chaos' guide to making a successful site v1

[internet chaos]

chaos' guide to making a successful site - v1

[ I am writing this guide because my birthday is January 2nd, tommorow. So many people have helped me out on the way, that I figured I would give back to the community on my birthday. Consider it a present! ]

It makes me happy to see so many people these days trying to make a website. The problem is, alot of people have no honking (since i'm posting this at Serebii and PokeCommunity as well, i'll replace where I normally would swear with some random word) clue what on earth they are doing or take bad advice from their peers. After reading this you should get a better idea of how to make a successful website in this day and age :)

As for me, I run one of the biggest Pokemon websites on the internet, the only forums bigger than mine that deal with only Pokemon are Serebii and PokeCommunity, I run a NetBattle server that gets over 100 people on concurrently and I have a willing and active community of people to help me out. I've been doing HTML, CSS, PHP, and even though unrelated to web design, C++ for around 7 years now. My site gets 2,200 unique, 35,000-40,000 page views, and 250,000-350,000 hits a day. I know exactly what I'm talking about.

- BEGINNERS, AN INTRODUCTION -

Don't use free website templates. The goal of you starting out on a site is to do EVERYTHING by yourself. It's the only way you will ever get better at this. You might as well accept that your layouts are gonna look like crap at first, but they would anyway if you used a Bravenet template. Once you've made a few layouts and understand better how HTML and CSS work, you're ready for the real meat of this tutorial. Sorry, I don't have time to write an HTML tutorial when there are tons available already on the internet.

- So you're serious, and want more traffic? No complete beginners please. -

1. This is the absolute most important thing. Nobody cares about your ridiculous PHP script that lets you specify which 'style' you want a layout to be. It's cool for proof of concept to help you learn, but it has no point on a real site. Nobody cares about your 30 affiliates each getting 30 page views a day. This isn't going to attract you attention. Neither is your 600 page links on the site that lead to your default 404 page of 'I HAVENT MADE THIS YET/COMING SOON WITH ::MyGenericPokemonSite v4// SEE YOU ALL NEXT NOV!'

None of that is going to get you traffic. You know what gets you traffic? A _niche_. Find a niche for your site- something to hype it, something that nobody else has. Give your users a reason to come to your site; anyone can go to Serebii and see the latest headlines for anime. Don't be just another pebble in the gravel road. Instead, be some sort of brick! A car going down a gravel road isn't going to be stopped by your pebble. It's going to keep trekking on to its destination, the sites everyone else go to. So be a brick and stop the car dead in its tracks. Get them to look at your site first before they go to Serebii or such.

Yeah, that was a bad analogy. I was totally feelin' it though. The point is, you need something to make your site unique. My site's niche is competitive strategy to Pokemon. My users love my site because they know they can't go anywhere else for competitive strategy. It targets them. There is no other site on the internet that can MORE than fill a 128 man tournament in less than 24 hours.

2. DON'T LET YOUR FORUMS BE YOUR MAIN ATTRACTION. The forums are there to unite and give your users a sense of community. If you don't have a niche yet, you aren't going to have users. "My invisionfree.com board" is not a niche for attracting views. I could go to any site for a forum system. You didn't make it. It's not unique to your site. Why should I visit YOUR board and not anyone elses? I don't even like your site, it has no content, focus, vision. Just a forum system that you didn't make.

If you do have a forum, don't make this fatal mistake: making more forums than you have users. I see this all the time- 10 registered users, 100 forums of bullshnitey. Good job, you managed to make a section for every possible topic anyone could ever think of. Too bad you only have 10 members and with so many forums, they are going to have no clue where to post in. Keep it simple. When I started Smogon in May 2004, I had -2- forums. A general chat forum with a witty title, and a General Pokemon forum. I also got 1500 registered users in half a year. Even after purging inactive users, we at this time are 4 members away from 2000, with around 50-80 people viewing the forums at the same time (70 at this time of writing).

3. Involve your community. Ask people to help you, and help them help you by showing them the ropes. Eventually the newbies who want to help will grow up and "get it," and become very helpful staff to you. Don't turn away people that are idiots, even if they are idiots. Just help them be better. :/ You'll be able to generate content quicker, and this in turn will get you more visitors that will want to help as well. It's a vicious cycle. People love to contribute to projects. Just give them proper credit for their work.

