Help take this site to the next level!

[dabboxking]

So I decided to make a video game blog with my roommate and came up with this design within seconds. What would help make this web page standout and make visitors come back for more. (not including the content). I have used css-tricks as my main source for code hints. Like how to: make a sticky footer and make a “secure” contact form. Any comments would be helpful.

website: http://www.bideogemu.com

Thanks

[cwork]

For a video game blog, I would recommend a CMS, for a couple reasons.

User registration/profiles.
User comments.
Easy upload/editing of content.

With a good CMS, if you learn it, you can really make a site like this take off. I actually got really into the web by starting with a Video game website using Drupal. I literally had almost every feature that is on sites like gamespot, but it took me and my brother a while to learn it, and be able to do that stuff. But for a simple blog, a CMS is still a good choice even if you don’t want to add a bunch of features because it makes it very easy to maintain your content and user generated content such as comments.

This is just my opinion, of course. I know time is a big factor, and not everyone has or wants to take the time to go real deep. Good luck to you though, it’s still a dream of mine to run a video game site lol.

[dabboxking]

Thank you good Sir I will be sure to look into CMS like Drupal and WordPress.

[npav]

It’s a nice design, but nothing really screams “This site is about video-games!” at me.

And as the above poster said, a CMS would be much easier to maintain, and too add functionality.

[Kustom Designer]

Pick 10 great video game websites and break them down and take the best features you like from all of them to come up with a design. The more time you spend in the planning phase, the more successful youll be coming up with a design youll love. I do mockups in photoshop always before I do any coding work and it saves me a lot of time.

[lprintz]

I would lean towards WordPress as opposed to Drupal.

I made the mistake of using Drupal for a ‘simple’ ecommerce site for a client and it was HELL to do the simple things that most other CMS systems have ‘out of the box’

[dabboxking]

My goal was to scratch the surface with simple gaming site, then expand with more functionality and features. I have configured WordPress in the pass, but stop there because my HTML and CSS skills were weak at the time. So I finally came back and re-taught myself using HTML5 + CSS3 standards. Now I lack creativity. I will re-visit WordPress sometime this week because from the comments I have seen that it can help maintain and create content faster which leaves me more room to be creative.

Again thank you all for your input. Be sure to check in to see the improvements I have made.

[cwork]

I’m glad you learned HTML5 and CSS3

I would also recommend WordPress if you are simply going to blog. But if you are going to go big, and have things like Game Pages, and distinctive content types (news, reviews, features, etc…) then I would highly recommend Drupal, since that is what it’s made for.

Either way, have fun and good luck!

[vs]

Kustom Designer, agree with you! It’s great when you’re based on the experience of successful things, in this case, popular game blogs.

[Author]

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