Site Tips

Starting a site? Here's some useful tips you can use! There's no easy in making a site, so read here for some tips!


1. THINK FIRST.
Everyone knows, that making a site is not easy. You need: commitment, time and passion. Ok ignore this if you want to make a blog website. But other than blog sites, you know that this is a time-consuming task. You've got to find a way to manage your time, and you have to be serious about this. Myself, I have a bit of trouble managing time, but I am still committed to finish the site and plus, you have to think more of original ideas. THIS IS ALSO TIME-CONSUMING. No, this first paragraph is not about trying to discouraging you, but I'm just reminding you how things could be like. Suggestion: make a list, of the positives & negatives of making a site. After that, re-read your list, think about it, and decide.

2. LEARN ABOUT CODES.
This is really, REALLY important. If you don't know the basic codes of coding, you have to read, learn and preferably remember it. If you don't know how to write codes, I suggest you find generators (there's gazillions of it in the internet, just look it up) and then try and modify some things on your own when you know the basics of coding.

3. GET A SOFTWARE.
Imagine, is there a pianist without a piano? No. So, if you want to be a graphic maker or whatever, you need to have a software. I use Adobe Photoshop, but you can use other softwares. One more tip: "Interact" with the software. Experiment with stuff, and when you think you're an expert with it, start designing some graphics and backgrounds for your layouts! :)

4. BE CREATIVE & BE ORIGINAL.
Everything you put in the site all of them has to come from YOUR own mind. You have to make everything original - from your layout site backgrounds to all your graphics. All of them MUST be from yourself and not stolen from other places, except of course, if the resources (brushes, etc) are not from yourself, that's OK! just don't forget to credit. If you steal you're a layout FAKER not a layout MAKER, and there's no way of success if you're a fake. But, if you do use other people's stuff, DON'T FORGET TO CREDIT! Not crediting is also considered stealing.

5. DoNt TaLk LiKe ThIs.
Seriously, if someone would actually talk like this I'd laugh on the floor. Why do I not recommend you to talk like that? Because 1) People won't think you're serious. 2) It's not clear. It's soooo stone-aged!

6. GET SOME FEEDBACK.
Tell your friends, ask them for suggestions and feedback. If they like your layouts (make sure it's original) or whatever it is you make, maybe you can actually start a site.

7. FIND A HOST.
There's tons of hosts you can use, free or pay.
+ FREE: Some examples of free hosts are Freewebs or Piczo. Okay, so Piczo isn't actually a hosting site, more like an album but yeah :P Anyway these sites offer space that you can use to store your website. BUT, for those who wants to make a layout site, I highly recommend you to NOT use Freewebs because it limits pages & stuff. So try using something else, whatever you like! This site is hosted for free from my awesome host Kelly. Of course, there are tons of sites that offer free hosting. There are many. Just visit sites like Kelly's and find in the affies, some sites that offer sub-domain hosting (you.something.com). Though, I suggest you are experienced with FTP, making high quality graphics and so on, so that you can have bigger chances of being accepted.
+ PAY: We all know that if we pay for a host we would get more & better advantages. That is absolutely true. Besides that you can have your own domain (www.you.com) and maybe even more space (but some hosts do give limited space). So yeah :P But, for beginners, I HIGHLY recommend you to not pay for a hosting site yet, because 1) you might be least experienced, 2) it's hard with the traffic & money and stuff.

Whichever it is you pick, don't stress yourself out!

8. PROMOTE YOUR SITE.
This is most important. You have to promote your site in order to get traffic. And the traffic is needed to find out if your layout site actually succeed. If you don't have traffic at all, then that means you're unsuccessful. Don't give up though. You can always apply in sites, and have an affies page or something, that way you can get more hits.

9. GET REVIEWED.
There are many review sites on the web. Try to apply to one review site and get some feedback from them. But for reviews you must face criticism. Can't take criticism, then don't get reviewed.

10. JOIN ROTATIONS.
What are rotations? Well, a rotation is where you sign up a rotation site, get the code for the rotation, and you can get your site banner in other people's sites who has registered to that rotation site. Rotations are great because then it's like link exchange. You get much more hits by rotations.

11. TRY, TRY, TRY!
There's no point in giving up. So if you fail, you must get back up on your feet and try again.

12. GOOD LUCK!

I hope you find these tips helpful for you :)