Website Tips

I'm compiling some website tips, so here is what I've got so far :) The page is long so the following links are to make it easier to navigate.

So You've Decided You Want A Website - the basics.
Design & Coding - your layout design and coding.
Basic Design & Coding Tips - basic design tips.
Content - your website contents.

So You've Decide You Want A Website

The basic things you need to think about before you get started and once your site is up and running.

What Kind Of Site Do You Want?
Is it going to be personal, a blog or both? A pixel/dolling/graphic site? Informative about a certain subject? Fansite?
It could, infact, be all of the above, or a combination. It could also be none of the above and something else entirely! Your imagination is the only limit you have. Once you've decided you can move on to the fun stuff.

Update Regularly
Having a website requires a certain amount of dedication. Keep it fresh by updating at least twice a month, more frequently if you have a fansite (who'd want to revisit your fansite if you never have anything new about your subject on it?). Though your website shouldn't overtake your entire life it is important to remember than updating fairly regularly is one of the things that keeps people coming back.
Incorporating a blog into your site is something that helps keep it fresh.

Lean XHTML!
Learning all you can about XHTML is super important. Using programs that make sites for you can be limitting, plus I don't feel they allow you to really understand the code and know what you're doing.
While they can be helpful in the beginning I don't recommend getting used to using them. I started by learning from scratch and writing raw HTML in Notepad. It's all about trial and error. Once you've mastered XHTML (don't worry, you don't need to know it all by heart, but being able to remember the basics is very helpful) you can move onto more advanced programing languages like PHP and Javascript.

Plugging Your Site
Once your site is up and running you can start to think about ways to get visitors. Listing it in search engines is free. Using meta tags in your pages "provides meta-information about your page, such as descriptions and keywords for search engines".
If you want more traffic for your site don't go around spamming other peoples sites - it's anoying and pittiful! If you take the time to look around someone's site and leave a tag or sign the guestbook saying something honestly nice they are likely to take a look at your site. You wont get tones of traffic overnight. It does take awhile. After some time you might have created a possitive name for yourself, people like you and your site, thus they recommend others go and look at it.
Some other ways are: affiliating with other sites, link exchanges, rotations and listing your site in web directories.

Design & Coding

When deciding on my layout I always think of a few things to help me along...

Images
Do I want it to have images on it? If so, what feeling to do I want to get from it: Cuteness, sophistication, laid-back?
what do I like: people, animals, objects?
I usually base my layouts entirely around the image(s) I want to use. Sometimes I will make a graphic from scratch, like pixels, or I will make a blend of various images and use brushes and other things to spice it up. At this point I also start to build up a mental picture of the colours I want to use for things like the font and borders, etc. I always pull those colours out of the image I've created so that the layout ties together nicely. It's not nice to see loads of different colours in a layout that don't mix well with the image and everything else as a whole.

Layout Structure
By this time I've usually got some idea of how I actually want my layout structure to look. If I use iFrames I genrally make the graphic mentioned above to fit with the iFrame (see my Relaxuma layout, for example). If I am not using iFrames and want a layout like, say, my Joaquin Phoenix one, I generally always have a sidebar.
So now I get to work on building up the basic code for my layout, which I do using a Cascading Style Sheet (a.k.a, CSS) and test page which I will upload and view to determine what I want to change or keep. I also start to think about what fonts will look nice for the page headers in my content (for the content text itself I tend to stick to something easily readable like arial, tahoma or verdana).

Fine Details
Now that I've worked out the basic layout structure and I've pretty much got it how I want, I start deciding what I want for bullet images in my header text and any accent images like list bullets and the back/new/updated graphics. I also make sure I like the placement of things on the page, especially the sidebar. In regards to the sidebar I ask myself if I find it looks too busy or crowded and what I can do to make it "cleaner". A cluttered side bar can detract from the rest of the page.
Next I start working on formatting my blog so that it ties in nicely with the rest of my layout.

Basic Design & Coding Tips

Keep It Simple
Over-crowding can look terrible if it's not done properly and in an organised manner. Busy layouts can often distract people from the content on your site and you don't really want that to happen.

Limit Animations
Stay away from lots of animated images on your layout and in your sidebar. Again, it's a distraction in most cases and can be quite annoying for alot of people. A few animations are fine, like perhaps affiliate images or if you like the cute layout look then a blinking panda/whatever character adds to the cuteness. Othwerise, keep animated .gifs to a minimum.

It's Raining!
Falling images (e.g, snowflakes and hearts) should only go on your splash/index page, if at all.
Why? They're annoying when you're trying to read something and you keep getting a falling heart/snowflake/cat/leaf in your way. Also, I personally find that it looks cheap and trashy to have falling images on your entire site. Having them on your splash/index page can be nice and adds a pretty/cute/sophisticated touch depending on what the image is. Just don't over-do it. Please.

