Preamble: I was inspired to write this post by another post that I wrote the day before yesterday. I see the same questions asked over and over again. So I'm here to offer my perspective on these issues. Others will disagree and that is fine. There are multiple paths to the objective and there's no need to argue or be disrespectful. If you take one thing away from this post let it be this: DON'T WASTE TIME. GET STARTED NOW!
So you're sitting there at your dreaded rat-race job or on your couch and "IT" hits you. The idea that will net you millionz (yes millionz with a 'z'). You've got the golden ticket to board your fastlane gravy train. Now what? Other people are technical gurus. You, on the other hand are computer illiterate (e-literate?). The good news in this situation is that there's still hope.
This post is meant to be a lightweight starter course. Think of this post as "Get Off Your a$$ 101". It is not all inclusive because there is no way possible I could cover every contingency with every programming language with every website on every hosting company's service.
[Hosting]
So, if a brilliant and witty entrepreneur like yourself is to create the next web app/service then it stands to reason that you'd need a hosting company. What's that? There are bazillions of them you say? Why yes that's true. I'll present you with a small list.
1 - GoDaddy.com - I've used this before. It worked fine for me and I had no issues with customer service.
2 - LiquidWeb.com - I've never used this company but It's reccommended in TMF . I'm sure it's a fine hosting service.
3 - RackSpace.com - Nothing bad to say about this company. They've hosted some of the top online retailers around.
4 - NearlyFreeSpeech.net - This is the one I'm using now. I love it. Their tech support is great. Not as "easy" to use for non-technical people though.
Is this the ultimate list? No. Just choose one and get started. The point is for you to get your a$$ into "chuma mode" and get moving. You can ALWAYS CHANGE THESE THINGS LATER DOWN THE ROAD IF YOU FIND THAT IT'S NOT A GOOD FIT! Any one of these companies will suit you perfectly fine in your early stages.
[What Programming Language?]
In order for your web app to do..well..anything, you'll need to choose a server side technology. There are quite a few out there to choose from (PHP, Ruby On Rails, C#/VB .NET, Java, Python and a few others). This is a very touchy topic among programmers, they can argue religiously non-stop. But luckily for you, you're not a programmer. Your main goal is to get your idea into action as quickly as possible (so you can make $$)! With this in mind I'll tell you which languages I favor and why. I favor PHP and it is my goto web language. Right behind that would be Python and then Java. Why? Well PHP is an "open source" platform with LOADS of pre-written extensions, libraries, frameworks and modules (The same is true of Python and Java). These pre-written components can save MONTHS of development time depending on what you're doing. They can handle everything from user account creation/registration/management to paypal payments. This saves you time and gets you to market faster.
Another reason I stuck with PHP (you dont' have to but you HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE) is that I noticed that there were more companies at the time willing to host PHP apps and the hosting was less expensive. This is definitely a plus for the cash-strapped fastlaner to-be. Like I said you'll never get a definite answer as to which language to choose first but you can't go wrong with PHP,Python,Java. Out of all of them PHP and Python would be my top two and Java would be #3. Youtube Runs on Pyton and Facebook/Yahoo and so many other sites use PHP. If it works for them It will handle your next big idea!
The final reason that I'd choose one of PHP, Python or Java (or even Ruby on Rails) is that the top of the line development tools for these language platforms are FREE and open source. The tools are often cross-platform. This means that it doesn't matter if you have a Windows Machine or a Mac or a Linux box. You can still run Eclipse/Netbeans/or some other development environment. To get Visual Studio ( for C#/VB.NET) your business will need to spend money on software licenses ( You aren't allowed to use the free versions for commercial software ). You are also tied to the Windows Operating system. Ok...just use PHP (You have to start somewhere)..nuff said.
[ Should I learn to Code at All?? ]
I'm already a programmer so this is never a question that I have to answer myself. I'd like to tell you Yes (although it will take you longer to get to market). But you may be able to hire someone to do the work. I'd like to stress being competent in whatever programming language you've chosen for the simple reason that it will help you avoid the bullshitters. They are rampant in real life and on the internet in the programming community. Knowing how to "talk the talk" and "walk the walk" (at least a little) can save you boatloads of money ( and time ). I know personally If I had to hire someone I'd want someone in the same country as I am simply for logistical reasons (language barrier..etc). That and I'd prefer to deal with someone I can sue. It's awfully hard to get a refund from some guy 10000 miles away in Ripoffistan.
