Forum Moderators: mack
My brother knows how to make webpages and I had an idea for a site that I figured would get alot of hits. (A help site for a game that have played since we were kids that is still very popular).
My question is, how much would we have to invest into it? I know this kind of thing doesnt really happen overnight but how much money is in these kind of sites that get commisions from advertisements?
You don't need to get into PHP or scripting just yet.
I am felling more and more anxious to get this thing started!
But if you start getting into the more advanced stuff like relative positioning and the like, you'll find yourself spending tons of time getting frustrated because it won't work like you want it to. This post might draw fire from those who have successfully done some really cool stuff with CSS, but my advice is to use it for the basics and that's all.
Good advice. Start off simple and use CSS with maximum effect with minimum effort. I do all kinds of stuff with CSS now but when I started out it was good enough to get stuff looking nice with the smallest amount of CSS code.
I remember my head swirling with the amount of info I got from this site when I started out - better to keep it simple and then progress.
Ah! I remember my first website (getting lost in nostalgia now...).
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AND, I see, got my membership status upgraded on WebmasterWorld from "New Member" to "Junior Member." If I'm not careful, I might become impressed with myself. Unfortunately, I suspect that the upgrade from New to Junior has to do with the quantity of my posts--not the quality. ;)
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I suspect that the upgrade from New to Junior has to do with the quantity of my posts--not the quality. ;)
Well at least you took the time to contribute. My problem is I always want to post after drinking too much Jack Daniels or Guinness - plently of posts - not much coherence.
Now what on earth does this have to do with a new web site - I dunno - maybe too much JD...
<on 3 pints of Stout>
Advice here.
</on 3 pints of Stout>
robots.txt and spiders
So I wouldn't worry about it until your site is ready to put online. I'm not. Somewhere in here there is a good little tutorial about all of the tags you'll need in the <head> portion of your pages. If I find the link I'll post it here or sticky you.
[webmasterworld.com...]
When I heard you wanted a content site, to make money, as a beginner, I instantly thought of PHP-Nuke.
PHP-Nuke is used on a lot of sites, and it's a full-blown free content manager. It let's people make accounts, you can get a forum for it. There are sections for news, downloads, everything. My friend hardly knows anything and he started his own PHP-Nuked site. See phpnuke.org
Money, I would go with Google AdSense, just because it's so easy. Just don't paper your site with ads or people get annoyed quick.
Hosting, I personally use 1and1. GoDaddy is the most popular (in the US I heard). Both come with PHP/MySQL(database) in their cheapest package. Those two are the biggest web hosts. They'll have probably the most features for the lowest price.
YOU WILL NOT GET RICH QUICK
And I am not expecting to get rich, let alone do it quick :)
I make an oath right now that any sites I make will be based on content first, and ads last. Of course I wasnt to make some money but I am not prepared to make any soon.
I have one more question (I know they seem to never end). So when I finish my site and find a host what do I do next? I mean how to I actually GET my site on the internet? Somone sent me a sticky about a content managment site but it all blew right past me. I thought it would be an easy "add a address to each page, stick all of the files in a folder with the pictures and .css and .htm files". Is it really more complicated then that and if so how hard is it for a total noob to learn?
Designing the site includes the content, the visual layout, the actual HTML coding, the site navigation, the format of the links (like www.domain.com/folder.name/ etc), and the server settings (redirecting non-www to www etc), and many other factors.
Get hosted using Apache if you can, as it allows you a lot more control over what you are doing.
Get your main content and graphics online, spell check, and get some links. Then slowly add more content as you run your site. If you rush you'll make mistakes (everyone does). If you take it slow and think about each page your less likely to make mistakes which may cost you in the long run :)
I will take it slow and think that its going to take a lot longer to launch my site then the 3 months I gave myself. (I have a full time job and a pretty heavy social life). I figure that I will be ready to launch the site in April. (Probably will be sooner but who knows).
Thanks for all of the great advice everyone. I will definately let you all know how it goes. If anyone know of any good books that will help me out send me a sticky :)
So many of those books are out-of-date and are teaching 90's style "bad" html and design. We're in the 21st century, folks.
Webmaster A decides that he needs to add a link to the nav bar that's on every page. He realized that he didn't plan earlier about this kind of stuff. Few hours later, Webmaster A is done copying and pasting the same link to fifty pages.
Webmaster B addes a little link to the header file, and spends the rest of the time watching Jay Leno. He planned ahead.
Includes work just dandy for that (and better than frames too!)
Usage of XHTML vs. HTML 4.01 shows no obvious advantages either to coder, or to the surfer - as has been discussed several times before in recent months.
I just launched my first site thanks to all your help. It wasnt the site i was talking about earlier but was more of a crash course for me. Its a forum to discuss books in a certain nitch. Simple, fun, and easy. I am loving it :)
This is one of those sites that I dont care if I make any money or not because its so fun. I am adding a few pages here and there but its mainly just a phpbb forum. And if I make money... well thats not a bad thing! :)
Thanks for all your help people. You all helped me get started into a new hobby that I am really enjoying. I am even thinking about going to school for it and maybe start for a career change. :)
There are basicly 6 categories of how to make money of a website:
Adword advertising - Putting a script on the site that displays adword advetisment, its mostly per click.
Affiliateship - Providing a link to a merchants site and getting a commision if the visitor buys anything, either per lead or as a % of the purchase.
Banner advertising - Putting a banner on ones site and getting paid either a flat rate or pay per click or per impression.
Dropshipping - Advertising a product and taking orders for them, accepting payment and then sending the buyers address plus payment to the third party that ships the goods.
Selling own service - Can be anything such as site design, seo (search enginge optimization) or something totally unrelated to the internet.
Selling own product - Again can be anything.
Roughly I think this list is low in startup cost and effort at the beginning and hight at the end. The same goes for earning potentual. A note on banner sales, perhaps they should be at the beginning but I place them where they are becouse today it is very difficult to get anyone to pay for placing a banner on ones site unless it has huge traffic numbers. In that case the reward shoud be accordingly.
