As I get more educated, I do get a bit more confused. It appears that SBI is the way to go from a tools standpoint to make sure your site is found via search.

However, I need subdomains for my site, so that members can create their own mini-site and manage group information. The best option I have found is by using a company called Getmywebste. They will build my entire site including sub-domains. The sub-domains will cost only $2/month. This is the best deal I have found after looking at ning and other membership options..

Maybe I should build the main site with SBI and sub-domains with GMW? Any thoughts how to get the best of both or I am making this to complex?

Mike

Hi Mike,

I am not sure sure what you plan on doing with your site, but I do not think SBI is the best option if you would like to create a web 2.0 kind of website, where each member would have his/her own subdomain.

My hosting account (hostgator.com), and I am sure many other hosting companies also, allow unlimited subdomains for free! What are the advantages of using Getmywebsite?

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Thanks for the feedback. My main site would contain information about my topic, ideas on how to do plan an event and a forum section.

The sub domains however would be much different. They would be focused on a group who decides to hold an event. So that person would add members to the subsite, have a blog, create evites, send out updates about the event, and members could post to the blog. The sub-site would be like Meetup. The sub site would show the members, who is going to the event, and most importantly, the ability to post pictures and group them by year (for annual events).

Not sure this makes sense but would love to talk more before I move ahead.

Thanks for any additional advise!

Sherif is right. You definitely would not buy SBI! for this kind of website. You need a traditional host like hostgator, godaddy, bluehost, etc and then you will need to either find a script that does what you want (invites, members, etc.) or pay someone to program a customized script for you.

You cannot just use a website builder to create the kind of site you want. Since it will have user interaction and profiles you will need a programmer.

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Lisa,

Thanks for your input as well. Any thoughts on where to find a programmer? Are there posts on what to look for other than examples?

I heard rent-a-coder is good! Also, once I have it built, how to I get the eyeballs to the site? The positives about SBI were getting the search engines to hit it. Once built, what tools should I use to make sure my content is being found?

Marketing a site like your is going to be a lot more challenging than a standard content website like I usually create. I rely on the search engines for a lot of my traffic and having a lot of content is a plus. If your site is going to be mostly a members site, it's much harder to drive traffic to these sites via the search engines generally because there is not much themed content.

So you are going to have to really work hard at finding creative ways to promote your site. I am honestly not a fan of these kinds of sites if you are new to this but that's not to say you cannot have success. You could promote it in social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, etc. but even still there are strategies to these methods as well.

You have to make sure you define the kind of person you are targeting with the site and think about how you expect them to find you. What keywords would you want to be found for if someone was to search for you? Are there popular forums where your potential audience visits regularly that you could join to get the word out? These are the kinds of questions you'll need to ask and answer. Remember, people don't just stumble upon websites (unless their using StumbleUpon.com of course lol) so marketing is key.

I use RentaCoder every now and then and love them. Very safe and quick way of getting something done if you don't know how to do it yourself. I've never used them for a site as complex as yours but I'm sure it's a good option if you can find a qualified coder.

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