Archive For The “Web Design” Category
This is first of what well hopefully be a small series of post I’m going to make about the past website layout designs I’ve made over the years that I still have and would like to share with you. Today I’m going to bring you BansheeForce.net, which was the first major time I change a site name, the original site was known as XfireSystems.com.
Some small history about BansheeForce, the site was started in fall of 2005, it was about the same time I took over running Majin Planet, basically I felt that it was time to change my site’s name, XfireSystems simply because of the site XFire.com. It last a good few years and has been used for a number of silly projects.
BansheeForce.net First design (2005)
If you would like to use this design for your own project, then I’m totally okay with that. After all I’m putting it online sort of for that reason, I know that it’s not the best. Keep in mind this was made in 2005… I wasn’t the greatest when it came to making design for websites and was told a good number of times that I wasn’t.
Let me know what you think, and if you end up making a site base on this design I would like to see it.
I sort of am flip on this topic and I’m sure this wont be the last time I’ll write something like this. Over the week I ran across someone who decided it was a great idea to take what they had created and restart it as something else.
Now I’m not here to name names, and I’m using it simply as an example of what I want to talk about today, that is simply rebuilding a community. This can go hand in hand in what I saw happen to a site that I generally enjoy reading and my own site, Majin Planet.
Let’s face the facts, change sucks, no one likes it but sometimes change is good. In my example I saw website A, basically website A wants to move to a new domain name, this can be a number of reasons why, the fact is they feel they could do better with the new more clean domain name.
This has been said time in and time again, is cleaning better? The most important part of a website is the content, I don’t care what anyone says. Yes a website can be ugly and there for making the site hard to read, making the content no matter how good useless. Check out Web Pages that Suck, been following them for years.
All I’m saying here is, that changing your domain name simply to make things easier for yourself isn’t always a good thing. Your going to have readers who hate it, they will leave. The question is do you care? What happens if those people know you don’t care.. well you lose more readers.
I think, and this is just me, if you have a good site, no matter how you go about changing things, people will find it, there is no question about it. If you write fantastic content, people will find it, you can’t make everyone happy and some people will be down right butt hurt over it.
So then the question is.. like in my case.. how do you rebuild a dead community? In this case, I’m talking about Majin Planet for those of you who don’t know Majin Planet is and was a Dragon Ball Anime Music Video fan site. Sure it’s been many different things before.. but in the end that is what it was and that is what I’ve been over a year or now two been transforming the site into. I’ve gone through like 4 total redesigns and one couldn’t be helped because I lost the data. Fact is, I ask myself is it worth it?
Sometimes a community simply needs to go away and that the fans who use to and many still do want it to die because sometimes.. beating a dead horse to milk it for more.. just hurts and ruins what it was more. I could name a few things.. but nothing really comes to mind as a good example of this. So that is why.. I’ve decided that maybe it’s not best to try to make something new when clearly what I had works even today. I took a look at traffic and Majin Planet, even know I haven’t done one thing and lot of things have broken over the years, YouTube Videos been removed, page links disappear, sites go down lending to dead links all with the broken age that the design, code has now it still.. still does better monthly page views than this site and I’ve been actively doing stuff for this site.
That spoke to me and that is why, I’m not redesigning Majin Planet… I’m keeping the same layout, I’m just converting it over to my current set-up using WordPress. My coding skills where great back in the day when I use to run everything from Invision Power Board, back when I actively coded, back when I was semi-good at it. Today not so much with the new HTML 5 I’m really behind and I feel like I don’t really know what makes a good website anymore, are my ideals of content is King still there?
Let me know what you think, leave me a comment down below. I want to hear from the surfers, people who just visit a website for entertainment, for information, to the webmasters and admits out there. The people who run, build and design sites. What about you? What are you views on this?
Today I’m gonna talk a bit more about a subject that I have had an up and down relationship with over the last I dunno 10 years when it comes to running a website. This goes far beyond your standard what looks good vs what sounds good. There is nothing worst in the world than having to deal with something bad, or even to have something so good but it has nothing to offer, it just looks pretty.
As a webmaster you can learn a lot by looking at content and design as a balancing act. There are some aspects that you need to consider when thinking of the most important parts of your site. This goes to anything you’re doing, we’re your writing a blog about games, writing reviews or sharing stories. The end of the day, your followers will be the ones who decided if your worth a few clicks or their hard earn money to buy your product.
Design vs Content
In truth, you can’t have one without the other. A really bad-looking site will drive people way in the droves BUT if they have the secret to the meaning of life you would never know it. The same could be said for the latter. Even with that there are some things you need to remember when you write your new entry.
- Don’t write post that are simply just a copy-paste ordeal. Never steal someones else hard work! It’s fine to report on news if that’s what your about but try being the first one to post it.
- The biggest mistake most new blogger make is trying EVERYTHING they have and lose focus on what they are doing. Focus on one or a few subjects your good at and go from there. Remember doing too much of any one thing will be more harm than good.
- Sell your content not your ads. It’s fine to try to sell your products if that is what your about, but if your writing a blog your CONTENT is what makes you the money. A good number of blogs are only out there to make money, write to educate.
- Always try to understand your target market and post related to it. Never blog just to feel like your blogging, you lose all respect by doing it.
On the flip side you have design, like anything design is the clue, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. When you think about it like this, if you have a poorly design site, no one will read your content. If you have a good design but poorly written content your just gonna find yourself on the show Lost with no way of knowing if you’ll ever be found.
So then what is the balance? The balance is simple, you need to choose what goes where and how they balance between each other. You need white space to give the human brain time to process, too much if it and it’s like trying to explain physics to a kid with ADD.
Most web users visit a website in under a min, the first look of the site, the top half, your banner, your links, your first header of your latest post for the day is WHAT is the most important aspect of your website. If you can not hook them in that moment, your first impression, you have lost them and its time to move along.
