When it comes to marketing the goal should be to standout as opposed to blend in, but a lot of time when we try to stand out we tend to make our webpages look cheesy or unprofessional. In this article I'm going to share with you five cool website effects you can add to your website using WebStarts that will make your website look modern and professional but help it standout. 

1. Opacity

Making an element opaque means that you can see through it paritally. This can create a cool effect on your website because it will let someone partially see through an element. One of the things I like to do is add a graident background behind an image and then increase the opacity so the gradient is partially viewable through the photo.

You can find the opacity adjustment by selecting any element on your page and clicking on the opacity icon. Use the slider to increase and decrease the opacity.

2. Parallax

Parallax is an effect that moves elemetns on different layers in opossing directions to give a three dimensional effect. Parallax works with full width strips in WebStarts. To add parallax to your website add a photo to yoru website and convert it to be a full width strip by selecting the element and clicking on the full width icon.

Next select the full width strip and then click on the attached settings icon. You'll then see the Parallax option in the settings modal. You can select from parallax, reverse parallax, or fix the position of the image in your strip. All great effects, play with them to find the right look.

3. Animations

In WebStarts you can animate any element. Animation brings life to your website by introducing movement. There's a large variety of movements you can choose from. To find the animations click on any element and then click the animation icon. In the animation modal you'll find a drop down menu that displays all the animations you can apply to the element. When you select one the animation will automatically be previewed. You can click the play icon to replay the animation.

4. Video Backgrounds

Video backtrounds are another way to bring life to your website using a cool website effect. In Webstarts you can add videos as background full width strips by adding a video to the page, clicking to select it and then clicking on the full width icon attached to the element. Once you've made the video background full width try mixing and matching some of the other effects I've mentioned in this article to create  some original and interesting looks.

5. Anchors

Anchor links are the secret to creating a single page website. Anchors let you link from any elements of your website to any other place on any other page of your website. They're usually used to create single page websites however. Single page websites are the one's where you click on an arrow and it jumps down the page to show you the next focal point. 

To add an anchor to your page select anchors from the left side bar and then drag the placement marker down the page to where you'd like people to jump to after they click whichever element you designate to trigger the anchor link. Once you've placed the anchors you can create a link to them the same way you create links to anything else in WebStarts. Simply click on an element, click the link icon, and then select to link to an anchor. Finally designate the anchor you would like to link to. 

I hope you find these cool website effects to be exacty what you need to create a one of a kind, impressive website. If you don't already have a website you can sign up to create a free website at WebStarts.com. WebStarts is a website builder. It's everything you need to create your very own custom website and it's free to join, so there's nothing to lose. Be sure to check it out today.