Define and organize your site's content
As a Web publisher, you have the ability to incorporate text, images, audio and video into your site. But before you use these elements, consider which types will best represent your work. If you're building an essay site, do you need all the bells and whistles? If you're building an interview site, will audio and video make your content more interesting? Multimedia works best when it enhances information or illustrates a point in an intuitive way.
You should also think about your resources. Do you know how to add multimedia elements? Can someone teach you? Audio and video files can be large; will you have enough storage space?
These questions shouldn't discourage you from acquiring new multimedia skills or making bigger storage investments, but the decisions you make should be driven by your content rather than a desire to be splashy.
Type of site
Independent Web sites generally take one of two forms: Weblog or online magazine. These types aren't mutually exclusive -- a magazine can have a Weblog area and a Weblog can offer magazine content. It's not imperative that you define your site as one or the other, but it's good to have an understanding of the two types so you can see which end of the Weblog-magazine spectrum you want to gravitate toward.
Weblogs are sites that feature snippets of information and commentary combined with interesting links from other Web sites. Rebecca Blood, publisher of the Weblog Rebecca's Pocket and author of "The Weblog Handbook," says common Weblog features are:
- Frequent updates
- New entries posted at the top of the page
- Links to similar sites placed on the side of the Weblog
"More than a list of links and less than a full-blown zine, Weblogs are hard to describe but easy to recognize," Blood writes. (Blood, 1).
Fark, Kottke.org, and Gizmodo are all different types of Weblogs. Additional examples can be found through Google's Weblog directory. As you look through Weblogs you'll see that many are used by individuals as online journals. This practice is common, but the format can be extended to cover a specific topic as well. This site, for example, has a Weblog component that contains news about independent Web publishing.
Whereas Weblogs focus on nuggets of information, online magazines usually feature longer articles, reviews and commentary. They draw heavily from traditional journalism, often publishing on a schedule and dipping deeper into coverage with more extensive information. The Onion, Salon, and Flak Magazine are all variations on the magazine concept.
Tone of content
Running an independent site gives you license to say whatever you want in whatever way you want (unless it's libelous -- a topic covered in the Run section). Ultimately, your site's tone will be determined by your personality. If you're a breezy kind of person, the words and phrases you choose will reflect that. If you're no-nonsense, your site will be too.
Before you begin writing and publishing, think about the match up between your tone, your subject matter, and what you hope to accomplish. The point of this exercise is to ensure that your tone and your site coexist. When these elements work together, your site obtains a subtle sense of quality and the user has a pleasant experience.
