Editorials > Creating a Successful Web Site

Creating a Successful Web Site
5/30/2003

Do you want a little place of your own on the Web to call home? If so, this guide is for you.

I have created many web sites in the past and I have learned a lot. Now I will share my great wisdom with you. Make sure to see the bottom of this article for great links to help you learn even more!

Step One - Learn the lingo!
Web sites are created using the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) computer language. The HTML code tells the Internet browsers what to display on the monitor screen.

Besides learning HTML, you can get software that makes creating web pages much easier. The interface in these programs are similar to Microsoft Word or Wordpad. These programs are also known as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Two of the best are Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. My favorite HTML editor is TSW WebCoder. Technically, it's best to write all HTML code by hand so it comes out as clean as possible.

I use FrontPage to setup the site's design and text, and then I edit the HTML by hand to make updates, code changes, etc. Some people don't like Frontpage because it will some times write messy code, but you can go in and fix the little mess-ups in the code and it will work just fine. This is why you should also learn HTML - so you can fix any errors you see.

Step Two - Get a bright idea!
What will your web site be about? Videos games, computers, cars, or perhaps your bowling team? You can make a web site about virtually anything you desire.

Create a site about something you enjoy. It's your web site - you should have fun with it. It's also a good idea to make a web site about something that isn't covered very well. For example, you might like the computer game Unreal a lot, but there are plenty of great Unreal web sites already. That doesn't mean you shouldn't make an Unreal site, but you may want to consider other things you like. A good way to help the world is to find a need, and fill it. If you can do this with your web site then that's awesome!

I got a little lucky with Mario Kart Central. I like Mario Kart a lot, but the web sites that showed up on search engines for the game a year ago (in 2002) mostly sucked. So I decided to do what no one else had done yet - have a central source for all of the Mario Kart games. And because there was no other site like mine, its popularity took off like a rocket.

There are still plenty of great video games without good web sites. I'll tell you a few I found based on Google searches - Mario Party series, NBA2K series, NFL2K series, NHL2K series, and many others. There may be good sites for these games somewhere, but Google doesn't know about them so they're missing out on a lot of potential visitors!

Step Three - Lookin' good!
So you know HTML and you got your idea, great! Now it's time to design your layout. Please do me a favor and listen to my advice about making a good design. There are too many sites that take forever to load and/or look ghastly.

You don't need to be an artistic genius to make a good layout. All you have to do is look at other sites that have good designs and do something similar. Mario Kart Central is a combination of The Mushroom Kingdom's site and my personal taste. Below are pictures of my site and The Mushroom Kingdom.

http://www.themushroomkingdom.net


http://www.mario-kart.net

See the similarities?

Most of your pages should load within 20 seconds on a 56k modem. Exceptions are pages that have things like Shockwave games, many screen-shots, and content like that.

Optimize your images and make sure to save them as the right file format. Pictures with 256 colors or less should usually be the .GIF or .PNG format. Pictures with more colors (like a photograph) should usually be in .JPG format. Most image software have tools to optimize your pictures so make sure to experiment and get the file size as low as possible while making sure the image still looks good.

Don't have background music on your site - most people hate it. Many people browse the web while working, and if their boss hears some stupid .MIDI file start playing then they could get in trouble. Than again, they should be focused on work. But don't do it anyway! =)

Don't add special effects to your site unless you need them for some special reason. Most people don't care if your logo sparkles, and they don't want to site there for 3 minutes while it loads just to see it!

Also make sure your text is readable. I've seen way too many sites with bright yellow text on a sky blue background. It looks extremely unprofessional and encourages blindness. Believe it or not - I've seen black text on a black background! How ignorant is that?

Help people to get what they want fast. Generally, your visitors shouldn't have to go through 5 pages to get to the info they want. On Mario Kart Central we have "Quick Link Menus" which help save a lot of time.

Don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. There are many people who will help you with your design for free and you can even find people who could design a great looking site for you to use for less than $25.

Step Four - Got visitors?
If you want visitors then you need to promote! There are many ways to promote your site but I'll tell you what I did with mine to become the most visited Mario Kart site on the Internet.

Search Engines
In the beginning most of your visitors probably won't come from search engines but when you become established in the higher rankings then many of your visitors will come from a search.

There have been many articles written about how to rank high on search engines but I'll point you to the best I've found. Check out SelfPromotion.com. Using the techniques from this site, I was able to have my site be #1 (out of over 150,000) on Yahoo and Google for "mario kart," "mario kart gamecube," and many other keywords.

It's also very helpful to download software such as WebPosition Gold and follow their advice about making your web page search engine friendly. It sure helped me a lot!

Affiliation
Affiliation is when sites exchange links in order to increase traffic (visitors) for each other. They also may post news for each other and other helpful things.

To ask a site to affiliate with you, send them an email like this:

Dear Web-Site-Owner's Name, I really enjoyed visiting your site and would like to affiliate with you. Check out my site here: http://www.whatever-your-site-is.com. My site covers everything there is about whatever-the-subject-is (don't go into too much detail about your site, just a sentence or two).

Please reply and let me know if you'd like to affiliate. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Your Name
http://www.your-site-address.com

It's important to use the person's name when you email them. I forgot to once and they replied, "you don't even know my name! Why should I affiliate with you?!"

If they say "no" you can just delete their email or reply and ask if they have any suggestions for you. Always be nice and professional, even when they're not. There are a lot of jerks in this world; don't be one of them.

Signatures
Always include your site's address in your signature in outgoing emails and message board posts. Never spam though!!

Get Hosted
Some large sites that cover the same topic as you may host your site if you ask. They can help advertise your site which helps a lot! It's a win/win!

Well that's about it. Try to set aside a time everyday to work on your site, that way you don't overwork yourself and get bored. Having a web site can be a lot of fun! Keep learning and good luck!

Helpful Links
- Dave Raggett's Introduction to HTML
- Dave Raggett's Introduction to Advanced HTML
- Webmonkey
- Dummies.com - great books (HTML for Dummies, The Internet for Dummies, etc.)