The power of branching out

As you have probably seen from what started as a website with a forum (BSP) the network has expanded with the addition of Rampant Designs, Stick Guy Comics, blogs and the recent addition Herpes Radio, the entire network has a huge diversity which helps all the websites as they are all connected together (through advertisements and the forum) so if one gains popularity it should help the others. I look at the network as 3 sections the Rampant Designs section which is the technical side, the BSP section which is the entertainment for all ages and the Stick Guy Comics section which is entertainment aimed at a more mature audience (such as the new radio show).

The main advantage of branching out your network into new areas is you let each have its own voice, we could have had bsp.rampant-designs.com, stickguy.rampant-designs.com and radio.rampant-designs.com but all the sites would be compared to Rampant Designs as they contain the same url, but at the same time as the other sites are referenced in some way through the other sites is still allows users to move around the network. If you do branch out I suggest having a lot of diversity don't have your website then a sub site with pretty much the same content because it becomes confusing for users who are on your website looking for information related to it who have to search around several sub sites for it.

Sites to check out:

Rampant Designs Baby Seal Productions Stick Guy The Club BSP Blog Stick Guy Blog

The easiest method of designing a website

Been a few days since I last 'blogged' here mainly because I have been busy with some other things including a new website which is soon debuting, anyways I thought I would post a quick blog on how I usually do layouts. I will say now I do code, I hate using a program like photoshop to just slice up the image and generate code.

Dimensions

First I work out the dimensions I want to use, such as the overall width, the left nav width, the center and the right. I usually draw it in an image editing program, just a plain background with squares to see how it will look when its layed out.

Design

Next using an image editing program I draw the layout how I want it to look as a whole to see what I expect overall.

Cutting

Next I cut the layout up into smaller chunks, discarding what I would see as irrelevant content (such as the background if I am using a single color for the background and spacer images).

Create a tabled layout

When I have the images I open a html editor (sometimes notepad) and design a template page, I use tables and keep all of the content in the table tags (such as width), I know I have stated before css is a better option but that comes later. Once the layouts done I open it in internet explorer to see it looks as I expect, I then open it in firefox and fix the coding so it uses code firefox will acknowledge.

CSS

Now I take the template and integrate a style sheet to the design. I then test it again in all browsers.

Develop the pages

When everythings working I create all the pages for it, if I use a database (which I always do) I add the code to take the information from the database and add test entries just to test the layout.


Anyways thats all for today have fun and happy coding.

Sites to check out:

Rampant Designs Baby Seal Productions Stick Guy The Club BSP Blog Stick Guy Blog

Anti -affiliates a little addition

As I stated in a previous blog I am not a fan of these 'get a free iphone' type sites and I recently read an article in PC Advisors 2007 security bible (its a small leaflet and thats the name, I don't worship security or anything), I would post the article but as its in print that means re-typing it which well isn't going to happen. Anyways I came across an interesting article about a website where you get a free laptop for registering (iwantmyfreelaptop.com) well as you would expect when they say register they mean register with them then 10 other sites to buy/subscribe or get a nice new credit card to pile onto that nice little debt, well the writer (Kalpana Ettenson) stated they found it suspicious you would just get a free laptop so they proceeded to check the website against the Better Business Bureau website and the website had a few complaints well by a few I mean 457 where pretty much the user got 9 credits was going fine then dang it the website started to act up not loading and confirming orders so no one was getting there laptop, some people just have bad luck.

Sites to check out:

Rampant Designs Baby Seal Productions Stick Guy The Club BSP Blog Stick Guy Blog

A nice new type of file hosting

When I was a younger newer person to the Internet I posted on a few message boards (I know I sometimes refer to them as forums but that's habit which I am trying to phase out because message board sounds nicer and gets less confusing when you talk about the forum as a message board but some think you mean a category within the message board) anyways one thing which was common was file sharing (still is with most boards) and there was a lot of options for remotely hosting files (obviously a lot less than there is now with the recent upsurge in free hosts who use advertising to cover costs) and in every thread it would be a case of a few thanks, a lot of 'Can you use another host that one doesn't work for me' or that one member who signs up searches for something a year after its posted and rather than request the file in a request thread decide to bump the thread just to ask the user to re-upload it.

This brings me to this website I stumbled upon earlier today which is something I looked for in the past as the constant re-upload requests and general ungratefulness based on the host which was used, this website allows you to upload the file it then remotely hosts them on Megaupload, DepositFiles, RapidShare and Sendspace which are some of the most common hosts, it also re-uploads the files for you when they expire.