But fastlaneCoder there's a guy in India/China/The Phillipines that says he'll do the entire site for 35.00. Ok, maybe he will but don't be greedy and stupid. What does his portfolio look like. Is he competent? Will he rip you off and take your idea? What is the quality level of his/her work? I'm not trying to scare you but you must consider these things.
[ Scalability ]
If you think scalability has anything to do with how much your site weighs on the internet, you're dead wrong. A website's scalability refers to it's ability to handle the traffic load that it sees and/or the ability of that site to expand to deal with growths in traffic (gradual or sudden growth). Nerds/Geeks will talk to death about getting a site to "scale" to 10 million users. But this is the wrong approach. First make a site that's capable of satisfying 10 or 100 users then 1000 then 10000 (You'd be surprised to see how much you can get done with a basic hosting account). Don't fix problems before you have them. You CAN'T MAKE THESE DECISIONS IN ADVANCE. These problems will need to be met as they arrive.
I can't offer many details because this varies from site to site. If your site stores lots of images or videos then you will have different scalability issues from a site that doesn't.
[ Social Media ]
We live in a "social" world. I can't stress this enough. People like to tweet and facebook and pinterest/instagram the most mundane things in their lives. Having your next killer web app integrated with facebook or google or OpenId so that users can use their existing facebook/google logins to join your website is a HUGE PLUS. It streamlines the registration process greatly! I also encourage you to add any type of social "sharing" features to your app so that SoAndSo's facebook friends can see that she just joined your website. Integration with facebook/google/twitter can be marketing gold. Create a facebook page for your web app and a twitter account and post meaningful and engaging content (not spam). Writing good content is easier said than done (This is beyond the scope of this post)!
[ What should it look like ? (User Interface) ]
In the programming community you'll often hear talk of the user interface or the graphical user interface (often abbreviated as GUI pronounced gooey). The user interface is anything that the user interacts with. Anything they read, scroll, click, watch and so forth. It is important to make interaction with your site as effortless as possible. You should strive to streamline your site. Don't "clutter" your application with buttons and checkboxes and things that aren't really needed. You think you're doing the user a favor by "going the extra mile" but you're actually irritating them. I'll give you an example. Microsoft Word. Think about the number of features you use regularly on Microsoft Word and compare that to the actual number of features available in the program. Those of us old enough can't forget the super annoying talking paperclip.
Overall your interface should be uncluttered clean and crisp. Don't try to make it perfect. You can't. This is a huge action-killing mistake. I've seen more people (dear programmer friends of mine) not launch their bajillion dollar product because they're still "tweaking" the interface. This is a trap! At some point in time you're going to need to be confident that you've got something of value. Build it and "launch the shit out of it". Tweak it after you get feedback not before!
PRO-TIP: I like to get friends/family who know nothing about my application and sit them down to see if they can figure out how to use it. I ask them why they clicked this vs. that and what assumptions they made based on what they were trying to accomplish. The goal of this is to make a site that can be navigated and used with relative ease and intuitiveness by someone who's not super tech savvy.
[ User feedback and Analytics ]
These are your best friends. Solicit user feedback in friendly ways. Never reply with a bad tone or attitude. All it takes is one pissed off user's complaint going viral to ruin you! (Link to penny arcade). Allow the users to tell you what they like and don't like, but don't immediately add everything they request. Make a note of the features/changes that are requested most frequently by the largest numbers of people. And when you change a site do so incrementally. It destroys the user experience when they log in and find out that the site navigation is completely different and they have to learn to use it all over again.
Analytics can help you in every phase of operation. Use analytics to see what you users are doing and where they spend most of their time. See which pages get the most hits and traffic. Then optimize the conversion rate. This will help you determine which keywords to buy and where to put your banner adds.
[Competition/Copycats]
You can't ignore them. They will copy you. Don't think for a second that you're site is going to rake in all this money and nobody else is going to want a slice of that pie. Every user of their site is a user that could have been paying you a monthly subscription fee or clicking your ads or buying your products. You have to stay on your toes. Forget this bullshit "passive" fantasy that you have where you just work on your site for 1hr a week and money flows in like clockwork. Think about how popular Myspace used to be..but look at it now compared to facebook. You have to be ever vigilant and innovative in terms of your product and your marketing to ensure that you have an edge and a unique selling point. If you get lazy your site may suddenly become uncool and there may not be any way to save it. Pay attention to what other similar sites are doing.
