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Here are some quick site tips guranteed to make your site more successful:
20 Top Golden Site Tips:
1. Keep it neat and clear. People don't like trying to navigate around a messy site.
2. Use neat punctuation and spelling. It's not worth it to read messy handwriting. Here are some examples of bad handwriting:
1.welcome to my site please vote for me
2. COME AND SEE MY SITE
3. HeY! CoMe On In!
4. Whazzup! Mah Sight's dah BEST!
3. Use an appropriate background. People hate to try and highlight words in an attempt to read them. So if you have dark
font, use a light background and vice versa.
4. Be polite. Don't use more swear words than neccessary.
5. Have interesting things such as reads, adoptables, advice, etc.
6. Try to be unique and don't copy things from other sites unless you've been given permission and think that the respective
piece or creation is really worth looking at or reading about.
7. If you use things from other sites, be sure to always give them credit; especially there's a wide-use on any page.
8. Don't ever steal anything, and I emphasize this point. People will just report you and you'll end up
with no site at all.
9. Don't use a bunch of fancy gimmicks to hide an empty page. And don't use fireworks from dollidesigns.com because it
can easily corrupt your site by not allowing you to edit anything on your site. At least it's true on tripod.com.
10. Try to use at least 50% of your own creations. I've found that Paint Shop Pro on jasc.com is very good and helpful,
once you've learned how to use it. There's a free 30-day trial that can go up to 60 days if you want to see what it's like.
11. Have contact info. Be sure to include one or more email addresses so that viewers can reach you in case of errors,
questions or comments.
12. Add website tools. Add basics such as a guestbook and a counter so that people can see what other viewers think about
your site.
13. Enter your site in Top Sites lists. You can even create a list of your own. I've found that this is one of the best
tactics for site promotion and this advice is from experience so you can be assured that it will work.
14. Join search engines. If you're really going to be dedicated with your site, you can join several well-known engines
for a small fee.
15. Make banners. Provide your viewers with some banners, blinkies, links, etc. to your site. Remember that your guests
are doing you a favor by putting up one of your links in their space so don't have a bunch of explicit rules. Get your own
direct-linking host(see below) instead of making your supporters use up their own space to put up your creations.
16. Have interesting content. If you don't have anything interesting to offer, then don't make a website. It's
that simple.
17. Be considerate. Don't backlash at a critic; they're just trying to help improve the Web one site at a time.
18. Be open-minded. Don't think that your site is the worst thing in world just because someone insulted you or wrongfully
accused you. Some people are just plain mean while others might have made a mistake. If it's a reasonable message, then reply
politely and explain whatever you need to do. If it's just really rude, then block their mail and ignore them or go check
what they were talking about.
19. Use proper nettiquette. If you want others to respect your site, then respect other sites as well.
20. Enjoy! If you're not having fun with your site, then there's no point in actually having one, now is there? The whole
point of a site is to expand your knowledge and get new insight, but most of all, it's to have fun!
Starting your own site but don't know where to begin? Below is a list of great hosts:
Great Sites and Hosts:
HTML-needed hosts:
Dreamwater
This used to be a really good host, but now they charge a $5 deposit fee, even for free accounts. I would recommend this
to advanced HTML users only, which means being able to make your own blogs, banners, blinkies, etc. Dreamwater offers 50mb+
of web space, unlimited bandwith, and free tools.
0catch.com
This host is great! My Digimon site is hosted here and it's very easy to use if you want to have an HTML site. Even users
who only know how to Copy and Paste will find that this is an easy host to use.
Host Ultra
Offers 35 mgs of space and has unlimited bandwith and disk space.
Okay, but seems to have a sneaky tactic of having popups appear after the viewer exits the site so that the site will retain
a no pop-ups reputation. It dosen't have a very honest ethic about pop-ups and I would not recommend it to anyone who is not
experienced it HTML, that means you should know how to link, graphic link, make text areas, copy and paste, and make tables.
No HTML-needed hosts:
Tripod
This is the host that we use. One of the best thing about it is that it has little pop-ups. It's quite good and I prefer
it over the others, but it's sometimes a bit unreliable at random times. Still, it has great layouts and 20mb of space. It
also allows HTML and complete HTML pages. Great for beginners and experienced users.
Geocities
Don't know much about its pros and cons except the fact that there's always an ad before you enter the site which you
can skip. I wouldn't recommend it because it costs $8.95 just to get 25mb of space, so the chances of having a bunch of mb
for a free site doesn't seem so good.
Angelfire
If you don't like pop-up ads, don't register with Angelfire. If you don't care, then read on. It offers the basic 20mb
of space and free layouts. Good for beginners but kinda easy for experienced site masters.
Direct-Linking Hosts:
envy.nu
I've just signed up with this host to share some reads, quotes, info, backgrounds, etc. It's a partner of 0catch, so it's
pretty easy to use unless you don't like to do a lot of HTML coding. The best thing about this host is that it gives you 1mb
for direct-linking. Liquid2k
This is suppposed to be a pretty reliable site though the last time I tried to sign up with it; it was really complicated
and wouldn't work. Another setback is that they require a lot of personal information, which might not be good if you still
need your guardians' permission to use certain Web tools. Update: Liquid2k is not working right now!
BoomSpeed
This is a good host but they won't let you display any Neopets-related stuff and aren't offering any free accounts right
now.
Neopets Guild
Neopets offer 250 mgs of space for members who are rank 2 or higher. It's very reliable but if you want animations, you
won't be able to upload too many. It's good for a temporary solution but if you're an artist, it won't hold for long.
Web Tools:
Bravenet
The ultimate site for webtools; Bravenet also hosts websites that want to relocate. This is a great site for beginners
who want to have high-tech guestbooks and chatboards.
Hits4Me
Has great and easy-to-use site tools. Their Top Lists tools are great for advertising your site.
SelectSmart.com
You know all of those cool quizzes that you see on the Internet? Now you can have one too! With this easy-to-use tool,
you can instantly make your own quiz! Be warned however, you'll have to make your own banners for the results if you want
them.
OkCounter
OkCounter offers tons of great counters for your site. However, they are now charging for their services. Don't worry,
if you're one of the first 300,000 people to have registered with OkCounter, you'll be able to use it for free "forever".
Helpful Sites:
Funky-Chicken's
This site helped me learn all the basics of HTML coding. I would recommend this site to anyone who wants to learn more
than the basic Copy and Paste.
CSS Help
This site explains the basics of CSS to people who want to make their own lookups or snazz up their sites. This is a great
site with great links, but you should probably know HTML before you begin to enter the world of Javascript.
download.com
This is where you can find free versions of software that will be essential if you want to create your own art. However,
they've updated their policies a bit, if you want to download anything, you have to register with them, which is kind of annoying.
Hope this helps!
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