Hey, Webmaster Needs Tips

Hey, I want to know if anyone knew how to get some true dedicated visitors to your website. I mean like the'll come every other day. Are there any special features that people like? Do any of you webmasters have any experience of your own? Oh and I KNOW im asking this question again, but does anyone know a sure fire way to drive general traffic to your site? (Not search engines). Thanks. Oh and for your information my site (www.skaparty.com) has Games, Music stuff (eventually), and News (fake funny news mind you :) )

Hope I get a lotta answers :)

-Drew

See how Vb-World has 1000s of members and like 100 new members everyday? (not always active)

Wonder how they do it :).

Perhaps because it contains live help, examples, and lots of useful information?

I don't really know, right now I finally decided to make a web site, working on it now :rolleyes:.

How do I expect to get it out, Chit Chat forums of course.
I'm sure someone will visit it.

Look at kedaman's site, a lot of people visit his site because it's got lots of help on it and you never know what he's going to put up next, kind of like Howard Stern, you never know what he's going to do next :D.

I am basing my site mainly on VB and Subspace. Never thought about traffic, really. But I'm sure if I were to post my web site once telling everyone about my site in General VB Forums, a lot of people might be interested. And keep it in your signature. But who knows? You have the whole World out there to take a look at your web site, you sure to get some people.

Maybe having jokes or something on your web site to keep people coming back for more? Just suggestions, I may put a joke page, but it's all a matter of the thing that we just don't always have enogh of...time.

I really don't see what your questions have to do with VB.
If you get everyone annoyed here,they damn sure won't
be looking at your site.
If you are interested in VB, learn
it and post some code... show some cool programs... etc.
If you are interested in getting VB users to look
at your site, then post something interesting and put a
link in your signature and don't advertise it anymore.
That tends to annoy people.

LOL, dont you feel like a dumbass this section in the forum is called chit chat if you havent noticed.

Translation: OFFTOPIC CHAT ABOUT ANYTHING

Anyway, Does anyone else got any tips to build a great website or drive traffic to it?

Oh and my site has games, music, and news. The only reason im posting this on VBworld is because its CHITCHAT(hint hint), I like programming (barely know a lil of C++, kinda wandered around Perl [for cgi of course] and i know pascal... i know its outta date, get over it im in 9th grade

Heh well check out the site if you got time :)

I have to agree with wey, every single one of your threads are about the same thing. You are nothing but a spammer and the only reason I personally have not visited your website is because you are a spammer. Telling us what your website is comprised of in every thread is not necessary. You keep saying you want to have dedicated visitors to your website, well the only way this is going to happen is if they like the content of your website and you continually keep it updated with new content so they will have a reason to come back. In other words you can't ask for dedicated visitors they will decide on their own whether they will visit your website again, not because you ask! You said you already have your website listed on several search engines which is the best way to get your website noticed, the only other suggestion I have is paying for advertising not taking advantage of public forums. You have said that moderators on other boards have got PO'ed at you because of your (obviously) blatant advertising of your website and I would expect if you continue the way you are the same will happen here. Good Day.

Quit Complaining.

Period.

Quit Spamming!!

Have a Nice Day :)

Settle Down

If you are going to advertise, only do it once. Just say, hey how do you like it or something. You only have 3 posts at the moment...not much helping going on. At least help some people with their programming problems before you start spamming with advertisements.

Buy an ad slot on cdnow.com in the ska section....its called targe marketing...a programming forum won't exactly have that many people that are interrested in it than a big music site would.

romhacker:

You are the dumbass for posting these worthless pleas for
attention in the other VB forums which are designed for,
well, what do you know, VB!

Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!
Quit Spamming!!!!!!

Don't you guys think you're being just a little harsh on him here? I mean this IS a help forum, is it not? He comes here for help, not knowing any other way to do it he posts until he gets results, yet the only results you give him are yelling and insults. SteveCRM had the right idea, he noticed this too, but his original question is still yet unanswered. He obviously wants tips on site design and maintenance. Advertisements help but simply knowing of a site does not give people reason to continually come back. I agree with Matthew Gates's suggestions, regular updates and content, but I highly recommend some interactivity of some sort. I try to update my site as regularly as possible, but what tends to attract the most people to my site is the Merlin section, which allows users to interact with Merlin, making him animate, speak, and tell stories. I'm not saying you have to go through all the trouble of using MsAgent in your site, but in my personal experience regular updates, content, and interactivity have been the best.

