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The importance of web site readability was brought home to me through personal experience with my aged mother. As a hard core Internet junkie, I felt compelled to share the wonders of the Web with her. Unfortunately, her eyesight had diminished and reading on the Web was an unpleasant experience for her.

I literally became her human page reader and the Internet became a mother-daughter activity. Sometimes I'd copy and paste the text of articles into Word and kick up the font size to 16 to print them out so she could share articles with her senior friends who didn't have geeky daughters.

Reading on the web can be hard work for anyone, not just the aged. Eye strain runs rampant in the online crowd. Numerous studies have shown that reading performance drops dramatically on the web.

Fortunately, you can do many things to improve your viewer's reading experience on your site. Here are my favorite readability guidelines.

1. Use contrasting colors. Text is easiest to read when the font text color and the background color are in high contrast. Low contrast irritates the reader and causes eye fatigue. Viewers with impaired vision may not be able to read low contrast text at all.

2. "Chunk up" your copy. That's technical talk for make your page more scan friendly. Large blocks of dense text intimidate the reader and causes "information overload." Here are a few easy ways to break up blocks of text:

** Use bullets and subheadings. They help get the readers attention and say "Hey you - this is important!" Colored bullets are an easy way to add color and visual interest to a text heavy page.

** Subheadings should be brief and convey a summary of the section. Too often we're tempted to use clever titles whose meaning is lost on the reader.

** Keep your paragraphs short. Breaking a long paragraph into several smaller sections invites the viewer in to read. A little white space between the paragraphs gives the site a clean look.

** Impatient visitors want to be able to glance at your page and hit the important points. You can help them by bolding important points or highlighting the text in a different color to draw their eye.

** Use columns to control text width. Your goal here is to avoid running your text all the way across the page. Pick up any newspaper. Notice how they place the text in columns. The shorter width makes the text easier to read.

3. Avoid busy backgrounds. Nothing screams "amateur" like a noisy background that makes your text impossible to read.

4. Less is better. Many sites look like my kitchen table - always cluttered with things that don't belong there. The more extraneous items you cram on a web page, the more you confuse and distract the visitor.

Web sites take on an unprofessional look when you start tacking on too many items. Challenge every item on the page. Does it really need to be there? Is it still functional? Can I do without it?

5. Strive for a clean font style for maximum readability. Imagine trying to read a web page filled with frilly or fancy fonts.

Want more font style tips? Keep these principles in mind.

** Plain text is easier to read than italicized text.

** Mixed case is easier to read THAN ALL UPPER CASE. Studies have demonstrated that it takes people longer to read upper case than mixed case. Besides, upper case has become synonymous with screaming on the web - and I'm sure you don't want to scream at anyone.

** A san-serif font is easier to read than a serif font. If you were wondering, serifs are the little marks at the end of letters. Sans serif fonts do not have serifs. Examples of serif fonts are Times New Roman and Courier New. Popular sans-serif fonts are Arial and Verdana.

** Don't use itsy bitsy font sizes. Nothing contributes to eyestrain faster than tiny font. Ideally it is recommended that you leave the font size scalable so users can control the size they want.

6. Make your links look like links. If you just can't bring yourself to color your links blue (the Internet convention for links) at least underline them. And don't underline anything that isn't a link. That faux pas makes readers mad fast.

Embedded links work well and according to a Wichita State usability study (http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3S/links.htm) they are preferred by readers.

Summary

There are thousands of people just like my mom who have trouble reading web pages. The U.S. Bureau of the Census and the National Center for Health Statistics estimate there were 35 million seniors in 2000, that's 12.4 percent of the U.S. population. By 2007 it is estimated that 16.3 million seniors will be online. One out of five Americans currently has a disability and as our population ages that number will soar.

Improving the readability of your site is step one to opening the door of your business to a growing segment of the population. If you want to learn more ways to widen the door, check out http://usability.gov.

As an internet marketing professional, I have companies coming to me wanting me to find untapped markets to sell their goods. The answer is sometimes as easy as making your font size bigger!

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Christine Churchill is the founder of http://www.keyrelevance.com/, a full service search engine marketing firm. She is a frequent speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conferences and moderator of the Design and Usability forum at the High Rankings Forum. This article originally appeared in http://www.successful-sites.com/newsletter/readability-01-22-04.html.

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One morning, you open your inbox and find several e-mails that will boost your business. There is an invitation to speak at a local group comprised of your best prospects. Several emails have arrived from people who've "heard of you" and inquire about your services.

