| 1) Never listen to anybody |
| Regardless of what I or anyone else says, make
a site on your own terms. The only people I ever listened to were people
I considered friends, and their suggestions were always taken under advisement.
I still have ideas given to me from fans over a year ago, some of which I
may use one day, if I feel the urge. With that in mind, everything I say
here can be shrugged off if you think it's irrelevant.
Real Example: Nobody liked this site when it was
first created. I didn't listen to anybody, and kept working on it. Look where
I am now. |
| 2) Nobody's perfect... but... |
| Try your hardest to get your site to read well.
Spelling and grammar errors are okay. Everyone makes them (as a metter of
fact, I make at least one spelling error per page that is painfully obvious).
The odd mistake can easily be overlooked. I can't use a keyboard for the
life of me, but I still try to spell correctly and use my full knowledge
of grammar. Not being able to type is no excuse. In other words, don't break
out a thesaurus just to sound smart and don't use semi colons if you don't
know how. Read your stuff a couple times after you've written it and make
sure that it's all okay. Hell, even get your mom to read it if you're
unsure.
Real Example: Willyman (of
Willyman's NES site) has a site
similar to a lot of older popular sites which focus heavily on reviews and
editorials. But, he has made a name for himself through excellent writing.
Other review and editorial sites have fallen because of poor writing. |
| 3) The road less traveled |
| This sort of fits into the "Never listen to
anybody" area, but it is a little different. Think of something no one else
has done, and do it. Don't worry about who will like it and who won't. Once
you have a bit of beef on your site, nobody will care about what sucks on
your site, as long as you have a fair amount of good stuff. All of that 'good
stuff' should be completely fresh and original, unless secret #2 applies
to you. In that case, write lots of reviews, and wallow in the praise of
everyone with an 8th grade reading level.
Real Example: This site. Absolutely everything
I have written, I had never seen before on any other site (sometimes I see
a site that focuses on something I had previously written; IE the
SMB2 Worship. I wrote Doki Doki panic long
before I saw that). A lot of it is shit, but it's still revered
because of it's originality. I still don't even see anything exceptionally
funny on this site. People's opinions often confuse me. |
| 4) Images, young one |
| You might not believe in emulation if you're
a "hard core" NES fan. I applaud you for sticking to tradition, believe me.
But, you really can't keep any interest in your site without images. I am
very passive towards stealing images from other NES sites. If you stole some
images from this site, for example, I wouldn't get my panties in a bunch.
But, it is better if you create your own images. Put your morals on hold,
and get an emulator and some roms. I never play my emulator save to get screen
shots (and in the case of Bard's tale because my battery is dead on that
game). By the way, it really sucks when your battery dies.
Real Example:
NEStopia.
This site is an excellent site. The webmaster put in a lot of work before
he released the site, and it shows. But he has few images because he's against
emulation. I fear that he'll not get as far as he should because of it. |
| 5) Marry your image editor |
| You have to know every image editor you use
inside and out. This is one of my personal secrets to making my own site
great, and I would put it higher up on my own list. However, if you don't
make your own images it is irrelevant. I use 5 programs to make the images
for this site (Paint, Imaging, Gif Construction set, Adobe Photoshop and
GIMP). Each program has it's own use, and you should learn each in detail
before even bothering to make a site.
Real Example: This site. First, I take a PSX still
with Nesticle. I open it in Imaging. Depending on what I want to do with
it, I take it to Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, or Paint. I often bring the image
in between any two of the aforementioned three. At the end, I use Gif
construction set to turn the image into the smallest file possible. At the
end, I end up with images like this...
This image was made with Adobe Photoshop, Paint, and Imaging. It just so
happens I exported it to a .gif file in Adobe Photoshop in stead of using
Gif Construction set, but I could have used either. |
| 6) Make sure everything works |
| Nothing pisses me off more than broken links.
I try to avoid these at every turn. Even after I update my site, I make sure
to check every new link and every new page. If it doesn't all work, I fix
it right away. Trust me, people will be turned off as soon as they see your
newest update does not work.
Real Example:
NES Smackdown. This is
a very well respected and well put together site. But, if you bother to browse
it in detail, you get a lot of bad links. This is a big damper on your day,
huh? |
| 7) Never ask for help |
| The only way to learn is to do things for yourself.
Before you even bother to start your NES page, become familiar with 4 things.
