Comments on Venturing into cyberspace - creating a viable website Part 3

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Re: ash_pradhan - you say "two websites?"

I meant my website and the publisher Xlibris' website..they can be easily linked together at no additional cost or time for me. What remains then is to develop and link to my website effective Facebook & Google presences. Currently, the former is non-existent by choice, and the latter is only partially done for the reasons you correctly listed. It seems to me that having gone this far, both in terms of time & money, the prudent thing to do first is to squeeze outa Xlibris most, if not all, of this effort for no additional cost or money for me.

posted by ash_pradhan on March 29, 2012 at 3:55 PM | link to this | reply

ash_pradhan - you say "two websites?"

Are you referring to Blogit as the second website?

One thing I should mention is that false starts are inherent as part of the process of developing a successful web site. I have had many of them, trial and error is the only means of determining what will work in your chosen market niche sometimes. High web traffic coming to a site for example does not necessarily translate into increased sales, there are numerous other factors.

 

posted by gomedome on March 29, 2012 at 11:03 AM | link to this | reply

Upon further thought...

Based on your below guidance:

                             Project Mission Statement

To create a viable web presence by linking / integrating cost-effective, flexible, content management COTS tools (eg, Wordpress) with popular social media (eg, Google, Facebook) to attract and direct potential customers to POS destinations (eg, Xlibris, Amazon).

Please correct / comment as apt. Frankly, that's where I thought I was headed with my two websites..but your points are well-taken, as indicated by the fact that very little traffic has been generated so far.

 

 

posted by ash_pradhan on March 28, 2012 at 9:36 PM | link to this | reply

Re: ash_pradhan - I've tried to keep all of these things in mind

ok, right now I need to take a deep breath before I take the plunge..stand by coach, you might have to jump in to save a drowning novice :)!

posted by ash_pradhan on March 28, 2012 at 8:12 AM | link to this | reply

ash_pradhan - I've tried to keep all of these things in mind

Ultimately I am suggesting that you do not invest any more money in your effort, only time. The time it takes for you to learn how to use and modify a self publishing platform. As I mentioned from the outset, I have virtually no experience in your specific market but I do know that selling self produced works online is a very tough market. Therefore all of my suggestions have been to utilize free elements of web authoring and to eliminate all second party contracting (your webmaster) needed for website changes and updates along the way.

I do not believe that you can invest your way to profitability by spending more money improving your existing static web pages. I also believe you are correct in saying that opening media site accounts and referring potential customers via linking is a good way to go but why not send them directly to the points of sale? Your existing website becomes an extra and unnecessary step (and expense) in this scenario.

All web based endeavors work on much the same principles, web traffic and potential customers come from two basic sources in site optimization and referral. In other words: from search engines and a linking strategy. You have a classic catch 22 situation where your existing website is not likely to garner any appreciable search engine traffic as it is now but the monetary investment to correct this situation is not cost effective. The cost considerations of using others to do website updates also greatly hinders the development of additional revenue streams (i.e. a directory of affiliate links etc.).

The point here is that I cannot give you any idea of how much time and money you need to invest to end up with a viable web presence. In reality I am suggesting that the only investment you make at this point is in yourself, in taking the time to learn more about self publishing platforms. I speak from experience here; the only path to becoming a successful online marketer is to become self sufficient with the basic technologies needed to market your product.

posted by gomedome on March 28, 2012 at 7:01 AM | link to this | reply

Re: ash_pradhan - another suggestion

Before I start investing time & money in this project, could you please give me some idea how much time & money I'd have to invest to take it to completion? Alternatively, since I've already invested time & money in my present static website, how much additional money would be involved in adding those key words & popular media links if I decided to stick with that inefficient approach? I'd hate to take either approach and not be able to finish it out of frustration..it might be easiest to just open some media accounts (eg, facebook, twitter) and therein provide a link to my static version (which already has links to Xlibris & Amazon). I'm trying to increase exposure of my work, not necessarily utilize the latest & greatest technology, even if it means "brute force" technology :), if it saves me time & money..that's the businessman in me talking not the technologist.

posted by ash_pradhan on March 27, 2012 at 8:34 PM | link to this | reply

ash_pradhan - another suggestion

In answer to your first question, leaving your website intact while starting a Wordpress project is difficult to do on the same web space if both are to exist in the web root during transition. If you feel more comfortable switching to the Wordpress platform and familiarizing yourself with it before deleting your existing website there is another way. You could start a free blog hosted on Wordpress.com, transfer your website content to that blog and once you are ready to install the Wordpress software on your own web space, you could use the Wordpress import utility to do an auto transfer of any content you have published there.

To avoid confusion, Wordpress is free open source software distributed by Wordpress.org via download or auto-install for use on any web space. Wordpress.com on the other hand uses a version of that software (a lite version with slightly fewer features) to provide a free Wordpress blog hosted on their web space. You can try different themes, do a bit of customization and check out most of the Wordpress features before jumping in completely.

