I have 5 questions about my project

newxxx

9 years ago

do other similar horse/equine websites charge $10 monthly recurring fees ?

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David Beroff 9 years ago

Can you do it? Sure.

Should you charge this early in your progress? I'd advise no. Build your audience first, and perhaps have an eye to a future optional upsell for your most loyal fans.
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- Kay King 9 years ago
  
  What should my home page include?
  
  The idea isn't bad - but if you are asking the question above....why would people pay $10?
  
  Are you a professional horse trainer or equestrienne well known in the field or in competition circles?
  
  ask advice and receive critiques,
  
  What are they asking advice about? Tack or horsemanship - horse care or training?
  
  the more videos you upload a month the more "reward points" you would get and then those points can go toward something?
  
  Far too complex as a beginning plan in my opinion. Pare it down. Get the blog going - add some videos - build a readership then perhaps offer video "series" and charge for those. Add a store where you sell gear or personalized/branded items (that's one place to use affiliate products, too).
  
  If you want a monthly fee - build a good viewership on your blog and then launch a membership program with a monthly fee.
  
  There are ways to go about what you want to do but if you jump on all at once you will sink. Start with a basic blog - build a readership and add posts and videos - build a list from the getgo with a PLANNED email series.
  
  How far you can take this - and whether people will pay or not - depends on YOUR expertise in your subject and your marketing skills (learn as you go).
  
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tiffanymika

9 years ago

Mmm it can be confusing of what to do and where to start.

Start building your subscriber list that is a must! The money you make in the future will be in your list.

You have to build an audience.

You then want to for sure have a blog and giving tips etc away. Build the relationship is incredibly important.

When you have your list going then send them a survey with questions and find out what they are looking for.. then you give them what they want.

When I first started my golf teaching site I thought I would create this big really cool program... but after I launched it and then surveyed my list afterwards... I discovered it wasn't what they wanted. They were looking for something else.

I wish I knew to do that early on rather than spending alot of time and money working on other stuff.

If you want to bounce ideas off me... just send me a message

And we can chat further

Cheers

Tiff

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Tiffany Mika

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Darcey86

9 years ago

Ok that makes sense, I'll keep it simple starting out. I think I was starting to overwhelm myself trying to do everything at once

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Kay King 9 years ago

What can happen is you think up so many ideas you end up quitting because it seems like "too much".

Instead, keep a word doc or a notepad for that site labeled "ideas and plans" - and when you think of something you might want to do on the site in the future - write it down - explain it to yourself - date it (with the date you added it) and save the doc or notepad each time you add a new 'idea'.

Every few weeks or months look through those ideas to see if any are workable yet - chances are most will end up discarded but some will be good things to add as your site/business grows.
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rachelamitsharan

9 years ago

1) If you feel strongly about your logo, and think that it is going to be a key differentiator for your brand, the more appropriate step may be to register a trademark. A trademark protects a word, phrase, symbol or design (or a combination of these), that identifies and distinguishes the goods or services of one person or company from those of others.

2) Home page is your landing page. It should be kept simple yet should be informative and clarity around the purpose of the website.

3) No idea is bad in itself. A lot depends on the execution. If you are knowledgeable in this niche, the idea definitely has potential. You should think about starting with a few offerings and then building on as you go.

4) Again colors and graphics are matter of individual choice. If it looks good to you, you may proceed. You may try making a few changes and test if it impacts the traffic or review you get. That would tell you what is being received well by your audience. You may also look at other websites in the same niche and see what you like and don't like about those.

5) Affiliate marketing is definitely a possibility. But affiliates like to see some success before they would start promoting you. That can be a day 2 item once you've build some loyalty and proven that there is a demand for your products.

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Darcey86 9 years ago

Thanks for the tips everyone!
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Jack Gordon

9 years ago

You have received some good advice above, so I'll keep my post brief.

I just want to reinforce the idea that slow and steady wins the race. There is no shame in doing one thing at a time, then growing with feedback from your audience. If you establish a good relationship with them, they will tell you how to make what you've got better and what to do next.

