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Can you really start a new website with an idea and a little bit of money? I have an idea for a website that would fill a big need. I needed such a site a few years ago, and I looked for days but to no avail. I recently looked again, and I can’t find anything. I know that once I get started, I can harness the goodwill and talents of thousands of people who go through this situation, to create excellent content. I am sure that it will take a lot of work on my part, but I know the subject well and I can do it. Also, there are many ways to drive traffic to such a site that don’t cost any money.
However, I know less than nothing about coding, design, or content management. I could learn a few things, but I am sure it would be slow going. I really would be much better at generating the content and the buzz to drive traffic to the site.
There are many ways to monetize such a site. However, it would need to start out using just one or two of them, so that people will help with the content.
One thing I am thinking is that I can partner up with a designer/coder, where I do my side and they do theirs. Has anyone ever tried this? Does it work? I imagine that if I find a local person to work with, they would be more trustworthy, but how would I go about looking for someone to partner with?
In the long run, I would make much more money if I were to go it alone and pony up the money for a well designed site, but I don’t have that kind of money.
Any ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
It may well be that your idea can be implemented with a content management system and you may be able to do much of the work yourself. (You may need to hire somebody to do a CSS design and someone to produce artwork.) Or, it may require a great deal of custom coding. The right consultant can steer you in the right direction.
This can be expensive (say, $100/hr) but a few hours can save you a bundle. Keep it in small bits - don't try to cram in an 8-hour day. I'd space-out 1-2 hour meetings once a week.
I would make it clear up front that they will only be advising you, and will not be involved in the site implementation and will not be referring you to designers or programmers. If they don't walk out the door immediately, that is a good sign. :)
Partnering with a designer/coder can certainly work, if they feel there is a strong income opportunity. Obviously, a lot of mutual trust is needed.
I can't claim to be a designer (artisticly-challenged) but with a basic knowledge of HTML (i.e. a good Teach Yourself HTML in 24 hours book), a user-friendly content management system with plenty of pre-made css themes available to choose from (Xoops in my case), inexpensive stock photography, and lots of enthusiasm, I've been able to put together a few decent-looking sites that people seem to really enjoy.
If your idea can be implemented in a similar fashion, you may be able to do it all on your own too.
I know less than nothing ... I could learn ... but I am sure it would be slow going. I really would be much better at generating the content and the buzz to drive traffic to the site.One thing I am thinking is that I can partner up with a designer/coder, where I do my side and they do theirs.
As a 'designer/coder', I've heard this type of proposal a few times. It's not very appealing.
Think about what you'd bring to the partnership - it's really not very much. You're offering:
- to write content
- to 'generate buzz' (not sure what you mean by that)
In return you'd be asking a techie to invest a lot more time than you, but give you creative control - I can't see why they'd want to do this.
There's nothing wrong with starting from a basis of ignorance, but (imo) there is something wrong with being unwilling to learn.
The learning you could do needn't be on technical issues - you could get some commercial knowledge, you could write a business plan and raise some money (and then you'd be able to employ a techie on fair terms, rather than a 'you do all the work' type of partnership).
hth,
a.
good books
The O'Reilly book on HTML, by Musciano et al, is good. It's the one with a koala bear on the cover (and lots of examples using kumquats, at least in the old edition I have).
Generally the O'Reilly books are good quality: Web Design in a Nutshell (Niederst) is also v. good for quick reference.
The O'Reilly books on Perl (the Camel book as a reference and the Llama book for learners) should be on every Perl developer's desk. Also very good are their 'Linux in a Nutshell', 'DNS and BIND' (good though dry), 'Mastering Regular Expressions', the list goes on... the latter two are not for IT beginners though...
hth, a.
You can started with your web pretty cheaply.
You can hire someone to create the HTML pages locally in US for 10 - $15 hour. This person can set up pages and templates for you and even teach you some things like using the templates and sending your paages up to your site.
You don't need a Content MS now; just get started with this.
Not necessarily so. Without knowing the exact nature of the site, I don't see how one can make this conclusion.
Here's what I saw that makes me think that static HTML paages just aren't going to do it:
I recently looked again, and I can’t find anything. I know that once I get started, I can harness the goodwill and talents of thousands of people who go through this situation, to create excellent content.
Sounds like a community site. Ain't gonna do that in static HTML. At minimum, it needs a BBS, portal, CMS, etc. Possibly some custom coding, which might be able to be deferred at first, or might not.
Again, without knowing the details, hard to say what is required. And that's why I suggested seeing a consultant.
If the author can share some vague details (without getting too specific, as that's likely to violate the TOS) we can probably steer them in the right direction.
Otherwise, I'd suggest posting at some other site where you CAN post details (though obviously keeping enough back to keep somebody from copying the idea) to get a sense of direction.
I appreciate all of your recommendations, and I think I will try to get someone to consult with me.
In general, I am not against learning something new, but I already have a job and gathering the material and getting the links would take up all of my spare time. I am not looking to retire rich from something like this, so I see no reason why I can't share some of the work with others.
Why don't you put your big idea on the back burner for say 4 months, then, spend those 4 months putting up a small website in an unrelated field. All by yourself
Those four months would give you time to learn the bare bones of this business, there so many factors that could get you unstuck.
make your newbie/avoidabled mistakes with the small experimental site , you'll have plenty of time to make even bigger mistakes with your big idea, hopefully you would have an idea of what to do by then
Just a thought
I learnt html, but still found it a pain and annoyance to make tables with html -- something essential for virtually all sites.
Then I managed to buy FrontPage very very cheap and now use that to do the tables. Moreover, since I understand the code for the tables, I delete any junk that FrontPage might add and modify the tables myself once I get the table shell developed in FrontPage.
If you can make do with a relatively simple website, a bit of html and using FrontPage is all that is needed.
I now even have confidence to learn a bit more advanced CSS (I use very basic CSS in a few pages of my site).
Slowly and most importantly, steadily, does it. The most difficult thing I find is that I am lazy when it comes to learning technical skills and sometimes procrastinate too much.
Good luck and you can do it!
