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This is not a question regarding the specifics of how you manage to make a primnary income, but for those of you who do make an income from adsense,advertising on your websites etc. (whether it's a 6 figure income, or enough for you to get by/live comfortably) I just have a few questions.
When you are developing a site do you tend to use "out of the box" solutions such as Wordpress, phpbb etc. or do you develop your own?
How important would you conisder creating an "identity" for your site over the content?
IF you are using an out of the box solution do you continue to use this or do you eventually develop something custom once you have gained a regular audience?
Many Thanks
Some are overly flashy and beautifully designed but have little value. Others are straight shooters and give individuals what they need without overly taxing designs or visual glitz.
Take Craigslist -- ugliest site in the history of the world but one of the most popular.
Drudge Report -- butt-ugly but gets you the news you need.
Love what it is you do and worry about the income later. If you end up lucky enough to start earning enough to pay for your site and the time you up into it consider yourself lucky.
Design doesn't matter as much as your content. If your content doesn't appeal to people then no matter what you do your longterm earnings potential will be slim.
[edited by: CentennialEmpire at 10:02 pm (utc) on June 10, 2008]
In the past couple of years, I've started using Joomla for all my non-ecommerce sites. But my best money maker is my second oldest site that I did by hand. After years of working on it, it looks very good for not to having any new-fangled techniques. And still churns out affiliate & adsense income consistantly even though I rarely update.
Several thousand pages (all manually created) which reinforces what we all know but sometimes forget...
It's all about the CONTENT.
I would never use wordPress or similar and then come back to update it later. I know I'd never remember to come back!
I've always started my web sites with the end goal of someday selling them, but if the only thing that is unique about a web site is the content, and content so quickly rises and falls in popularity on the Net (not to mention is so easily copied), then I can't imagine anyone paying a lot for the web site.
I suppose bloggers don't expect to sell their web sites, so that could be the exception.
I would at least recommend using Front Page to put up your site instead of a free CMS, then you have the ability to add unique functionality.
All a CMS does is separate the "design" and "content" of a website into separate elements. Unless you use a standard template/theme, you still have to design your "look" with your HTML/CSS editor (I prefer DreamWeaver & Notepad).
The advantage comes from NOT having content tied down in static pages. I can change the appearance and layout of a CMS site without touching the content by simply changing one Template/Theme file similar to DWT files in Dreamweaver.
I can also allow others without HTML skills to submit content without worrying about them messing anything up design-wise. BIG plus when you have clients with zero HTML skills. CMS is just a tool to me, just like Dreamweaver or Frontpage.
Also, once a CMS site is up, I or my writers can work on our sites from anywhere we have an internet connection. This has been the biggest advantage for me not being tied down to my main design computer.
I too, couldn't see the value in CMS. I hung onto DW, even tried Contribute to see if that could give me same benefits (It was too cumbersome). Tried WordPress but I'm not doing blogs and couldn't shake the blog feel (some sites have).
Finally, learned Mambo, then Joomla 1.0 and now Joomla 1.5 platform. I still fire up DW everyday for design work. But managing a site once the look is complete is much easier for me with a CMS.
I say just put it up there, launch whatever you have to start with and then keep building and refining it. I think that if you are developing a brand and a following, identity is just as important as content. If you are just trying to make short term cash, then obviously that doesn't matter. What is your identity? It doesn't have to be fancy. There are plenty of content sites that are just straight "blogs" and are ugly but push their identity and brand and are successful. Like Perez Hilton. If that's what you are going for. Obviously pure content like that is not as valuable as say Digg or Facebook, but what are you building? Those took time and funding.