There is a message from a potential joint venture partner who has invited you to be a guest on a teleconference that will reach 500 people, all of them prospects. Later that day, a journalist calls. She wants to write a story about your business, which she heard about on a radio interview you gave weeks earlier.

Is this a fantasy? No. This could be a typical day in your life as a published author.

More and more business people are realizing the power of writing a book to catapult their businesses to a higher level. Speakers, consultants, coaches, therapists and other small business owners are learning that publishing a book is one of the most powerful marketing strategies available.

Published authors report that their lives change, often dramatically, when their books reach the marketplace. When you become an author, you become known as the expert. When you are known as an expert in your field, whatever your field, you will find that the world will beat a path to your door.

A Book Generates Visibility and Attracts Clients

Of all the information products you can create, a book has the greatest potential to open doors. A book can give you more recognition and professional credibility than audiotapes, CDs, videos, seminars, workshops and public speaking.

Since my book Get Slightly Famous was published last year, I have been amazed at how it has transformed my business.

Publishing my book was a newsworthy event that resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in new business, high-profile media coverage, speaking engagements, radio interviews, partnership opportunities, and too many other benefits to mention.

Prospective clients now hear about me from all over the world. The media regularly call me, and I appear in newspaper articles and radio interviews.

Get Slightly Famous is not just my most effective marketing tool. It has become the core of my brand identity. My book provides a marketing platform for my business that gives all my marketing efforts a natural, sharp focus.

Best of all, marketing is not such a struggle anymore.

As a successful author you will find the stress of constantly seeking new clients can largely become a thing of the past. Clients will seek you out, ready to pay good money for your services, because you are seen as a leader in your field. You become their first choice.

It's Not Just a Book -- It's a Business!

Your book is the seed from which you can grow a multi-faceted "empire'' of related products and services, including seminars, teleclasses, reports, consulting packages, audiotapes, and other profitable information products.

Imagine selling thousands of books to trade associations as premiums for their members. Or how about creating a $49-a-month newsletter, a $995 home-study course, a $499 a year membership web site? Could you use your book as the basis for a year-long mentorship program for which individuals or groups that pay thousands of dollars a piece to participate?

The idea is to see your book as a launching pad for new business opportunities.

Barbara Hemphill used her book Taming The Paper Tiger to develop a multi-pronged branding strategy. Hemphill offers organizing skills services designed to reduce stress and increase productivity. Her business is based almost entirely on her book.

Barbara has used her book to develop Taming the Paper Tiger software, gain an endorsement by Pendaflex, and found the Hemphill Productivity Institute. Her company now employs more than 70 Paper Tiger authorized consultants across the U.S. and Canada.

You can write a book!

Me, publish a book, you ask? Yes, you. It is easier than you might think, and you don't need to be a seasoned writer to become a published author.

Writing a successful book is not the easiest thing in the world, but it is entirely possible. The talents and expertise you bring to your clients can form the basis of a successful book. If you know your subject area, and can communicate your ideas in a clear, compelling, organized manner, becoming a published author is within your reach.

A strategy that works for many is to break the process into smaller steps by writing a series of articles. They then become the basis for a book. Or, you can work with a talented freelance writer to help you express your ideas clearly and with conviction.

The most traditional route is to find a publisher who will handle the production, marketing, promotion and distribution. This involves up front work (you write a detailed proposal, a table of contents, sample chapters and a market overview). Then you shop the proposal around to potential publishers, either on your own or with the help of a commissioned agent.

Self-publishing has many advantages over traditional publishing, the most compelling being greater financial returns for the author. "When you self-publish, you keep all the profits," says Dan Poynter, author of The Self-Publishing Manual. "Additionally, you get into print quickly, own the copyright, and take all applicable tax breaks."

On the downside, self-publishing can be expensive. You pay up front for all the production and distribution costs, and if your book does not sell, you will be stuck with the leftover inventory. However, if your book is successful, you will not only have the satisfaction and advantages of being a published author, you will make more money.

Whatever publishing route you choose, the Internet provides a global marketplace for your book. Never before has it been so easy to market a book if you are willing to invest the time and energy to write one.

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Steven Van Yoder is the author of Get Slightly Famous. He teaches small business owners how to duplicate his success and become a "slightly" famous author in your field. Visit http://www.getslightlyfamous.com to claim your FREE Slightly Famous Marketing Plan Workbook and learn how to attract more business with less effort by creating your own information empire.