"You don't want surfers to go two, even three levels deep and have to come back to the main page to access another area of your site."

I have been working online now for just about four years now and I have surfed my share of adult websites in that time. Because I design just about all of my sites, I am always surfing new sites for ideas and design concepts I can implement into my own work. The more you surf the more ideas you absorb and for a designer, that can open a multitude of doors to help widen your horizons.

Now, I'm not telling all of you to go out there and find a good looking site and copy their look. You have to keep in mind that basic pointers are what you're looking for. You have to come up with your own unique design with your own unique ideas. Every good designer out there puts a lot of work into their sites, you don't want to be stealing their work. The same would go for anyone trying to steal yours.

Now in my opinion there are a lot of webmasters out there that design their sites without taking the time to choose the right look. The right look meaning, the right colors, the right layout and the right format. This doesn't just apply to newbies but experienced webmasters as well.

Here are some questions I usually ask myself before starting to design a site.

• What kind of layout suits my site best?
• What Color Scheme am I going with?
• How will I organize the pages for easy navigation?

Now I will attempt to break those questions down for you to help you get your mind right. Don't forget that these are just some of the things that I take into account when I design my sites. Your views on some of these might be different, nothing wrong with that. Designing a website is a form of art, everyone has their own techniques, views and thoughts on what works best for them.

What kind of layout suits my site best?

Now when I think layout, I think of the different type of looks I can go with. The basic website look is the mainstream way of doing things, it's always safe to got his route. This look consists of a logo at the top of the page and a horizontal menu under the logo or a vertical menu on the left or right side of the web page. It's a very common look for most websites. The text layout is another common look that you will mostly see on thumbnails gallery posts, pic posts, link sites and top lists. The page consists of mostly text, not many graphics except for sponsor ads. A great way to save bandwidth if you have a lot of traffic, also load times are lightning fast, most surfers hate waiting for pages to load. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot you can do with just text to make your pages look good. You can use HTML tables with the right text and colors to make a very good looking page without using a single image for the design.

Then there's what I like to call the “Eye-Candy” look. No rules apply, you can have a menu anywhere on the page, the logo can be anywhere, and a lot of quick loading graphics to give your page a very vivid and one-of-a-kind look. Let your creativity run wild. A crazy funky look will usually make a great impression.

What Color Scheme am I going with?

Picking your colors carefully is crucial to ensure your site will look good. I usually go with 3-4 colors to offer the right diversity without going overboard. I have seen sights that use different shades of one color and look great. Others however, look very boring. Using too many colors, especially if they don't mix well, can be very annoying to the eye.

The more common colors aside from black and white that work well are Blue, Red, Purple, Green and Orange. Of course there are tons of other colors that look good, just try them out and go from here. The one thing that is very important for me is the color of the font I choose depending on the background. If you are using a black background, don't use a dark blue for the text making it difficult to read…I see this all the time. Use good contrasting colors to ensure that your visitors will be able to read the contents of your site with ease. Also, try to avoid text that is too small…especially for your main text.

Take the time to test different colors and try to pick colors that reflect the contents of your site. Let's say your site is called “SunnySex”, try to use a red, orange, yellow, white give it a summer feel. If you have a bondage site called “DungeonSex”, try to use black, grey and other dark colors to give it the right feel. Colors like Pink, White, Baby Blue will work very well with sites called “HotTeens” or “YoungBabes”. You get the picture!

How will I organize the pages for easy navigation?

A site that is easy to navigate is the essence no matter what your site is about. You wanna make it easy for surfers to find what they are looking for. Try to stay consistent with menus and the look of the pages. What I usually do is use the same menu on all my pages, this makes it very easy for surfers to get acquainted with the contents of the site. Sometimes, I also put the same menu at the bottom of every page in simple small text to give them another reference to the contents.

You don't want surfers to go two, even three levels deep and have to come back to the main page to access another area of your site. They will usually leave before doing that. Try to make every part of your site accessible from every page on your site. Your surfers will love you for it!

Now once you have enough ideas together, it's time to put them to the test. Start designing your site and take it one step at time. You might even wanna do an outline for your pages on a piece of paper if it will help you. That never works for me! I usually just get started with what I have in mind and use the colors I have decided on, the rest falls into place one piece at a time. When I complete a site, it never looks exactly like I intended for it to look…but that's just me!

If you got a paysite, don't keep it all text, you will more than likely need lots of eye candy for your surfers to cough up the bucks. If you have a site dedicated to webmasters, you don't really have to impress them much with babes and colors…they are in the business like yourself, they are usually looking for a clean consistent site with substance.

A TGP and Pic-post can be less graphical as well. Remember, the surfers are there for the FREE pictures, they don't care much about the look. Also, if your successful you will get thousands of FREE porn surfers visiting your site daily. It would be wise to save on bandwidth and keep your pages quick loading. The layout you select should go with what your in the mood to offer and what your site is all about.

Take the time to surf lots of sites and create your own unique formula. Don't forget to try new things, being innovative in design can be very rewarding. If you can't be innovative, stay mainstream and play it safe. Either way, you must ensure that your design reflects your site/service.