The sites available at Share Bee, definitely worth checking out.

Sites to check out:

Rampant Designs Baby Seal Productions Stick Guy The Club BSP Blog Stick Guy Blog

Adsense websites

Ever notice how many companies sell AdSense ready websites where your entire site is nothing but advertisement after advertisement and they claim they will make you a nice bit of money, I have never purchased one of these nor do I desire to buy one for simple reason if they claim it can make you thousands why are they selling them for $20 to $40 when they could just open more sites and make thousands more, the reason for me is obvious, the sites have the potential to make thousands but only if you chose the correct domain, if you had something like thisisalongurlitishugeohwowthisislong.com then its unlikely anyone will randomly stumble upon it, now if you had a url which was similar to a popular sites except with different spelling or a different TLD such as gogle.com or google.net or gomummy.com then theres a higher chance of someone stumbling on your website and maybe clicking ads if they are relevant especially if one of the ads go to the actual site they wanted, but if I owned such domains I would simply place my own ads on the layout instead of buying a glorified template.

Sites to check out:

Rampant Designs Baby Seal Productions Stick Guy The Club BSP Blog Stick Guy Blog

Its all in the first 2 clicks

A wise search engine once told me its all in the first 2 clicks when it comes to success, the design of a website can have a real effect on a websites success because within those 2 clicks a user sees the style of your website and the ease of access to information based on your website, its why when you go to Rampant Designs, Baby Seal Productions or Stick Guy Comics that the layout/style is continuous and from click one you get an idea of what the sites like (all be it for Stick Guy you get a disclaimer). Even the blogs are set out this way you go to the blog and you get the latest posts plus easy navigation. It brings me to something I have always seen as a hits killer and that is splash screens, theres no point to them and they give the visitor no idea of your websites style and I think they break that golden rule of not owning a forum driven website where your forum gets all the attention and your website gradually fades away and the reason for that is most splash screens give you the option of viewing the website or entering the forum, now I think that most visitors who go to the sites url say domain.com want to view domain.com if they wanted to see the forum they would go to domain.com/forum or for those who want to view the forum they can easily select the forum from the navigation.

When I see a splash screen it puts me off the website for the simple reason I am there, they have got my attention using whichever method and now I want to see what the sites about so why do they keep hyping it when they could put the efforts into making me want to return again, also no matter how big your forum is and how popular it is theres hundreds of thousands of forums on the web and its alot more difficult to show how unique you are using the same software as thousands of others while with a website thats something you have thought up, designed and coded its a reflection of you and alot more unique.

My advice when it comes to websites is you should try and be unique, don't go searching on google for inspiration when Soulz designed Baby Seal Productions he just designed what he wanted it to look like, when I designed Rampant Designs I just sorted out the sizes then looked at the color scheme and Stick Guy Comics I decided simplicity was the best option. The point is those layouts are unique, they arent some immitation of a bigger website or something we found on google and I personally believe that helps websites success because its something new to the user not the same thing they see on other sites.

Sites to check out:

Rampant Designs Baby Seal Productions Stick Guy The Club BSP Blog Stick Guy Blog

Myspace Affiliate Abuse

It seems that the majority of myspace users post trying to get you something free, by free they mean when you enter your credit card details and spend lots of money they will send you the free gift. What gets me most is that its always an ipod or iphone two things I never desire to own as you will have seen from my first ever blog talking about the great Zen Vision M: from Creative (highly reccomended as always) but its so annoying to see the comments list filled with that crap, I havent had any on my personal myspace but theres been some I have deleted on the Baby Seal Productions myspace.

Also the other annoying one is the 'want to know whos spying on your myspace', I have a quick and simple method I use on my own blog and that is setting it to private so to see it the person has to become my friend.

Then theres the ones who say myspace wont let them display the content of there pictures and to click to view them on another site, I pitty the horny idiots who click that and get taken to a virus ridden website, and you know people click it otherwise most comment boxes wouldn't have them appear multiple times.


Also blog 14, the curse that never existed would be lifted if it existed, anyways:

The answer to life, blogger wouldn't let me post it so click the link**


**Bad joke, does not point to any risky site, unless you enter the stick guy forum.

Sites to check out:

Rampant Designs Baby Seal Productions Stick Guy The Club BSP Blog Stick Guy Blog