offering more content to your readers?/

[candycanearter07]

In general, how would/what do you do/general tips to to add more like stuff to your site to give your site more meaning and stuff

[larvapuppy]

I don't really know firsthand; I am not that interesting or helpful so my site is personal as personal can be. I try to offer some gifts in the form of free-to-use graphics but I am not really inspired to make a large volume of these nor do I have the free time to do so. 

Some things I see other people doing & that I like:

• Tutorials - good quality text-based tutorials on anything, that aren't bogged down by an ad after every paragraph, are hard to find these days. If you can explain how to do something in a way that is easy to understand or in an interesting style, this will interest people. Bonus points if you use lots of clear photos.
• Articles - your opinions on things, or documenting your research on a given topic.
• Memories - a photo section can give some insight into the webmaster's personal life and make the readers feel more connected to you. But make sure you don't show any identifying information like clear shots of locations near where you live, etc, coz there are a lot of creeps out there.
• Bits and bobs - just like.. anything that you have made that you want to make available to others to use. Free images, drawings, music, graphics, writings, collages
• A game - html choose-your-own-adventures, polls, quizzes, jokes, colouring pages, anything interactive or activity based
• A story - writings, comics, poems

Your site should be meaningful to you first and others' utility should come after. It becomes more meaningless if you are doing all this stuff just because you think you need to be useful to someone else.

[candycanearter07]

Your site should be meaningful to you first and others' utility should come after. It becomes more meaningless if you are doing all this stuff just because you think you need to be useful to someone else.

right but other people have such insanely cool websites with so much stuff and i just have like a webcomic and a blog where i scream at stuff and a couple scattered short writing stuff

[larvapuppy]

right but other people have such insanely cool websites with so much stuff and i just have like a webcomic and a blog where i scream at stuff and a couple scattered short writing stuff

This is also cool! I like your little slime guys, I'm sure other people find them delightful too.

It is tough to feel like other people's sites are better. I feel like this too, so I get it. Unfortunately I haven't really found a way to fix this problem without straying from what I want to do or feel motivated to do.

Not everyone's work needs to be mind-bending or genre-breaking- this would make that weird, cool stuff no longer stand out, in fact. And I don't think these people got where they are by stressing out and forcing themselves to do things they aren't naturally motivated to do. Cool stuff gets made when the inspiration strikes and when you have the skills to create it. Otherwise it's all just mimicry. 

There is value in sharing your artwork and your personal writings. We're on the indie web and not on social media; your stuff doesn't need to be flashy and I think it's MORE valuable to yourself and everyone else if you are sharing genuine things rather than trying to measure up to some perceived coolness level.

If you really want to make something with Wow factor though, maybe consider the skills you do have, and the ones you would need to develop to make something like the websites you look up to? That way, once the inspiration hits, you will have the right tools to work on your project.