As I said earlier, these are MY views on this topic. This is how I would approach a problem. If you disagree, that does not make us mortal enemies. There are multiple paths to multiple solutions! Hopefully you enjoy this post (You better like it, I spent hella time on it :icon_super
.
Books:
Landing Page Optimization - Your "Landing Page" is the first page a person sees when they access your website. This book offers some design tips to improve your conversion rate. A conversion is when a guest user decides to register or join your site!
Online Learning:
Lynda.com has some great video tutorials that cover a wide array of web development topics.
TutsPlus.com Similar to Lynda this is also a personal favorite of mine for video learning materials on various topics.
I'm not paid by the authors of the book that I mentioned and neither am I being paid by the owners of those websites. They are just things that I find useful.
So you're sitting there at your dreaded rat-race job or on your couch and "IT" hits you. The idea that will net you millionz (yes millionz with a 'z'). You've got the golden ticket to board your fastlane gravy train. Now what? Other people are technical gurus. You, on the other hand are computer illiterate (e-literate?). The good news in this situation is that there's still hope.
This post is meant to be a lightweight starter course. Think of this post as "Get Off Your a$$ 101". It is not all inclusive because there is no way possible I could cover every contingency with every programming language with every website on every hosting company's service.
[Hosting]
So, if a brilliant and witty entrepreneur like yourself is to create the next web app/service then it stands to reason that you'd need a hosting company. What's that? There are bazillions of them you say? Why yes that's true. I'll present you with a small list.
1 - GoDaddy.com - I've used this before. It worked fine for me and I had no issues with customer service.
2 - LiquidWeb.com - I've never used this company but It's reccommended in TMF . I'm sure it's a fine hosting service.
3 - RackSpace.com - Nothing bad to say about this company. They've hosted some of the top online retailers around.
4 - NearlyFreeSpeech.net - This is the one I'm using now. I love it. Their tech support is great. Not as "easy" to use for non-technical people though.
Is this the ultimate list? No. Just choose one and get started. The point is for you to get your a$$ into "chuma mode" and get moving. You can ALWAYS CHANGE THESE THINGS LATER DOWN THE ROAD IF YOU FIND THAT IT'S NOT A GOOD FIT! Any one of these companies will suit you perfectly fine in your early stages.
[What Programming Language?]
In order for your web app to do..well..anything, you'll need to choose a server side technology. There are quite a few out there to choose from (PHP, Ruby On Rails, C#/VB .NET, Java, Python and a few others). This is a very touchy topic among programmers, they can argue religiously non-stop. But luckily for you, you're not a programmer. Your main goal is to get your idea into action as quickly as possible (so you can make $$)! With this in mind I'll tell you which languages I favor and why. I favor PHP and it is my goto web language. Right behind that would be Python and then Java. Why? Well PHP is an "open source" platform with LOADS of pre-written extensions, libraries, frameworks and modules (The same is true of Python and Java). These pre-written components can save MONTHS of development time depending on what you're doing. They can handle everything from user account creation/registration/management to paypal payments. This saves you time and gets you to market faster.
Another reason I stuck with PHP (you dont' have to but you HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE) is that I noticed that there were more companies at the time willing to host PHP apps and the hosting was less expensive. This is definitely a plus for the cash-strapped fastlaner to-be. Like I said you'll never get a definite answer as to which language to choose first but you can't go wrong with PHP,Python,Java. Out of all of them PHP and Python would be my top two and Java would be #3. Youtube Runs on Pyton and Facebook/Yahoo and so many other sites use PHP. If it works for them It will handle your next big idea!
The final reason that I'd choose one of PHP, Python or Java (or even Ruby on Rails) is that the top of the line development tools for these language platforms are FREE and open source. The tools are often cross-platform. This means that it doesn't matter if you have a Windows Machine or a Mac or a Linux box. You can still run Eclipse/Netbeans/or some other development environment. To get Visual Studio ( for C#/VB.NET) your business will need to spend money on software licenses ( You aren't allowed to use the free versions for commercial software ). You are also tied to the Windows Operating system. Ok...just use PHP (You have to start somewhere)..nuff said.
