Content There's a saying on the web that holds "Content is king." The idea is that in the end, the flashy pages with great graphics and the latest web techniques lose out to pages with better information. This probably isn't true of every kind of site, but it is true for a lot of them. Chances are, if you're reading this page, you aren't familiar with creating Flash animations, Shockwave effects, Javascript, DHTML or some of the other techniques for creating these pages. That's probably fine. Some of the most successful save me sites have been built on templates, pre-created designs where the owner filled in his or her own content. For Save Me sites, it appears that content is king. We don't have the magic formula for what to write to get people to send you money. We have some suggestions for things that are generally good for all websites and for things which seem to work on sites that we've seen. General Suggestions Test things. Even if you aren't a web professional, make sure all your links work and all your pictures load. Proofread! Misspelled words and bad grammar are, if nothing else, an invitation for people to send you even more hate mail. Check file sizes. Gigantic pictures take too long to download and cause people to lose interest while waiting. Identify yourself. Each page on your site should include a link to your home page, a way to email you, and the title of your site. People may not arrive at your site through the main page. Keep it short. Each page should be short. As much as possible, try to summarize things with bullet points. Most people don't like to scroll down through screens and screens of information, three short pages may be better than one long one. Save Me Suggestions Update frequently. People want to believe you're making progress. They also want to believe you're working at this. Frequent updates show that. They also give people a reason to come back. Try to stay positive. It's hard, especially when things aren't going well, but the most successful sites keep a positive and upbeat feeling as much as possible. Unless your story is truly tragic, try to keep it light and positive. A joke here and there doesn't hurt. Make it easy to donate. Put a link to your donation information on every page. Obviously we don't know everything here at SaveMeSites.Com, so you may find sites that work that ignore this advice. You may find sites that follow it all and don't work. Don't be afraid to try to understand why someone else's site works better than yours. Don't steal their content, but try to understand it so you can improve your own.