A Few Inspirations for Vanilla Web Sites
Author: Mitch Keeler
We have all seen the Web site that almost seems to bland, too boring, too vanilla. Some of us might be running those Web sites, and not even know it. So where or what can you do to cure this problem? Well drop a little flavor in and mix things up a little.
Start Rambling and Add a Blog
Blogs are always a good idea, because there are so many directions you can do with it. You could make it personal with your own thoughts. You could make it professional, giving us “important news updates”. You could also use it to expand your base and talk about things you might not have thought to cover with your Web site before. Getting WordPress setup and going is no hard task either.
Setup a Set of Forums for Your Users
Do you have a large audience of folks that visit your Web site? Then you might need to get yourself a set of forums so these people can communicate with you and the other users. Some people forget that when you build a Web site, you are building a community. Why not have this community communicate among themselves? This will drive new content to your Web site as well as give people another reason to visit your domain.
Cover or Discuss Certain Things at Certain Times
My last tip would be to start doing special things on certain days of the week. I have seen several Web sites become popular with having a “Freeware Monday” or a “Silly Site Friday”. Give people something to look forward to. Who knows, you might accidentally become a trusted source on whatever subject you decide to match up with whatever day of the week you pick.
April 6th, 2007 at 8:11 am
I’d add to this the need to be ready to STOP rambling about certain subjects. One of my friends blogs is interesting when he talks about his test runs with new software and scripts, but you have to wade through 4 or 5 posts about his cats before you get to the next one. Stop talking about his cats, call it a software blog, and I swear he’d build an audience.