Please read the introduction before reading part 1 - 6.
So here we are at Part 4 - Update often.
Why update often?
- They make your visitors return. The first time someone visits your site, they could be looking at the date of your last update. Unless you provide a reason for your abscence, they might think you can't be bothered to update your site. Make sure you update often on a regular basis. Most of the time, when they return to your site, they look for new updates. If you add new, interesting content to the site, they might as well go and take a look at the new content. If they like it, they might even use it! ^-^
- You can practice more, experiment more styles, design more! Unless you made a billion designs and are just waiting for a few days to pass so you can use a few of the pre-made designs you made already to update, then that's.... not a very clever idea, might I say. Basically you're not doing anything, you're not designing, and by the time you finished all of the updating and decide to design new stuff now, you'd have probably forgotten many, many things. The more you design, the better you are at it - trust me.
Update on a regular basis. You can update once every 5 days, or maybe a week or two. Just keep it regular and it'll be easier for you. You can make it up to a week, and use that time to design new things to update with.
Special cases and exceptions. Are you going on vacation for a few days? Or are the exams coming up? We all know we have a life outside of web design, and it's completely fine to not update for a period of time. Make sure to tell your visitors about it and don't leave your site dead for a year! If you stop updating, visitors will stop visiting your site and you don't want that do you?
Keep these things in mind, and you're ready for
Part 5 - The look and feel of your layout!