I know there's someone out there bound to check my site out and mention that there was a fairly long period of time in which I haven't updated, so I'm just going to say right now that I don't care, it's finals, I've been busy with work, and it's the holidays.

I agree with Zaphod, Steve and the Gatester! Interactivity is a big plus when visiting a site! You may perhaps want to include (if appropriate) some interactive Java Applets, whether graphics effects or games.

To get started on applets, try

Anfy Team

The Java Boutique

JARS.com


And while you're at it, have a quick look at My Site and play the games there!

Hope this has been of some help,

Ladies! Calm down! :D

romhacker doesn't have many posts, most of them are in Chit Chat. So I don't get how wey97 and YoungBuck say that romhacker's posts are useless when he has never really posted much, but asking some questions.

And he's a new member (3 regular posts), I don't see how he is useless posting. I don't see him posting so many useless posts so that he can get Addicted Member/Hyperactive Member/Fanatic Member just for the hell of it so it makes him look good. He is simply asking for some ideas and general questions.

So settle down.

Ok Romhjackerwannebe im sure every1 is geting pissed off at ur crappy page, i mean for **** sake u created over 5 topic for that lame page that no1 will ever goto ok??

I'm going to use cybersurfers site as an example here.
I like his site right off the bat because of his graphics (thats one thing) make it that no one has seen before (cybersurfer used the glow behind his text). Make it interactive (thats why this site is so good.) Make it fun (add a small game or anything to keep them at your site...unlike microsoft :rolleyes: )

Just keep updating it with popular subjects (yours is ska).

Also Remember: "If you build it, they will come."

:)

Cool site CyberSurfer.
Me like.

Jesus Christ, werent any of you complainers listening? I just asked for some help in a CHIT CHAT forum. This isn't the visual basic section! If you want visual basic goto the section, dont whine and complain about me. Oh yes and '3' posts is spamming... my ass.

Thanks to all of you who replied to this. So what you are sayin is if i have just a hella lotta content with some interactivity people will eventually come and stay? you got any tips on promotion? Oh and I rather not include the java applets. Most of them are just weird games like asteriods or some advanced navigations that will make my site more harder to understand. :)

nice site cyber... i just didnt have the glowing background cause my BG is white :)

Thanks.

Naked women always help.

I'm going with DerFarm on this one Naked Women, and a midget or 2

Naked women would get me to a site too...


BTW, since we all seem to be criticising everybody now,

your site sucks Wey,

I am not trying to be mean, but it's too flashy, and not all people like background music,
it hardly has any content.... thats the kind of site that makes me think "I regret coming here, and I am never going back"

and with so many graphics the page seems to slow your computer down...

sorry if this offended you, but you really need to change your website....

I vote for naked men!

hmmm thats wierd....
all the women I talk to on ICQ (which isn't much) don't like how naked men look...
along with a lot of people I know personally..

Men are gorgoeus naked...not the Playgirl oiled up unnatural posed ones...but in real life..nothing beats 'em (err...so to speak!)

ewwww, no they aren't,
I absolutely hate taking a shower after swimming...

too many naked men..... even 1 is too many..... ewwww....

Dennis:

Mine's a lot better than skaparty.
What a F UCKING JOKE!!
I didn't get on VB and promote my website on all
my goddamned posts!
At least I could write a damn VB program before
I came to the forum.

What about this all over your page:
"Whoops! We can't find your page!"

At least my links work.

-f uck off

LOL, yeah I came to VB to advertise, yeah right... I came for advice. I saw how many members were in this forum and how many posted everyday so i made a few posts asking for ADVICE. No naked women, host doesnt allow it :) it would attract people though hehe. Anyway, from the extra 12 replies i got, only one reply gave me adice, lol, please on topic... again, anyways i could drive traffic to my site or attract DEDICATED visitors?

Thanks

;)

Don't pour petrol on your server and light it.

Pour petrol on your server and light it.

no, youre not funny... stop trying.
i mean seriously, you dont have the humor thing down

just quiet...

people who actually want to reply to this post look at the first starter thread or the reply up 2 from this one.

Thanks

;)

Go to the start menu, click Run, type "cmd.exe" and press 'OK'.
at the command prompt, type "format c:" and press {Enter}.
Let us know how it turns out.

Your site is okay..nothing spectacular.

Wey thinks I dont know what that means, format c:... once again, NOT FUNNY... thanks for the feedback Sophtware. Anyone with any real tips?

Thanks ;)

Design a site as cool as this and everyone here will kiss
your ass.

