We all know how much first impressions mean. They are so important that when you are going to meet someone for the first time you always dress nice, use your best manners and make sure you come across as friendly. The same goes for your Web site.
Your homepage sets the mood for your whole site. If the first page a person coming to your site sees is bland and boring then they will click the back button on their browser so fast they won't even remember they were on your site.
There are many different ways to design your homepage and the ultimate decision is up to you. You can create a menu for your main pages and place it on the left or right, top or bottom. You can create an image map to guide people around your site. You can choose colors for your background and text and even your links and visited links so the site seems more personalized.
Adding a picture to your homepage is a nice touch. People love to see pictures especially if they are of you or something having to do with your site. Just don't over do it. Too many pictures can distract the reader from the more important things on your site, like your diary entries, and can sometime be an annoyance.
Another thing that really makes people think your site is well designed is a background image. Adding a nice background to your site that fits into the scheme of the site is pleasing to the eye and will make people want to read further.
When changing colors and backgrounds always make sure that you can still read the text. One of the biggest things that will make someone hit their back button is a page that they can't read. Also don't choose colors that hurt your eyes or combinations that are really ugly, unless it goes with the theme of your site of course.
This may be the most important page on your site so spend some time getting it right. It should be enticing, intriguing and easy on the eyes. When you get it right you will know and you will be very happy, and so will your readers.
