This Board Needs Some Action!

[Kenito]

Hello everyone!

I am really a newby...don't even have a domain name set yet. However, I have been moderating a yahoo group for several years, and the main group has over 18,000 members world-wide. I have recently started about 20 other feeder groups along the same niche.

As you can imagine, it takes a lot of time to moderate these groups...specially because I'm not making anything for these efforts.

So I would like to get my own web page to get a little "return on my investment."

I have attended two Internext shows, and found them interesting, but am no closer to getting a page up and running.

First, the domain name. Should it include the words "gay" and the niche in the name? If my niche were libraries...would the name have to include "GayLibrary?" Should it be "Gay-Library?" Or should I ignore that just go with like "HotBooks?"

I see several places on line where I can pay what seems to be small fees...with add-ons, probably under $300 to $500. Then I presume if I don't want sponsor ads, my monthly fees would be higher.

I've also been approached by someone who will charge $2,000 to $5,000 for a turn-key operation...but I haven't gotten to monthly fees yet.

As a start-up, my logic tells me to spend as little as possible, and then grow as income grows. But with no experience with this, if I spend $3,000 initially, is it possible to make that investment back fast enough to make it worth while?

If I decide to go the economical way...does anyone have any suggestions? Any particular hosting companies you would like to recommend? Any hosting companies out there want to contact me?

I approve over 300 messages monthly in my main group...so I think a bulletin board will be an important part of my service...and a chat room...plus links to information, sales.

Okay, that's a start...I appreciate your help!

[Arianne]

Hi...

My name is Arianne and I am kind of a newbie. A newbie in the form of providing adult content to webmasters. Thats what I do. I am in the process of having a site designed that will provide video, pix and erotica to adult webmasters. However, I feel your pain.

The prices you mentioned appear to be a little expensive. If I were you, I would think about how much I want to spend per month, research different sites that might cater to your needs and go from there.

Also, if I can pass along some advice from a very successful (financially) businessman, "you have to advertise offline to drive business online." So think about using advertising dollars offline; budget the majority of your ad dollars to offline publications if possible.

Right now I have a site that offers erotica stories only at this time. However, on April 15th I will go live with my full site. So, I am a little under the gun to get things produced and completed.

I have had other non-adult websites and have had my successes and failures there as well. If you need advice, I'll do the best I can to assist.BigThink

[desslock]

[B][FONT="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="3"]Hello everyone!

I am really a newby...don't even have a domain name set yet.

As you can imagine, it takes a lot of time to moderate these groups...specially because I'm not making anything for these efforts.

First, the domain name. Should it include the words "gay" and the niche in the name?

I see several places on line where I can pay what seems to be small fees...with add-ons, probably under $300 to $500.

If I decide to go the economical way...does anyone have any suggestions? Any particular hosting companies you would like to recommend? Any hosting companies out there want to contact me?


The point of starting a website business is that it costs practically nothing to get started. This was exactly my route.

I'm not sure why you are so eager to spend all that money. A domain name on GoDaddy costs ten dollars. Can't you find hosting for $50 to $100 month? I would do this: click on the CaveCreek hosting banner on the left of the screen (no affiliation with them btw) and just buy their smallest, cheapest hosting package. No frills. Remember, you are flying for peanuts.

There's your start up expenses. Those were my expenses when I started. There is no reason to blow your money when you are starting out on things you can do yourself.

Just build some pages, and keep going. Add a page a day. A new page a day keeps a real job away.

Try it with one site.... if it's a miserable failure, then you are just out a few hundred dollars, BUT in the process you have learned some of what not to do and hopefully picked up some essential skills like writing simple pages in HTML.

Then just try again. What I do today evolved out of my original idea in the 1990s to host and design web sites for other businesses, so just expect a trial and error period.

Good luck!

Steve

[MWSommer]

It is really hard to give someone the path to success. When we started with our original idea, every single person who was an expert told us not to proceed with Cybersocket and predicted failure. So what do the experts know?

The experts in our business are experts in what they do. But if you have an idea that is innovating on what is already done. I think you should plow forward but always do whatever you can to minimize costs. Keep your fixed overhead as low as possible. And Cave Creek Hosting is our favorite US option. If you are building a model based upon sending traffic to other peoples sites then make sure you talk to people about which sites and companies actually have a relationship of profit with affiliates. And if you are doing a membership site please have some unique content, not just a pile of leased feeds.

Have a wonderful day!

Excl$matio

[Tom]

The fact that you moderate a yahoo group with 18,000 members is an amazing asset. You've already got an exclusive target audience and mailing list, which is something many people would love to have and are willing to spend lots of money on. Good luck!

BigThink