When you make a reference, qualify it with a clue to allow some people to skip it. Choose an appropriate size for your document. Long documents will take longer to transfer and are difficult for a reader to scroll through. Textual documents should be limited to about 5-10 screens. Be careful about introducing too much graphic material into the home page.
Larger graphics tend to slow down significantly the time for a page to load.
If you have a lot of large graphics, it is advisable to link them to your home page and give a warning that the site they are about to link to will take some time to load. Use the postage sized .GIF files on the home page if you want to give a preview of the images. If you decide to use a different body background for your pages, make sure the background does not distract from the text and graphics found on the pages. The background could also hide the text and make it difficult to read. The background pattern should be low key and subtle, but at the same time attractive and pleasing to the eye.