 

posted by gomedome on March 27, 2012 at 7:45 PM | link to this | reply

Hello Again .. I think this is all becoming easier to understand. It's been a rough day and  the morning will bring a sharper mind, I hope!

posted by BrightIrish on March 27, 2012 at 5:26 PM | link to this | reply

Re: ash_pradhan - what I am suggesting

Hey GD, took a quick look at all three of those websites..do seem fairly simple..must admit I'm excited..hope don't get too sidetracked from my main mission of writing poetry..some initial questions:

1. Is it correct that I should start a separate Wordpress-based project of copy-pasting my website content (with desired editing), and leave the present version untouched till this one gets developed and launched successfully?

2. Knowing what I'm trying to do, which themes would you initially recommend for me?

Btw, as our dialogue continues thru completion, knowing that mine is a specific customized case, please feel free to format your guidance / advice to me in such a way that later I could prepare a pointed summary for you for your later use. I can't help feel that several writers here, eg, Sam, Katray, TAPS and others could benefit from that. Thanks a bunch :)!

posted by ash_pradhan on March 27, 2012 at 3:35 PM | link to this | reply

Ok thanks, I'll give it a shot as time permits, and...

ask you for your expert advice if & when I stall!

posted by ash_pradhan on March 27, 2012 at 3:16 PM | link to this | reply

ash_pradhan - what I am suggesting

Is a Wordpress installation in the place of your existing website. Now that it is clear you are engaging a webmaster to do all site updates I must put more emphasis on my recommendation. A Wordpress installation will give you a control panel for your site content independent of the web space control panel. It will have many similarities to posting on Blogit but with many more features. It will also allow you to forgo having a second party (your webmaster) handling all changes to your web content and the cost of installing new features down the road. There is admittedly a learning curve in becoming conversant with Wordpress but the links I provided in the previous comment can take you a long way in understanding how it all works.

 

posted by gomedome on March 27, 2012 at 1:36 PM | link to this | reply

Re: ash_pradhan - the first questions I would ask you are:

The publisher takes care of both websites, mine & theirs..I provide all the content, review their product, and suggest changes. Based on my layman's understanding of your advice so far, seems to me there might be a simple way to link / plug / interconnect / integrate together the two websites and Wordpress to quickly give me the multiple social media exposure that I'm looking for..but I am not at all competent / comfortable to personally make such an attempt..what do you suggest?

posted by ash_pradhan on March 27, 2012 at 12:34 PM | link to this | reply

ash_pradhan - the first questions I would ask you are:

Who controls the web space where your current website resides? Do you have access to the web space control panel? The reason I ask is that it is very possible your web space has an auto-install utility for Wordpress (installation will take less than 2 minutes).

If you are interested in going the Wordpress route you should pay a visit to 3 websites first. HERE is a Wordpress overview page, HERE is a demo page where you can check out the administration panel (also linked to from the overview page) and HERE is one of many places to get a free theme. Keep in mind that themes can also be downloaded and installed through the admin panel (referred to in Wordpress jargon as the Dashboard).

posted by gomedome on March 27, 2012 at 11:38 AM | link to this | reply

Btw GD.. you might get a kick out of...

my comment on my today's post :)! - Ash 

posted by ash_pradhan on March 27, 2012 at 10:54 AM | link to this | reply

Re: ash_pradhan - Re: So how do I / we go about linking / plugging...

Thanks GD, this makes total sense to me..will you kindly guide me thru completion & launch of the new & improved version before I kill the present version? Also, I'm by no means a software developer / coder..so when it comes to that, it's safe to assume I'm a novice, despite being a degreed EE..I assure you, I won't be offended :), knowing that the advice is coming from an expert in the field, yourself! Regards, Ash

posted by ash_pradhan on March 27, 2012 at 10:39 AM | link to this | reply

ash_pradhan - Re: So how do I / we go about linking / plugging...

The honest answer is that you do not attempt to do so. By publishing static web pages you have taken a step in the wrong direction, fortunately it is only a micro step which can easily be corrected. What your website needs first is to have someone with SEO knowledge go over it and make a handful of necessary corrections both to the existing code and by adding guidance for search engine robots to the web root (on the web server). When it is considered that keyword research would be a part of this effort you may find yourself contracting a professional for 4-8 hours just to arrive at the beginning of a viable website capable of maximum web distribution and exposure. All features and functions from that point on would have to be hard coded or added manually, many of these tasks involving an advanced level of technical knowledge. Simply put it is an extremely inefficient way to establish a web presence.

Or you could take 2-4 hours of your time, auto-install a CMS, modify its appearance to be as close to your website as possible, copy and past its content and find yourself exponentially ahead of where you are now in your website's development. Future extensions to functionality become simply a matter of searching for and enabling plugins (including a social media plugin) found in most of the available CMS databases.

Your application begs for Wordpress . . . I trust that my criticisms are viewed as an attempt to be helpful as they are intended.

posted by gomedome on March 27, 2012 at 9:02 AM | link to this | reply

So how do I / we go about linking / plugging...

my existing website into social media platforms? which platforms? why?

posted by ash_pradhan on March 27, 2012 at 8:22 AM | link to this | reply