Hi,

I'm interested in making a website that helps out newbies or just about anyone on these forums. I know, I know, it's all been done before. LOL

However, I want it to be easy to navigate, fast at loading and informative. I wouldn't have too much trouble with the first two but I'm kinda stuck on the last one.

What exactly should I put on my site to make it useful. BTW, my main focus is PCs and Windows so I would prob. talk about these mostly.

Thanks in advance,

James

i had exactly the same idea mate

basically you want a very simple layout site, easy on the eye colours, easy navigation, with a bunch of tutorials split into caterogories

In my opinion, it would be easier for you to get people to submit tutorials

e.g - Setting up a home network with XP ect ect

if you need any help with any of this, contact me an ill help!

good idea like..

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Ask terri on this one ;)
Have a invision forum, have plenty of info on hard to solve problems, not something grandma could do, I built my PC, and know plenty about hardware and software, so I wouldnt visit that site unless I was stumped

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Basicaly I would include as much information as you know about what the site is going to be about. You say your going to be mainly discussing PCs and Windows, so if I was doing a site like this I would do some general knowledge on using PCs & Windows and also include some guides (tutorials) about certain subjects & maybe a tip of the day.

I think nearly all tutorials should be very detailed with screenshots to help the visitors follow the guide as close as possible. But the problem with tutorials and lots of screenshots can mean some slow loading times, but its going to be worth it if the visitors need the help.

Maybe some guides on tweaking windows, installing hardware & software as well as uninstalling, one thing I think would be usefull is a reformatting guide as alot of noobs are often scared to do this, maybe for the more advanced user something like updating your Bios.

I know when I found out a few months ago that there was an update for my Bios that I was scared I was going to screw it up lol, I found one guide which helped me but its still a touchy subject for anyone I know. Mine seems fine so hopefully I did everything right.

I dunno how long you've had a pc but maybe if you can remember back to when you 1st got/used one & what it was like, was you scared of doing stuff incase u messed something up? I know I was, so if you can think and use what info you have now so noobs need worry no more. One thing I wasn't sure about when I 1st got my pc was the system tools so maybe a guide on running them would be usefull, also Im on Win ME and followed a tweaking guide someone on these forums kindly pointed me to, and have disabled the Schedule agent and other stuff which helps improve Win ME, so just general stuff like that should be usefull.

Soz for the long post & rambling lol, hope it helps :)

!Hmm!

"I built my PC, and know plenty about hardware and software, so I wouldnt visit that site unless I was stumped"

Ummmm...People that aren't stumped don't go to windows help sites anyways. Stumped people are your target demographic.

I think there are too many newbie sites out there to do anything meaningful, although the previous suggestion for a reformatting guide would be cool. I noticed the domain name "reformatyourcomputer.com" is available.

If it were me, I would register registrytweak.com or registrytweaker.com, and have an entire site devoted to documenting the windows registry and have available tweaks, not just for windows (been done), but for all the popular microsoft products, adobe products, ftp software, e-mail software, etc. You'd have to be reasonably knowledgable to get something like that going, but you would also have a nice "submit a registry tweak" feature so other users could share their own tweaks.

-SN

Thanks everyone.

Sorry it took me so long to reply. From your responses, I've built a little list up with the things the site should have:

Simple layout
Clean colours
PHP-driven

Tutorials: very detailed with screenshots
Tip of the day
Others submit tutorials

General Windows & PC knowledge
Tweaking Windows
Reformatting hard disk
Installing hardware & software
Updating BIOS
System Tools
Registry Tweaks
Others submit (registry) tweaks

I don't think the site should be a forum-orientated one purely because I think it is harder to organise and find the content that way.

I'll be posting some questions here for what you think is the best layout, cleanest colours etc. soon.

Thanks again,

James

Gee, this is almost exactly what my site is about except it is done in Front Page and not PHP so it was knocked down without even looking at any of it's content. How pecular is that??