Building a Cat Who... Page? Some Advice

I had planned a piece on Qwill and his alcoholism for this week since the subject popped up on the Cat Who... mailing list, but I've decided to turn my attention to other matters for the time being - not only because my house is currently under attack from a paint job in the kitchen (for what was supposed to be only this weekend but has expanded into all this week), limiting my time on the computer severely, but primarily because of some recent good news in the Cat Who... community - namely, my hearing from a few folks who're thinking about starting up Cat Who... sites of their own. If these proposed sites eventuate, it'd be marvelous for the Cat Who... community, which had precious little presence on the Internet a little more than a year ago. I'd like to do what I can to help anyone who is currently thinking or might in the future be thinking of building a Cat Who... site, so I consulted Katerina of The Cat Who Series by Lilian Jackson Braun (who contributed a lot to this piece and deserves considerable credit) and came up with these possibly-helpful hints from folks who've been at the helm of a Cat Who... site themselves...

• First word from Katerina: "I suggest that anyone who is not really HTML literate learn how to make the page itself before they try to post information, not only for the fact that they'll need it, but for the fact that it will frustrate you trying to do both at once." Exactly - while creating a perfect-looking website is not expected (unless you're a professional webpage designer or graphic artist and creating a great-looking page is part of your identity), you must be able to create a fairly clean, fairly organized page. Great content can indeed carry mediocre presentation - your site no doubt must have great content to survive (and great graphics alone cannot carry a fluffy, informationally-lightweight site) - but you must ensure that Cat Who... fans - a group that isn't generally as computer-literate as other Internet fandoms - can easily access that content. A few tips to that end:
  • Most valuable advice from Katerina: "I have to say that there is nothing Cat Who... lovers appreciate more than organization. My character lists are a big hit because they are organized in tables with one letter per page so they don't take long to load." Form follows function; again, ensuring easy access to your content is crucial.

  • To further extrapolate on the above - bells and whistles are nice, but cramming too many extraneous elements on one page is distracting and confusing. Design is not so much creating or selecting pretty graphics as knowing how to use them, and planning and a clean format - key word: format; remember what Katerina said - is key. Try starting by developing a color scheme for your page and choosing one font (one well-established font, so that others will see your page as you meant it to be seen) to use throughout. In other words, a) streamline your page and b) don't be garish. Your visitors will thank you.

  • Make sure your links are easily distinguishable and visible. If you've been with this page for a while, you know that I had a problem a while back with putting dark blue links on black backgrounds, which caused a lotta problems for some folsk (especially WebTV users). The link color thing is easy to overlook; I never noticed it until a few visitors alerted me to the fact. (In fact, now I notice that another problem with the links on the black pages - after they're clicked, they change to purple, another problematic color for dark backgrounds, so I'm gonna have to fix that bug sooner or later.) Indeed, the default HTML link color is dark blue, so if you're using a dark background for your page, go and choose a lighter color by inserting a "LINK=[name of color]" command string in the BODY part of your HTML script.

  • The "TABLE" command and the Arial font (shrunk with the "FONT SIZE=-1" command) can make some beautiful webpages. ("TABLE" can be used not just for tradtional spreadsheet-style tables but also to arrange text magazine-style.) The many uses of "TABLE", however, are best learned by trial and error, by osmosis, by just plain hard work, and by sneaking peeks at other people's pages (there should be some sort of "Source" or "View Source" command on your browser's toolbar that will enable you to do so); if you're just starting out on HTML (like I was when I started up Ronald Frobnitz), it might be a good idea to save "TABLE" for later. (The main reason why Ronald Frobnitz has not evolved to a more organized, TABLE-ish format is simply because I've become more accustomed to the look of its current incarnation.)

