Amateur Web Design Mistakes:

Below are some of the tell-tale signs of an amateurish web site that's not yet ready for prime-time exposure. Every effort should be made to avoid them in your business Web site:

Construction signs. Instead of putting up a picture of a little worker in a hard-hat and saying "Under Construction", wait until the site is finished and presentable.
Busy Backgrounds. A background can be simple and white that fits with any colour. Leave complex designs to the professionals. Text over photos are also a bad idea.
Blinking text. A sure give-away of an amateur site. Blinking text can also be distracting and interfere with your site's message.
Dangling HTML tags visible on the Web page. Often caused by inexperience, carelessness or using some of the "automatic" Web page generating software.
Typos and misspelled words. Use a spell-checker!
Text and logos with jagged edges. Anti-aliasing of graphics is a must for a polished look.
Huge image files that take forever to load on your computer monitor. The difference in the file size of two identical images can be dramatic; one can be 80k and the other, having been compressed and optimized for the Web, can be a quarter of that. Consequently the image downloads four times faster.
Typography boo-boos. Text too big or too small, or all upper case. Use upper case sparingly only for emphasis.
Sites with little or no useful content. Be sure to offer something of value on your site.
Color combinations that make your eyes water.
Java or Javascript that crashes not only your browser software but your whole system.
Animations that intrude and distract for no reason other than it's possible to have an animation. A simple, well-organized, easy-to-navigate site can have greater impact than one that is flashing with animations and techno gizmos that make it difficult to see the site's real message.