I have some tips for webmasters building their site:

1. Use affiliate site surfing programs (e.g. galactic gold, traffic battle, chain reaction traffic, etc.) with caution (approach with yellow light). I've tried surfing through those, it was BORING! Most sites through those are money making sites, other affiliate programs and well, you get the idea. It may be worth a try, but I don't think it will bring much more traffic, other than clicking the "number" after 30 seconds while glancing at the front page loading

2. Define your site's purpose clearly and effectively on your front page. Also, use appropriate pictures, colors and content on your home page to attract visitors. If your site is supposed to be providing content, make sure people know that. If your site is for your pictures, be sure that you show that. Ask friends to check out your site.

3. Popular features should be added to your site. Make sure most of the features link to your content. Add forums, blogs, communications stuff and more to your website. You can add Free SMS Service to your website, it is done in PHP, I don't know PHP, can't help you with that. Anyhow, Trap17 and Astahost provides an abundance of space to popularize your website. They are the best free webhosts I have ever seen.

4. Put your URI (URL) on business cards, brochures, presentations, posters, etc. Anything you can create with Microsoft Office and OpenOffice that relates to your website and/or is appropriate to put your URL in, DO put it there.

5. Add your URI (URL) to forum signatures and email signatures. If possible, use an image to convey the message. Many people do signatures for forums for free, just ask! Email signatures should be text, they shouldn't be more than 30 bytes of the message.

6. Google AdSense can help you make profits (with ads on your site). Use the ads sparingly on your site, don't go overboard with them. I hate sites that have Google Text Ads in the middle.

7. If you are willing to spend money on Google AdWords, go for it! Again, consider limitations. Google AdWords are blockable by Firefox Extension - AdBlock. And not very many people look at them. Just giving you two sides to the opinion.

8. RSS feeds can be helpful if you have frequently changing content. See the W3Schools website for instructions.

9. Absolutely NO pop-ups, large blinking flashing colourful ads, automatic installation of "things", or anything else to drive away visitors. "Things" can range from spyware to add-ons to extensions. If you have a domain name, get a good rating from TrustWorth/GeoTrust and McAfee SiteSdvisor.

10. Develop appropriate add-ons, extensions (for Firefox) and programs to help you grow your website.

11. Word of mouth advertising. Tell people about it.

12. Browser compatibility. When Internet Explorer 7 comes out, it will provide better XHTML 1 compatibility. Make your pages XHTML valid. If you use a WYSIWYG editor, now is the time to learn XHTML and CSS. Your site should be viewable in different browsers, not just Internet Explorer, Firefox and/or Opera or your favourite browser.

13. Optimization. Speed up the loading of your pages if they are slow loading on dial-up. Reduce picture size and avoid big ads and tables for designing. Use CSS and specify image dimensions (height and width). If you use tables to store information, specify width in pixels or percent. Don't use tables for the layout of the page.

14. Entertainment. Provide sources of entertainment and/or appropriate entertainment on your website so people don't get bored.

That is all the tips I can think of right now. If I find any more, I'll either do an edit or start a part 2. I hope this helps. Feel free to reply with your tips.

thanks for the advice...what i want to be able to do with my site is be able to communicate with another site that relates to my own site....where they can put up a weblink goin directly to my site and i would have one of their owns goin to theirs...i believe that would b affiliating of course...

also make sure your site stays on the topics you state..

and have it look somewhat profesional and not like a 4 year old made it (unless you are 4 years old...)

there are alot of things you can do to acomplish this

rounded boxes are a nice thing for starters and make sure the colors blend together so its not just there being ugly

The key to a good website is definitely not rounded boxes! I agree with all the points you have made, FirefoxRocks, and they will be very useful to people setting up a site for the first time. One thing to mention, however, is not to go overboard with features. Just because you can get a script free, it doesn't mean you have to add it to your site! Try and keep it as uncluttered as possible and use a simple layout and colour scheme. Being unique also helps a great deal. If you can provide something that no other site can provide, people will come to you.

Thanks FirefoxRocks, my site is hosted here and now in developing progress. Your explanation makes me to redesign my site content. Now i'm learning CSS and XHTML. But I still confusing with point 10, about Firefox extention?

This post has been edited by masterio: Sep 6 2006, 12:35 PM

More explained tips:

1. If rounded boxes go with the design of your website, use them. Rounded boxes should be for "happier" moods on a website. I think they look cool.

2. Stay on your site's topic but branch out on similar topics. You may want to create a DHTML menu for easy navigation to the subcategories on your site.

3. Try to stick with CSS for formatting. This way you can avoid typing that much and people will load their pages a little faster.

4. If your site has a special feature that people view a lot or that people use a lot, attempt the make a Firefox extension or Opera Widget for people to see/use it in the browser.

5. If possible, provide 3 languages of the content on your site. Help international users. Not everyone speaks/reads English.

6. Link exchange with other webmasters of similar content can help. Email them and ask. Provide a small button (80X15) or something similar if possible.

Thanks FirefoxRocks, you have put all the things to make a good site which most people (newbies like me) ignores.
I am making my new site and am using tables to a great extent, but now I came to know that it slows down loading of page. Can you suggest any tutorials to learn CSS.

Thanks for the tips!! These tips will be useful for the newbie to the expert, excellent work!!!