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Tips on how to plan the creation of a big website?

by rawaccess
11 replies
I'm just one person taking on a big task: turning my low-end site into a big one. It's warranted.

Advice on how to plan this?

I've found some teams on odesk who are highly qualified to execute this job.

My goal is to upgrade to a site similar to astrology.com and, if you visit that site, can see that it's a big deal. My site is growing into a position where I can compete with their authority, but I've never did anything this big before.

What steps should I follow to plan out and create this site? What tips do you have?
#big #creation #plan #tips #website
  • Profile picture of the author roblawrence
    That certainly sounds like a big task. It would be helpful to be able to actually see the site so we can get a rough idea of what's involved and what you need to do. Hard to judge from your post. You site could be a small 10-page site with a big dream or could already have an active community you are trying to monetize. To say you want to be Astrology.com is a HUGE endeavor. I lot of people want to be Beyonce but they can't sing.
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    • Profile picture of the author rawaccess
      I suppose I should have been more clear to say that the goal is in the creation, technical aspect. Social community and website traffic already exists at one million visits per month, about 600k uniques monthly, but they are landing on a simple Wordpress site to absorb specific info then bounce. Page views are merely 1.6 million because there isn't anything else for these visitors to do.
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      • Profile picture of the author Tim3
        Sounds like you have a lot of content on your site already.
        The easiest way might be to rebuild the site from scratch on another domain and then use a permanent 301 redirect from your old site to a new one.

        or if you want to keep the present domain name to build the new site on an add-on domain, and then when you are ready, use a maintenance plug-in and transfer everything to your old site.
        If rebuilding you will of course block the search engines from crawling your new site, especially if you are copying over the content.

        A third option is to plan and build the site as normal on your local machine (you own computer) with a virtual server, this will make for faster editing, and almost everything works exactly as it would do on a live site.
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  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    I don't trust the sellers on Odesk. If you won't be glad with their service you won't be protected. Odesk simply works like a bank. I had terrible experiences with various service providers there.

    You should go to the Warriors for Hire section and look for the help of Warriors instead of trusting these sellers you find at sites like Odesk and Elance.
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    • Profile picture of the author rawaccess
      I haven't had anything less than an outstanding experience with the contractors I've hired on oDesk over the years.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ronno99
    Why don't you lay out what you are thinking to do and I am sure you will get good advice. You are asking an open ended question (looking for handouts) as a result probably won't get the help you are looking for.
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    • Profile picture of the author rawaccess
      Originally Posted by Ronno99 View Post

      Why don't you lay out what you are thinking to do and I am sure you will get good advice. You are asking an open ended question (looking for handouts) as a result probably won't get the help you are looking for.
      I'm not looking for handouts but guidance from someone experienced who can structure my mind to tackle my problem effectively. I'm over my head with this.

      The question is not open-ended, but I'll be more specific. I wish to convert my WP site into something like Astrology.com. What backend should be used? Should I hire a building team or should I hire a management team to hire a building team? Do I need to retain a permanent, technical team for a site of this scope? Do I create a mock-up or do I hire a team to create a mock-up based on existing sites and details of my traffic?
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      • Profile picture of the author TeriWhiteheads
        Originally Posted by rawaccess View Post

        I'm not looking for handouts but guidance from someone experienced who can structure my mind to tackle my problem effectively. I'm over my head with this.

        The question is not open-ended, but I'll be more specific. I wish to convert my WP site into something like Astrology.com. What backend should be used? Should I hire a building team or should I hire a management team to hire a building team? Do I need to retain a permanent, technical team for a site of this scope? Do I create a mock-up or do I hire a team to create a mock-up based on existing sites and details of my traffic?
        There are many ready solutions out there, why pay for something custom? Take a look at jcow, it comes with tons of features, then just buy a custom theme if that is what you need or pay someone to do minor modifications if you need them.

        Basically, you need to decide what features you want to add to your site (that your site lacks) rather than saying you want to make your site like Astrology.com. Astrology.com looks like lit up Christmas tree to me
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      • Profile picture of the author Marx Vergel Melencio
        RawAccess,


        Seems you already know what to do. I recommend doing this first:

        Originally Posted by rawaccess View Post

        Create a mock-up based on existing sites and details of your traffic.
        Then, show the mock-up to your Web development service provider candidates and tell them this:

        Originally Posted by rawaccess View Post

        I wish to convert my WP site into something like Astrology.com.
        After discussing more specific things about the project, you could ask them these things (or you'd perhaps already have the answers by then):

        Originally Posted by rawaccess View Post

        What backend should be used? Do I need to retain a permanent, technical team for a site of this scope?
        Aside from content writing services and VAs, we also have available Web developer employees. Perhaps you'd be interested in working together with us on this project. Feel free to send a PM or an email to me here...
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  • Profile picture of the author Will Edwards
    Originally Posted by rawaccess View Post

    What steps should I follow to plan out and create this site? What tips do you have?
    Skip the planning and get on with the doing

    Seriously, you are probably right to do a bit of planning first. But the site you referenced does not look like too big a deal to me. There is every reason you can compete.

    I would create a Wordpress site with the appropriate categories and then just go for it - create a shed-load of content. Make sure it is good quality and just keep doing it.

    Good luck.

    Will
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  • Profile picture of the author roblawrence
    I think looking at solutions that already exist are your best bet. Why reinvent the wheel? Wordpress is extremely flexible and can do virtually anything you throw at it. Don't build something from scratch. It costs too much and takes too long. You'll end up frustrated and discouraged before you even finish the job.
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