I’ve seen quite a lot of people discussing about how they should go around making a website and what a website needs to do to attract members, so I thought I’d give you my 2 cents.

*Breathe in now, deep breaths!*
A website is only going to be good if you have the time to put into it and are willing to put enough effort into it. Normally, a website is only as good as the amount of effort and time put into it. Blogging is a good way to start before you jump in and make a fully-fledged website. After that, you may want to start a forum and increase your knowledge of some server-side scripting languages (such as PHP) and increase your graphics designing skills.

When making a website, you have to consider the following things:

- Why am I making it?
For you and your friends to hang, as a source of earning money by displaying ads, to sell goods, to advertise your business or just a personal blog.

The design and content of the website will more or less revolve around this.

Then you must figure out what impression you want to give visitors of your site. Do you want them to gaze in awe at the special effects and cool graphics you have used but bare the consequence of slow loading times (especially for dial-up users). Do you want your visitors to find the site super easy to use and make it as user friendly as possible? Or, do you want your website to be just information - not very graphical but enjoy faster loading times?

From the many websites I have been involved in the website needs to be constructed around what it is intended for.

For example, there is no use in a website about your business being too flashy, which may result in some users having negative first impressions as they can’t do what they want to do with your website.

Now, for a website to be ‘popular’ you have to ask yourself:

“What am I giving my members/visiors?”
If the answer is “not a lot” the likelihood is that you won’t get that many visitors.
Even if you are offering something, it is no good if there are a hundred other websites offering the same or similar thing. Free Web Hosting can be used as a good example again.

There are lots of free hosts around.
But ask yourself, why did you choose R-FH?

The reason R-FH has become as succesful as it has in such a short time is because we have modest post requirements. We realised that our competitors were making users post a lot to get their hosting accounts, so we made our requirement very low ~ a reason for people to choose us.

The more unique or original the thing you are offering, the more visitors you are likely to get.

What normally helps, is putting yourself in a visitors position and asking yourself the following questions:

* Why would I want to join this website? Are they offering me something other websites do not, or are they offering something in a better manner than other similar sites?
* What will encourage me to stay at or re-visit the website?
Well, that’s it, I’ll stop now!
Maybe one of my longest articles yet! Phew!

Hope this article helped! Feel free to ask any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them as quickly as possible!