I've been in the sign business for over 20 years, doing marketing for small businesses all the way up to large corporations. I've learned alot about visual communications along the way and here are a few tips to help you here at Yuwie: (I'll be adding to this list as more things come to mind)

Feel free to ask me for advice. I enjoy helping people!

1. Lose the news feeds on your pages. They take too long to load, and honestly folks, anyone who watches the news will go to their favorite news source on the web. I know it seems like a great service to provide to your friends, but chances are they are'nt watching the news on your page. They are coming to your page for other reasons.

2. Make sure your layout is clean and easy to read. Too many colors and too many fonts compete, and it makes it hard for your friends to do what they came for, which is to either read about you or converse with you.If it's hard to read your blogs chances are your friends will either skip or not read all of your writing. You can still have a beautiful layout without cluttering it up.

3.If at all possible, use one of your favorite personal photos as your avatar, and leave it alone. Your friends will come to know and remember you by that photo, and if it's something generic, they will less likely remember it . Another problem with generic avatars is that your friends that don't really know what you look like will have a harder time relating to you without a face to put with the name.

4. Don't put too much clutter on your layout! Clutter kills! It may seem like the more the better but this is not true! It will be harder to view your page and make it confusing.

5. Add photos whenever possible of your family, your interests, and your hobbies. This makes it interesting when friends come to visit. It's fun to get a peek into others lives and see what makes them tick!

6. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT, post "internet making money" offers all over your layout! This looks cheap and scary when your friends come to visit. If you just MUST share your "business opportunities", do it in a blog or message them privately. (but make sure they don't MIND recieving this information first!)

7. Start a club. But if you do, FOLLOW THROUGH!  Start a club that is something you are passionate about and check your clubs progress! Don't start a club then abandon ship! Help your club grow, after all YOU are the one who started it!

8. Be consistent with whatever "passion" or "message" you feel is necessary for your experience here at Yuwie. For me, it's letting people know that I am an artist and a writer, and that I have layouts to share.

I also frequently invite people to ask for prayer, because that is an important thing to me. I also have a passion to enlighten people to the things that take place in the world that the mainstream media won't always tell you. Don't bug your friends with your passions but let them know who you are! There's nothing wrong with that! Thats one of the reasons you are here, right? To be yourself? So have fun with it!

Happy YUWIE-ING everybody!