Is it common to keep Sucking at Creating a Website?

[justin.scherer14]

Well this is now my third website design that I am working. My first was a tutorial website that I thought was going to be a great idea. It did not have any numbers for visits (around 15 per day). My next website idea was a discussion website. This one is still active even though I have not done to much to it so far. Again, I am only getting around 15 visits per day. I realize that you have to put in a lot of work to get a website running, but at times it really seems like I have been putting in 10 to 12 hours to get a website running and working. I keep on going on like that and I still have the numbers that I do.

To me this does not seem like a common theme. But I am hoping that my new website does great. It is all about switching over to a Linux system from Windows or Mac. It is a site totally dedicated to helping users find reasons and then helping them to switch to the Linux operating system. the only things that I am doing different this time around is that I am not using a template from some other website (CSS is done all by me) and all of the content is thoroughly checked.

All of this may seem like a bunch of rambling but what I am getting at is this, do all of you have the same problem? Did you finally find a website design that worked and got a lot of visitors? What does it take to get these visitors? (Please do not tell me a bunch of hard work because I have been working at all of this from 10 to 12 hours a day for the past 6 months). Do you any of you have any tips? What does it look like that I am doing wrong?

This probably should go under another topic category but this seemed like the one that fit the most to what I am talking about. If you are wondering, I have an extensive amount of knowledge in CSS, HTML, Linux Terminal, Linux itself, Actionscript 3. I have a basic knowledge of PHP, MySQL, Java, Ruby, Basic, and C++. I am a computer science major at college right now. I am self taught on all of the following starting back in the 6th grade. Thank you all to those that respond and share their own experiences with web design and getting people to visit the website.

 

[cheezo]

switching from windows/mac to linux might still not be a good idea.
i myself is a linux user for about 6years. and linux users are techie once that block ads or won't click ads.

 

[bhupendra2895]

Whenever I think about creating a webdesign I feel it is very tough job.Developing a site can be less time consuming than designing a site.I am self taught person too and I feel, I need a good book on web designing, before diving into design.For development we need only server side language and for presentation we have html, css, javascript, flash and silverlight.What should be used where and what will be suitable for which job, can only be learned by experience.So I think your 6 months are worth, your experience is increasing and you are dealing with multiple technologies.So why you should be worried?

 

[lemon-tree]

Creating a successful website is not an overnight deal, unless you have something completely radical it will likely take a year or two before you get any significant traffic. Don't let it get you down that your site doesn't get any visits when it is only just opened, that's what happens with almost everyone's sites; patience is key to being able to remain dedicated to continually providing new content when nobody is reading it, because at some point in the future someone will read it and pass it on and your growth will begin.

 

[leafypiggy]

Advertise, Advertise, Advertise Advertise, Advertise, Advertise.

SEO, SEO, SEO, SEO, SEO, SEO, SEO, SEO

Word of mouth, word of mouth, word of mouth, word of mouth.

You have to advertise, make your website COMPLETELY SEO, and word of mouth spreading.

As others have said, it doesn't happen overnight.

I have my website(s), and I get a good amount of hits.. Still not active at all. I rarely (if ever) get comments on my blog.

Let's put it this way:

In the last year, I've got more unique hits from search engines than I have from real people.

 

[cybrax]

Getting a web site running and making money as many newbies discover is no easy task. What a lot of folk never quite grasp at the start of the process is that a web site is DESIGNED and BUILT. Any kid with a box of crayons can draw a house but asking them to mix cement and lay bricks is often beyond them.

Suffice to say it's a steep learning curve just getting a template / design that you are happy with can be a struggle. Keep it simple to start with, HTML/ CSS and Javascript suffice for most people. Flash has it's uses but not many these days so don't worry about it, besides there are plenty of ready made action scripts for video and audio players.

Promoting a web site..
There is a myth amongst many clients that believe 'If we build it, they will come' however the ugly fact of the matter is that competition is brutally fierce, and Google is utterly ruthless with determining page ranking. Chances are your great idea is already being tried out on over a thousand web sites all of whom have been doing it longer than you have. So a little market research goes a long way, look at your competition, learn from them and tweak your site to be better than theirs.

Content is King, this often presents the biggest challenge to any would be web site operator.. what are you going to put in it and how often are you going to update the info?? Remember copying other peoples articles word for word will get you marked down, so do try and re-write them with your own twist if you can.

