Site Tips and Ideas
These tips are all important things to consider when you're making a site. If you want people to keep coming back to your site and enjoying it, you should keep these in mind.
Be Original
Just like in real life, the internet has trends. When one site does something, everyone else wants to do it as well. It's hard to think of original ideas, but it's possible. Having content that no one else has is something that attracts visitors and overall makes your site better.
When you're trying to think of a site name, don't go overboard with trying to make it different. For example, something like "Banana Flaws" or "Trashy Sparkle Cupcake" is definitely original, but not in a good way. Most people probably wouldn't click a link to a site with a name that makes no sense at all.
Content and Quality
You don't need to have too many pages of content on your site, as long as there's a good amount to keep your visitors busy for a while. It's better to have 10 pages of good content than 100 pages of rushed, colorized graphics.
It takes a while to make your site good quality, so the main thing you shouldn't do is to rush through everything. Take your time on your content. If the graphics look like they took 20 seconds to make and the tutorials don't make sense, people won't want to come back to your site.
You should also update your site every so often so people don't get bored with the same old stuff. Don't feel pressured to update a lot. When you update is completely up to you. You have a life outside of the computer too (well hopefully, lol) so you shouldn't feel like you're being forced to update. Your site should be a hobby, not a chore.
You should always make sure your layout is coded properly. If it doesn't work in a certain browser, it brings down the quality of your site and you can lose visitors. If your coding looks fine in IE, that doesn't mean that it's going to work in every other browser as well. Not everyone uses the same browser as you, so you should try to make your site compatible for all of your visitors.
The Site Owner
If you show that you have a good personality, it makes your site seem more inviting. If you have your email or IM screen name up on your site, don't be rude to people when they contact you.
One thing that can ruin your reputation and what people think of you is stealing. Stealing, direct linking, and redistributing other people's work can get you in trouble and your site can get shut down by your host. Make your own content and graphics and credit other sites for things you use.
Some Do's and Dont's
Do...
- use image mapping or divide your site into sections if you have a lot of content. If you have a menu that scrolls on and on forever, it makes it harder to find what the visitor is looking for.
- test your site in other browsers to make sure your coding works.
- update your site. No one likes going to a dead site that hasn't been updated in months.
Don't...
- use a splash page on your site unless you're on hiatus or there's something really important you need your visitors to see. Having just an enter sign is pointless, and having a splash page covered in a million and a half buttons and a tagboard is even worse. People don't want to wait for all of the extra stuff on your main page to load, just to click a link to get into your site. Also, they're most likely not going to sign a tagboard until they've actually seen the site.
- use requirements like "PHP" or "IE/Firefox/etc". PHP is not a requirement, it's something that your host allows. If you can't code your site to work in at least IE, Firefox, and Opera, you should fix it or you'll lose visitors. If you need to you can say "Site best viewed in IE", etc. but don't try to make your visitors switch their browser, because they most likely won't. I use Opera and when I go to a site that isn't coded properly, I usually don't bother opening Firefox, and I never open IE to view it.
- have menus or sidebars full of buttons. If you just have a few that's fine, but 50 flashy animated affiliate buttons all in the same place just hurts people's eyes. If you have a lot of links, use text links instead.
- add too many ads or popups to your site. If you need to make money through your site one or two ads per page is fine. But when you have ads covering up your layout and 10 popups on every page, people will get annoyed and leave.