By Meredith "Meri" Cantoni
What does it take to maintain a good DBZ site that would have fans coming back for more of your work? Is it multimedia? Is it a lot of images? Is it an insane amount of music files? Is it free porn of the web master? No, it is not really any of these (and definitely not the latter one) of these in particular. Based on my experience, tangible content is not what gets fans of a web site coming back for more of your work. While some of it may help, such as media and other downloadable items, what a web site needs to really draw fans to it, and more importantly, get them to return in the future, is heart and personality.
"Heart and personality? Meri, what the heck are you on and why aren’t you sharing!?", that’s probably what you are asking yourself. Well, I’m not "on" anything, but I will do my best to explain what "heart and personality" is and how it relates to maintaining a great site that can retain its fan-base. What needs to be done in order to get fans interested is to incorporate a little bit of your own personal style, flare, and imagination to it. Any old site can have a lot of content and be successful. But if it lacks feeling, then it makes the web site viewer as excited as taking a math exam. Would fans probably remember the site after it departs to "DBZ web site heaven (or hell)"? Probably not, if the site lacks "heart and personality". Now, how does one go about obtaining "heart and personality" let me break it down for you by describing each part.
The "heart" aspect of swaying fans into wanting to visit your site means being able to express yourself freely and to be yourself. If you want something to be successful, then you have to give it your all. A person cannot do something half-assed and expect to have visitors coming back in the future. No visitor wants to look at something that is only half done, or made sloppily. If you speak your mind, love what you are doing for the fans, and have a strong work drive, then you should have no problem in putting some of your "heart" into your site. Now, what if you do not possess any "heart"? There is not much I can say about that, expect that you had better find some other way to really shine if you want to attract a lot of visitors. When a site maintainer does not have a lot "heart" dedicated to their site, then I do not see their site becoming very successful. The important thing about "heart" is that it makes a viewer feel more connected to the web master and less alienated in the cold world wide web. The net is a cesspool of anonymity in the first place, so if you add "heart’ to your site, it can make the viewer feel more in touch with the owner of a site, thus creating a feeling of friendship.
To me, "personality" is what gives a site a particular feel an atmosphere. A site’s "personality" is what makes the view think "oh, this site is boring to read" or "this one is really funny". "Personality" is a site’s attitude. It should not be something that is just there, it should be able to grab the viewer by the throat and drag him through the wild ride of your site. The way I create "personality" for my site is by writing the content in the way that I would speak in real life. I do not like to censor myself on my site and I feel that by speaking in a friendly, "real life"-type tone, my site’s own "personality" is established.
Of course, there are other ways to get your visitors to return to your site instead (or in addition to) using "heart and personality". However, I feel that compared to what I am about to suggest, utilizing "heart and personality" is the easiest way to go. My first suggestion to keep the fans coming back is to create something no one has seen before. I absolutely cannot stress this enough. I cannot even begin to tell you how many DBZ sites I don’t visit because I simply feel they are boring and do not offer anything original to the DBZ web community. My advice is to not hold back, and to let your imagination run wild. That principal is the basis of most of my site’s sections, and it is those weird, out of the ordinary sections that fans keep on coming back. You should not be afraid to try something new on your site. I know I am tired of looking at the same formulaic DBZ sites, so I am sure that if you create something never before seen, fans would appreciate it. DBZ is such a broad anime that I am certain there are things that can be done with it by the fan that has not been done before.
Well, that is just about all I can offer based on my own personal experience on how to keep your fans entertained in the long run. I am willing to guess that other successful sites have their own ways of keeping their fans, these methods are the ones that work for me. The bottom line is do not hold your imagination back. At all. Even if it means being ostracized by other people, it should be worth it in the end if you truly believe your ideas can bring success. As near as I can tell, the sites that go against the grain are the ones who stand out the most and retain their fan base for the longest time. Give your site "heart and personality", originality, new ideas, concepts, and maybe just the tiniest bit of media, just for "normality’s" sake. =)