The best NES sites, image formatting, web design, and NES games. If you are
a fan of the NES (which I'll assume you are) you should have no problem with
#1 and #4. NEVER ask for help with html or images. The only way to learn
is to do it yourself. Look up html or image editing on the internet. Read
some short articles. When I started this site, I was unfamiliar with everything
on this list except for NES games. The only sites I really knew were Gromit's
NES Wasteland , NES Enshrined and NES Nation. I couldn't edit html for the
life of me, and my image editing skills were very limited. I sort of
threw this site together in my spare time for shits and giggles. That really
isn't the best way to go, but it can be done (proven by this site).
Real Example:
Willyman's NES site. This guy wasn't
kidding around when he got started. As I recall, I never heard any requests
for help from him. I have offered him my suggestions in the past, and
they all have been taken under advisement. Textbook NES webmastering. He
still knows how to do some html that I don't. |
| 8) Be you |
| The best thing about running your own site
is that you get to see your own personality leak into it. Even if you want
your site to look as professional as possible, even if you want to make a
site based only on information, even if you want to have an alternative site,
your personality shines through. If it doesn't, make sure it does. Nobody
wants to be bored by a robotic ste.
Real Example: NES world vs. NES Nation. Which site
is better? If you remember NES Nation, you will undoubtedly say NES
Nation. But why? NES World has survived longer, has more information and
will likely remain on the internet as long as the webmaster breathes. The
answer is: personality. NES World is great for information. But it's kind
of boring, isn't it? |
| 9) Bite off more than you can
chew |
| You never know your limits until you push them
to the brink. Always try to take on a little bit more than you think you
can handle. Offer to help out on other sites, and try to run side projects.
Make sure you always have some project that you can afford to pitch. (I failed
to have something I could pitch when the paNESian press came along...
do what I say, not what I do!) The best way to learn your limits is to go
beyond them, and see exactly where everything falls apart. I did exactly
this with the paNESian press. I was working harder than I should have.
Unfortunately, a very bad experience kept me from continuing on with the
newsletter, but it taught me a lot. I could likely run both this site and
the paNESian press and write for the NES Triforce and NEScrophilia
2k at the same time. But something would suffer if I did it all, so I stick
to running this site, and writing for one other site. Someone else may be
able to do more. Or less. It depends on who you are.
Real Example: NES World Wide. NWW was a colaberation
of many NES webmasters. In my opinion, NES Mart, I Like NES, NES Dungeon
(etc) were better sites made separately by the webmasters behind NWW than
NWW itself. Hell, NES Mart was never hacked by a pissed off staffer... |
| 10) Make friends |
| You can have a very good NES page without making
a single friend. But, how far do you think you can get without having at
least one pal in the NES 'scene' thing? I didn't have any friends here. One
day, I e-mailed Quizzle, and was effectively 'discovered' one year after
I started. There are sites out there that aren't even one year old that are
already more popular than this piece of shit. If you are smarter than me,
you'll hang around a bit more than I did, and make some friends. That way
your site will get noticed sooner because you can get your friends to tell
all of their friends about it. Word of mouth is still the best method of
advertisement.
Real Example: Every NES website that came after
the first. Think about it. |
| 11) No feedback? |
| Don't worry. if no one e-mails you, you should
assume you are doing a good job. Someone is more likely to send you a 'you
fucked up' mail than a 'good job' mail. I might be wrong on this one, but
I'm pretty sure no news is better than bad news. Enjoy every praise e-mail
you get, and ignore the fact that you don't get any praise if your site gets
a lot of visitors. After all, if people keep visiting your site, it must
not suck too bad.
Real Example: Personal experience. |
| 12) Sek--shuns? |
| I get a lot of criticism because I have a lot
of sections with very little actual stuff in them. I guess this is because
I'm not a fan of maze sites. I can't really stick to writing the same type
of thing over and over and over again. So, in stead of making a page
labeled "other stuff that doesn't have a place", I just throw it onto the
main page. I think things work better that way. I think of my whole site
as one big section. NES World is another section. Clay's NES page is another
section. See what I mean? If you don't feel like doing something as trivial
as keeping your site organized, don't. Think about what this site would look
like if I had only major sections for a second... yeah. I'd have about 5
links on my main page, and that would lead to a maze of other pages and stuff.
(Just like TSR's page. Whadd'ya know?)
Real Example: Refer to "never listen to
anybody". |