When I was first starting my site, I had a Pokemon Analysis section and I let people contribute their work. It was a completely original idea, and attracted the attention of alot of people. Now every other knockoff site trying to be another Smogon tries the same thing, and it never works. Get your own niche. Don't copy mine, or anyone elses. My site can do strategy better than yours. Its what we are known for. Just accept it :/

" Best Moveset

Flamethrower
Dig
Detect
Aerial Ace

Use Flamethower against Grass and bug types, Dig For electric and fighting types, and Aerial ace for almost any pokemon, use detect to defend yourself from moves like hyperbeam"

4. DON'T OPEN YOUR SITE TOO EARLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. God, why do people always do this. It's like pre-ejaculation, to put it in vulgar terms. You get the users excited with all the original ideas you have, and then when you open.. YOU DON'T HAVE THEM. Nobody is going to check back every day to see your stupid 404 pages. Close your site down, generate some hype about what it's going to have, and open when you have stuff to actually keep users interested. If you do it this way, people will stay.

5. ... and as for the above, generate hype. Be a well known person in the community. Get people to respect you and listen to you. Signing up instantly and advertising your pile of horse jello invisionfree forum is going to get you banned for advertising. Make some friends on forums, and while you are at it study their practices for making your own. After making friends, get them to join your forums and help you out. People love to be involved in things!! I can't say it enough. Also, put your site in your signature with a short description about what's unique about it. Don't put an obnoxious banner with generic Pokemon sprites in your signature. Nobody is going to click that, it's like an ad banner. The human eye is conditioned to skip over piles of horse jello!

- Layout tips -

A catchy layout will get the attention of your visitors. Here is where ALOT of people make mistakes. AVOID THIS LAYOUT: big honking banner up top, links to every page on your site on the left, affiliates on the right. If you eventually have a big site, you can't put a link to every page of your site on the left. Don't be Serebii, they have an atrocious and slow loading layout, as well as an ugly color scheme. (No offense! Take pointers :/)

1. Avoid 3 column layouts. NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR AFFILIATE BAR ON THE RIGHT. -NOBODY-. (Not even your affiliates, because affiliate bars don't generate clicks to their site)

2. Don't use stupid JavaScript to keep me from right clicking. Don't use stupid JavaScript to make snowflakes on my screen. Don't use stupid JavaScript to have a Pikachu follow my mouse cursor.

3. Don't use <embed> to play stupid music. Don't use <object> to play stupid music. Don't use bgsound to play stupid music. If I wanted to listen to the Route 33 theme, i'd have it on iTunes. However, NP: Ben Folds - Landed.

4. Come up with a good slogan for your <title> and banner. Examples of bad slogans:

* Your #1 source for __________
* Everything you could ever need about _____
* Your daily dose of _____!
* No slogan required.
* We're trying to come up with a better slogan!

A good slogan is memorable. It helps people remember your site. My old slogan was "Pokemon on the Internet: Lets make it happen!" No other site was about playing Pokemon on the internet. It wasn't my #1 source for Pokemon on the Internet. Your stupid site is just starting out, it's not the freaking #1 source. Anyway, my slogan eventually started a cult following where the word 'internet' is synonymous with 'smogon.' Do any of your communities feel that strongly about your site? Well, they should! Get a better slogan. You and your stupid 'I don't need a slogan, slogan not required.'

(No offense to pokelericon, I actually like his layout. It's easy to read and has a cool color scheme. Just a gay slogan! Good luck with your site ;))

5. *WARNING* JavaScript menus are cool, but make sure the links to parts of your site are actually in the HTML file or search engines won't index your pages.

6. Use a readable color scheme. 'Oh hey my mascot is Kyogre, LETS MAKE THE WHOLE SITE BLUE.' No. Stop it. Monotone layouts are so hard to read, and don't stand out. Make sure the content area of your site is readable. Put it in a different color, and use alot of contrast.

7. MAKE THINGS NOTICABLE. MAKE HEADERS TO CONTENT LARGE. Don't make your content text really unreadable and small.

- Misc Advice -

1. Oh my god, stop affiliating so much. That doesn't help anyone, nobody clicks affiliate links ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF YOUR LAYOUT. PEOPLE AUTOMATICALLY IGNORE THINGS ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF YOUR LAYOUT SINCE THEY ARE CONDITIONED TO BELIEVE THAT LEFT - LINKS TO CONTENT | CENTER - CONTENT | RIGHT - LINKS TO THINGS NOBODY CARES ABOUT.

Of course, this doesn't apply to partnership. Help webmasters out. Hope they help you back. Make friends. Just another reason I'm posting this guide :) If you didn't know me as a webmaster before, you sure do now!