Where to go from here?
Think of your website as a store in a shopping mall. People come to the mall looking to buy, trade or well eat! The same is true for the internet. People come online to either be entertained or informed and to buy. Your goal is one of those, you can try all three if you know how to balance it.
It depends on your market and your target. Clearly if your about history you don’t want to have too many active ads or things that move too much on-screen. This can cause the eye to wonder away, which is how ads work to draw you in to click it.
You may have noticed if your one of the few lucky ones or maybe unlucky to see my website Warcraft Focus Center and ask yourself. “What happen?” Well that’s a good question and it comes down to why I end up closing any website, lack of time, drive and need.
I started the website as sort of way to break Warcraft from my main site here. I was kind of feeling like I was turning this blog into that, which is not what I wanted. I think any blogger out there will tell you, pick on subject and stick to it. Well I like to start about more than just a few subjects. Does that mean I shouldn’t just pick one of them and let the other posts I have go away into nothing? No.
Tell me what you think? Do you think it was a good idea to make this site about so many subjects? Form posting my fan fiction stories about Unrivaled Wars, from posting reviews to post like this. Gaming? Movies? TV? So much.. where to go?
Being lost at Sea
I have a feeling a great number of my readers or those who simply come by and check out whats this site’s about are lost. The name itself doesn’t speak anything to them. Neckar Unrivaled. What does it mean? I know.. I’ve had this question come up and I’ve ignored it. I’ll come out and tell you what Neckar Unrivaled means, and why I pick it for this site’s name.
The idea of the site was about the things I am about. Neckar Unrivaled is a character I made up, for my fan fiction Unrivaled Wars. I know you might find it silly, it’s not my work. It’s a fan fiction. Combing many stories and characters into something that is new and different. To tell a story for the most part. Maybe I’m just not clear, but I’m not a one subject person. I have many passions and things I want to do.
Perhaps this is why I’ve never had a really popular website other than Majin Planet. It was about one thing, Anime Music videos, it did have junk, like the information sections, the contests (not really junk) but it was about music videos. This on itself I believe is why it was such a big website a website I sort of killed without really meaning too.
Does this mean I’m done?
No, I’m still gonna keep making my content and making my post. I’m not going to just stop because I’m not getting the comments, I’m not getting the views I think I should get. Funny thing is maybe my content is getting just what it should get. Something to think about. This is the reason, the reason I closed that website.
Feeling like I needed to fill a hole that was missing, turns out that I really don’t care as much as I wanted to think I did. Which is fine, that happens sometimes and it’s better to just cut my losses then to try to stress myself out. The one tip I can give you about blogger or just writing in general, if its way too hard to write something then you more than likely shouldn’t.
Where does this leave us? Let me know in the comment’s below, I liked to know if you think closing the site before giving it a chance was a good idea. I also like to know what you think of this website. Are you just confused? Lost or what? I like to know any feedback is welcome.
Today I think it’s time to get a little more real and talk about something that has been on my mind for a few days now. The subject of online business, growing a website into a massive levels and gaining a following. One of the most important aspect of online marketing, blogging and running a website that keeps them coming day in and day out is being real with them.
How often have you visited a website because something caught your eye? It could be a picture or maybe you searched for window cleaners and end up with Fish Window Cleaning. The point is sometimes we don’t always get what we want on the first past, the second past, sometimes even after the tenth.
I believe that in all my years of web design, graphic design and programing. All of which I self-taught myself, you have to wonder something. Am I putting myself out there enough? Am I telling white lies? There are some of them out there and some will say that when it comes to online marketing, they are full of them.
What’s so true about it that people lie. They will lie and lie to get what they want, to make sure they make money and you don’t. Sure there are people who will try to share the wealthy but at the end of the day if you’re not making it.. why should you care about someone else? In web design there is nothing worst then making a website, spending hours trying to promote it, making sure you have the BEST design you can do, the BEST content and still find yourself scratching your head at the high bounce rate of visitors who stay less than 3 seconds on your page.
First and this might be hard for anyone to believe, but it’s rather silly to think someone would go to a website and leave it within 3 full seconds of looking at it. You come down to a simple matter of:
- Did they get trick into going there?
- Did they not like the first glance of it?
- Did the page take too long to load?
Over the last year myself personally I’ve been studly the art of marketing and SEO. Mostly to learn and better myself. I use to run a pretty big website named Majin Planet. While most of the hey day of the site came from before my time, but I did pretty much take over and had a good size following. A following that’s all but dead now due to lack of time, lack of depth and pure laziness on my part.
The BIG question I ask myself is simply, do I want a ghost town? Clearly it’s not the content right? How can someone judge a whole website base on 1, 2, 3 close window. RIGHT?
The truth is we as a people look at things rather different online then we do looking at a book or newspaper. Humans take it colors, and special words that stick out. I have read many times on a some really good blogs that most people only look at the top of any page. I find myself doing the same thing. I believe stopping and truly thinking about it, when I do scroll down I simply scan for something I’m looking for.
The Game Plan?
The plan is to make your content, my content more real. Am I just writing to write so I can simply say “Hey I post something everyday” That’s even said if every post I made is pointless and a waste of cyber space. This is why every post now I write I try to make sure I craft it not just write them. I add elements to enhance the look, adding pictures, adding headlines making things look not just pretty but putting a wow factor in there to get you to scan down.
The last goal of any online marketing plan, no matter if you’re trying to sell a product online, looking for feedback or discussion. Maybe just wanting to get your content and what your worth to the public. The results if you’re not real with your followers why should you expect anything then what you give? Think about this; trust is the most important aspect of anything if you have no trust you have nothing. What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment down below and let me know.