I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly a web designer. Far from it actually. And I would guess that a majority of affiliate marketers aren’t either. However, that doesn’t stop many of us from sitting down and attempting to create our own web sites…often with disastrous results.

In the three years I have been in this business I have seen some of the most awful web sites imaginable - but I can’t really blame people. Designing a good looking web site is hard, and is usually best left to a pro, but I know everyone can’t afford to outsource. So we try our best, and hope things come out alright.

If you are currently in the process of putting together a site, and you are in the sweet-spot between crying and dropping your computer off an overpass, take a second and read through 8 Web Design Tactics to Help You When You’re Stuck from SEOmoz. The article is written by Matt Inman who is behind the very lovely SEOmoz site, so he knows what he is talking about.

Matt gives these eight tactics for getting your design back on track:

1. Design from the inside out - don’t start by designing the header, focus on the inside of the page and work your way out
2. Sketch something - sketch your ideas before you start banging away on your computer
3. Seek inspiration offline - check out real life products for design inspiration. Maybe your next site would kick tail if it looked like a Cap’n Crunch box (you never know)
4. Learn to let go - if something isn’t working or doesn’t look good, trash it and move on
5. Step away from the computer - make sure you take some breaks and let your design sit for a while. This will help you look at it more objectively.
6. Be absorbent - find designs you like and mimic (I didn’t say copy) them
7. Don’t be a one-hit-wonder - try new things and don’t get into a design rut. This means you affiliate guy whose sites have looked the same since 2000.
8. Seek input from others - find people you trust and ask them what they think. Use this tip sparingly.

Make sure you peep the full post over at SEOmoz.

Also, congrats to Rand at SEOmoz on his recent creative proposal and engagement. Way to go!