Apparently it takes 3.5 seconds for a person to to assess another person when they first meet face to face. We've all done it and in some cases I still remember those 3.5 seconds. The love at first sight affect. :) But what if those first few seconds aren't face to face, but face to website? Couples (ie Brides) can be ruthlessly efficient when it comes to their wedding plans, which is why we all need a love-at-first-sight site that's up to handling a bride in full hunting mode. I've watched my wife in action. She will allow a site 3.5 seconds to grab her attention before she moves on. And I am being generous because we are still on dial-up at home. (Don't even go there!) So let's look at how you can grab people's attention fast. 1. Keep your home page clean and simple. Don't overload it with information. Treat it as your shop window. Give people a tease of what's inside. You need to make them want to open the door. 2. Make it easy to find you. I don't know how often I've gone to a website and spent ten minutes going round and round looking for contact details. By the time I've found out how to get in touch I don't want to! Your Website is open 24/7. You may not be standing at the door with your award winning smile but your website can be. 3. Keep your images fresh and current. Fashion is a fickle beast, and photographs of the groom with a mullet that Billy Ray Cyrus would be proud of probably won't win you business in certain demographics. And brides on the hunt will know if the dresses on your site went out of style with Billy Ray's hairdo, even if Ian and I haven't a clue. 4. Make your navigation logical. There's nothing worse than getting lost in a site that seems to go on forever. 5. Add personality. (Reading a book on blogging hasn't made me a world expert, but I did pick that up.) If you have a blog, inject yourself into it. Show the world a little bit of you. Same with your Facebook page. You want your customers and future customers to keep coming back, and they'll only do that if you're interesting. But won't it be great if you photograph a wedding, and they think of you for family portraits when Little Joey turns one? So much hinges on those first 3.5 seconds, and what I like is that all this stuff can be so easy. Just add you and your photos to a simple Workspace site. Cheers, Pete PS. Billy Ray's moved with the times. He's got tats. And I thought it was nine seconds? No wonder I've had problems - Ed.