you visited it. You’d see cartoon people walking around in the header when all of a sudden you notice one of them walking towards the front.

Suddenly it starts talking to you and it’s him, the real him, enlarged a bit more than the rest, telling you about his business. When he’s done he walks off to applause, and now you not only see people walking across the top but also the bottom. It was pretty cool.

That’s one of the most creative things I’ve ever seen. But most sites I go to that have some kind of enhancement aren’t quite that cool. You’ll see things flashing out at you or spinning or have music suddenly playing and frankly all of that stuff is irritating.

I have 5 blogs, but I also have 4 other websites; at least I think it’s only 4. lol Each site has its own unique look while still being somewhat similar. I’ve created other websites that are all different but similar as well. What’s going on?

Well, the similarities are that each site has menus and certain categories of pages, depending on the business. In other words, you’ll find what you’re looking for because I’ve set it up that way. That’s the smartest thing you can ever do on your website; make sure people can find what they’re looking for.

Otherwise, the sites are all different. Some have white backgrounds, some have blue backgrounds. One of my sites has a brown background with dark blue lettering.

You see this blog being different in the color of its content. You’ve also noticed, I hope, that any links I put on this page are a different color than that standard, boring Google blue that a lot of people are used to. Yes, it takes just a tad more coding, but it’s so minimal that it’s not a big deal at all.

You can have a website that’s different than the norm without buying a template, without having lots of fancy tricks, and without assaulting the senses by having loud, bright colors. Since I tend to believe that anything online is marketing, you give yourself a better opportunity for branding and standing out from the crowd if your site has something different than the norm, without being too different.

Think about what you like to see when you go to a website and start from there. That is, unless you’re the type that loves hearing a heavy metal song blasting you as soon as you get there. That’s one you might want to rethink. 🙂