There are many people that by a place at a webhost or get an own server just to launch a newsportal. This can cost lots of money and time. So why not do it all for free in no time? I will describe here how to build a portal that consists of articles with comments, a forum and a shop. All this in less than 30 minutes. 1. Make a shop: Create an account at cafepress(www.cafepress.com) and create a store. Load up some images t-shirts, mugs, mousepads, sweatshirts and other stuff that you want to sell. Make descriptions ad keywords for every product and make a description for the store itself. 2. Make a forum: Create an account at invisionfree(www.invisionfree.com). Edit the configurations after your needs and add some categories into it. 3. Make a news page(blog): Create an account at blogspot(www.blogger.com). Add links in the template to both the shop and the forum. 4. Be active in the forum and the blog. Promote it with forum signatures and your community will grow. And it doesn't matter much if it doesn't grow. You didn't spend anything on it anyway.
People do this sort of thing all the time, but maybe not all at once like you're suggesting. Even though it will take only minutes to register a store, forum, and blog, the time consuming part is step 4. At that point you're faced with the same issues as if you were paying for hosting. How much time do you spend finding news links for the blog? Do you pay someone else to do that for you? How do you market the cafepress goods? They're not just going to sell themselves when you're a no-name blog/forum.
In my experience, the cost of hosting is trivial compared to the work involved in building content and promoting. Like torunforever said, #4 is the beeyotch. Or, as they might put it on slashdot: 1. Build free web empire 2. ??????? 3. Profit!!!!
Also.. you may want to have a link section.. well then I can reccomend Yourdirectories, a place where you can create link sections for free(yourdirectories.net).
Hmm, latehorn... While I think using a seperate site for your link directory is totally redundant with blogger (I just stick it all into posts there), I am beginning to see one benefit to your "modular" approach- interlinking. So how many potential off-site add-ons can you came up with? Does anyone host free Wiki? Is there a site just dedicated to hosting other people's polls?
Well, Latehorn, while I am skeptical, I also have a very strong (some would even say perverted) inquisitive streak and may just try this as an experiment. So my next question to you is: are you actually doing this or is this just a concept at this point? How many off-site add-ons can other people come up with? Do other people think the advantages of interlinking that this approach offers are at all worthwhile?
Well.. look at my blog.. it has a free linkdirectory and free cafepress shops. I am getting 10-30 visitors everyday
Well, because your hardcore like that. Thats some useful tips, although theirs more to it than that. A "newsportal" would be a place people go to find breaking news, your gonna either need to have a feed for that or spend your life copy pasting articles.
Thirty hits a day doesn't convince me this approach is worthwhile. Anyway, I looked at your blog. Did you see that MIT study on the efficacy of tin foil hats?