Keep Your Colours Nice
Lots of neon isn't genrally a great idea. A touch here and there can be quite good, especially when matched with black, but having all neon colours is just a no-no for me. Too bright, too distracting, too difficult to look at.

While We're On The Subject Of Colours As I mentioned in Design & Layout tip "Images", get your colours from the layout image(s). Make sure that whatever colour you will have ALOT of in your layout (e.g, your content and sidebar background) is one that goes nicely with, but doesn't take away from, your image. You may notice that in alot of my layouts I kind of have a colour theme.
For instance in the Joaquin Phoenix layout my image has alot of pink in it with a fair amount of cream. My page background is a darker colour than my content and sidebar background, thus creating a 'pop' effect off the page rather than a 'sinking in' effect. My content/sidebar/image borders are images I made to create a 3D effect, thus making it all stand out more from the page background. I've carried on the creamy background colour from the image into the content and sidebar background, using a slightly darker creamy-green for my text header background and navigation menu. I've brought in the pink by making my links pink, using pink in my navigation menu, as well as using pink arrows and bullets. I've not used any yellow or blue in the layout because if I did it would start to look too busy.
I love to see layouts with various shades of one or two colours. I think it looks sophisticated and has an understated elegance. Sometimes simplicity is best.

Font Style and Colour
When it comes to fonts and font colours it depends on your layout image and any fonts you've used in it. If I want my layout to have an old or elegant feel I often use fancier text for my page headers, like Trebuchet MS, Garamond or Georgia. If my layout has a modern or cute feel to it I tend to stick to plainer, more modern looking fonts like Arial, Tahoma and Verdana. For the content font I usually always stick to something plain that is easy to read like Arial, Tahoma and Verdana. I always list more than one font type for the font-family variable in my CSS so that people using different browsers and different computers can still view my text nicely. For my Joaquin layout the font family is tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif.
As for font colour: make sure it goes with the rest of your layout! Usually a dark grey (I use #525252) is better than a black as sometimes black can seem too harsh on lighter coloured backgrounds. The same applies in reverse: white can seem too harsh on darker backgrounds, so try a light grey instead. Play around with font colour—it doesn't always have to be greys or black and white!
When it comes to size please make sure your text is readable! Anything below 9px is getting a bit small for your content text, and it cane make the readers eyes sore, which isn't so lovely.

Links
Links are really important to get right. I cannot stand going to a site that's really beautiful but when I hover or click a link it's that awful default blue or purple! I get so disappointed. It's so important to get the right link variables and attributes for your CSS and then choose colours that go nicely with the rest of your layout, and remember that not all browsers support certain link effects.
You want your links to be obvious, otherwise no one will know where to click, but you don't want them to look horrible and garish.

Content

Content is the most important part of your site, believe it or not. It's what people come to see and what keeps them coming back! It's important to put alot of thought into your website content and I hope the following tips help you figure out what you want.

Who's Your Audience?
The first thing to think about is who your main audience will be. What age are most of the people visiting going to be? What interests will they have?
The second is what YOU like and what you want. What do you like to see in other peoples websites? What do you hate to see? Once you've figured these things out it's alot easier to come up with different and interesting content to have on your site.

Almost No Such Thing As Originality
One thing to keep in mind is that everything has pretty much been done before, so there really isn't such a thing as completely unique and individual contents. The key is how you present it, write about it, and that fact it's you who's doing it. Make sure you're personality shows through; that can be hard if you're not a "writer" so write like how you would talk to your friends when explaining something cool or whatever.

Showcase Things You Like
Put things on your site that you like. If you love voting on polls, create polls for people. If you love taking quizzes, make quizzes for people to take (it's surprisingly easy to do, actually).

Original Goodies
If you're planning on making things for people to adopt or use, like graphics, make sure they're your own creations. Stealing is really very dumb. It doesn't matter if you suck at it right now, becaue you will get better with practice.

More Stuff For Visitors
Having more content for visitors than content about yourself is always good. Sometimes reading about you isn't as interesting for people after awhile. Keep the info about you simple and to the point—no need to go into your entire life story unless you feel it's something you really want others to read about.
I like to make lists, so I've listed my favourite movies, bands and books. I also love taking those fun survey meme things, so I've filled out one of those and put it on my site so people can read some more detailed info about me if they like.

Interactive Content
People tend to like interactive things, so add stuff they can fill out and submit (like my Yummy People survey, for instance). "Add your birthday" is also popular, as are "Ask a question" and "Find so-and-so somewhere on this site".
Creaing quizzes, polls, memes and having games on your site are all fun ways to entertain visitors while they're at your site.

Stealing
Blantantly stealing ideas off people isn't good so if you like something on a site, write the owner polite email asking if you can do a similar or same thing on your site and credit them for the inspiration.