  • Please do not combine three or more of the following elements on a page: pop-up ads, embedded midis, frames, animated GIF's, a lotta graphical content. Such elements greatly slow down the time it takes to load your page - and considering, again, that Cat Who.. fans generally aren't tech-heads, your target audience is less likely to have high-end computers and more likely to be using slower modems, so such webpage encumberments are more likely to cause problems (or at least annyoances) for Cat Who... fans than for other Internet denizens. (Embedded midis are not a good idea in any case; oftentimes the visitor is listening to his or her own music while surfing the web, and it's an annoyance to have to stop reading or looking or whatever you're doing on a given page to go find the midi box to stop the sound that's just invaded your computer.)

  • Make sure that your e-mail address is clearly visible and easily accessible for your visitors. Be sure to include fairly prominently on the front page - and it ain't a bad idea to include it in the disclaimer you'll have to put on the bottom of each page (the small-print legalese that says that your site isn't officially associated with Lilian Jackson Braun or Putnam and that you don't claim ownership or affiliation with the Cat Who... series).

• Don't launch your site until most of the sections and major, basic informational pieces you plan to include are up and running. Sites that are continually "under construction" and assemble themselves piecemeal-like, with everything promised to be "coming soon" but precious little working now, are annoying. (Note: I'm not saying that you should have absolutely every scrap of material up that you ever plan to post available online before you open, never planning to expand; I'm advising you to be sure to have enough material immediately available to build a strong foundation for your site. Consider this if you think you're ready to open for business: would the offerings you have presently prepared compose a suitable Cat Who... website if you had nothing further coming down the pipeline? If not, y'ain't ready.)

• After creating your site, the next step is to publicize it. Three things I recommend doing:
  • Submitting it to the search engines is a must. There're services that purport to submit your site to a large number of search engines, but they cost money, and most people use one of the following search engines: Altavista, Hotbot, Northern Light, Yahoo, Go.com, Excite, Lycos, or WebCrawler. Visit all of these sites, click the "Add URL" or "Add a Page" option on the front pages, and type in the address of your main page where requested. Most of the time, though, it'll take a while - anywhere from a few weeks to a few months (regardless of what the search engines claim) - for your page to be listed. (The exception to this rule is Altavista, which does indeed make good on its two-to-three-days list time promise.) Also note: while most search engines claim that they will "spider" your page (eventually list all of the pages on your site by following links), this rarely ever happens, so if your site has an attraction of which you're particularly proud, take the time to manually submit its address as well.

  • Post a notice in the rec.arts.mystery newsgroup telling folks about your page. (Be sure to inculde "Lilian Jackson Braun" or "Cat Who..." in the title.)

  • E-mail me. The Links section here lists all the pages currently devoted to Cat Who..., and I'll be glad to include yours.

  • A fourth option: you might want to join The Lilian Jackson Braun Webring. It'll link your site with other LJB sites (though you must include the webring graphic and info somewhere on your site - it's on the front page of Ronald Frobnitz if you want to see what it looks like). Some people have an ingrown resistance to webrings, but they really can't hurt.

• Please don't be tempted to become an "affiliate" of Amazon or Barnes & Noble (especially not Barnes & Noble - their online service is terrible). You won't gain much (if any) money from it, and, more often than not (unless the proceeds are going to a charitable cause or such), it's tacky. (Exception: if the "buy the book" links are accompanied by well-written descriptions of each book's contents and NOT by the blurbs ripped from the back covers of the paperback editions. I supposed what I'm really complaining about here are folks who purport to have portions of their sites devoted to information about Lilian Jackson Braun and then serve up nothing but self-serving commercial links to Amazon. In searching for new LJB sites and reviews to link to, I've come across dozens upon dozens of such pages, so forgive me if I'm a wee bit intolerant of such unproductive profiteering.)

• The Cat Who... series attracts fans from all age groups, one of the major reasons for which being its cozy, friendly setting and atmosphere and lack of graphic sex or violence. Therefore, be mindful of your language - you'd be wise to abstain from profanities. Also, if you're a younger Cat Who... fan, be aware that the slangy expressions and edgy tone popular in teenage-speak might prove a turn off for more adult visitors.

• Try to have something on your site that nobody else does - it's the best way to attract visitors and set your site apart. Katerina has her character archive; Qwill's Barn has its message board and newsletter; I have - well, beats the heck out of me. Maybe the encyclopedia and a big mouth. Which reminds me...