2. Make links on your site readable, and guessable.

Yes: smogon.com/advance/venusaur
NO: pokemonpalace.net/?id=news-subform

Don't use index.php?id= urls. It's bad form. Use mod_rewrite, google it if you have no clue. It also gives you bad ratings on Google. Even worse is site.com/?id=3 :/

- Closing -

Hey, thanks for reading this! And thank yourself too. Maybe you have a better perception of what it actually takes to stand a chance in the webmaster world. I end this document with a quote by Chrono Cr@cker:

And Choas, you haven't even capitalized your own username. Meaning
(i) You aren't a noun or
(ii) You probabably know you aren't so important so it doesn't matter or
(iii) You don't know English Grammar

Sucks that I'm one of the most well known Pokemon webmasters/players in the world :( Even groups of people that don't speak English know I'm one of the greatest battlers in the world! It means alot to me that my reputation has spread to even Brazil, China, and Japan. It's great to see pokedrome.info doing so well these days. That's ok honey, I love your quote :-) It gives me something to laugh at on my birthday :-D

Fix up your sites and PM me the results! Or post topics. I'll notice. I love seeing people improve their websites. If you ever need comments or criticism for a site, please go ahead and ask me. Even though I'm a very busy person, I like helping people out. Sorry if the advice here seemed harsh. It's sometimes hard for me to explain concepts without being a jerk about it.

Good luck in future endeavors.
~ Internet, Pokemon, websites, and Happy Birthday to me.
- chaos

 

[Thomas]

This needs to go in Webmaster Resources..*gets staff*

 

[Dragonfree]

Nice, and addresses a lot of things many new webmasters need to learn

A couple of coments:

- I like affiliating, not for getting hits, but simply because I like linking to sites that I find to be worth linking to - I might even consider it a privilege to be able to put a website up as an affiliate, considering it means they have accepted me as an affiliate too. In a way it's an award, a 'seal of approval' on the site (and personally, I'd say that I myself am picky enough about affiliates to my button under affiliation bar a certain quality stamp). I might also point out that you're not entirely right about nobody clicking affiliates; I do occasionally, and quite a few of my hits always come from my affiliates, even if that's not my reason for having some.
- On a site like Smogon, it's very easy to categorize all the content into R/B/Y, G/S/C, Advance, D/P and NetBattle, because if you're looking for Advance strategies, it's very obvious which tab to look under. However, when you've got a lot of pages in a lot of categories covering a large variety of different and less obvious subjects, this isn't as good a way to organize the site, and the best way does turn out, after all, to be making every page easily accessible from every other page - the visitor won't necessarily be sure what to look under and will end up clicking many wrong links and finally giving up. This also applies when a person is just trying to see whether your site contains something specific; it's annoying to force them to check more than one page in order to see something like that.

Meh, just my two cents. =/

 

[internet chaos]

On a site like Smogon, it's very easy to categorize all the content into R/B/Y, G/S/C, Advance, D/P and NetBattle, because if you're looking for Advance strategies, it's very obvious which tab to look under. However, when you've got a lot of pages in a lot of categories covering a large variety of different and less obvious subjects, this isn't as good a way to organize the site, and the best way does turn out, after all, to be making every page easily accessible from every other page - the visitor won't necessarily be sure what to look under and will end up clicking many wrong links and finally giving up. This also applies when a person is just trying to see whether your site contains something specific; it's annoying to force them to check more than one page in order to see something like that.

https://www.serebii.net/index2.shtml

You could have Serebii/Anime/Video Games/Manga/Movies/Trading Cards as sections, and under them have the plethora of links. Most people seperate their nav bar on the left into sections, why can't you do the same and just not include the multitude of links? If anything, I would just have the same concept but not having every single link under the category.

If you absolutely must do it this method, put all your links in a JavaScript file, link the section names to an index page where a search engine could find your files, and have a script to dynamically expand/collapse sections. Except use cookies to remember the expand state so it doesn't end up annoying like www.pokemonpalace.net's script.

stuff about affiliation i like it blah blah

Theres nothing wrong with linking to a site if it makes you feel 'honored' to do so. I'm just saying my expierence with people is that most people want affiliation for hits, and that affiliates just don't bring in many hits. You could very well be a special case! Most people I know don't get much out of affiliation.

 

[Dragonfree]

You do have a good point about menus; for example on Serebii it would probably be a very good idea to split it because where to look for whatever you're trying to find would be pretty obvious on there. Looking at my own menu, there are quite a few categories that I don't really need on the menu itself, but I'd still never collapse the whole thing except maybe as an optional thing as I personally like to be able to see at a glance more or less what a site contains, and others are like me.

 

[Serebii]

Umm just for the record...around half of the left links go to pages which have a plethora of inner-section links to the right

Thats why my layout is so basic, with 133 things on the left and at least 50 of them having seperate bars (not counting each episode/movie guide & manga summary which has its own right bar which takes the number up even more) which have multiple bits of information, links & pictures required for that section. This is why I have a 3 columned, what many would class as basic, layout.

Its a curse of having a very big site

Some good tips there though chaos

 

[Blaze]

I must say you are quite the character,

This one of the more interesting FAQ's I have read, though I do believe you have some good points it seems you fail to adress how a new site can make it big...

