SUGAR-CANDY.NET! . THE CANDY SHOP

Category: Site-Related

Advice

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: November 28, 2008
Letter: My site's opened roughly around the same time as yours and you're like getting 10x as more hits than I do! I'm so jealous! =P What have you done to get so many hits besides commenting on people's sites?

My Advice: Besides commenting other sites, I take advantage of plugboards and free advertising as well. I also keep my site very active, or as active as possible because visitors and daily readers love to see new things, it will definately keep people coming back if they see that you're an active and caring web owner and always have something new to see/offer, etc. A big part of it also is make sure your site is very consistent. Don't go on too many unnecessary hiatuses or if you do, make sure they're opened hiatus where your visitors can still access your site and make sure they know you're coming back. I notice that some sites go on either too long hiatuses or either do it too much and eventually people get bored with that and may not come back or at least not as much, same goes for inactivity (Example: blogging for 3 days straight and not blogging again for an entire month results in loss of visitors). Also, make sure your site isn't forgotten. Do something unique with your site to stand out from the rest, whether it be your blogs, layouts, or some other idea you have. There's so many things you can do and I wish you the best of luck with your site!

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: November 26, 2008
Letter: I had a fansite for Miley Cyrus, it was the second EVER MADE! I kept it from March 2006 - April 2008 (when Vanity Fair.. you know). Well, I'm becoming a fan again. i thought I would NEVER open Miley Magic up again, but now I'm having second thoughts. How do I know that I REALLY want to re-open it?

My Advice: I can't tell you how you feel, only you know how you feel. But personally, through my experience with sites, if I'm having second thoughts, I just won't follow through. Unless you're excited and passionate about opening a new site, then chances are once you open, it won't be long before you close again because the loss of interest will most likely come back. Though everyone is different, but in my case, it always happens to me. In my opinion if you're struggling with the decision whether to or not, I would just choose not. When I really want to create a new site, I never have second thoughts because I know it's what I want to do, I have no doubts. It may be different with you though. You might actually have to contemplate more and decide on what you want to do. Just try visiting other Miley sites and see if it would be something you'd want to do again, maybe you could gain some inspiration/motivation that way.

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: October 7, 2008
Letter: What is the brushes for? What are they used for? I use photoshop but i dont get what the brush packs are for. What are the ones on your site for? Help!and thank you lots.

My Advice: Brushes are used for your graphics, they sometimes can add attractive effects and enhance your graphics to make them look better. The image packs on my site are used for that purpose. I have a tutorial here on how to use them. Since you use Photoshop, I'm not sure if that would help, but maybe you can use the PS method of adding brushes.

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: September 2, 2008
Letter: Hey,Shellz,this is _____ from www.____.info. I was wondering if you could give me any tips as to how to make my site more organized?Lol.I've tried many different things,but I can never seem to be satisfied with it :/

My Advice: The key things for a site to be organized is first off make sure your CSS is neat and that it matches your layout. Your layout and CSS are usually the first things people see when going to a site. Make sure your site is easy to navigate through and categorize each page under the appropriate topic. Always double check for spelling and grammatical errors. Another important key is consistency. Make sure your pages are consistent, as in everything on your site is uniformed. Also, make sure your site is compatible in very popular browsers as Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. Your site could be organized and neat in one browser but may be off in coding or something else in another browser, which would make your site lack organization as far as browser compatibility. Often times do a full site check in every browser, go through all your pages and make sure there's not any icky coding errors or other errors that need cleaning up. This is an off tip, but also try to keep your site files organized. Keep similar files in folders so there won't be a bunch of lose pages in your file editor. As a website owner, that will also make you feel more organized. I'm not sure if you do that already, but if not I hope that helped!

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: August 22, 2008
Letter: OK, so basically the past one or two years my life has been all about my websites. I run 4 fansites, a design site and a personal site. It's just been soooo much to keep up with lately. I don't know what to do! I do know that only two of my sites really mean anything to me, but I think my host would be mad if I decided not to do the others because she bought domains for them. I don't know what to do!

My Advice: I always say if you run websites, it should be fun. If having all these sites are stressing you out then you should definately narrow it down to the ones you only love to do. If you don't have time, you just don't, it's your life. That is too bad if your host gets mad, I'm sure they would be able to put the domains to use somehow. Just simply explain to your host that you just don't have the time. I'm sure they will understand, everyone gets busy, it's normal. Don't ever be pressured to try to keep a website just because of how someone will react, you are not obligated to any website, you do it as a hobby and if it is too much you just shouldn't do it anymore.

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: August 6, 2008
Letter: I need help with image accounts...i can't pay for anything though..so yeah. Or if you could tell me how to get rid of their obnoxious tags..anything! cause i have fansites and anytime i ask current web-owners, they never answer

My Advice: Well, in order to have a legitimate image account, you have to pay. Image accounts are mainly there so that you can view images in high quality rather than low or medium quality, so they charge for that. As far as tags, getting rid of them would be illegal. It would be the same if you took a picture with your camera, tagged it, and then published it and someone else removed it and claimed it as their own. There is really no way around not paying if you want full high quality images. The only way is if someone was generous to give you an image account that they paid for.

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: August 6, 2008
Letter: I'm trying to open my own hosting site, but I'm not sure how or where to start. There are alot of sites out there with great offers on domains and hosting but how can you tell which one is the best? I know you own a hosting site so I was wondering if you could help me out and explain how you did it.

