Working on new website -- Please read

[acidosmosis]

The past month I have been making plans and working on a new website which is going to feature things such as "how to" do certain things such as case mod's, building a PC, finding quality components at a low price, PSU faq's, processor FAQ's, etc... just basically almost anything that I can think of that I know anything about that I can write up information on. I am very good at doing web searches and research so that will also be to my benefit. Hope to also sort of compile other information. That is only about 20% of what the website is going to have though.

My main reason for this post is to ask for your suggestions and comments. We both know you have browsed 100's if not more websites on different subjects that we talk about here on TechSpot. Give me some ideas of what you would like to see on a website -- such as what kind of information, how to's, links, etc. Any idea is welcome and will be very much appreciated. Right now the website is in its "development" stages and once I get the basic framework and "first stage content" into the site I will be transferring the files over to a domain that I have bought.

The rest is top secret. For now .

Now... give me those suggestions and comments!

 

[Julio Franco]

Just wondering, will how-to's be the main theme of that website of yours?

 

[acidosmosis]

Not really, but it is going to be hopefully a large part of it. Why, any ideas?

 

[Nic]

I suppose once you're up and running you'll have less time for posting here.

How about hosting a forum - just think you'll be able to delete any posts you don't like.

But seriously, maybe you could do something on how to set up a website and include all the details such as ...

Registering a domain name.
Choosing software to develop the site.
Building the site.
Adding the content.
What costs are involved.
etc.

This is something that many users have probably thought about doing, and since you are involved right now, you'll be able to write about it first hand.

As I'm sure you are aware, a vast amount of information already exists on the internet, so anything you dream up will have already been done before. I suppose that it might be useful to determine your target audience first and then worry about what content to include. Also, what is the purpose of your starting a new website. If its just to have a bit of fun and to educate yourself, then you'll most likely want to include content that you are particularly interested in, rather than what others are interested in.

If you initially target only a small group (e.g. novice pc users) then it'll be much easier to cover their requirements and keep them reasonably happy.

Seeing as you've been involved in tech support you should be in a good position to work out the sort of things that users have problems with, and the sorts of things they would like to do with their PCs (e.g. play games), but are unable to work out what they require (e.g. is their hardware up to the task).

I think I'll stop now before I fill up the rest of this page with my pointless rambling. At least there are some more things for you to consider now.

 

[acidosmosis]

Well the main idea behind the website is that I have many many ideas and seem to be very good at doing certain things that so many people just can't grasp the idea of. So, one purpose will be to share my knowledge with others and hopefully educate others with what I know. It is also in fact a way for me to just experiment and learn, but I have many many reasons for doing it. One other reason is because eventually I plan to possibly start a business in the future (although not the NEAR future), and running a website and trying to make it at least slightly successful would be a good way to sort of experiment with "running a business" at least in some sort of sense.
I just have so many ideas and so much knowledge that I don't want to just post on a single forum but on a website and make that website public so anyone can find it easily. One of the main ways of promotion I will use will be to hopefully be recognized as a "knowledgeable" individual as far as modding, pc repair, and other things and from that hopefully I can gain visitors to my website, and just by posting here when I help someone with a problem I can say hey take a look at my website I have a article that may help you or interest you. I will *not* spam any forums or anything saying COME TO MY SITE!! That is a no-no in my book. I want to try and get the exposure legitly. Like I said in some sense an experiment but it's also more than that.


I just have so many ideas, gotta write them down Might as well share them with the planet

 

[lokem]

Sounds like a good idea Perhaps you could break down the different categories of HOWTOs that you'd like to write. e.g. hardware, OS, modding, OC-ing, etc.

 

[acidosmosis]

well as far as overclocking I wont be doing any how-to's because I just dont believe in overclocking. I think it's pointless, but it's possible I may accept some sort of "user written articles" and let someone else do it, but I'm not ;-).

 

[TS | Crazyace]

I think you need somthing totally different to set you apart from the crowd. You need to think of somthing exclusive.

 

[prashidi]

The idea of a computer website has been overdone. Most of the advertisers that offer anything have already a publisher group that they trust and usually wont accept smaller sites. Other advertisers like cj, linkshare wont offer you a thing and fastclick will at most give you enough money to pay for half of the hosting cost. Making money off of networks is very difficult and the only way you can earn something is through direct agreements with advertisers.

Hosting costs, domain and the time that you put into maintaining and improving a site can not be done by one person. Trust me, I have tried and I found it impossible. Giving your users incentives like added features that other sites do not offer, take time and will sidetrack you from articles. Unless you have a large ammount of articles that are unique and can not be found elsewhere you will most likely lose the visitors after 3 or 4 clicks on your site.

If you want to just post articles and lose some money in the way go ahead and work on the site but my advice would be to submit your articles to tech sites, like TechSpot, and ask them if they find your article useful to post them there. That way you will extend your knowledge to a wider audience and you will also enjoy the freedom of not hassling with the maintainance of a website.

Just my 2 cents and a half.

 

[acidosmosis]

Well, the thing is I am getting free hosting where I work, with unlimited bandwidth and unlimited space, so as far as hosting costs there are none. The only thing I have to pay for is the domain name.

This site is also just something I want to do in my spare time, so it's not only going to be articles. That is just part of it. I am putting some personal things on the site to such as my custom PC spec's, graphics that I have done, designs, etc. It is also sort of going to be used to kind of "showcase" my knowledge just for something to show people like employers, friends, techies, etc.

I'm not looking to get 10,000 visitors a week or anything, so if I get none then that is fine too. Again it is just a hobby and once the site is up any "articles" or information that I put on the site like that will probably be posted here too.

Who knows though, if some oppurtunity presents itself I may do something "extroidnary" lol.

 

[prashidi]

In that case I think that its a great idea for a hobby. I am sure you will learn alot about websites. hmm, let me see what I would like on a site:

1. I like the site to be simple and friendly to browse around.
2. I dont like a bunch of colors on a site. 3 different colors should be the max amount of variety.
3. I would like to know what the best cooler for a processor is and I dont want the information to be 3 months old.
4. the products reviewed should be compared with at least 5 other products with similar features.

Thats all for now i guess.

 

[acidosmosis]

Website screenshot

Let me upload an image so you can get an idea of what the website looks like.. although it's still pretty much in development cause I am trying to figure out exactly what I want to do different with the graphics. I threw this up real quick so I could work on some of the content. Planning on changing the graphics again sometime soon.

Also, I forgot to mention that the basic framework was done by http://www.4templates.com. I just didn't feel like having to work ont he basic framework, graphics, etc and getting everything setup right so I just spent $19.99 on a template and modified it like it is above.

If your curious about what the template I am using looked like before I modified it, take a look below:

 

[RustyZip]

Graphics look quite smart - nice and clean looking :thumbs up:

 

[acidosmosis]

Thanks Any ideas? At first I was going to throw in some curcuit boards or something where the keyboard is but I decided against that because it has been done so much and just didn't look all that great.