Anyone Developing at the moment?

[SF]

Hi Guys

Any of you developing sites at the moment? if so any examples of what you have been doing?

I am going to try and get one website developed a week

 

[AssetDomains]

Hi Guys

Any of you developing sites at the moment? if so any examples of what you have been doing?

I am going to try and get one website developed a week

Spending most of my time on Job boards at the moment
JobsLiverpool.com for example

 

[Retired_Member38]

I am going to try and get one website developed a week

If you are going to build a new website every week then I think at best they're not going to rank and you'll have wasted your time, and at worst they're going to end up penalised and you'll have wasted your time and made the domains worthless.

 

[Admin]

Design is important but £2k for a logo?

I don't often bother with a logo preferring to have fast loading sites.

Google is going to rank you on CONTENT and Mobile-Friendliness so concentrate on creating good content and using a RESPONSIVE web template.

If you have a decent domain then think about how you get content and how you get stuff to sell or whatever is going to monetise the site, you need a balance of both.

Pick a site and work on it for 3 months VS throwing up 1 site a week is pointless these days. I have been doing this and getting the big G to rank my site for anything is a real struggle so I'm looking at other traffic sources like offline marketing and social media.

I use Wordpress as the framework for my sites and it's very customisable but gives you a DB driven strong base to launch from, there are loads of responsive themes around so i pick one and then customise it to my needs.

Good content is the hardest part...

What niche are you targeting?

Admin

 

[accelerator]

Few questions ...

How many of you work on your own and how many as a remote team?

What's your weakness?

I work on my own.

One of my weaknesses is a lack of sector focus, but I'm working on that.

Rgds

 

[accelerator]

Hi Guys

Any of you developing sites at the moment? if so any examples of what you have been doing?

I am going to try and get one website developed a week

I am always "developing". One of the many things I am working on is adding major shopping product category pages to the Low Prices Site Map, and then I need to make the Site Map itself properly usable, instead of the list of longtail pages which it is at the moment. It is slow progress.

Rgds

 

[accelerator]

Is it paying?
My biggest headache is not knowing what to invest my time into. Most companies struggle to build one successful business/web site so building shit loads of them because I have the names seems a bit pointless, arrogant and counter productive.

Yes, this is a critical decision. However, there is so much business intelligence available for free from the internet. I try to take intelligence from multiple sources to form a view, then experiment a bit with what I think might work.

Rgds

 

[Admin]

Not sure why but I hate the idea of using a template, it feels like I'm not building something unique because everyone else can download or buy the same template. It's not a critisicism of anyone that does do that, just a personal thing.

I've been working on a SaaS commerce that was a mix of Shopify and Etsy but it's such a lot of work for one person that I've stopped and started to wonder if I'm biting off more than I can chew.

I'm nearly 50 and I've lost that "f*ck it" attitude I had when I was 20, now I have to rationalise everything which is dull and frustrating. Perhaps I need a corner shop selling fruit and veg!

In WP you can edit every part of the template, including the CSS so colours, layout, logos, etc. - think of it more as a website framework than a template.

It sounds to me like you put too much effort into how it looks where as I would encourage you to put that effort into the content and function that will drive people to want to come back and for Google to see value in the site to rank it.

Admin

 

[accelerator]

Also, don't worry about the aesthetic elements of design too much. Just worry about traffic and conversion.

I have a "lean" startup approach. i.e. start a site without too much fussing around, and see how it goes.

Rgds

 

[ian]

Wow, where to start, work alone, unrelated ecommerce business so most communication via email only; rarely speak to a sole. The industry I'm in has stagnated now and most of my competitors have folded/walked away, which in turn is why I can continue to operate, as less opposition (though must say I was already the #1 independent).

Never had an issue with motivation, but finding now that the days go by in a blur and because I still have to operate my business (which ultimately brings in the beans), it is hard to switch to another project when you can only spend a few minutes here and there. Any coder/developer will vouch for how hard that can be.

I've been working on a project that if correctly done, could be huge, but finding time to do more than write a few notes is impossible. The only way I'll get it started is with no other work commitments, so I guess it will be put on the back burner again.

