There are lots of reasons to launch your own website. Hopefully, annoying your visitors is not one of them. Good design is as important as good content. If nobody can find or read what you have to say, there's not much point in it being there.

The trouble is that website design is very similar to the fashion catwalk; something one designer swears by is likely to be something that another designer won't even look at. How can we make sure that our websites appeal to everyone. What makes a good website?

• Are flashy graphics and elaborate fonts the best way, or should the layout be simple?

• Backgrounds are very important as the text needs to be easy to read. Would you chose a picture as a background?

• Are popups ever worth it?

• Large files can slow a site down. Is there a good way around this?

• Should sites be written for all browsers and formats, or is it normal practice to limit functionality to one or two?

• Is it ok to force visitors to listen to sound files when they visit your site?

• Does anybody ever use a sitemap?

• Animated GIFs, are they really as bad as some designers think?

• What's the easiest way to make websites user-friendly?