This site is COO-EL with a capital C.

http://members.designheaven.com/~profskin/

Wey, you're right, that's a really cool site :) Good design, it's really good how they make that pseudo-3D effect with just HTML.

romhacker, your site is okay but it's a bit boring. My opinion os probably biased though since you're clearly a complete dick. Thanks, have a nice day.

I've actually been to your site quite a few times, romhacker, and I must say that I am impressed! You've obviously put a lot of work into the site. One of the first things I noticed, however, was the huge namezero banner at the bottom of the screen on the start page. If you are serious about attracting visitors to your site I would seriously consider

a) Not using namezero as domain name park-ees (or use dimavas illegal ad banner removing script).

b) Find an add free Web Space Provider (Where do you live? I know of a few good UK ones...)

c) Possibly losing the tracker, or put in a corner, it is rather tacky looking.

d) If possible, ditching the entry page. It isn't a good idea unless you have a seperate flash site.

e) As previously suggested, join a banner exchange such as BCentral.

f) Just a minor point, but I think you should hava a "Home" link in the side nav bar. It isn't immediately obvious thet "News" is the homepage.

Hope this has all been of some help!


[Edited by CyberSurfer on 12-14-2000 at 07:55 AM]

Wey97:
your site really sucks.. it's a little better now, but not much

romhacker:
your site is Ok, but a little boring, like harry said..

BTW, I found no broken links on either of the sites...


and


Both:
shut the **** up, both of you are ****ing dickheads...

Go suck some big, fat, sweaty donkey balls, Dennis.
Hello World is your best C++ program!
Give me a break! LOL
You still have broken links. That's what really sucks.
Oh, wait a minute, how cool, I found all of the fun facts
about computers.

Quote:

---

DOS - Disk Operated System - an old operating system that was invented by some nobody, Bill Gates bought it and turned it into MS-DOS - MicroSoft Disk Operated System.

NOTE: I am not absolutely sure the above is true, it was just something I heard from a friend.

---

What a joke!

Besides, I'm not promoting my site out the ******* like romf ucker.

you are such a loser, you spent time looking for something that I said........ Ooooooh, I regret saying that so much I am going to go and delete it...

****ing *******....

if you're not promoting your site, take it out of your signature...

Quote:

---

Hello World is your best C++ program!

---

**** you..

I can do much better than hello world(windows apps, games in DOS, etc), but even if I couldn't, why should I be offended?


If you make your site better(less graphics, and fixed backgrounds are annoying), I will take back all I said about it..
but you are still an *******...

Now why go insulting programming ability? Dennis learned C++ using books (hard to do) and he's made some pretty cool stuff. He made that small game in about 2 hours (the one where the ship moves around...) I could never do that, and I've taken a class. So stop taking everything so damn personally! :mad:

Wey
Just by yelling at Romhacker won't make him go away, just don't go in his posts if you don't like him. I wouldn't leave this site because you were mad at me, so why are you waisting your time? :confused: Now you just have everyone pissed at you...if you ever need help, the chance of someone helping you has decreased greatly. But still...why insult dennis on his C++ skill, its his second (major) language and he just started. Thats pretty damn good if you ask me. If you don't like dennis' programs, then tell him what he should fix, instead of saying stuff like: "Hello world is your best program."

Dennis
:D hehehe...well put :D

I'm starting to think you're a dick now too

[Edited by SteveCRM on 12-14-2000 at 04:46 PM]

Thanks steve :D,

Quote:

---

I'm starting to think you're a dick now too

---

who, me or wey? ;)

Thanks for all the tips Cyber, just I cant have my dot com without namezero, and im 14, cant buy my own domain. The counter stays... so if someone links directly to one of my articles than ill still get the hit. :)

Its kinda funny though among the eight or ten extra ppl who replied to this, you are the only one who wrote what i wanted. If anyone else has anymore tips on promotion + driving traffic to your site, please say so :)

Thanks.

PS: That website you showed to me owns wey... but i rather not take it to that extreme cause i dont get paid to make my site (yet) and I dont really have that much time on my hands... Plus loading @ 56K or lower will lag up the load time.

[Edited by romhacker on 12-14-2000 at 05:21 PM]

How about offering downloads of projects utilising your articles. Just an idea.

Dennis

Does the game spell out "Hello World" or what.:rolleyes: Sounds like you are moving along on the C++ front. Well done.

Hey wey...sorry about before...it was after school and it was a bad day. Sorry :) No hard feelings.

What do you mean, downloads utilizing my articles. Yeah Id like to have some CGI script where i could add new articles over the web, if someone could ever develop a Perl CGI script for me, i would be grateful....