Conundrum for you, have a news site which pulls in 1-2k unique visitors per day; use to be 9k/day in the early years. Only makes £50-£100/month and costs £300/year in hosting, not to mention my time. I should bin it, but it ranks at the top for almost all keywords, and has a significant loyal following. Don't have time to update, though with that visitor base, could do ok in terms of affiliate commissions again, though never massive. Should I move on?

.

 

[AssetDomains]

Is it paying?

At the moment no and that’s my biggest headache with domain sales drying up and affiliate earning from an old site fluctuating month to month I can’t keep focus on getting this finished then promoting at 100% or even 70%.
Find myself having to take on side projects to cover Bill’s etc. what I really need is to find a start-up investor.

Is it paying?
Few questions ...

How many of you work on your own and how many as a remote team?

At the moment I’m doing all the development myself, when the sites get there my business partner is going to take on sales and admin whilst I focus on improving seo etc

What's your weakness? Mine's design. I really appreciate great design but struggle with it myself and over the years I've ended up spending 000's on shit designers who have a decent portfolio that they struggle to replicate and it's always my fault, they're the designer, what do I know type attitude.

I once paid nearly £2k to a designer for a logo and he gave me one choice and told me he wasn't going to give me any more because this was so good and others would confuse me!

I’ve struggled with design too I’m much more of developer than designer with this project I bought a couple of job board themes fairly cheaply of the shelf on theme forest then merged them into one design it’s not perfect but I think they look fairly decent, if I start making money in the sector then more professional design can be added at a later date.
The attitude you have had from designers sounds appalling If you’re going down that route in the future look at staging payments over goals your both happy with if they don’t go for it move on there’s 1000’s of design people competing online for your business.

 

[mally]

Well according to the news, we are all aswell of today as what we were when the recession started, so fingers crossed for more domain sales and more affiliate sales. Only issue is google profits going down, which means they will need to make more money on google search which will effect my affiliate sites, which used to do well for a one man band, now barely pay more than the hosting

 

[Retired_Member38]

Also, don't worry about the aesthetic elements of design too much. Just worry about traffic and conversion.

I have a "lean" startup approach. i.e. start a site without too much fussing around, and see how it goes.

Rgds

Its one thing to say don't worry about aesthetics and just concentrate on conversion.... but do you seriously think the aesthetics of LowPrices isn't wrecking your conversion rate?

How the site looks and how it converts are meshed together and can't really be separated. Its not realistic to say ignore one and work on the other.

 

[accelerator]

Conundrum for you, have a news site which pulls in 1-2k unique visitors per day; use to be 9k/day in the early years. Only makes £50-£100/month and costs £300/year in hosting, not to mention my time. I should bin it, but it ranks at the top for almost all keywords, and has a significant loyal following. Don't have time to update, though with that visitor base, could do ok in terms of affiliate commissions again, though never massive. Should I move on?

What are you monetising this with?

 

[philiporchard]

Spending most of my time on Job boards at the moment
JobsLiverpool.com for example

Maybe you should get JobsLondon dot com. Would make a nice addition

 

[martin-s]

Just buy a theme from themeforest and customise it. You can still make it look unique without being too creative.

Or get a freelancer designer from oDesk or OnlineJobs.ph

 

[accelerator]

Choose something you're interested in.

Make sure there is enough money in the sector to make it worth your while.

Think about what value you are adding to someone's life.

Think about the emotional reactions that your site can create that will make people want to visit again.

Add some great content that is helpful to people's lives.

Preferably use custom video on the site.

Build your mailing list.

Profit.

Remember there is more to life than work.

 

[Retired_Member38]

Remember there is more to life than work.

Sure, but in the real life for most adults its the work that funds the rest of it.

 

[max99x]

I am always "developing". One of the many things I am working on is adding major shopping product category pages to the Low Prices Site Map, and then I need to make the Site Map itself properly usable, instead of the list of longtail pages which it is at the moment. It is slow progress.

Rgds

I still can't believe you've not changed the design of that site lol!, i don't like to sound all negative but it looks like my first affiliate site I made when I was 15 (11 years ago) does it actually get any traffic?

 

[Retired_Member38]

I still can't believe you've not changed the design of that site lol!, i don't like to sound all negative but it looks like my first affiliate site I made when I was 15 (11 years ago) does it actually get any traffic?

It does seem silly. I'd love to see traffic/income from that site. I don't normally care what anyone else earns but really would be curious here :lol: