Help Needed

[3guk]

Well its sorts sort of aimed at them both seperatly while trying to help them both !!

 

For instance many dj's would love to know how to program DMX boards properly.

 

But I do understand what you mean and it will be alot of work . But hopefully we can get people to submit and once we earn money from advertising we can then start paying people to review ect !!

 

Thanks for your comments

[IanG]

and once we earn money from advertising we can then start paying people to review ect !!

If you think there is money to be made in small-scale internet advertising then think again. I used to admin a site which did around 10,000 page views a day, which is a reasonable amount for a non-commercial site, IMO. We spent alot of time looking at the various advertising options but none would bring in anything like a decent return, so in the end we decided it was better not to bother.

[nickb12345]

Another thing to consider is how are you going to pay for it all

 

if the site makes it mug time like this one has you stand little change of running it stably on a shared hosting system, you are looking at a dedicated server, and thats when it starts costing mega cash.

 

The minimum you will get the server on its own is about £49 month for a good enough spec one - thats nuttin special though. And then the crucial cost - bandwidth...

 

 

If the server is in the UK you are looking at about £1 per gig average

 

 

Thats a hell of a lot of money and there is NO way you will pay for that from web based advertising.

 

 

And then there are other costs to add on - which soon add up (eg: domain, DNS service, advertising, maintainance)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its a lot of money to run a largish website in the UK!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nick

 

Edit: Spelling fixed

[IanG]

Its a lot of money to run a largish website in the UK!

Nick is spot on. It also takes huge amounts of time: doing backups, updating pages, resonding to emails, co-ordinating with your hosting provider, applying security upgrades to any software you use etc. etc. Don't underestimate the amount of work involved.

[3guk]

Yes I know .

 

I do have a dedicated server that its moving to !!

 

At the moment its on shared hosting as my detials have not trasfered to the new server !!

 

All of my advertising is not going to be web based as the Ukslc sends out monthly newsletters to your door and hence we can pay partly for the sever costs through advertising that way !!

 

Why does eveyone seem to rush to put ideas down !! If people didnt try the internet wouldnt exist !!

[3guk]

If I was to run a competition to get members to join up what sort of voucher would you like ??

 

HMV ??

 

Amazon.co.uk

 

Cd Wow

 

IF you guys can think of any good ones tell me and ill start the competition !!

 

Cheers

[DSA]

Sorry, but I really don't think that you can 'buy' members.

 

However much you say, I really cannot see the need for another wesite of this kind. I was really pleased when I came across the blue room - about 6 months ago now - as it offered something different - and I am pleased to say that the people here are extremely helpful and I have gained a lot of knowledge and experience from the site. I would be devastated if it closed down.... (keep it up Blue Room!!)

 

But as I have said, I do not see the need to reinvent the wheel. You are not really offering anything different - OK maybe a review and some sort of FAQ guide things - but if you didnt know I would just search/ask a fellow 'Blue Roomer'. I have always had luck this way - and as others have said, there is plenty of information on the web anyway (just do a google search for anything!)

 

I do like your enthusiasm - but as Ian has said, it will be a lot of work (and initial capital) - which I am not convinced will pay off. I don't really know how the Blue Room really keeps going (or how it was set up in the first place) - I would be very surprised if it makes a profit (I mean this in a nice way, as it were!)

 

You may notice that I have registered for your site - just to see what happens. Best of luck with the project. I will keep an eye open with it.

 

Best Wishes,

David

 

P.S. Sorry if some of the grammar is a bit 'tangled' - I know what I mean!

[la grande homme]

I think that all the criticism above would have made me give up totally by now... aren't we all feeling negative this week... His money, His time, His idea, His choice Surely? If y'don't wanna play with him, don't play with him... there's no need to piss in the poor guy's paddling pool as well... :( you go for it if it makes you happy mate.

[Guest lightnix]

I don't think that any of the above criticism, however it may have been phrased, has been intended as a put down. I'm sure that nobody here wants to see 3guk's idea fail and that we all admire his enthusiasm. Pretty well all of the points made so far (including mine) seem to have been based on personal knowledge and experience, rather than a spiteful desire to p :( ss on someone's bonfire.

 

Take my own position for example...

 

As long term Blue Roomers will recall, about eighteen months ago I reached a point where, after twenty years in showbiz (fifteen of them as a freelancer), I'd had a complete bellyful of showbusiness and wanted out. My escape route was a little idea I'd had, which I named Wavicle (see the link in my signature). Setting up the company involved the investment of a large chunk of my inheritance and was not something I did lightly, after all: this was to be My New Life.

