Making a Site

Wanna make a site? It may seem simple, but it is way more complicated than it looks on the surface.

Step 1: Planning

First of all, you'll need to have an idea with what you want to do with your site and what its focus will be. Will it focus on graphics? Pokemon? Anime? Choose what you want to do with your site. Next, choose a name for your site because that's basically how your site will go by and be remembered. Try to be creative with all of this, because being creative will help you in the long run. Be sure to view our site name guide if you need more help choosing a site name. Be sure to choose your host in this stage as well, because if you do, you probably will be compelled to use Webs, which is never a good idea. Then focus on the content and the layout.

Step 2: Content

Next, do the content. Content may seem really unimportant because you may think people don't read it, but they do, so don't skip it. Make sure to do all the pages you would like before the site opens, because once your site opens, you will have to fix all the glitches and stuff, and you will not have any time to work on this. Again, try to be creative with the content because having some basic content will not help.

Step 3: Layout & Coding

Ah, the layout. Probably one of the more fun parts of your site in my opinion. What do you want to do with it? What images do you want to include in it? What brushes and text? What textures? Do you want two or three-columns in your layout? This may seem like a lot of questions, but you can find a lot of great ideas if you know where you're looking and what you want to find. Try going to anime sites like Celestial-Star for textures, brushes, and other things that you can use for your layout, as well as Dafont.com for fonts to use for your layout. In addition, try to find inspiration by searching various fansites, but just don't copy their entire layout! Some fansites also provide layout templates and free layouts (like us) so try to use those if you would like, but the best thing is for you to make your own layout.

Step 4: Finishing Touches

Think you're done? Not yet, my friend. You still have a lot to do. You need to affiliate with some sites so that your site can be visited by more people. You also need to make 88x31 and 88x16 buttons for your site for affiliation. In addition, try to join some topsites to get hits as well. If you would like, you could install a forum and/or an oekaki on your site. Be sure to install a tagboard on your site so visitors would be able to easily contact you.

Ah, now do you think you're done, right? But you're not. You still have to make a lot of updates on your site. You probably will have a lot of errors and problems with your site, so you will have to fix those as well. I hope this guide will help you on your way to create a successful website.