An Experiment of a Webmaster

When I was first introduced to myspace I hated it. After thinking back, I realised that I was extremely jealous. When ever I criticise it, I think about a large community web site that I developed and realise I suffer from many of the things I complain about too. I don’t know what was really going through Toms mind when he made MySpace, but I can give you a little insight into the development of my online rpg, The Dark Grimoire. Continue reading ‘MySpace is stuck supporting a crappy interface’

I don’t like to haggle, but I really like the “marketplace” type feel of buying services. A forum that I frequest has a section where people can announce their services and buyers reply in the post. Its a chance for people to promote their services without having any real established presence like a dutch auction on ebay for services. You can even read feedback on people and they have reputation based on not only their sales, but what people think of all of their posts.
Continue reading ‘Haggling for services’

This is another article in my series on starting a web based business. The first article was all about finding a cheap web host with php and mysql. The second told you where to get cheap domain names and set them up quickly. This article is going to take a step back from really being a tutorial and get you into the mindset that you need to be in, mainly thinking about how to turn your idea into a web business, or how to come up with an idea.
Continue reading ‘Starting a Web Business: Part 3, Whats your site about?’

In our previous tutorial I rambled on about the best places to get hosting. If you missed that last post, you can find all about cheap php and mysql hosting here. Finding a domain name goes right along with that, and you’ll probably get it set up at the same time or shortly after your hosting is set up. This article isn’t going to be about how to choose a domain name, though I may write one of those later, it’s about how to get the domain name and set it up quickly.
Continue reading ‘Starting a Web Business: Part 2, Domain Names’

For someone that does not have experience getting a hosting account, this can be a daunting step. People expect to see things a little pricey and are afraid to even look because they think a fairly large investment will be involved. When they find out that you can get a quality web site for under $10 a month the natural fear of being taken for a ride kicks in. It just seems like you can’t possibly get a good deal for that price, so they gravitate towards the expensive for no reason hosts.

Luckily any of us who’ve been around for a while know this isn’t the case. You can easily get an entire year of hosting for under $100, rather than the one month people expect. Cheap web hosting is not a bad option either. The cheaper web hosts used to have poor customer service or features to make up for this, but now they have full blown service any business would love.
Continue reading ‘Starting a Web Business: Part 1, Getting Online’

I decided to make my experiments with internet business a public affair. This opens me up to the criticism associated with making stupid mistakes, but at the same time hopefully I’ll be corrected when I make them.

I’m not inexperienced when it comes to the internet as I’ve been a professional web programmer off and on since 1999. Along with some people more talented in the grammatical arts than me, I also currently run The Dark Grimoire, an online roleplaying game.

I have a lot of knowledge from a business perspective about how to run an online service business. What I’ll be learning, along with everyone who tunes in, is how to add search engine optimization and affiliate marketing to my bag of tricks.