The Not-So-Nerdy Method To Making A Website ®
Personal websites, once deemed incredibly nerdy (now just semi-nerdy) and difficult to put together, are now becoming a lot more popular with the current online journal craze ("blogging"). It makes sense - features like written updates or online photos albums help friends keep in touch, and people can visit a website at their own convenience. I'm no expert in web design - there are millions of other people worldwide who know so much more about it and do it a lot better than me. But I think I've seen plenty of crappy/excellent sites and been through enough redesigns to have an idea of things that I believe people like. There are top ten lists about what you should and shouldn't do with your site all over the internet, so this is only one more, but it's directed at the non-computer-code-literate like me.
10) Copy and Cheat. You can look at the blueprints of any website by checking out the code that makes it up. Go to a website that you like and select something that sounds like "view source" from your browser's toolbar; it's usually under the aptly-named "view" menu. Although you shouldn't just copy and paste another website's code and claim it as your own, you can learn a lot from seeing how the big nerds like Microsoft lay out their pages.
9) Da Heck's A Blog? As of right now, I haven't found an easier way to make a personal website than through Blogger. You can choose how your site looks from a variety of templates, or copy and paste custom templates from a site like Blogskins. Then all you have to do is sign into Blogger anytime you want to update your site, write something or upload a photo, and hit a publish button. Blogger updates your main page and makes archive pages too, and you don't have to do anything nerdy.
8) Why Should Anyone Care? You have to give people a reason to keep on coming back to your site, which blogs do a pretty good job of if updated regularly. I also like using random images - like every time you visit this site, you have a 1/5 chance of seeing a certain right corner masthead and a 1/5 chance of seeing a certain featured ad. The site will rarely look the same way twice. And it's not hard to do at all - just keep reading.
7) Easy Umfundisi Resources. Sites like The Javascript Source or Dynamic Drive have thousands of codes that do tricks like making random images, photo album slide shows, or navigational menus for your site. You customize them and just copy and paste the code into your own site's template (here's where you CAN copy and cheat). Or you can always use a search engine to find what sort of thing you want to pull off - that's how I made the navigation buttons for this site.
6) Learn HTML. How can learning a programming language be in the non-nerdy list? Because HTML is insanely easy to learn. Webmonkey is as easy as it gets.
5) Buying Webspace Cheap. If you sign up with Blogger, they will let you publish your stuff for free at whatevertheheckyouwant.blogspot.com. But if you want to add pictures or not have an ad at the top of your page, you'll need a host. For about $5 a month, Blogger will let you do it with them. I use a company called Synergy Connect and they're great too. Bottom line - don't spend over $5 a month on webhosting for a small personal site. If you want your site to be something like whatevertheheckyouwant.com, that costs extra.
4) Interaction McGee. If you make your site interactive, it's just another way to keep people coming back. Adding the ability for people to leave comments after your posts is insanely easy to do and works well. At the very least, have a contact page or email address. But also think about trying to...
3) Pretend Everyone Visits Your Site. Don't care about how many people visit it every day. Make your personal website for yourself and consider it freakin' cool that other people care enough about you to visit it every once in a while too. I know a lot of people disagree with me on this one, but if you add things like counters and guestbooks, you might be discouraged about your visitors more often than not. If you give the impression that everyone in the world is visiting your site instead of just you and Mom, it gives off a better impression.
2) Do It, Rockapella. Get the word out about your site, whether it's submitting it to search engines or just adding it at the end of all your emails. I still think that word-of-mouth is the best way, especially through links from other pages.
1) Get Inspired. Check out creative sites made by creative people, like Phong or FullSail. Anything you can do to make your site different and stand out will keep people coming back. And if you ever need help with anything webpage related and need a non-nerdy answer, you can always feel free to ask me questions.
Tuesday, January 6 at 10:52 AM
Okay Samurai Multimedia is Dave Werner's personal site. I'm currently working at Minor Studios in San Francisco. Thanks for visiting! (more...)
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