If you want to be successful, my grandfather used to say, find something you love to do and learn to do it the best you can.
The same could be said for personal Web sites.
A few weeks ago, we created a contest to honor the 10 best personal Web sites in Greater Cincinnati. We received 115 entries, ranging from awful to excellent.
James Bottorff, a Web producer with GoCincinnti!, and I did the judging, with input from other GoCincinnati! staffers.
We decided the best personal Web pages are simple sites with clever, original content.
That made the judging easier since it eliminated two-thirds of the sites. It appears that most personal Web sites are experiments in writing Web pages. And many of the folks interested in designing Web pages are computer types who want to do two things: 1) try out new Web technologies (such as Javascript) and 2) publish links to their favorite sites.
But there is no compelling reason to visit these sites. Technical gizmos are only the candy on the icing on the cake, and the Netscape and Microsoft browsers have search-engine links built in. Does anyone need another page of Star Wars links?
We didn't think so. We looked for the original voices and eye-catching design.
Then we faced a dilemma. Many of the best sites were the personal work of professionals.
Like the media designer who produced an online comic book about a diabetic superhero to inspire his son. Or the Web designer who created a cute site for her cat.
Is it fair to compare the work of a professional with that of a local high school student? Yes, we decided, because just about everyone creating sites these days is self-taught, and the medium's age can be measured in months. Anyone can be a professional in this business - and some of the most amateurish sites were selling the author's Web skills.
We did disqualify a few sites because they were promoting the work of ad agencies or were obviously commercial sites.
And we found 10 sites that we think are world-class.
Here are five, listed in no particular order (we'll tell you the other five next week):
Booger.cat by Amy Gallaher of Cincinnati http://www.pol.com/booger - Both judges liked this site very much. The design is clean, the content as playful as the subject - a brown tabby cat. One section of the site offers a sophisticated Shockwave game, another some excellent photo illustration work. And there's a section of links to other pet sites, including one on how to teach your cat to use the toilet (we're not making this up).
The Punishment Page by Glen Pennington of Covedale http://w3.one.net/~etherbe" - The judges split on this one because of the content: a database of more than 700 bad jokes and puns. However, the design and technical work on this impressive page put it over the top. Some of these puns are painfully bad (hence the name), but for those who have acquired the taste, it's lots of fun.
Idee Fixe by Gina Anderson of Eastgate http://members.aol.com/ginakra/index.htm - Illness has confined Ms. Anderson to her home, where she took up Web designing as a hobby. It soon became an obsession (the site's name is French for obsession). Her well-designed and technically sophisticated site is a good spot to read about Web design, pick up useful graphics and find links to vestibular disorders (the illness that afflicts her).
The Decline of Civilization by Michele Lloyd of Fairfield http://home.fuse.net/mllwyd - Ms. Lloyd has a very dark vision of the world, as reflected in her site, which is subtitled, ''News for the Paranoid, a journal of the horrendous, humorous and absurd.'' The 12 sections contain dark essays on parents from hell, Barbie dolls, poverty, bad water and other depressing topics.
Courage's Headquarters by Robert Kelly of Cincinnati http://www.thehumanelement.com/courage - Mr. Kelly created this site for his 11-year-old son Joshua, a diabetic. The site is a web Comic about a diabetic superhero named Courage who fights the evil criminal Lex Lutchow. While the graphics take a while to load on a standard dial-up connection, the book can also be downloaded.
Next week: Five more top personal Web sites and some honorable mentions.
E-mail Charles Brewer with questions, comments and suggestions at CBrewer@enquirer.com This column and Charles Brewer's past columns can be found at The Enquirer's Web site, http://enquirer.com/columns/brewer