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Reads - Site Tips
If you're thinking of getting your own personal site, maybe you can grab a few useful pointers along the way on its name, its content, its layout, and other information to help you get started.
The Name:
The first and very crucial aspect of your site that you should think about is its name. Thinking of one can take a while. For me, it took several tries before I came up with 'coy-dreamer'. Here are a few things you should consider when thinking of a name:- Originality. There are plenty of sites that have practically the same name. The only difference is maybe a hyphen, a 'z' instead of an 's', or '.net' instead of '.com'. You want your site to have a unique name, so be creative, and it will be memorable. However, don't go all out and come up with something that doesn't make any sense.
- Personality. It must somehow be related to you. If your site name is totally different from yourself, you won't like it after a while, and become bothered by it. I named my site 'coy-dreamer', because I am a coy person, and I dream a lot. That way I'll never get tired of it, because that's me, and it won't likely change.
- Length. It shouldn't exceed 15 characters. You don't want your site name to take forever to type and forever to pronounce. Just because a word like 'enchantment' sounds fancy and impressive, it does have 11 letters just to itself.
The Content:
A site's content is probably the most important thing, because it's what your visitors came for. This obviously depends on what you want to share or offer, but always keep in mind the following:- Quality. There will probably be many other sites that will offer the same type of content, but none of them are the same quality. Say you want to make graphics. Well, if that's what you're going to do, why not put an effort into it? Poorly made graphics just project laziness and unwillingness, and people won't likely return to your site.
- Organization. You need to make sure your pages are neat and easily navigable, otherwise visitors won't be able to find what they're looking for, or they'll just get lost. Divide your page into sections and use headers to organize it. Also, check the links on your site to be sure they aren't broken.
- Charisma. Even though your visitors don't necessarily know you as a person, they can get a good idea based on the content. This might sound corny, but just be yourself. Don't be too professional and don't annoy your visitors with constant nagging, like "Link back or I will ban you from my site forever". Just be polite, inviting and friendly.
- Maintenance. I recommend weekly updates to show that you haven't abandoned your site. If you're making graphics to share, you don't have to make new ones each time you update if you don't have time; just a little note to your visitors explaining your delays. You should not be pressured into updating, because after all, it's your site and you make the decisions.
The Layout:
First impressions are everything. Even if you have the most amazing content, the layout still has a considerable amount of weight on the scale. Right off the bat, with an unappealing layout, the content is doubtfully any better. Knowledge in graphic design and coding is indispensable.- Coding. I strongly recommend coding your site entirely in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), like this one. First of all, if you want to change your entire site layout, all you need is one file, and everything else follows. Also, the CSS file is downloaded just once from the visitor because it's reused for all the other pages. This reduces the amount of bandwidth and makes page loading much faster.
- Aesthetic. A nice layout obviously attracts more visitors. Just remember not to make it too big, because people have different screen resolutions, and choose colours that mesh well together while avoiding bright contrasting ones. Keep it simple. Less is more. You don't want it to look messy.
- Compatibility. Different browsers read the page differently. Therefore some layouts look nice on some browsers, but hardly function on others. Be sure to check if your layout looks good all the time. The most commonly used browsers are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera.
The Host:
Now that you have your site thoroughly prepared, it's time to find an appropriate host provider that will host your site. Choosing the host that's best for you takes time. Be sure to evaluate the following:- Price. Read carefully what features the host has to offer and compare prices with other hosts.
- Reliability. You have to make a small research yourself on the host's reliability. Read up on reviews to find out about the host's uptime and if they respond quickly to your needs.
- Bandwidth. Start off with a reasonable amount of bandwidth. If your site becomes really popular and you exceed your bandwidth, you will be warned to upgrade. Get an idea on how many visitors come to your site. If you want to use less bandwidth, try reducing images and bigger files. CSS layouts use much less bandwidth.
- Support. A good host should have a 24/7 competent technical support team who is there for you if anything goes wrong.
The Advertising:
Okay, so you have everything done, but how do you get more people to visit your site? It takes time for a site to be popular, and it depends on all the criteria mentioned above. There are a lot of promoters who can advertise your site for you, but you have to pay for their service. Here are a few ways to spread the word:- Keywords. Use the META tags to write a short description of your site. This will be displayed when you use a search engine to search for your site.
- Directories. Submit your site to directories. A directory is a page that lists plenty of sites that fit under the same category. When people are browsing the Web, directories are useful to narrow down their search.
- Link Exchange. Create a link button. Other sites may use this button to put it on their site, welcoming more visitors to your site. Everybody wants to promote their site. "Link to my site and I'll link to yours."
- Signature. If you are a member in chat rooms, include a link to your site in your signature.
Yes, getting, building and maintaining a site is taking a lot into consideration, and overall a lot of work. Want some tips on that? Patience and the will that will keep you driven to do it.