I tried to learn Perl a few times. The people who made it must of purposly made it super confusing, but ultra powerful for CGI... pisses me off :)

Tell me what you mean by 'Downloads to utilize your articles.'

Thanks ;)

Hey Steve, I know how you feel. I'm stressed w/ school too.
Finals suck big time!
They should be outlawed.
:)

BTW, what is the best way to make a main menu like U have
on your web site?

Dennis: I haven't got any large files uploaded at the moment, but with a 28K connection on my end, UKLinux.net is at least twice as fast as geocities, probably more. They are well worth a look!

My favorite way of making a menu, is to use PHP, or Perl(I know a little perl, but I don't like it much so I stopped learning it until I got a good hold of C++) and make a function, to show the table of contents and the header, but put it in a seperate file...
ex.

this is in PHP

Code:

---

//global.php
function gethits($logpath) {
        $hits = 0;
        $logpath = "./hits/".$logpath.".hits";

        If (file_exists($logpath)) {
                $filenum = fopen($logpath,"r");
                if ($filenum > 0) {
                        $filesize = filesize($logpath);
                        $hits = fread($filenum,$filesize+1);
                        fclose($filenum);
                }
        } else {
                $filenum = fopen($logpath,"w");
                fwrite($filenum,$hits);
                fclose($filenum);
        }

        return $hits;
}


function addhit($logpath) {
        $hits = 0;
        $logpath = "./hits/".$logpath.".hits";

        If (file_exists($logpath)) {
                $filenum = fopen($logpath,"r");
                if ($filenum > 0) {
                        //Get the current file hit count
                        $filesize = filesize($logpath);
                        $hits = fread($filenum,$filesize);
                        fclose($filenum);
                        //Increment the hit counter
                        $hits++;
                        $filenum = fopen($logpath,"w");
                        fwrite($filenum,$hits);
                        fclose($filenum);
                }
        }else{
                $hits++;
                $filenum = fopen($logpath,"w");
                fwrite($filenum,$hits);
                fclose($filenum);
        }
        return;
}



function showheader($title, $path) {
        $old = "\"#6320BE\"";
        $link = "\"#02802E\"";
        $alink = "\"#FF0000\"";
        $vlink = $link;
        $bgcolor = "\"#FEFCD0\"";
        $text = "\"#080F9C\"";
        addhit($path);
        echo "<HTML>\n";
        echo "<HEAD>\n";
        echo "<TITLE>$title</TITLE>\n";
        echo "<HEAD>\n";
        echo "<BODY BGCOLOR=$bgcolor TEXT=$text LINK=$link ALINK=$alink VLINK=$vlink>\n";
        echo "<FONT FACE=\"Arial\" SIZE=2>\n";
        showsidebar();
        echo "<FONT COLOR=\"#0000FF\">\n";
        showtitle($title);
        if ($path == "index") {
                showsubtitle("Your source for PC Software", 3);
        }
        echo "</FONT>\n";
        echo "<BR>\n";
}

function showfooter($path) {
        echo "<P>\n";
        echo "<BR>\n";
        echo "<CENTER>";
        echo "<FONT COLOR=\"#0000FF\" SIZE=2>\n";
        echo "There have been <B>";
        echo gethits($path);
        echo "</B> visitors to this page since 9/24/2000 <BR>\n";
        echo "Copyright © 2000 YourCo.com ";
        echo "All rights reserved <BR> \n";
        echo "click <A HREF=\"privacy.php\">here</A> for our privacy statement\n";
        echo "</FONT>\n";
        echo "</TD>\n</TR>\n</TABLE>\n";
        echo "</CENTER>\n";
        echo "</FONT>\n";
        echo "</BODY>\n</HTML>";
}




function showsidebar() {
        echo "<TABLE BORDER=0 WIDTH=100% HEIGHT=100% CELLPADDING=\"20\">\n";
        echo "<TR>\n<TD WIDTH=15% BGCOLOR=\"#FF8D31\" VALIGN=\"TOP\" ALIGN=\"CENTER\">";


        $file = openfile("php/sidebar.txt");
        echo "$file";

        echo "</TD>\n<TD WIDTH=85% VALIGN=\"TOP\" ALIGN=\"LEFT\">";
}

function showtitle($title) {
        echo "<FONT COLOR=\"#0000FF\">\n<H1><CENTER>$title</CENTER></H1>\n</FONT>";
}

function showsubtitle($stitle,$size=2) {
        echo "<FONT COLOR=\"#0000FF\">\n<H$size><CENTER>$stitle</CENTER></H$size>\n</FONT>";
}