• There is one built-in asset that your website will have that none other does - you. Your personal style, viewpoints, and prejudices regarding the series are invaluable toward giving your site an identity; opinionated websites (that express said opinions in an intelligent, non-trollish and non-belligerent manner) are some of the most fun to read. (Be sure to be objective when it's called for, though - when you're compiling purely informational, for-the-record archives or records, say.)

• Beware of spoilers. The Cat Who... series comprises twenty-one separate books as of this writing, and it's far from a sure bet that every fan who visits your site will have read each and every one. If a certain document contains crucial plot information that will spoil the book for those who haven't yet read it, preface the piece with a "Spoiler Warning" alerting readers to that fact - or, if you consider the document in question an important part of your site, try "cloaking" the potentially problematic information by making its text the same color as the background of your page - that way, the text must be highlighted to be read and your visitors can choose whether or not to view the spoilers, making the document accessable to everyone.

• You will need a book list on your site. Not a week goes by on the mailing list without someone asking for a list of Cat Who... books in chronological order, and I receive a request for one about every two weeks (even though there are about four places on the site where they're up). Regardless of the fact that a booklist is available in nearly every Cat Who... book, many mystery sites, and every single Cat Who... site, the fact remains that your site must have one of these li'l gambits.

• It's a good idea to have an FAQ - in other words, a list of Frequently Asked Questions (whether it be about the Cat Who... series or specifics about your site itself) - but bear in mind that such a document will only cut down on the number of e-mails you receive asking such questions, not eliminate them all together. FAQ's are not a panacea for those persistent li'l irritating queries that will not die.

• Another excellent addition to your site is a counter on the front page. If advertising how many (or few) people have visited your site makes you self-conscious, shove the counter to an inconspicuous place at the bottom of the page, but it's important for you to know how many people have visited your site and when - check the counter every week and keep track of the week-to-week growth. Expect a considerable number of visitors to be drawn in from your initial announcements, then a drop-off, then a steady increase in visitors as your site starts to win loyal patrons. Don't worry if growth plateaus and you start getting the same number of hits each week - this'll happen; only if the number of new hits weekly starts to slow down - i.e., 50 more visitors three weeks ago, 45 two weeks ago, 35 last week - is it time to worry (and to bring in something new). If you suddenly get a surge in visitors, it means that your site's been mentioned by someone or listed someplace, and it might be beneficial for you to check around to see who or where.

• Feedback. Most of the initial feedback you'll receive will be of the "hey, nice to see a Cat Who... site" variety; only when you're fairly well-established (in about five-six months) will you start getting useful commentary on your site. If someone brings up a problem that's never struck you before but kinda makes sense now that they mention it, make steps to correct it; if you don't see anything wrong with what they're criticizing, write it off as a pet peeve of theirs and concentrate on other matters. (If someone else complains about the same thing, though, that menas that it probably really is a problem and needs attention.) And always e-mail folks back.

• Update fairly often. You don't have to do update every week like I do, but try to add something about every month or two. Folks are likely to give up on a stagnant site.

• Important: It's hard to solicit outside content - in nearly nine months of being open, I've received only two pieces of material from other folks. The popularity of the mailing list has galvanized the Cat Who... online community somewhat, but the just plain fact of the matter is that getting outside work is tough. (You can't rely on the release of new material from Braun, either, since she writes only one book per year.) Make sure you're committed enough to doing a Cat Who... site to create enough content to sustain it yourself.

• And, yep, you guessed it - or maybe you didn't guess it, so I'll tell you now - creating and maintaining a Cat Who... website is hard work. "A LOT more work than it looks", to quote Katerina. Much of that hard work comes before your site is officially up, when you're creating/getting together all its core material, but a good Cat Who... website will require as much upkeep as a...well, as a pet cat. It's not a commitment to be taken lightly, but it can grow into a very fulfilling venture. Don't be afraid to ask for help - the folks currently running Cat Who... sites (myself included) will be glad to offer it to you. Good luck!

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