How I Successfully Killed My Website

If your starting a website most chances are you want two things: Ton's and ton's of traffic, and probably a site so great, that will be the next Yahoo. Well, thats what I wanted when I first started my domain. I wanted so much over the past four years, though its obvious that I took about a little less then half a step to my goal. I had success then failure many times with this site. Yet, I failed to understand how I kept killing my website. Then it hit me. There was five key factors that contributed to the oober success to my website.

I want a website! Ok SHOOT!

When I first started this site in 2003, it was a spur of the moment idea. The only thing I cared about was getting my first ever domain on my 13th birthday. I failed to create a plan for this website, and I really didn't know what I wanted to do with it. I jumped in as lost as a pig in a hospital, with a head-full of desires, and absolutely no idea how to nourish them.

I'm going to do this, and this, and that, and....

Since there was no original plan for the website, I began working with no initial direction. I started various projects around the site that never got finished. I soon found myself spread thin among the pages of the website. The end product was lots of pages with poor content.

Go! Go! Go! Stop... *Dead Stop* GO!

After I bought my domain, I started my first year of intermediate. With horrifying speeds my domain became lost at the bottom of my to-do list, below my homework and personal hygiene. Sometimes there was months on end, when I did not even touch my website, let alone look at it. Then, when I had free time I would update like crazy; then stop again. I failed to realize that buying my domain, made an unspoken commitment of my time to my visitors. I also did not understand that short spurts of updates did not attract visitors... It killed them.

Quality is everything

Lots and lots of pages, means lots and lots of visitors. Well, that was my first thought. So I created tutorials, graphics, wallpapers, pngs, buttons the works. Everything for the website visitor.

Trust me, those lots and lots of pages, did not equal lots and lots of visitors like I thought. When I went to look back at my content, I saw absolutely nothing wrong with it. It functioned, it displayed, you could see it. There was no reason why anybody wouldn't want my content.

After a horrid review from another web designer, I was hit with: "Your content is not quality". Oh it broke my heart, but oh how it was true.

HELP! I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!

My first domain took a rocky start. I had no idea what I was doing, and how I would do it. I would limit myself to coding techniques that I knew, but I did not take the time to follow technology where it lead. I limited myself to HTML and CSS for about the first two years of my websites life. I did not stop to embrace the other possibilities of coding techniques and styles. It was my way or the highway!

Well, I hope you learned from my mistakes, and can use my knowledge to help you create one of the best websites on the net!