If it weren't for Twitter, I wouldn't know anything that's going on. Michael Jackson's death, the Hudson River plane crash, Charlie Sheen finally going off the deep end, and Google's +1 button are just a sampling of things I found out from my followers.

The same goes for this gem that I picked up on American Express's Open Forum: "The Top 5 Web Design Mistakes Small Businesses Make," according to Mashable's Grace Smith. You can read the full article here, but here are the basics:

1. Below-par navigation: If even you can't understand how to get somewhere on your website, your users are never going to find it. They'll just get frustrated and move on to a site they can navigate.
2. Confusing call-to-actions: Whether it's requesting more information, signing up for a newsletter, or registering for a free demo, you want your users to do something after they come to your website. Make sure that's prominent.
3. Forgetting about color and contrast: Light text on an even lighter background is only going to blind your users. If you want them to read something, make sure that they can first.
4. Too much content, not enough hierarchy: Use the inverted pyramid style of writing on your page with the most important information being first. And remember, white space is your friend.
5. Information overload: You shouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket, and you shouldn't put all of your information on your home page. You can have multiple web pages for a reason, so use them to break up your images and content.

You approach a web design for a small business differently than you would for a company with a 6-figure budget. In fact, small business web design is its own skill set. And — shameless, not-so-subtle transition alert — we get that. We actually developed an entirely new department because of that. Our Core Web Solutions gives you an affordable, custom web design without the custom price tag attached. With Core, you're getting the design you deserve, the functionality your customers crave, and the online marketing you need to get found. And you certainly aren't going to be subjected to lost users suffering from content overload anymore.