Hey there

[carjay]

Hi,

I am totally new to web site building. I am totally clueless and hoping to improve my knowledge. I have been reading up on advertising, marketing, etc.. but am in overload so if there is anyone that can offer some advice on the right tools and place I should start it would be so greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[lisa]

Hi Carjay

Welcome to the boards. How 'bout you tell us more about the kind of site you want to build. That will help us guide you.

[TechieGuy]

Welcome Carjay. There is a lot of good advice in this forum. It can be overwhelming at first, but take it slow and learn as you grow.

[carjay]

Thank you for your replies.

The sort of website I would like to start is posting photos on a website about Cairns (where I live). Also having a section where people can become a member and post where they are from and good places to see and things to do in their home towns.

Part of the website I wanted to put a section where people can post the type of job they do advertise their business so that if people want to visit a particular spot they have information there for things to do, doctors to see if need be, restaurants to eat in, etc...

it is an idea but worreid about starting it worried it wont work. I dont know if I should charge a membership and how much I would charge for a membership. I was going to make a membership cheap to encourage as many people as possible to join up..

I want to make it a very upmarket site simple in design so it is easy to find your way around but full of information where people will want to keep coming back.

I would like to make it a world wide information site and make it a friendly place where people can meet, chat and find out about what others do on the other side of the world.

Can you please give some advice on the idea and if it would be profitable.

I am a single mum and want to start a website to provide another income which will hopefully turn into a full time good income providing idea.

Thanks

[lisa]

Hi Carjay,

It's a good idea for a site, particularly if there is nothing similar that exists in the area where you live. You could be the first to offer this resource and it could go over very well, particularly if there is a need.

But keep in mind, how are you going to advertise this business? Since your site will be targeting local people in your area/hometown, you may have to focus your promotions more offline than online. Is there a local Chamber of Commerce you can use to get the word out about your site?

The thing I want to caution you about is trying to make your offer too much in the beginning. Believe it or not, there is a such thing. Keep a narrow focus on who you are targeting and what you want them to be able to accomplish. Is this is a site just for the people who live in Cairns and then you want to branch out to other areas?

Regardless of the long-term goal, you need to start off small in your focus in the beginning. Having a worldwide site is a great goal, but it's easier to begin by attracting a small, targeted audience first (small business people in Cairns, stay at home moms in Cairns, etc).

Don't worry so much about the technicalities of how you are going to get things created (chat rooms, member logins, etc.) Look at the big picture and plan out how you plan to go about promoting this first. Because unlike what many of us do here, it seems you will be targeting more local people. At least you should in the beginning. And then once that takes off, you can expand to other areas.

I believe almost any idea can be profitable if planned properly. You just really have to be clear on who you want to target and how you are going to get other people to participate in a site like this.

The most critical phase of any site, is the planning process in the beginning. And trust me, from creating lots of sites that failed, it's worth taking the time to literally map out your plan and define your customer and how you are going to reach them.

[carjay]

Hi Lisa

Thank you very much for the great advice. It's great to find a site that you can log onto and get the advice that you want.

I will work more on the idea.

Thanks

[attackdepression]

Originally Posted by lisa

Hi Carjay,

And trust me, from creating lots of sites that failed, it's worth taking the time to literally map out your plan and define your customer and how you are going to reach them.

Lisa, I'm just curious about what you learned from the sites you created that failed. Can you tell us more about what you did (what the sites were about) and what went wrong. Sometimes I think it's great to learn from what others do wrong too.

[carjay]

Thank you. I will definitely put some planning into my website. I appreciate the help as I am new to all this. It definitely helps to get the proper guidance and learn from others.

Thanks.

[lisa]

Originally Posted by attackdepression

Lisa, I'm just curious about what you learned from the sites you created that failed. Can you tell us more about what you did (what the sites were about) and what went wrong. Sometimes I think it's great to learn from what others do wrong too.

I could go on all day about my earlier failures. LOL

My first site was about Internet marketing. I had a lot of tips on how to market a site, get traffic, etc. and attempted to make money by pushing a lot of the Internet marketing books. I could never get over the 200 visitor mark and the site was around for over 6 years. I finally shut it down.

Lesson learned: Stay away from Net Marketing sites. Too competitive. And at the time I wasn't making much money, so it's hard to tell other people how to get traffic and make money if you aren't doing it yourself.

I had another site on a soap opera I used to watch (Days of Our Lives). Another site that couldn't never get over the 200 visitor per day mark. Entertainment sites are very hard to monetize. And this site was mostly visited by teenagers so their spending power was very weak and I had a hard time finding products to promote that people would buy.

And at the time AdSense was not around so I couldn't even monetize it with ads. This was in 2000. I kept the site around for a couple of years.

Lesson learned: Entertainment sites can often be hard to monetize, especially if your main audience is teens

Another site I tried was a forum for TV reality junkies. It was called 4TVAddicts.com That's when I learned you never launch a forum without having a site that already gets traffic. I tried to use my soap site to help promote it but the forum never got more than about 10 posts per week and it just wasn't worth it.

Those are three of them that come to mind. I've had others but these were probably my biggest lessons. Good question and you've given me a good idea to start another thread about this.

[AsideMichelle]

Lisa,

Thanks for entertaining us with some of your previous experiences. (They can't be failures if you grew from them!) Tip #3 has been extremely helpful for me because I find myself wanting to pursue the creation of an active forum where people can come together, listen, share thoughts and ideas, etc.. but you're right. There's a name that we use to describe this problem.

The Content Conundrum is very much like the chicken and the egg argument. What came first? The people or the content? Who wants to go to an empty forum? At the same time.. what is a forum without people?

Here is my question (and I apologize if this is posted elsewhere, I'm reading as fast as I can!). How often would you say content should be posted? Every two days? Three? Or would you say more so on a weekly basis.. once or twice a week?

[lisa]

Originally Posted by AsideMichelle

Lisa,

Here is my question (and I apologize if this is posted elsewhere, I'm reading as fast as I can!). How often would you say content should be posted? Every two days? Three? Or would you say more so on a weekly basis.. once or twice a week?

Thanks for the compliment AsideMichelle and welcome to the forums! I don't think there is one set answer for that. Content should be updated as much as it needs to be. For example, if your site is about soap operas, then it would make sense to post daily summaries to people who want to come and read about the latest happenings.

However if your site is about things to do in your favorite city then updates may not need to be made as often. It really depends on the goal for your site and the type of content you have.

I think it's important to be creative and come up with ways to keep bringing people back. For example on my fitness site I offer a "tummy tip of the week" where I email the subscriber a quick tip. This is all marketing because it reminds people about my site and to re-visit.

So the more updates you can make the better (as long as they are useful and relevant) but there is no set number that is correct or incorrect.