I mean first off with affiliation, what is wrong with that? Most people do affiliation to get their pagerank up. And you would be suprised how many hits can come in from those affiliation buttons ;P

And who cares about the slogan, it makes no difference about whether a visitor is going to come back or not. I mean everyone knows that the site probably isn't living up to their slogan but so what?

Only time I have a problem with a slogan is when someone starts getting conseided and puts how many hits they have...

I totally agree with your thoughts on color schemes and small unreadable font. More and more people lately have become fond of this practice and it is downright annoying.

And I have to end with a little pun humor ;P you ended your FAQ about how everyone knows you and everything. Well, I have been around since 1998 and remember every site from PokeSky to TPM and I NEVER heard of you before ;P

But thanks for the guide ^_~

 

[internet chaos]

I mean first off with affiliation, what is wrong with that? Most people do affiliation to get their pagerank up. And you would be suprised how many hits can come in from those affiliation buttons ;P

and you'd be surprised to how long and pointless those lists of buttons can get on every page. I am saying as a user who goes to websites himself that I don't click affiliate buttons for the most part, and I find long long lists of affiliates (and topsites too) nothing more than hooplah that squishes the content area even more.

And who cares about the slogan, it makes no difference about whether a visitor is going to come back or not. I mean everyone knows that the site probably isn't living up to their slogan but so what?

(You don't know that)

Only time I have a problem with a slogan is when someone starts getting conseided and puts how many hits they have...

I totally agree with your thoughts on color schemes and small unreadable font. More and more people lately have become fond of this practice and it is downright annoying.

And I have to end with a little pun humor ;P you ended your FAQ about how everyone knows you and everything. Well, I have been around since 1998 and remember every site from PokeSky to TPM and I NEVER heard of you before ;P

i have no clue who you are either. If you don't know who I am then you don't check out any other parts of the pokemon community or have been living under a rock. Going conceited and listing exactly who I am is beyond the scope of his guide, but lets just say besides maybe Serebii i'm one of the most recognized pokemon people. If you'd like to disagree, try joining a competitive Pokemon tournament and see how many of the hundreds of staring eyes remember the name "Revo" :-/ I find it interesting that the only negative responses I have ever gotten are at pokecommunity.com, hmm. You guys are somethin else :)

God, that was so unnecessary. Don't even bother replying to this section, it's just pointless spam.

But thanks for the guide ^_~

you're welcome honey

safjoasfjoasf wpords so this wiflwf post

 

[Morkula]

Okay, bypassing the character limit and some nasty stabs at Revo here...you're really getting close to a warning, Chaos.
All he said was that he personally had never heard of you before. You didn't have to go off on the whole "how many of the staring eyes remember the name 'Revo'" thing, or the stab at PC for that matter.

 

[internet chaos]

Okay, bypassing the character limit and some nasty stabs at Revo here...you're really getting close to a warning, Chaos.
All he said was that he personally had never heard of you before. You didn't have to go off on the whole "how many of the staring eyes remember the name 'Revo'" thing, or the stab at PC for that matter.

alot of people take what i say too literally, but yeah my apologies anyway

 

[StarBurst]

Absolutley fantastic guide Chaos. I've been thinking many of those same things for a long time now and didn't bother saying it since everyone did it.

One thing about affiliates. It annoys me that people of a gadzillion affiliates. >_> It seems kinda pointless and degrading to each one of those affiliates who have to be part of a multitude, therefore there's less chance of anyone of them getting noticed, versus on a site with only a couple affiliates.

As for three section layouts, I've got no problem with them really, other than I'd put them under your "niche" section. 3 section layouts are overused in the extreme, and if you can come up with a unique layout, that alone will do it for you.

As for the niche in information, I appreciate your ability to have found that niche for yourself. :P I only wish I'd gotten to it first, lol. Though as time goes on it does seem very difficult to find a niche in this online pokemon community of ours. Not to mention without a niche, more and more sites are resorting to copying serebii. :P With the anime shows in japan and the us, along with game and movie guides. The only thing that's really different is the layout. It's kinda depressing, not a whole lotta originality.

Meh, I suppose the slogan is generally useless, unless you think of a good one, though that's generally pretty difficult to do.

Rofl. xD I can't tell you how many people I've seen having screwed up layouts which are all blue. I don't know how those people can't tell that their layout can't be read worth beans. It's like their layout was made by a blind man. xD

I hate cursors and that crap. It's like something off of maxpages or freewebs. *shivers*

It annoys me too when people have a lotta broken or unfinished links, though in an attempt to make their site look good (and believe it or not the more links a person has the more people visit it. Or that's the way it seems from my perspective) they do put tons of links on their site.

Involving the community is good one. In fact, I started on my forum before I started on my site. That way I'd have some visitors right off the bat, though they don't really visit anyway. :P meh. Anyway, forums without site's are fine, imo, though site's with just forums aren't.

Great guide Chaos.