Janet — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:38:06 +0000

Hi guys, thanks for advice. I am learning a lot from forums such as this one. I am also considering taking a few programming courses at my local college. I have an accounting degree, but I have been home with my kids for about 8 years now. I know all this stuff is available to learn online, but I think getting out of the house (since I have three small children) will be a better learning environment for me since I don't get too much time to myself at home.

As far as approaching papers for revenue sharing, we have thought about doing that. But, that would require changes to the website so I am not ready to do that yet. Definately something we are thinking about, though. Especially the smaller papers who are not going to spend the money to do photos online themselves.

My programmer did install a text editor for me, so I am now able to make some changes/additions to the site myself. It has helped.

I will keep you guys posted. Thanks again,

Dudester — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 04:20:20 +0000

Janet,
If you have the time and the internet, you can learn just about anything!!!!

I was in exactly the same situation as you about 3 years ago, thats when I started researching web design on the net, I now run a web design business and have 40 or so sites under my belt. If you persevere you will find the tutorials to do just about anything and forums like this one to help, just put in the time, keep trying and you will get there.

Good luck.
Dude.

dojo — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 19:28:16 +0000

Hmm .. tricky ...

But I think you can make it. HAve someone you trust work on the technical side (the development) and you can be the mastermind for the promotion and the entire project. I do advise you to save an offline version of the site on your PC and play with it. You'll start learning some small stuff first (modify some text, maybe an image) and little by little you'll know a lot. It's indeed nice to have someone reliable by your side, but it's also good to know some of the details of the web develoment business since you'll have more controll.

Best of luck with it and keep us posted. I'm really interested to see how this will develop

Revenue Sharing

Pleb — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 23:07:46 +0000

Just out of curiosity, have you considered approaching paper classified owners with a revenue-sharing proposal? Ie, they offer your service as part of their package & keep 50% (say) of the revenue that's generated by people who sign up through them to use your service?

Janet — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 12:22:06 +0000

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I feel better now. I know that marketing is very important and that is something I can do. I am working hard on that now. Thanks again for the inspiration!

Atlantis — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 05:03:04 +0000

You must keep at it, Janet! No matter what!

If this site concept doesn't do the trick, then there's nothing that says you can't do something else.

You should consider learning HTML and CSS. It's not really that hard. That way, the sky is the limit and you will succeed!

Megan — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 02:20:52 +0000

I think you can still run the site and do well with it without necessarily being able to do the programming and such. True, you won't be able to make changes on the back-end, but you will be able to do some things like promote the site (which is one of the most important things!), add content possibly, and keep things running smoothly.

I developed a site about 5 years ago with some friends. I was the only one who knew anything about web design. Well, about 2 years after we started the site I lost interest in the topic and had to resign from the site. They have been able to learn what they needed to to keep the site going strong and it's still doing well today. Sure, the design hasn't changed, and they haven't added a lot of new features, but the content is good and that's what keeps people coming back.