I don't know what kinds of resources are out there for the "horse-related" community, but I imagine there are already some good examples you can emulate. Make sure you offer something unique so people have a reason to follow you.

I would start with a blog, utilizing social media to help it gain followers. I'd probably skip the idea of a forum until you have a large audience that is telling you they want one. Slow forums are the kiss of death. They are the opposite of social proof. You don't want people to come to your site and see a big empty room, because it will tell them that nothing is going on here and they will leave. Start with the blog and encourage interaction there.

Everything else can come organically, over time. Trust me... without building up an enthusiastic audience first, you won't be missing out on any sales.

Good luck.

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arojilla

9 years ago

1.- Everything you create is automatically your copyrighted work. No need to register. A different story is if you want to trademark it. Which I don't see the point in your case.

2.- If your site is content related, your home page should show your updated content: latest video, latest forums posts... if people go for content, that's the first thing you should give them.

3.- I guess you could accomplish most of what you want with Facebook pages. Less costs, less risks... and if you get a following, then you can move to your own site. or with YouTube if you are producing your own videos. Anyway, no idea is bad, it's the execution. There's lots of examples of really bad ideas that made someone a millionaire.

4.- Color is important, if your page is about branding, or about colors. Like people will visit your site for the content, not the colors. Is Craigslist beautiful? Reddit? They have loads of traffic because of the content or its value.

5.- Sure. On your site. On Facebook. Everywhere. The only thing you need is users.

Oh, forget about memberships! At least until you are big and what you offer is worth enough. Lots of really big sites have tried and failed. There's a lot of free content already

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Jason Kanigan

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Darcey86

So I've started trying to make my website/blog/forum/shop lol. I've been tinkering around with it and I am NOWHERE near done with it at all. But I do have a few questions. Some relate to Internet Marketing and some do not, but I wasn't sure where to put the other questions.

First I'll give a little info about my site/project and what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm trying to make a website, that has my own personal blog on it. On this blog its mainly for fun - I'll post how to videos, and tell about the equipment I used, where I bought it etc. And people can just follow along. (Its horse related) Then I would like to add a forum where other people can ask advice and receive critiques, they can post their videos as well and share tips. I would also like a "store" where I can sell T-shirts and stuff (this is something that has just came to me so I haven't thought much about it) But the t-shirts would be my website and website logo that I've created (I guess this would be my "brand"???) Then to be able to join and see this website/blog you'd have to sign up thru email. I'm thinking maybe charging a small monthly fee for the membership. Then here is where I'm not sure if it will be possible to do, but, I'd like to offer incentives. Lets say I charge $10 a month to be a member (this is just an example), and then lets say every month or so offer a discount to a store, or a gift of some sort. I also thought about maybe doing something like a rewards system. Say the more videos you upload a month the more "reward points" you would get and then those points can go toward something?? But anyways that's the "big" picture. Now the questions

1) I drew this picture for my website Logo. Do I need to copywright this picture and if so How do I go about doing this?

2) My home page. What should my home page include? Should I let it tell about my website and what all is offered and make it a landing page?

3) What is your honest opinion about my idea? Crap, waste of time, or does it have potential?

4) How important do you think color is on a website and what colors go well? Right now my page is all white and then a blue header. Seems kind of cold to me, but I want people to be able to read and see things well and to be unisex colors lol not too girly and not to manly

5) Affilitated marketing. I've been wanting to get into this. Could I use affiliated marketing on a site like this?

Don't sweat the little details, like logo. You can always change that.

What's your "message"? What are people going to get on your site that they can't get elsewhere?

Do you know where people who are already interested in horses and your specific topics--"horse gearheads" if you will--hang out? How can you reach them, interact with them, and draw some over to your site?

Have you thought about commission payments from videos posted on your site? You're giving these away as the idea stands now, I think.

Example: guy posts his gear review vid and write-up. It has a commission link to the product. Here you are, kindly providing a platform for him to get in front of already-interested potential buyers.

