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So You Want
To Build A Website?
So
here you are: new to the web, broke, and wanting to make a website
that is as good as wiffleball2k.com. The good news is that I'm here
to help you achieve that goal. The bad news is that you will never
reach that goal. Haha, just kidding...kind of.
Basically,
the point to 'Terry Creighton's "Built a Website"' page is to help
people learn how to make a site that is not going to be bad. It
would be way too difficult to try and teach people how to make a
good site, so I'm just going to let everyone in on a couple secrets
so that you do not fall into the category of the GAS award (God
Awful Site). What I like from a design standpoint someone else might
not like, but what I will tell you are a few of the "Golden
Rules" that if you follow, EVERYONE will like.
This
isn't going to cover every single base that deals with websites,
it will deal with more of a reference check point for you and your
website. I hope to be adding more and more to this section as time
goes by, but to tell you the truth, it probably ain't going to happen.
That brings me to my number one point...
1)
Update Your Site
If you have no plans on updating your site once you put it up, then
please don't make one. If you think that you want a site, but know
that you are the type of person that will quit something after a
couple weeks, then please don't make one. If you are somehow forced
into making your site by either your friends, family or girlfriend
(Ha, wiffleballers with girlfriends, that's funny!), then please
stand up for yourself (and all of us) and don't make one. I will
visit the crappiest looking site that updates often more than I
would view an awesome looking site that never updates. I will check
out the awesome looking site once, think that the person has some
good talent, then leave and never come back. Is that what you want
your viewers to think about your wiffleball league? Give me a site
that I know will have somewhat changed since the last time I visited
it and I will continue to check it out. I will also check it out
a lot more if the content was interesting, which brings me to my
second point.
2)
Make Your Site Interesting
First off, if you are looking for me to tell you what to add to
your site to make it interesting, then forget about it. I'm not
going to give out a creative idea while wiffleball2k.com is still
around...sorry. Basically, just ask yourself the question, "What
can I add to my site that will make people interested in it?" Please
don't visit other sites and put up what they have on theirs. Because
then why would I want to visit your website? For wiffleball2k.com,
we thought of many new things through the years. One being a fantasy
league. Another one being multimedia. These were things that we
thought would help people become interested in our league. Guess
what? It worked! Now it is your turn to think of some things. All
right, I give in, here is a secret...one way to make other wiffleballers
visit your website is if you talk about their website. Now
don't say I never gave you anything.
3)
Nothing Flashy
OK, if you have been a web designer for seven years, then don't
follow this rule, this rule is for beginners only. All right, so
you put up a site, it's not getting many viewers, you are updating
every once in a while and after viewing another site, you become
inspired to make your website the best! So what do you do? Add a
spinning wiffleball animated gif? Wrong! Add some baseball themed
midi file in the background? Wrong again! Odds are, anything you
add will turn your site into a joke. Just stay with the basics and
go back to rule number one. Through time, people will notice that
you update your site a lot. People will notice that your site is
getting a ton of information on it. Then as people start coming
to your site, you start getting more and more talented, until all
of the sudden, you just redesigned your whole site and it looks
five times better than it did a year ago! Few years down the road...yeah,
you get the idea.
4)
Use Humor
Even if you know you can't tell a joke, even though you are the
only one that laughs at your jokes, please put humor into your website.
You are making a wiffleball website for crying out loud! Who the
hell is going to your site looking to get the latest 411 on Jimmy,
your best-friend's co-worker whose pitching accuracy is about a
7 out of 10 on your scale? Maybe if Jimmy is wearing a fake mullet
wig and advises us to wack off before each wiffleball game so we
will stay calm, I might actually care about how good Jimmy really
is. The point to using humor is that it is the easiest way for someone
to become interested in your site. Once people start coming to your
site, you can ditch the humor if you like and stick with more facts.
By that time, people will care so much about Jimmy that they will
be interested in how he's going to do for the new season, instead
of his new advice on masturbation.
5)
Content
Let's say that you can't think of anything new and interesting to
put on your site. Let's also say you can't tell a joke to save your
life. On top of that, lets also say your league is pretty crappy.
What can you do? Easy, put things on your page. Add info everyday.
Got nothing to add? Well, then let us know that you don't have anything
to add...and you just added something. The importance of adding
content is that people will stay at your site and it's always a
good thing when people are at your site. The backlash to that is
that you are going to have to put content on your site and that
is going to take some time. So like I said at the top, if you don't
have any ambition to update your site, then please don't make it.
I'm just trying to let you know what you are getting into if you
are new to the web.
Those
five tips are the basics that you are going to want to carry for
your website. Here are some other little things that will add to
your website.
-Don't put up graphics that are above 250k unless you warn us that
the image will take awhile to download.
-Don't make the background change on every different page you have.
Keep it consistent all through out your site.
-Make a Links page and exchange your address with other people.
This will help get visitors.
-Remember, smaller is better (font sizes, graphics, the length of
your page, etc.)
-No blinking objects...ever!
-Learn Tables (part of html code) as soon as possible!
-If any of your friends show just the tiniest bit of interest, exploit
it for all it's worth!
-Try to make things in your league more exciting, such as having
playoffs, all-star game, awards, etc. This will make you want to
update your site with the info. When you're updating because you
WANT to update, you're already ahead of the game.
Above
are the mere basics for completing a site that will become an interesting
site for others to visit. If you understand all these concepts and
use them, I guarantee that your site won't suck. To make your site
one of the best, it will take a lot of work and a lot more time.
Even though we (wiffleball2k.com) claimed we were the best site
out there the minute we put our site up (1998), it wasn't until
2000 that other people actually gave it a consideration. So know
that it will be a long road before you reach any sort of reward.
With that...good luck!
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