2.  Choose a theme that is clean, simple and appropriate to what you write about.  Think about what you need your site to do for you when choosing a theme. Do you need a lot of pictures? Do you need multiple columns? Do you need video?

3.  Easy access to your work  Ownership of your work  Shows you’re Web savvy  Let’s you publish unpublished materials.

4.  Stay away from white text on a black background and other hard to read color schemes.  It might be OK for short blurbs, but after awhile it’s hard on the eyes, especially to an older reader.  EXCEPTION: White on black tends to work well for video and photo.

5.  Just because fonts and colors are there doesn’t mean you have to use them. Would you want to read a whole story written like this?  Remember KISS: Keep it simple, stupid.

6.  We use Times New Roman in print. This is a serif font.  Online we want to use a san-serif font for our body. Serif fonts are acceptable for headlines.

7.  Make sure all your pages look the same (same color, same style, same navigation, etc.)  It’s confusing when a user finds himself suddenly on a page that looks different. He might wonder if he’s on the same site or not.

8.  Have a style for everything you do.  All cutlines should look the same, all headlines should look the same, all links should look the same, etc.

9.  Always be sure to set your links to open in a new window.  If someone opens a link and from there another and from there another they’ll eventually lose your page. If you set your links to a new window then your page is still up when they finish exploring other sites.

10.  Never set your videos to play automatically.  People surfing the web at work or during class will get annoyed that you’ve let everyone know they’re not paying attention.  If your site has more than one video starting on a page that leads to slow loading times and a lot of confusion.

11.  Photos that are not part of your portfolio (your picture, pictures to help illustrate stories) should always face into the text, not off the page.   NO!   Photos also  shouldn’t box in words.

12.  Choose these carefully  They can add too much busyness to your page.  Be sure that they’re appropriate to what you’re writing about. (Don’t put a sports scores widget on a page about gourmet cooking).

13.  Make sure you get as many keywords as possible (within reason), into your titles and decks.  This will help google find your work which helps others find your work.

14.  Show your finished product to lots of different people. Shoot for different ages and professions.  Ask your readers to proofread and to also point out any parts of the website that are difficult to use or confusing.

15.  Call the help desk at (303) 735-HELP, or look on the IT website  Request a shell account on Rintintin for a student webpage.

16.  10000 words journalist portfolios 10000 words journalist portfolios  This one looks nice but has some design flaws that could easily be fixed. This one  This one is a bilingual TV journalist. She has a really cool way of presenting her clips and resume. This one

17.  Web pages that suck 2010 awards Web pages that suck 2010 awards