 

I put up a beta test version of the website and invited around seventy people of varying backgrounds to visit and comment on it, of which around thirty did. Based on their comments, I spent time and money setting up a fully functioning webstore (with a WorldPay internet merchant account) to run as part of the site. I spoke to all the local banks and eventually picked HSBC to deal with. I also down with the local Business Link, signed up as a member and went on one of their courses for aspiring business persons, in which I learnt without any doubt that this was not going to be easy.

 

Eighteen months after having had the original idea, Wavicle is still there. The site, concept, product range, prices etc., get a good deal of positive feedback. The vast majority of our customers are happy with the service we / I provide and a number of them have returned to shop with us again. HSBC, Business Link and various local business advisors tell me that I am mostly doing the right things in terms of building the business, although there is always room for improvement. Around 1.5% of our visitors actually buy something, which, I am told, is not a bad figure.

 

Wavicle has got me out of a viscious circle of bad gigs, late pay, industry politics, stress and a few unhealthy personal habits. It has enabled me to meet new people, move in different circles and do different things. It has broadened my perspective on the world and given me a better understanding of how business really works. At the same time, I'm still working with lighting, a subject which even after all this time, fascinates me on on a deep and personal level. I get to play with new lighting technology and pick up a few free samples here and there. I'm in a new business (LED lighting) at a "ground floor" level, where the market is still young and can only get bigger.

 

But...

 

While the business meets it's running costs at the moment, it has yet to make me any money personally, or provide any return on the initial investment. There will come a time, maybe at the end of 2005, certainly by the end of 2007, when I will have to look at the project in the cold, hard light of day and decide whether it is worth continuing. If I am unable to at least make a basic living out of it, then I may well have to close it down.

 

Even though I seem to be doing at least some of the right things and have been told that the idea is sound, I cannot claim as yet that the world is beating a path to our door.

 

While there are a lot of positive aspects to running Wavicle, there are times when it is a bloody hard slog. The recent assault on small businesses by our dear Chancellor in his latest budget, doesn't make things easier.

 

When I sat down two months ago to conduct a review of the original Business Plan, I had to confront the unpleasant fact that some of my original assumptions and predictions were simply wrong.

 

I have a lot of work to do to increase the hit rate on the site and build the volume of sales, along with all the other things I have to do.

 

Recent conversations with others running e-commerce businesses have revealed that I am not the only one in this position.

 

So, in order to help 3guk and his friends clarify their vision of what it is they are trying to achieve with this site (not put them down) I would like ask 3guk and his friends a few questions (in no particular order)...

 

1. If I asked to see your Business Plan (as described by Business Link), could you show me one ?

 

2. If I asked you what Features, Advantages and Benefits of your site will be, what answers would you give ?

 

3. What is your SWOT analysis of your idea ?

 

4. What are "The Four P's" and how do you apply them to your idea ?

 

5 I) How will people find your site?

ii) What key words will they use to search for it ? How will you find out what these key words are ?

iii) How will you ensure that a Google search using these key words will result in your site being listed in the top 30 results, if not the top 20 or the top 10 ? People don't usually surf beyond the first three pages of results.

 

6. How will you make a living out of it ? Given that the average annual wage in the UK is now in excess of £20,000 and that there seem to be a number of you running the site, how will the site produce the £150,000 you will need to pay yourselves, after it has met it's overheads.

 

7. How will you promote the site ? What will the costs involved in doing so be ?

 

8. What is the size of your potential market ? How many people are there actually out there, who will be interested in what you have to offer ? How many of them, having found your site, will return on a regular basis ?

 

9. Who are the competition ?

 

10. How much money do you an your colleagues have to invest in this enterprise ? What is the source of your funding ?

 

There are many more questions I could ask, but it's getting late.

 

These are not mindless, petty little questions, designed to trip you up. They are the basic questions that any bank, business advisor or potential investor will expect answers to.

 

Once again: I'm not trying to be negative here, or put the idea down. I'm just trying to draw on my own personal experience to try to help you understand what it is that you are taking on.

[la grande homme]

fair play. that's a really helpful answer and set of questions... (altho I always thought there were FIVE p's (Place, Product, Packaging, People and Promotion :** laughs out loud **: )and If 3guk is going to do a swot analysis don't take a leaf out of Keith (the accounts guy from 'the office')s book and write your strengths as 'accounts' and your weaknesses as 'Eczema'... :D :o :D

[Guest lightnix]

...always thought there were FIVE p's (Place, Product, Packaging, People and Promotion)...

Interesting, sounds like a variation on a theme. The four P's I was taught were: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Packaging was mentioned, but we were told it was a subset of Product and, to a lesser extent, Promotion.

 

Oh well...

[PeterT]

I work to the seven P principal:

 

Proper, Prior, Planning, Prevents, Piss, Poor, Performance

 

Works for everything...