The mind hates confusion. If you try to get your visitors to do too many things, especially on the front page, they will do nothing. In essence, keep your message focused. Use one major theme and revolve your message around it. Newspapers capitalize on that intrinsic human behavior, which is why front-page headlines, pictures, and news articles are always carefully selected.
Web sites are no different.
In fact, list the benefits. In other words, focus on communicating to the visitor the reasons why they should browse further. Remember that customers buy benefits and not products. Therefore, your first page should focus on the benefits of your site and not its features. It must give specific reasons for surfers to venture further.