---

you paste that into a file, call it what you like, I call it either global.php or functions.php

and you have to have a directory under the main one, called "hits"
it keeps the hit counter logs...

and you need a file called "sidebar.txt"

Code:

---


<A HREF="index.php">Home</A><BR>
<A HREF="about.php">About Us</A><BR>
<A HREF="news.php">News</A><BR>
<A HREF="products.php">Products</A><BR>
<A HREF="advertise.php">Advertise</A><BR>
<A HREF="faq.php">FAQ</A><BR>
<A HREF="links.php">Links</A><BR>
<A HREF="contact.php">Contact</A><BR>
<A HREF="forum/index.php">Forum</A><BR>
<A HREF="programming.php">Programming Tips</A><BR>
<P>

<P>

<A HREF="http://www.mysql.com" TARGET="_BLANK">

<IMG SRC="images/mysql.gif" WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=33
ALT="Powered By MySQL" BORDER=0>

</A>
<P>


<A HREF="http://www.php.net" TARGET="_BLANK">

<IMG SRC="images/phplogo.gif" WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=33
ALT="Powered By PHP" BORDER=0>

</A>
<BR>

---

notice the whitespace at the top?
that must be there.. I haven't used this bit for a while, so I can't remember, I think it has to do with alignment or something.


I know this didn't help you much, since virtual ave doesn't support PHP, but maybe you can get someone convert it.. :)

This is how you use those functions..

Code:

---

<?
require("php/functions.php");
showheader("Index", "index");
//first argument is the title
//second is the hit counter file name.
?>

hello
<!-- write stuff here like you would a normal HTML file -->

<?
showfooter("index");
//argument is hit counter file name.
?>

---

-Dennis

Hey, can you guys give some tips on me here, hehe ;) its ok though... anyone please visit my site and give me some tips on how to drive traffic! Oh and will someone tell me where i can find an EXCELLENT tutorial to Perl? Cause ive tried others... the developers of the language must have purposely made it irritatingly confusing, but powerful just to piss off the program makers :)

Well ok...

They've said do a banner exchange. You have already done the search engine thing. So just make your site good! There are no magic tricks, people won't come to your site unless it's good, so stop wasting time asking for ways to 'drive' traffic to your site, because nobody's gonna stay if it sucks.

Aight, thanks.

GOD: "Let there be more hits to romhacker's site!"
romhacker: "Thanks, GOD."

(And so for all the days to come there were infinite hits to romhacker's site.)

here are some perl tutorials:
http://htmlgoodies.earthweb.com/prim...l/perltoc.html

OK, ill give you that wey... that was funny.

:)

You all said my layout was boring.. well ive made a new one.. took me nearly a half a day to make all the images, design the layout, make the layout, update the pages, upload the images, and upload the pages. hehe check it out!

http://www.skaparty.com

:D

You piece of ****..your website sucks ass..in case you havent noticed..operation ivy isnt exactly a new band..they arent REAL ska.. you poser.


**** you

the new layout is pretty cool :cool:

the layout isn't bad at all, i've done a few web-sites myself and most of them don't look as good as that, but one thing they don't have is a big giant banner at the top advertising the fact that we're hosting for free, i think you either need a free host that doesn't have banners that take up half your page or pay for hosting

and get some damn midgets, a web-site is nothing without midgets, naked ones if possible but any midget will do

Thankyou, I like the new layout too. Oh and I think I should include midgets somewhere in my website. Possibly in one of the articles that i might write in the future. =) Oh, and I like my host. Just because it loads a banner doesnt mean its a bad host. The support CGI scripts (ANY kind) and support SSI plus FTP access, so i like them.

;):):D

-Drew

http://www.cfm-resources.com

is much better than virtualave...

they support java server pages, active server pages, PHP, cold fusion, and they have FTP....

but they don't support perl...

but PHP is much better than Perl... IMO...


they also don't have banners

[Edited by denniswrenn on 12-17-2000 at 02:16 PM]

Ah, but you see i have about 10 perl scripts running on my website right now. I know that PHP is insanely better than perl and probably easier, but i have experience with perl. So there ;):);D

Hehe, like the band of the moment, article of the moment, all the feedback forms, article signature, schlabo's dl script, and maybe a few others. The only benifit i could think of if i converted to PHP is to add a vBulletin Board... but then again I already have a thread + reply forum ;)

Thanks anyway!

-Drew