Overwhelmed, how does this work?

[Rober77]

So I've been lurking around here for a few weeks as I work on a site, trying to make some extra dough. Although lots of the site is loosely implemented, I'm trying to decide what to clip as to what type of audience I'm aiming for.

The site is aimed towards students, from college down to elementary. It's a somewhat unique educational site that IMO has potential if I do it correctly. The site is providing a service, but at least at first I don't plan on charging for it. I'm doing my best to structure it so maintenance is a minimum so I can continue to work on new features.

Right now I have no official business plan, I've just been stringing this thing together as kind of a slap em up Rails project that I'll tie in with the business aspect later...BUT:

The more I look at this the more I wonder: IF get a user base, I How do I make money off this?...just using AdSense (and possibly affiliate programs)? Is the school age market profitable? If so, how much? Do people around here ever host sites that provide a service?

I don't have any experience with actually running a site, I have some web dev experience but its for a big coorp.

Oh and I'm not asking for every detail of what to do, I obviously need to spend many many hours combing this forum, but I'm just looking for a rough yes or no and how much.

Thanks

Oh and its my first post, so whats up everybody.

 

[babyboy808]

You are way overthinking things buddy. Start something your passionate about and work from there.

 

[springer]

Rob,

If you really want to make something of this project, other than a simple little site that gets its income from adsense or affiliate programs, you really ought to take a break and make a plan. Write it down or map it out with a diagram. And look to the future... what is it now, what do you want it to be in a month, 6 months, a year, etc. Goals and mileposts.

There are any number of ways to monitize a site like you're talking about. If what you provide is something people will pay for, you can make it a membership site or provide things people will pay to get.

You really need to go one way or the other. If you're going to charge people for membership or products or services, you ought to avoid bombarding them with ads. You can always slip in an affiliate something or other if you don't make it look like an ad... like a recommendation or something.

Babyboy says to find something you're passionate about. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. We're not all passionate about something and, even if we are, it doesn't mean anyone else is. Find something other people are passionate about and give them what they want.

 

[Grafix]

Get your website up and running, and then come back and ask us how to monetize it. Have you even registered a domain name? If not, you are putting the cart before the horse.

 

[smap]

I disagree with the other posters. If you're not doing this for fun/passion - if you're mostly in it to make a profit ... make sure you have a good idea that your application is going to profit before you dump hundreds of hours in to writing it. Fuck buying the domain name. There are tons of us around here with hundreds of domain names that have no applications on them... Make sure your app & business plan are viable then put your plan in to action.

If on the other hand as you're saying, you want to think about business only after you have a user base - be prepared that your site may not provide much income at all - even with an active user base. Maybe your audience just doesn't spend (enough) - who knows. I've been down this route and do not plan on travling it again. Always business first now.

 

[Rober77]

Hmm, thanks for the replies...I kinda agree with smap about business first...it's always been my take on things. Unless I'm writing an app I really need for myself, I usually think about $ first. I feel like theres not enough time in my schedule (I'm not working on this full time) to screw around without any hope of making my time worth while financially.

I think I'm going to take your advice and take a step back and get a decent plan going. I had envisioned running a beta edition, and then once everything seems fairly straightforward and stable running the site with a few ads, and then start charging for a premium membership, but at second thought that seems a little misleading to all of a sudden start charging for something that they were using for free...anybody have any experience/advice on this?

Also...anybody have experience with this type of site? I know a guy who has a service site and he is introducing new features in every iteration. I feel like some of the ideas I have for this site might be a little overwhelming, should I just K.I.S.S. at first and worry about throwing more features at people later? Or should I take the extra time to have a fully featured site that may be a bit intimidating?

Thanks

Oh and no I haven't even registered a domain yet. :error: I've spent hours searching for the right domain, and I have a few narrowed down, but nothing I'm in love with. This is mostly because I don't know the angle of how I'm going to propose this site to the public. I don't think anybody is going to grab them fast. I was thinking about having the site mostly together, registering the domain, looking at any legal issues, and
then trying to launch a beta version. Am i completely backwards?

 

[emp]

Sounds good, right up to the hesitating part.

Looks like you are ready to take the jump. Hesitating will get you nowhere.
::emp::

 

[Rober77]

heh thanks

Btw do I always have to wait to get my posts approved or is that just because I'm new?

*Edit* Nevermind

 

[smap]

I feel like theres not enough time in my schedule (I'm not working on this full time) to screw around without any hope of making my time worth while financially.

Yep yep yep. I'm in the same boat.

I had envisioned running a beta edition, and then once everything seems fairly straightforward and stable running the site with a few ads, and then start charging for a premium membership, but at second thought that seems a little misleading to all of a sudden start charging for something that they were using for free...anybody have any experience/advice on this?

I don't feel bad about giving service away to beta testers - they are helping you out. Maybe you give it away only for a certain time period (6 months, 1 year - whatever works for you). You can state from the get-go that "yourdomain.com reserves the right to move away from it's free structure blah blah". Spin it right - it's 90% perception.

I also like the idea of having a free service with limited feature set and charge for premium features. This seems to be popular and I think for good reason. Better to have a (free-plan) user who is in essence a potential customer you just haven't converted yet than someone who saw your prices and never came back to your site.

Also...anybody have experience with this type of site? I know a guy who has a service site and he is introducing new features in every iteration. I feel like some of the ideas I have for this site might be a little overwhelming, should I just K.I.S.S. at first and worry about throwing more features at people later? Or should I take the extra time to have a fully featured site that may be a bit intimidating?

Figure out what is essential to launch now and build only that. Add new stuff all the time after launch triage-style adding whatever is most important next. Your users will like that and chances are they will tell you what they want next and maybe it's not what you would have thought - ya know? Keeping them happy gives you a better chance at getting their $. You mentioned Rails so look at how Basecamp evolved and how Rails software in general is ... small feature set ... just what is important ... but do it well!

Sounds like you're doing lots of good critical thinking ahead of time so congrats on that.

Oh and no I haven't even registered a domain yet. :error: I've spent hours searching for the right domain, and I have a few narrowed down, but nothing I'm in love with. This is mostly because I don't know the angle of how I'm going to propose this site to the public. I don't think anybody is going to grab them fast. I was thinking about having the site mostly together, registering the domain, looking at any legal issues, and
then trying to launch a beta version. Am i completely backwards?

I don't think so. It's easy to spend way too much time thinking about domain names. Remember the domain is nothing without your app! The app is the critical part. You can always use one of those funky web 2.0 domain names.