Since I am not working full time, I am planning to start a blog which would offer my financial services, as well. There are just too many blog sites. Needed suggestions on which are the good and popular ones based on what I need. Of course I would need to add paypal buttons and attract traffic on my blog.
Hmm. I only know the major ones, like Seeking Alpha or Zero Hedge, plus the circulations like Gartman letter. Other than that, there is a lot of analyst coverage on most things, so there is no lack of reading material. What is your edge over other writers, if I might ask?
I think sumz was asking more for publishing platforms, but I might be mistaken. I’ve used blogspot/blogger which is a google property and intigrates nicely with other google products. It’s free and you can make it look any way you want if you have HTML skills. That seems like a fine start. Get good content and then worry about the other issues later. Choosing a host would be the least of my worries.
I already gave her content advice (which she shunned) over in the Career forum. I know it’s hard to tell, but I was being completely sincere. This needs to happen.
http://www.analystforum.com/comment/91582059#comment-91582059
What you need is a catchy name for your blog.
www.iguarantya100%returneveryyear.com
or something like that.
I used Dreamhost for a while and they were fine. The big problem I had with blogging were adbots filling up the comments with crap. You can try to filter them, but it ends up being a full time job to press “no, reject” all the time. I eventually turned all the comments off.
yes I needed publishing platform. I am a beginner blogger thus totally lost. I need the following features:
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Some place where I can use drag and drop type of function to edit the look and content. I think drag and drop might be easiest to do. I have very basic and by now probably outdated web design skills
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ability to add paypal since I will be offering financial services.
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of course links to FB, linkedin icons
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no unwanted adds
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domain name of my choice
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mantainence & other tech issues should be the host headache not mine.
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ability to interact with audience. I should be able to decide what comments to keep or delete.
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I am willing to pay max $100 per year if all my requirements are met.
I tried using simplesite But I didnt like. Trying wordpress but the editing looks complicated to me.
Thanks for your inputs so far.
So… you are in essence starting/marketing your own buisness via a web portal and are only willing to spend $100 per year to maintain it?
REALLY listen what you are saying: “I want to make a living for myself and be succesfull, but am only willing to invest $100”
Just buy some lottery tickets and be done with it. You’re chances of succeeding are about the same.
I hate to be blunt, but most businesses fail becasue the owner is not around: either the business was a “Side Business” and never got the full attention to prosper, or they just half-assed it underestimating the work involved. Look at any successfull business and you will see someone who gave their life to it.
Now for some REAL advice: Spend a little money and do it right. If this is going to be a real thing, the money put into it now will pay off. I’ve done some websites/business before, the costs don’t need to be extreme to get some quality work. Sure, you can just buy a domain name and point to a free blog host, but your site will look cookie-cutter, be unpolished, and you will be limited in what you can do. Also, requiring the design to be drag-and-drop means you are not really qualified to do this yourself in the firstplace. So rather than spend some time learning to code properly, hire someone to do it right for you and save your effort to doing what you are trying to sell: financial services. (When you’re sick you don’t go to med school to learn how to diagnose yourself, you go to the doctor…). If you set up the site properly in the first place, then ongoing maintenace costs will be significantly lower anyway. (As you said the host will be responsible for this… hate to break it to you, but this costs money). When I built some of my sites, I found up and coming guys out of school who were happy to do everyhting I wanted for very little money (I think like, $500 or so to build everyhting, and maintained them for $99 a year). All they wanted in return was to be able to include my sites in advertising for thier portfolio of work. They were unknowns who wanted to be able to show off, I was looking for web design on the cheap… a match made in heaven. Look for these people, they are out there.
Also, do some research and come up with a viable business plan. You mention offering financial services, but also ads. What is your product? Free content to drive visits/clicks for ad revenue? Premium Paid Content? A Mix of both? How will you drive traffic? SEO only goes so far so you will need to explore possible advertising methods, referrals, etc… As you said, there are a million sites. You have to differentiate so people actually come to you.
There is nothing to stop you from being successfull as long as you invest the required capital and more importantly the TIME to do it right. (and no offense, asking questions about popular sites on an anonymous board isn’t exactly quality research. There is market data on site traffic you can aquire… key-words that drive people to finance sites, average time spent per page, origin of traffic, operating systems used, last/next page visted… Don’t assume you know what people want to look at and how they want it presented… find out EXACTLY what people are looking for and tailor your site to them).
In the other thread you started it was mentioned to just try to contribute to other sites… why not start that first? See if there is an audience for your work and build on it… try to get a following to justify spending the needed $$$ to get you up and running on a more professional basis. This is a pretty good no-cost (except time), no-risk way to get your feet wet.
Blogspot is probably going to be your best source if you’re looking to have a maximum of $100 in expenses per year. google checkout might also also be integrated into blogspot so it could be a fairly seemless exercise.
Content is king and the downfall for all blogs is burnout. Readers quickly move on from a blog if it isn’t updated daily with new interesting articles. Good luck on your venture.
Thanks for your genuine advice! I am totally new in this area and I haven’t got any good guidance. Thus, constructive criticism, suggestions and guidance are much appreciated.
I PMed you.