ilovegod.us - How should I develope this?

Mornin' all..

Yesterday I obtained the domain ilovegod.us and now plan on developing the name to generate revenue and increase it's value, how do you think I should develope the site to do so?

So far i've thought about:

1) Having a PHP script by which people can post a message, (either anon or registered) and then people can comment/vote etc, ofc this messages would be related to god/their god etc.

2) Setting up the site as a forum, using vBulletin.

So what's your take on this?

All input appreciated.

-nmx

 

How much time do you have each day to devote to maintaining and administering the site? That's going to be one of the main factors that determines what you do with the site.

 

Well I have around 3-6 hours on weekdays, and then weekends, all day.. So I have quite abit of time to put into this, though i'm not sure if it's a project I want to commit to/launch or if I should just sell the domain off and let someone else doing, as now i've got plans for atleast one more project which may also require alot of time..

-nmx

 

Ok, do you know anybody that could volunteer their time to helping you out with running and maintaining this?

 

Not currently, though I'm sure I could find a second 'admin' to help me run it.

Do you feel this has potential to generate much revenue though? Or would my time be better spent on other things?

-nmx

 

It depends on what you do with it and how you market it. If you don't believe me, look up "snake oil" in the dictionary.

Of course there are also wonderful examples of valuable resources that we use each and every single day.

What I'd probably do though is start it off as a blog with a few featured writers (this will mean assembling a team), write some quality original content, promote the site to get some regular return visitors (readers who will comment and contribute), then think about branching off into a forum once you have the userbase that will be necessary for a community.

 

Sorry if i'm just being an idiot, but could you explain how exactly you meant that 'snake oil' thing? haha, looked it up, but couldn't find the 'context', if that's the right way of putting it?

As for a blog, that's an idea that never occured to me! Personally, I think i'd just run the site, opposed to writing as I'm only really developing the site for money/revenue, not as an interest as such, so composing a team will be necessary.

Would you suggest using word press? Or something else?
Also does wordpress allow me to put ads etc on the site? And what would be the best way to generate money on the site via 'advertising'? (e.g Adsense, Affilliates etc)

Thanks!

-nmx

 

Snake oil is a derogatory term used to describe something that's had false and misleading claims made to make it sound too good to be true. Like this for example:

A guy walks up to you and tells you that the bridge you're looking at is for sale. It'll cost a lot, but he tells you to think about all the money you can make from charging every crosser a toll to get on (and/or off) the bridge. Obviously, this guy's full of it, since bridges are public throughfares and not private property.

And yes, I do suggest using WordPress for this. WordPress is an excellent content management system (geared mainly for blogs, but can be configured to act as a traditional CMS with a little bit of work). While WordPress.com (the hosted version) does not allow for ads, the "do it yourself" version (which you install on a server) does, and is available at www.wordpress.org

If you want to learn about making money from content, go to your local public library and pick up a copy of the book titled "Money for Content and Your Clicks for Free" by JD Frazer. It'll tell you what you need to get started (as well as providing some valuable life lessons).

 

Right i'm trying to get WP going now. I've downloaded the files, uploaded them using SmartFTP, but not sure how I go about locating the install.php file, how should I type it in on the browser?

-nmx

 

http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php

Just replace yourdomain.com with the domain name you registered. Also make sure you set up the database and wrote a config.php file before attempting the actual installation.

(And please, do NOT type out the actual link to your installation file here - it's not worth it.)

 

It's still decided it doesn't want to work! When fiddling around, I got something to appear but it was an error, saying the password or database information might be wrong, which it wasn't, so who knows?

 

What error is it spitting out? Also, what verison of WordPress are you using?

 

site about praise reports - and prayer requests.

 

"Error establishing a database connection"

I just downloaded off their website, so it'll be w/e the latest is.

 

Ok, did you set up the database first, then write the config.php file?

 

Yeah, did MySQL DB first then config file then upload.

 

Ok. I'd check with your hosting provider then. Your MySQL database may be on a different physical server (if so, they're idiots, and you'll have to get that server's IP address and replace localhost with it).

 

Sell it to the church next door for way too much than what its worth.

 

Come on, let's be serious here, shall we?

 

I'm using 'Free Hostia', which as you probably guessed, is a free host (only temporary) which probably doesn't help..

Though I do find SmartFTP doesn't always upload every file (don't know why) so maybe something could be missing?

-nmx