Tips on how to make your site good(for novices) (General Web Design Tips)

Member Name: nytemare

Product:	General Web Design Tips
Date:	19/02/02 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: more hit's, Popular site, Successful

Disadvantages: could cost money, Takes a lot of time, people diss you a lot

Right before anyone jumps down my throat I know this is the wrong place but there is no place for this type of op so it is going here :)

Running a web site is a thankless task, there is a hell of a lot of work involved with very nearly any reward, Well that is not strictly true the reward is that you have made something that you can be very proud of, I have made a few tips to help you get the most from your site.

ADS : Firstly and I know others will agree with me here, there is one thing I hate more then a crap site and that is POP UP'S, those damn things i hate them so much, you know when you go to a site and your bombarded with the damn things, well if you have those on your site then you WILL lose hits people will not come back to your site if they get hit with pop ups, most of these pop ups are on the sites because the site owner think it will make them money when in actual fact it does not, you only make money if a person clicks on and buys something which they will not because the moment they see pop ups then they will "pop off" and will not return, there are other ways which i will come to later.

CONTENT : Some sites have one thing on there and boom they think that makes a site well it does not, I have a number of items on my site which i feel is very important to the wrestling fans that visit my site, you should have things like the latest news of what ever your site is about, also I find that you need to have something to make your visitors want to come back, which is where a forum and a chat room come in to play, a chat room is a great way to meet new people and to talk to other people that share the same passion as you, a forum is also a great way of having debates about your chosen hobby, there are other ideas such as columns and also a picture gallery.

TAKE YOUR TIME : I can not say that enough, if you rush your sit then it WILL look crap, take your time it does not have to be ready in a week as long as
it looks nice that's what counts make sure everything works before you put your site live on the net if a visitor see's your site and hates the look of it then you have lost a hit and every hit counts in this game.

UPDATE : The amount of times I have come across "stale" sites is amazing, to make people keep coming to your site you need fresh content there is no point in updating your site when you can be bothered or say once every month, you need to update it as often as you can, always update my site several times a day and then if i have any spare time I will give the whole site a little "editing" which makes my site fresh all the time, people only like fresh sites :) maybe take on a few people to help post news or add stuff to take the load off you.

OWNING : I find that if you run a site jointly with someone or more people then it is bad news, I run Tapp Out on my own which means that no one can tell me 1) how to run my site and 2) reject my ideas, if you have a co-owner then you both have to agree on a idea which may not always happen and sometimes rows can happen, O have run sites with people before and it has always ended badly, so my advice is run it on your own by all means get people in to post for you but always keep full control of your site.

DON'T STEAL!! : The amount of times I have seen content from my site on other peoples sites is very high, I have no objections to people using my news, or other material but please ask first, (manners don't cost anything you know)Stealing is not a good thing to do I have never stolen anything to put on my site If I use new that I know is on another site or i get it form another site, I not only have emails saying I can use their news but I also give credit to the site in question at the bottom of the news. as i said it is basic manners.

Lets get one thing clear right here right now!, you WILL not make loads of money running a web site there are w
ays to make a little but it will not add up to much I will show you how right now.

MONEY : many a web master loves chances to make money they get reeled in by these people that say put this pop up script on your site it will make money for you, NO IT DOES NOT!! you will only make money if people buy from the pop up which of course they do not, and even if you are lucky enough to find one that pays for showing a pop up then it will show about 6 and earn you 1 cent which will kill your visitors and stop them coming back, there are ways to make a little money from our site, one way that I am shocked is not more common are search boxes some companies pay about 5p - 10p per search which may not sound a lot but if you get say 10 - 20 search a day that's about £1 a day Now I am not allowed to put the addresses or recommend any here as Dooyoo will ban me for advertising

I have a very popular search box on my site which earns me 2p a search I make about £1 a day from it which considering the site costs nothing is £1 a day profit :), be vary careful of who you sign up with though some require a deposit.

LINKING : This is a popular way of getting your site known around the net asking other sites to place your banner or button on their site if you do other same, well slow down a minute there, don't go mental here, you don't need to fill your site with links for 2 reasons

1/ it will take your site ages to load which will put people off, they want a site to load straight away or they will go else where.

2/ if you fill your site with links it will not only look ugly but your visitors will click on of the links and never come back.

Obviously Putting your site on other sites is important and is free so here is a good alternative, I use a banner exchange program called http://free-banners.com now you put their HTML code on your site and every time someone comes to your site they are presented with a different banner yo
u are allowed to enter three of your own banners, there are over 5million other free-banner users I have been with them since November and my banner has graced other web sites over 2,000 times and 600 people have visited my site thanks to free- banners, there are others but i think these are the best.

BANNERS : If like me you suck at making banners then there are loads of banner making sites out there, people that will happily make you a banner for free, they normally ask for a link to their site in return which is a good deal.

PRICE : I have been runnign my site since July 2001 and the only thin I have paid for is my domain name everything else I ahve got for free the forum, chat room newsboard all free just surf the net for some great free stuff it is out there.

GENERAL SITE : Keep your site simple, you don't need the latest HTML codes to make your site the best, I have used a few HTML codes and it looks fine, don't over do your site that is just as bad as anything else, there are countless HTML sites on the net to look at.

OVERVIEW : Basicly take pride in your site, I treat my site like my own child so to speak, I nurture it, and make it what it is now (corny I know sorry)don't be afraid to ask people for help people like me love helping people

Happy building

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