Home » Computers & Electronics

7 Easy Steps to a Kick Ass MySpace Page

Ranked #31,760 in Computers & Electronics, #580,100 overall

7 EASY STEPS TO A KICK ASS MYSPACE PAGE 

Okay so you got yourself a MySpace page. Great!

Well let's see uhhh... what's the first order of the day?

Ohhh! Ohhh! I know! I know!

Let's STUFF IT TO THE GILLS with a whole slew of MySpace icons, MySpace cursors, MySpace quizzes, MySpace glitter words, MySpace music codes, MySpace surveys and basically all things good and MySpace, right?

Uhhhmmm... yeah... uhhh... You could do that....

OR

You could do something completely different and apply a few time-honored web design principles and techniques to make a truly classy and (*gasp*) user-friendly MySpace page...

Still with me?

Good.

Let's get to it...

1. Paragraphs Please...

Yes, that's right.. There's no denying it. The average web surfer has the attention span of about .000017 seconds and he just loves to plow through long, lonnngg, lonnnnggggg unbroken blocks of text.......

....

..

.......

...

NOT.

When visitors to your page start reading your About Me section, you'll want to retain their interest by breaking up what you have to say into little bite-sized paragraphs. And how do you do this? Simple. All you have to do is type in <p> whenever you want to make a new paragraph. That's it. Works in any text box on your Edit Profile screen.

2. Make Your Text Legible

Ever gone cross-eyed trying to read someone's page because you can barely see the text? Naturally you don't want to look like a greenhorn by doing the same thing on your profile. That's why you should choose a background color that will make your text easy to read. That is, choose a light colored background for dark colored text or vice versa. It's that simple. People will love you for it (and once again, what you wrote will actually get read). Re: background images ~ Choose a low contrast background image (one that has mostly light OR mostly dark colors) to make it easier to select a legible text color.

3. Apply Some Formatting

I guarantee that you will definitely be a cut above the rest if you start pimping out your text with various font styles like bold, italics and various colors (can't show you colors here but you get my drift, eh?). So how do you do this if you're not a nerdlinger geekmeister (like me) and you don't know all that HTML and CSS razzamatazz? Easy. GO TO THIS PAGE NOW to use a built-in handy-dandy RICH TEXT EDITOR to format your text any way you like and then have the HTML code automatically whipped up for you. Easy enough?

4. Think Outside the Box

Now that you've tapped into the REAL bells and whistles of web design, you don't have to just list your favorite bands, movies, books etc. You can make headings, write little mini-reviews, whatever you want... Get down with your bad self and let it all hang out!

5. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

If you want to post a pic to your profile page all you have to do is upload your pic to a free image host like ImageShack or Photobucket, get the image URL and then use this code:

<img src="IMAGE_URL_GOES_HERE">

Presto.

6. Keep Inside the Box

Ever seen a MySpace layout that's spread out six ways from Sunday creating those horizontal scroll bars at the bottom of your browser? Of course you have. They're ALL like that. Okay not all but a lot. And how do you keep this from happening to your layout? Easy. Avoid posting ginamagantic images to your layout that are too wide for the sections they're posted in. And how big is 'ginamagantic'? Well, for a complete rundown on exactly what image dimensions will start to turn your beautiful MySpace layout into a neo-Cubist train wreck, you can once again SEE THIS PAGE.

AND FINALLY...

7. Apply the KISS Principle

(Keep It Simple, Stupid)

Just because everybody and their monkey's uncle has their page packed to the rafters with glitter, Flash animations and music codes doesn't mean you have to follow suit. Do something original and keep it simple. On my MySpace page, I have NO GLITTER, NO FLASH and NO MUSIC and I get tons of compliments on how cool my page looks.

Sometimes less is more.

* * *

And that's it my friends.

Happy web editing! :o)

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL VERSION OF THIS TUTORIAL...

Oh yeah... And I guess you'd like to see my MySpace profile.

Well here it is.

:o)

Another Shameless Plug Dept.

Going around the bend looking for a decent MySpace layout? Check out this fabulous collection of Free MySpace Layouts made by yours truly. And here, the word "free" does not mean the concept of "original" is thrown out the window. In fact, all these layouts are 100% homegrown (translation: NO cheesy pop idol backgrounds, NO dollar-store clip-art archives, NO image copyright violations of any kind).

Or if you'd like to use one of my backgrounds but style your MySpace page according to your specifications, check out my Advanced MySpace Editor.

Happy web editing!

Sock it to me!

Any comments would be greatly appreciated... I'm a big boy now... I can take it.

:o)

  • MrLewisSmile Dec 28, 2006 @ 7:14 pm | delete
    I HATE profiles that take aaaaaaaaaages to load. I've got mine as simple as possible! Rob - I like this lens. You're invited to the Ultimate MySpace Group here on Squidoo!
  • web2reloaded Dec 17, 2006 @ 2:19 am | delete
    Yes, Great Tips here, Glitter and overload also makes your page take an eternity to load. An who's waiting for anything on myspace.

    That;s right No One.
Show All

by

littlegiant

Close to a year ago, Rob -a professional web designer living in Montreal- was conked on the noggin, blindfolded and dragged kicking and screaming... more »

Feeling creative? Create a Lens!

Explore related pages

Related Tags