Think you have a successful site? Maybe you really do, but
chances are it might need a little mending. Here's some simple
ideas to remember when trying to create a friendly, worthy site.
1. Looks aren't everything. Most sites can be categorized in two
ways. Informative but lacking the helpful and pretty interface,
or completely useless, but good-looking. Though I can't tell you
how to make a great looking and informative site, because then
they'd all look the same, what I can say is first, avoid the
single-page web site, and the black-on-white, all blotched
together default look. Add your own creativity to the looks. If
you were a consumer, would you like how your site looks? Even
before looks, though, you should know what information you're
going to include. It should generally be something you're good
at and/or know at least a respectable amount of information on,
and you should have a legitimate reason for making the site. If
this is done, you have the potential of having a good web site!
2. Interaction. Your viewers hopefully like the information you
give them. But, think they'll come back, or even stay there for
more than 5 minutes? That's why there's things like forms, Java,
DirectX, Dynamic-HTML, and Flash! If you know any of those,
there are effective ways to use them all in your site. Just be
creative, but avoid over-using any of them. Add search forms to
your site, or a discussion board, possibly a web site members
sign-up page, a contact page if needed. You need to let the
users somehow interact with your site in somewhat of a helpful
way. My site incorporates every one of those things I've
mentioned.
3. Graphics It is almost impossible to get by these
days without _some_ graphics on your site. It is simply a
requirement. If you don't have graphics, you might as well go
back to Telnet. Title graphics, colorful bullets, pictures
explaining your site, buttons, etc. all will give your site a
more advanced look, even though it's so very simple to add them!
Not good at making your own graphics? No problem! Can't pay
someone to make your graphics? Still no problem! You can find
thousands of total strangers everywhere who will make graphics
for your site for free, simply because they have fun doing it.
Go around and ask in chat rooms. I'll even make them for you =).
4. Web location. Though it's not a big issue for text-only and
low-graphics sites, but if you want people to come to your site,
your servers need to be tolerable. If you have the most
beautiful site in the world, better than your competitor Bob's,
and the information would score an A++ on any review, but your
servers are down 1/2 the time, and crawling the other 1/2, then
Bob will get all the business. You can find good servers easily,
and even freely sometimes, if you look hard enough. If you have
the money, pay, it's almost _always_ better. You get no
advertisements from them on your site, and usually faster, more
reliable service, plus an easier to remember URL. Free services
are getting better, however, but you'll have to deal with some
form of advertising from them on your pages.
5. PROMOTION
PROMOTION PROMOTION Most people make a site,then sit back and
hope to see the hits rack up. This simply does not happen these
days, with hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of other
sites covering the same topics you do. The answer is simple yet
complicated. Simply stated, GET NOTICED. The full explanation:
Submit your site to search engines, advertise in every way
possible everywhere possible, use word-of-mouth, advertise
locally in school or at work or in the bar, just let people
know! Generally, unless your site is really great, you won't get
too many friend's of visitors on it, so don't rely on others too
much. This article assumes you know the basics of making web
pages, such as basic HTML and adding graphics. If not, or if
you'd like to learn some advanced things, why not check out some
tutorials from places like http://www.webmonkey.com or
http://www.pcshowandtell.com? They'll help you a lot.
About the author:
Ben McClure, http://www.falloutgames.com.