Avoid embedded content if you can, if you are extoling the virtues of some piece of software then ideally you should have a local copy on site. Simply pointing to another sites mirror is likely to become a dead link within a week once you are rumbled. Plus again Google will mark you down for the dead end link.

Good Quality Images - consider a bakery that makes fancy cakes..
[dont forget to use both ALT and TITLE tags]

image one
image two

The images come from two different sites, who do you think makes the better cake?
With less than five seconds to make a good impression an image really does say a thousand words.

Social Networking eg Facebook can also be used to kick start a site. FB has a nice little gimmick for creating mini adverts as well that may travel further than your circle of friends. But again this only works with good content otherwise none of them will visit again, ever and will probably warn their friends away as well.

 

[justin.scherer14]

Well thank you all for your input. All of these facts I have realized over the course of these websites. That may be the reason that I am building a lot of quality content before posting the website. If any of you have any more ideas they would be greatly appreciated.

 

[b3ar522]

it seems ok```

 

[cork1958]

another thing that is necessary to get listed in search engines is links to/from other similar websites especially, but just plain ol' link swapping is great also.

key words in your title and meta tags work great too.

 

[lemon-tree]

Link exchanging isn't as beneficial as it is made out to be, Google states that it can even be detrimental to your search rankings if used in excess i.e Any more than one or two other sites I would assume.

 

[cork1958]

screw google! google sucks!! there are a lot more search engines than just that overly hyped up fanboy crap thing.

link exchanging is VERY important if you ever want to rise up in the rankings.

 

[jmcgowan]

That overly hyped up fanboy crap thing current holds a large portion of the market share for internet search websites. You may not like Google, but the fact is that the majority of internet users will go to Google anytime they need to find something. Add to that the fact the more people find websites through search engines than links on other websites, it's almost always a better use of time to enhance SEO than gather link exchanges. Besides, a website looks more professional when it does not have a bunch of links along the side for other related websites.

 

[justin.scherer14]

I agree with jmcgowan. No one likes to look at a bunch of links because it just looks like they are selling themselves out. That is why, if my website gets enough hits, I would limit the number of ads. on it to like 2 or 3. I understand that most people do not like to look at that sort of thing so then I do not think we, as web developers should be posting that crap all over our websites. It distracts from the content and is just plain ugly in some cases.

Well, just to give you all an update. My new website is going great! I have a couple features on there that I have not seen on any other website (I really mean that). I will not talk about what they are because I do not want to see them on any other website before mine (sorry I am selfish like that). I have written over twenty articles so far so I am on track with the amount of articles I am writing a day. It will probably be up on the web by next month if everything works out okay.

 

[satishan]

Nice question, yes for me it was same really same condition..no improvement at all, devoted much more time to my website approx. 10 to 15 hours a day, i used to administrate it from my college lab, all labs(at practical hours), but no drastic improvement.

but, my semester exams sucked me...

 

[bhupendra2895]

I get around 300 unique hits per day on my site and it's web address is not easy to remember too, it took around 1 year to reach to that 300, it is not going further than 300 hits and it is giving me only $1 by advertisement in a whole month.You can imagine what I feels about it.

So its common to keep sucking at creating your first website.This period of suckingness is good because if you are enthusiastic then you earn experience by adopting new techniques.For example I know that my site can be more popular if I launch its top level domain version and tell users that new version is launched. :-D

 

[satishan]

whats URL of your site bhupendra2895..? I shall visit

 

[bhupendra2895]

whats URL of your site bhupendra2895..? I shall visit

I sent you a private message, Sorry, I am not going to post it here because this is not relevant to this thread.

 

[justin.scherer14]

Well thank you all! My new website has some great new features that I have added. The front-page, in my opinion, is amazing and it is something that not many see and it looks cool. I also have another feature that I have not seen on any website and it is going to help you learn about the Ubuntu desktop.

This website will be launching next month for sure and I hope you will all like it.

 

[bhupendra2895]

It is going to help you learn about the Ubuntu desktop.

Your choice is great, ubuntu is my favourate OS..I am awaiting your site desperatly.

Best of luck

 

[justin.scherer14]

Well I am trying to create one hundred articles on switching to linux before I post the website. This also includes all of the features I am incorporating to the website (the front page just took me 14 hours to finish if that tells you how its been and how it is going to look). I have been trying to write around 3 articles per day but I have not written any for the past 3 days, because of the css and jquery that I have been working on. All in all, I am happy with how the site is looking and it should be something that everyone enjoys.

By the way, I might post before 100 articles but I might not. All I know is that the website will be up and running in August.