My Advice: The first step would be to buy your own domain. Always start small because that way you will gain experience and the right knowledge for providing quality hosting. Don't be too hasty and try to become big just because. Quality is more important than anything as well as being a supportive host. Every big site has to start somewhere. Also, I would suggest starting with first hosting sub-domains and when you gain enough knowledge of hosting sites then move into hosting domains. It's important to take small steps and as your site grows all you can do is expand from there. Don't focus to much on all the other sites out there. There are always tons of people looking to be hosted. It's okay to be inspired by other sites, but it's more important to focus on your site and how to make it better.

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: July 16, 2008
Letter: Ok. Well I own a site. I put it on hiatus for a week since I had to go to my shore house. Ever since then, I dont get as much visitors as I did. How do I get them to come visit back?

My Advice: You could plug your site on plugboards, comment other sites, join advertisements, and apply for affiliates at different sites. The more exposure your site has, the more people that will visit.

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: July 14, 2008
Letter: Okay, i have a serious problem. See i love this new sensation demi lovato and i have a fansite opening up this week, but see, lots of other people also love demi and they're making fansites by the day and i hate competition. What do i do? I don't want this fansite to become a job for me, if it does, i'll start hating it and i'll eventually close it down.

My Advice: A site can only become a job if you let it be. Fansites are usually something you do for fun, as a hobby, or in your spare time because you admire the celebrity. So, if you feel like it would be a job for you, that could become very stressful and it might just be something you probably shouldn't put yourself though. About competition, it's always going to be there as long as people are creating websites, it's just a part of life in general. If it's something you want to do because you'll enjoy it and it's fun to you, then don't let competition bother you, but if you hate it then you should either try ten times as harder as those sites you feel are a competition to you or either free yourself of the feeling and stay away from creating the site period. I'm sure a lot of web owners feel this way, but for the most part if you enjoy the web scene and being a part of it, it's not going to bother you as much as you think.

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: July 7, 2008
Letter: So there's this girl. Let's call her M. She has a wall of shame website, and she put my friend on there for the most stupid reason possible. I tried telling her that what she was doing was wrong, not what my friend was doing. Then she started cussing us out and spamming our chatboxes with mean and, not to mention, gross comments! She's made our web design no fun anymore because we have to worry about if they'll shoo our visitors away. She's making it like we're the hurtful ones! We've tried to ban her, but believe me, she's UNBANNABLE. We need urgent help!

My Advice: I can't dictate how exactly to answer this question because I don't really know the situation. How did you confront her? Was it in a way that would make her act like that or were you nice and she just wasn't? Sometimes online you encounter people like this and this sounds very cliché and I'm sure you've heard before, but just ignore her. Silence is the best answer. If she keeps coming to your site posting ill-mannered comments, just delete them and ignore. If you continue to say things to her it won't help the situation. If you ignore for a while I'm sure the person will eventually stop because you're not showing any feedback. Think about if you were trying to talk to someone online and they never responded to you? You would eventually stop trying to talk to them, right? If you don't want the comments driving visitors away, you should delete them as soon as possible. Don't leave them there for visitors to see. On the other hand, I don't think it will necessarily drive your visitors away, but they just might not want to post comments on your site due to the fact of the situation that's happening. If someone likes your site, most of the time they will still come no matter what the case is, they just may not post to keep from getting involved. So, conclusively, you should start by deleting these comments, keep ignoring this person, and see what happens.

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: June 27, 2008
Letter: I can't believe this! I think I'm going to cry! It's like this, my friend and I bought a domain and we didn't have any ideas how to use it. Then she asked one of our friend, which is like 20+. My friend gave her the login info. Just now, I found out that the FRIEND we asked to help with our domain bought a domain for her ownself without me knowing using my account! Well, she's not a friend actually. She's a mean woman. But lately, we've been nice to each other and now this!! Please help me. If you ask me to report it to the police, I don't know how because I do not live in the united states.

My Advice: If she bought a domain using your account you should confront her about it and ask her why she bought it without your permission. Also, just change your login information so she won't be able to log back in. If it's your account you should be able to cancel the domain she bought, unless you let her keep it, it's up to you.

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: June 24, 2008
Letter: Well I am looking to buy a domain and I was wondering since Ive seen you have great domain names I was wondering if you had an possible domain names that you can think of that would be cool.

My Advice: I couldn't pick a name for you because I don't know you and usually when I choose my site names it somehow describes me, my personality, or some aspect of my life. Some tips would be to just think of a word or 2 that would describe you or something you like. I named my site sugar-candy because I like to eat stuff like sour gummy candies, jolly ranchers, and such so it describes that part of my life. Choosing a site name is tough but if you can't think of anything you could always find a site name generator online (click here), that is where I got my domain name for snapbeat.org (my other site) from. Generators can be very helpful on this.

Letter & Advice

Submitted on: June 16, 2008
Letter: What can I do to improve my site, g--.ov---.net? I just saw yours was really nice so it would be the right person to go to.

My Advice: It depends on what you're trying to improve on. I would say just go to different sites that offer tutorials for what you need improvement on and keep practicing. With sites it's trial and error and you always learn something new and just stay dedicated. If you would like my full opinion you can sign up for a review at Sugar Candy Reviews, if I am accepting.