"The problem is all inside your site
She said to me
The answer is easy if you
Take it logically
I'd like to help you
in your struggle with SB3
There must be five ways
for a better sitebuilder 3"

Hello all! five action bucks if you can name that song!
I've been jotting down a few ideas that have helped me with creating new sites - especially complex ones - and I wanted to share them.

1. If you're starting from scratch, make a simple diagram, and note the pages you'll need to create. This becomes especially helpful when you form your site with navigation and sub pages (children). It's also helpful, if you add administrators, to note which sections belong to whom at this stage. Essentially this will be your site guide until you're up and running.
   
   
2. If you're importing a site, consider the folder name carefully. The folder name becomes a part of your url, so if you have a long name in mind, shorten it. For example, if I'm building a site for a "Mendocino Master Honey Tasters", I'd consider "MendocinoMHT". Please keep in mind that spaces, odd characters and symbols are big No-No's in folder names.
   
   
3. If you have a complex site, for example a partnership site that has multiple sites included, consider creating a Collaborative Tools group to help keep all Site owners and moderators in the loop together. Make your first post a list of owners and moderators with the sites/sections they moderate, and following posts to relevant topics. It helps!
   
   
4. Boring homepage? Add a header image! The default site design can incorporate a header image. We have over 150, and if you have a high resolution panoramic image you'd like to use for your site, send it to me and if I can I'll make a nice working header image for you. Also, consider adding a blurb about your site and its focus, add a relevant image, and there you have it - an attractive homepage! Here's a refresher on SB3 layouts: http://ucanr.org/sites/sb3help/pages/properties/layout/.
   
   
5. Assets Assets Assets! Add assets to your site. We have so many interesting assets that can add dynamic content to your site such as blogs, social media tools. There are assets for data, images from a repository collection as well as surveys or polls. Our asset list and their definitions can be found here: http://ucanr.org/sites/sb3help/Assets/.
   Try them out!

Have fun and experiment with your site. Create a deactivated page and just have fun using all the different tools we have. you can always move it around or delete it outright, but at least you can play with different options for your site.

Cheers!

I love my site so much!