"I have 5 seconds of this guy's time."

... and then only if you're lucky. Once you realize that, everything else follows easily. Your first goal is to answer "what does this website do" in six words and stick that message in a place the user can't miss.

Next up is a clear call to action. A "Solve My Problem Now" button that takes up a third of the screen and can't be missed or mistaken.

Then you have 3 other elements to play with (At a maximum, a user will be able to process 5 things about a page, and you've already used up two). I'd go for a couple bullet points explaining benefits (not features), and some form of graphic showing that benefit happening in a spectacular way.

And that's it. That's all you get above the fold. Feel free to add more stuff, but make it low key and below the fold. The 4% of your visitors who are still around and curious can read it, but the rest will have bounced or clicked the signup button already. The facebook/twitter stuff you mention goes all the way down in the footer.

Examples (my own):

http://www.fairtutor.com/

http://www.twiddla.com/

Visit each one for 5 seconds, then come back here and see if you can remember what they do. If you can't, I've failed. If you can, I've probably still failed. But if you get stuck and click the "Go" button, I win.

The plan for now though is to focus on just doing one thing really well. There are plenty of sites that have poured lots of money into doing online tutoring in the general case, and there are plenty of smaller sites that do online Spanish tutoring acceptably. But everybody with funding has thus far gone the way of being generic, so there's a gap waiting for a really good site doing just Spanish.

At some point, we'll outgrow it (hopefully), and "French by Moroccans and Guyanans" might be the next one.

I have noticed this set of graphics on various websites, not necessarily the same characters, but it has the same general style. Are these available as a set somewhere?

For the sake of others searching, my first similar styled result found: http://www.SeanJamesInteractive.com/portfolio_illustrations....

    A little boy sat on a stump, contemplating a chunk of wood in his hand.

    "What are you going to do with that?" his father asked.

    "I'm going to carve an elephant," the boy said, confidently.

    "Do you know how to go about carving an elephant?"

    "Easy," the boy replied. "All I have to do is
        cut away everything that does not look like an
        elephant."

Primarily, add a "Get Started" button or some other action cue. If at all possible, include a short video that shows how to use your app. I wouldn't bother with newsfeeds etc. unless it is core to the app's functionality.

The second biggest link is the "learn more" or "see how it works" (or whatever you want them to do next) link.

I am including (small) twitter and fb links but NOT a feed of activity. The primary purpose of running my twitter and fb account is to draw activity TO my site, so why would I want to send someone away if they actually make it to my site in the first place? I do realize that some people may opt not to signup, but want to stay informed, so that's why I'm including the links at all.

Basically, focus on directing the user where YOU want them to go. If they don't want to do that, what do you want them to do instead? And if they don't want them to do that, what do you want them to do instead?

I think we're so heavily ingrained with the idea that we have to include lots of "stuff" on the homepage (like twitter feeds, etc) that we forget what we're even trying to do.

Showing recent activity on the front page might be a good idea if it helps explaining the app (the way Twitter does it).

[0]: http://mattgemmell.com/2010/06/20/your-apps-website-sucks

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