Making Your Site Stand Out
There are a TON of new sites that are created each and every day. With all of that competition, how are you supposed to compete? The key is to make your site stand out from the crowd. Your site needs to be unique, memorable, and one that adds value to the reader. You only have a few seconds to make an impression on your visitor, so how are you supposed to get them to take notice?
Unique Header Design - One of the first things a visitor will notice is the top of your site. You want to have a memorable site logo along with your site's name and tagline. I also recommend having your customer service phone number if applicable, and the different ways for visitors to connect with you (like Twitter, Facebook, Email). I also like to have a general menu so users can drill down to what they are looking for, and a search box so they can enter keywords they want to find. Of course, advertising spots here are pretty valuable and can generate some extra revenue if they fit into your layout.
Footer - This is the last chance you have to make an impression on the visitor, so don't just waste this space. Most sites simply put their copyright information and repeat the name of the site. This is a nice spot that can be used for partner links (or exchanging home page links) and a sitemap to carve page rank to the pages that you want users to land on.
Sidebars - You want to design your menu for the user, allowing them to easily navigate to the sections they might want to read. You also want to make sure the search engine spiders have access to all of your previous posts, so I almost always include my categories and date archive links in the menu. This allows the spider to crawl deep into my site.
Of course after these simple design tips you need to create dynamite content to keep the readers interested. That's the most important part. Hopefully these few simple tips will help your site stand out from the others in your niche.