Newbie Questions

[ThingsTwiceCreated]

Hi All, Read Tim's book about 2 months ago and continue to refer to it. What it did for me was create a burning curiosity about how I might be able to transition from my J.O.B. to a more free and lucrative lifestyle. My industry (land planning) is drying up, I'm about to turn 40, and I have a great family.

Anyway, my question is this. Has anyone ever purchased existing web sites from Sitepoint.com or any of the others? I have no site design experience, but I am sure I could figure out how to maintain and market existing sites. I have some cash that I could use to invest in the right product. There are so many sites existing that I could champion and develop as my muse. I am just not sure how to tell gold from rotten apples, if you will.

Any experience with this out there? Any ideas? Thanks a ton.
Mark

[James Grey]

Yes I have purchased a few websites from sitepoint – but that was only after I had ran and started my own sites for several years first

You should first learn how to run, promote, manage, ect… a website before you spend your hard earned money on buying a used one

It is very tricky to find the jewel amongst the turds and scams on sitepoint, being able to look at a site and determine its long term sustainability is not an easy task. This is something best suited to someone with experience – also I have never seen a website on sitepoint worth buying that cost less than 8K, 10 to 20 is more like it

If you don’t know how to change the oil in your car – then you shouldn’t buy a 66 mustang expecting to fix it up and sell it for a profit

But good luck on your ventures – I hope this helped you out

James Grey

[webgal]

I bought Dreamweaver and downloaded a template. That was the best thing I ever did. I don't use many templates, design my own but it was a great learning tool. I started with DW3 about 8 years ago. It rocks. It also depends on what kind of site you want to build as to how you set it up. Programming site versus html. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

I can't say I'm impressed with SitePoint. There are other content management systems both free and ones you buy. Joomla and Drupal are two in programming languages that are open source (free). But just start taking a look at your options, first.

You shouldn't make this decision until you have a muse and have defined who your target audience is.

[TimW]

I've used NetObjects Fusion for my websites and it was pretty easy, though I hear it embeds a lot of unnecessary "stuff".

However, remember that one of the points is to outsource if you can. I have no desire or time to learn a new website program, so for me, this will do. If I need more, I'll hire someone.

[ThingsTwiceCreated]

James,
Thanks for the analogy. I understand what you mean about being able to "change the oil", or in this case, actually build the car.

Webgal,
Thank you for your thoughts about software. I'm currently shopping a couple macbooks on craigslist and looking specifically for something that comes loaded up with Dreamweaver, as I have heard good things about it from many. Thanks also for your thoughts on first developing the muse and target audience. To that end, I have enrolled in the Thirty day challenge (www.thirtydaychallenge.com) and have worked my way through the first week, which was essentially another stab at Tim's muse identification and testing chapters. Good reinforcement.

TimW,
Thanks for your comments on outsourcing development. That was the basis of my thoughts regarding purchase of existing websites. I am still going to pursue that avenue, but at a slower pace which allows me to learn and further explore the points James and Webgal made.

I have several muses flying around in my head. The most prominent one is a very specific supplement addressing two common and related health/wellness issues that I have never seen anyone combine anywhere. My problem is that in searching adwords and wordtracker, I am not finding many people at all searching for this combination of issues. Is that a problem, or as my wife sees it, an opportunity? Thanks everybody!
Mark

[webgal]

Dreamweaver CS is out so you can probably get Dreamweaver 8 at a good deal. You can upgrade later. I've seen it for about $250.

I love the mac. But I have to have both a mac and pc. With a mac you can't see what your website looks like on IE (internet explorer). Bunches of major league things can be wrong with a website that looks dandy on safari but totally wacky on ie. I wouldn't worry about it except that in some cases 91% of the visitors are using it although firefox is creeping up there from what I can see in all my stats.

Just a thought. I guess I have wanted to go 100% mac myself. I've heard a lot here about the 30-day challenge so let us know how that is working for you.

[James Grey]

You should take a look at xsite pro – it does everything for you with out having to learn much – including all of the tedious SEO stuff

Dreamweaver and Adobe stuff is great – unfortunately it is not “plug and play” you will need time to learn it

Also take a look at Vbulletin – you can do allot with it and it has a fairly short learning curve

~James Grey

[webgal]

True about DW/Adobe learning curve. But I do think it's very valuable.
James I'll have to check out xsite pro.

[James Grey]

I am actually an engineer by trade – but I don’t use adobe/DW – too much tedious stuff. I was forced to learn adobe/DW and a few other web developing programs – and I am still not that great with any of them

Also adobe/DW are made to make big sites – not search engine optimized sites for internet marketers, you can – but expect to spend allot of time doing the small stuff

There is a reason that a 100 million dollar a year industry exists just based on the business model of teaching people Adobe/DW – it’s not easy to learn, Especially if you do not have an IT background

All of my sites are made with xsite, joomla, phpbb, vbulletin or wordpress


James Grey