What do you get out of it?

You might be able to charge a little for the privilege of posting on your site. But the only people who are going to take you up on that are pro marketers who have experience and are certain they'll make an ROI.

Your average Chicken Little John Doe...nahh.

If there's a way of you getting a % of commission from sales made through your site, that would be the way I'd go.

I can think of a couple ways to accomplish that.

It removes the risk for the poster, who is after all providing free-to-you content for your site. And that is valuable. You can comment on their content and create even more content.

Concentrate on your business MODEL rather than details like your logo. People don't buy because of a logo. They buy because of the promise of what they're going to get.

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kk075

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Darcey86

1) I drew this picture for my website Logo. Do I need to copywright this picture and if so How do I go about doing this?

Nope, no need to copyright. You're naturally protected for images and logos.

Originally Posted by Darcey86

2) My home page. What should my home page include? Should I let it tell about my website and what all is offered and make it a landing page?

Your homepage should be highly visual and give summaries about the different parts of your site.

Originally Posted by Darcey86

3) What is your honest opinion about my idea? Crap, waste of time, or does it have potential?

Mostly crap. Why would anyone buy a membership that allows them to get discounts on t-shirts with your brand on them? If you're selling legit horse products that people already need, then fine...maybe it would work. But the discounts have to be real for people to be interested. It's not hard to do though and a lot of shopping carts let you generate promo codes for anything.

Charging a membership fee, on the other hand, is a downright HORRIBLE idea for too many reasons to list. The only reason people pay for memberships is because they get premium information/advice, and on a new site you'll have none of that. So focus on building a brand first and getting frequent traffic to your site, and worry about monetizing it later.

Originally Posted by Darcey86

4) How important do you think color is on a website and what colors go well? Right now my page is all white and then a blue header. Seems kind of cold to me, but I want people to be able to read and see things well and to be unisex colors lol not too girly and not to manly

Color is crucial, but so is negative space and a clean look. Start by looking at your site on the smallest possible screen size (a smartphone). Does it still look too bland? If so, add some color. If not, then it may be okay.

Originally Posted by Darcey86

5) Affilitated marketing. I've been wanting to get into this. Could I use affiliated marketing on a site like this?

Nope, people are not going to want to sell your T-shirts to the masses. If you write a quality guide about training or caring for horses, however, then it's possible you can slap $35 on it and then find a few affiliates. People won't waste their time though if they have to really work to sell your products....so you need to learn to sell before you ask others to.

I hope that helps.

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bestcreativeseo

9 years ago

Hi Darcey86

Your idea is really great. You should design an elegant website for your idea.
Here are my answers to your questions:

Your home page should include:
-Images of T-shirts and stuff you want to sell.
-There should be sections for Blog and forum.

You can really give a live face to your idea. As it is a good idea. See everyone can visualize a website that already exists but think when facebook was not found, Mark Zukerberg might have shared his idea with his friends and they might have said that, its really a wastage of time, you should not waste your time.But you can see where facebook is today. So you can be Mark Zukerberg after implementing your idea.

Color matters a lot in a website; it totally depends on your crowd which color to use.

Yes, you can definitely use Affiliate Marketing in your website.
As for all this, you should take expertise help.
For further help, you can PM me.

Regards
Vinika

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looseink

9 years ago

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Darcey86

9 years ago

Thanks for all the info! Right now my homepage looks like a landing page, people can sign up with their email address and name. What I plan on doing is once people sign up I plan to email them links to my blog whenever I post a new video, or things like; Obstacle Course plans and how I made certain obstacles, Riding patterns and exercises, Plans on how I made certain tack pieces, recipes on treats, fly spray etc. And then I thought about trying products out and sending reviews of those products.

However I'm having trouble creating the site lol. Like I made the homepage/landing page, but from there it goes no where. So now I'm Youtube and Googling on how to design that lol.

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bobbydobby

9 years ago

Do a good planning for your website and make advertisements and search engine optimization. Hope you will do well.

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I have 5 questions about my project

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