Webmaster Tips
Being a webmaster is one thing, but being a webmaster trying to build a popular site is no easy task. Here are a couple of tips that'll help you be a better webmaster, and help you create a great site:
- Update Regularly
- Affiliate!
- Get an e-mail address exclusively for your website
- Back-up your files and directories
- Master HTML
- Have something interactive for your visitors
- Spell Check your Website
- Get a Good Paint Program
- Be Courteous
I know this can be pretty tough; we all have busy lives. If you want to show your visitors that you're serious, you should be updating at least once every 2 weeks; no matter how big or small the update may be.
Affiliation is a basic but effective tool in advertising your website. If you’re just starting a website, people aren't going to know it's out there on the World Wide Web. Therefore, get affiliated with other sites that share the same topic as yours! You'll see a great increase in hits right away.
Nothing screams "Hey, I'm un professional!" by having an e-mail address like "sweetbabycakesgrl2343[at]someisp[dot]com". Do yourself a huge favor and get an e-mail account on Mobile Me or Gmail for example dedicated to your site. Better yet: get your own domain!
You never know when you could somehow lose your data. Do yourself a favor and back-up your data to a flash drive, external HDD, or another computer. You'll be glad you did when something goes wrong.
HTML is not hard to learn, and you have to know it well as a webmaster. There are plenty of great HTML help sites and even HTML validators out there.
Visitors may really like your site and want to be a part of your community. Having forums, or a message board for example are great tools to incorporate.
This may sound really simple, but you'd be surprised how many simple spelling and grammatical errors websites can have. Now, we're all human and bound to always have some mistakes, granted. However, not even bothering to spell check at all is a big no-no. Also, if you tend to wrIt3 gr8 m3ssAges liek this!!11, don't. Chatspeak is very un professional, and people won't take you seriously if you write like that on your site.
Chances are you're going to do image editing and maybe even design an imaged-based layout. MS Paint won't cut it. Go out and get yourself a decent program for this such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.
You want to present yourself in a professional manner. Be nice to your visitors, and use appropriate language to make them feel welcome :)
