I took a bit of a break from updating my site (well- more like life got in the way for a few months) and now I’m getting back into the swing of things. Except- I feel pretty stuck in the mud with it.
I’ve done a few little things like updating my blog and reformatting a page or two, but when it comes to adding any new pages, I’m stumped! Everything feels either too little or overwhelmingly big. I think part of it is that I’m too stuck in my head about what other people would care to see, too- Personally I struggle with writing for just myself, I am a lot more motivated when I imagine an audience.
What do you do when you’re not sure what to do with your site? Where do you go for inspiration? How do you tackle a project that feels big?
I sometimes look over old notes, or step back and try to see the gaps. But mostly, I take a break and go live my life for a while. Where else am I supposed to find inspiration?
What works for you in the moment? And maybe archive stuff that others have appreciated or what you find valuable yourself. For new, a blend of what people like and what you feel inspired by at the moment or at least doesn’t feel like pure torture. E.g. I love pixels and want to create some for others. A few small steps in that direction, because that works for me now. Even though others like blinkies or politics, I’m not so down right now, so I save something like that for when I get inspired etc. Building on something you already have, figuring out a way to “value-add” in the older sense of like you’re talking about with your viewers and their interest (not in the sense of corporate vampires who steal the lifeblood out of random people for money).
puttering around doing maintenance helps! adding links to my link pages, cleaning up css/html on older pages, that kind of thing.
with regards to making new pages, i think it’s good to try to train yourself out of that “it’s too little/too big” impulse; next time you have an idea that’s “too little”, suck it up and make it anyway! then you’ll have made something. you don’t have to put it on your website if it sucks. getting into a habit of finishing things is really helpful i think.
generally though if i don’t have any ideas then i just don’t do anything! my website is something i do exclusively for fun & myself, so i don’t care about building habits or anything. if i got no ideas then i got no ideas, no big deal. something will come up eventually.
speaking personally, i’ve never had any affinity for visual art and as a result i feel like i lean on “minimalist” website designs as a crutch. i do tend to like simpler, pared-down presentations, but i do feel like sometimes i’d like to be more bombastic and creative but i totally lack the skills to do so, and so i just sort of stick to having a few fonts, a decent color selection, and maybe some typography shenanigans here and there. it gets the job done, but it does feel constraining sometimes
I feel like my main problem is not having any ideas for content. I don’t know what else to put on my website. The main details are taken care of already, so when I feel like doing something to it I feel like there’s not really anything left to do besides make new content, and I don’t know what content to make.
Have you checked out the 32-Big Cafe article, “Ideas for Your Personal Website”? I like skimming it when I’m out of ideas (although my problem most of the time is that I have too many ideas and not enough energy ).
Always forgetting about archival as a project, namely because half the stuff I’m aware of is either easily accessible or I’m aware of it because somebody else already went to the trouble of archiving it, haha. But that is one of the things I really appreciate about other peoples’ sites. I have a few links to old test footage for a Yellow Submarine remake on my site that people have complimented me on several times, but I didn’t do the work of hunting it all down or compiling or hosting it, I just thought it was neat… Very interesting stuff to consider, thank you.
i agree with everyone else saying to take a break! i think there’s a lot of value in letting your brain cook and stew and process especially as you experience other facets of life (i say this facetiously.)
but on top of the lists of suggestions, i just go cruising through other people’s personal websites, even if they’re not always within my realm of interest. even if what other people do for their site might not be something that calls to me, it feels good to know or at least consider it in my brain. and who knows, my feelings or opinions might change in the future. and at the same time, maybe i’ll find an idea i’d want to mimic. or maybe on other people’s sites there’s an idea that i’d draw inspiration from and put my own spin on, so i’m not really emulating the idea but i also wouldn’t have reached it without exploring that site either.
plus, there might be website ideas that might not call to you now but that you also might change your mind on about in the future, so! our websites are as unending and capable of change as we are, i think.
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