Cloning - A Must

Today, I was trying to work on a job site, which I was going to launch along with a directory.

The themes I've been working are a nightmare, full of bugs and flaws, and I started comparing them to other sites in the space and it struck me just how much of a gulf of difference there is between themes and scripts made by web developers to sell and the million dollar websites and software that run the top sites in any space. I thought mine looked OK, and relatively speaking they do compared to most of the other junk on offer in the same price bracket, but under the bonnet there's a gigantic difference between them and sites who have invested big money. even on the front end too.

I have to persist at least for a few weeks with getting the directory to where I can generate some revenue. I've dropped the idea of launching a wordpress job board that is way of the pace, and I'll upgrade the directory to customized clone of a really good directory site I've seen and would like to emulate.

I've looked around and inquired about most of the job stuff out there, even madgex, that provides the software for some really high quality job boards like this one, where it's £750 just to post one job:

https://www.guardianjobsrecruiter.co.uk

Most on offer are absolutely crap. To run a site on Madgex, the rep diplomatically made me aware that you'd need very deep pockets to afford their stuff after I put out a £3000 grand a month as a hyperthetical budget. He must have smirked to himself at having to waste his time with such a small timer like me, as it's probably north of £30.000 for these big corporate level sites .

The directories available on wordpress are poor too. Not even 10% of the quality and features of professional sites. The sign-up processes, the options and benefits they offer users, the layout, the functionality, completely different on sites built purposely for a company who know what functionality their directory needs in the real world versus a Themeforest creator.

Enough to make you embarrassed at your own effort you've built with the aim of getting into the market.

So that got me thinking about cloning and a few articles I read. Like this one: If you can't beat 'em, clone 'em: the copycat websites causing war on the web - ES Magazine - Life & Style - London Evening Standard


You can clone top sites and get their business model. I don't know full prices but I've seen around $500 to $1000 to customize any site and create some customer scripts and change design. Maybe even less.


Some business models are making 100's of 0000's in revenue and you can clone their model like the guys in the article have done to build an empire of billions.

I wish I'd looked into cloning again more closely before blowing around a $1000 on poor scripts and themes where most don't have the functions to enable you to run a successful, higher-end business.

If you're going to get into that area, then save up and invest the extra few hundred in cloning a top site in the industry who have already spent 000's, more likely millions, on development, buyer journeys, conversion testing, UI, copy, design, etc.


Hard lesson I learned today when I realized how far off the pace my sites actually are from top companies making truckloads of money offering the same kind of services and who could relatively easily be copied. And how I could have invested and have two or three higher-end websites that users will love for the same amount of money and less time, without having to spend weeks trying to fix bugs with the other themes.


Anyone here know anything about cloning?