[ Should I learn to Code at All?? ]
I'm already a programmer so this is never a question that I have to answer myself. I'd like to tell you Yes (although it will take you longer to get to market). But you may be able to hire someone to do the work. I'd like to stress being competent in whatever programming language you've chosen for the simple reason that it will help you avoid the bullshitters. They are rampant in real life and on the internet in the programming community. Knowing how to "talk the talk" and "walk the walk" (at least a little) can save you boatloads of money ( and time ). I know personally If I had to hire someone I'd want someone in the same country as I am simply for logistical reasons (language barrier..etc). That and I'd prefer to deal with someone I can sue. It's awfully hard to get a refund from some guy 10000 miles away in Ripoffistan.
But fastlaneCoder there's a guy in India/China/The Phillipines that says he'll do the entire site for 35.00. Ok, maybe he will but don't be greedy and stupid. What does his portfolio look like. Is he competent? Will he rip you off and take your idea? What is the quality level of his/her work? I'm not trying to scare you but you must consider these things.
[ Scalability ]
If you think scalability has anything to do with how much your site weighs on the internet, you're dead wrong. A website's scalability refers to it's ability to handle the traffic load that it sees and/or the ability of that site to expand to deal with growths in traffic (gradual or sudden growth). Nerds/Geeks will talk to death about getting a site to "scale" to 10 million users. But this is the wrong approach. First make a site that's capable of satisfying 10 or 100 users then 1000 then 10000 (You'd be surprised to see how much you can get done with a basic hosting account). Don't fix problems before you have them. You CAN'T MAKE THESE DECISIONS IN ADVANCE. These problems will need to be met as they arrive.
I can't offer many details because this varies from site to site. If your site stores lots of images or videos then you will have different scalability issues from a site that doesn't.
[ Social Media ]
We live in a "social" world. I can't stress this enough. People like to tweet and facebook and pinterest/instagram the most mundane things in their lives. Having your next killer web app integrated with facebook or google or OpenId so that users can use their existing facebook/google logins to join your website is a HUGE PLUS. It streamlines the registration process greatly! I also encourage you to add any type of social "sharing" features to your app so that SoAndSo's facebook friends can see that she just joined your website. Integration with facebook/google/twitter can be marketing gold. Create a facebook page for your web app and a twitter account and post meaningful and engaging content (not spam). Writing good content is easier said than done (This is beyond the scope of this post)!
[ What should it look like ? (User Interface) ]
In the programming community you'll often hear talk of the user interface or the graphical user interface (often abbreviated as GUI pronounced gooey). The user interface is anything that the user interacts with. Anything they read, scroll, click, watch and so forth. It is important to make interaction with your site as effortless as possible. You should strive to streamline your site. Don't "clutter" your application with buttons and checkboxes and things that aren't really needed. You think you're doing the user a favor by "going the extra mile" but you're actually irritating them. I'll give you an example. Microsoft Word. Think about the number of features you use regularly on Microsoft Word and compare that to the actual number of features available in the program. Those of us old enough can't forget the super annoying talking paperclip.
Overall your interface should be uncluttered clean and crisp. Don't try to make it perfect. You can't. This is a huge action-killing mistake. I've seen more people (dear programmer friends of mine) not launch their bajillion dollar product because they're still "tweaking" the interface. This is a trap! At some point in time you're going to need to be confident that you've got something of value. Build it and "launch the shit out of it". Tweak it after you get feedback not before!
PRO-TIP: I like to get friends/family who know nothing about my application and sit them down to see if they can figure out how to use it. I ask them why they clicked this vs. that and what assumptions they made based on what they were trying to accomplish. The goal of this is to make a site that can be navigated and used with relative ease and intuitiveness by someone who's not super tech savvy.
[ User feedback and Analytics ]
These are your best friends. Solicit user feedback in friendly ways. Never reply with a bad tone or attitude. All it takes is one pissed off user's complaint going viral to ruin you! (Link to penny arcade). Allow the users to tell you what they like and don't like, but don't immediately add everything they request. Make a note of the features/changes that are requested most frequently by the largest numbers of people. And when you change a site do so incrementally. It destroys the user experience when they log in and find out that the site navigation is completely different and they have to learn to use it all over again.
Analytics can help you in every phase of operation. Use analytics to see what you users are doing and where they spend most of their time. See which pages get the most hits and traffic. Then optimize the conversion rate. This will help you determine which keywords to buy and where to put your banner adds.
[Competition/Copycats]
You can't ignore them. They will copy you. Don't think for a second that you're site is going to rake in all this money and nobody else is going to want a slice of that pie. Every user of their site is a user that could have been paying you a monthly subscription fee or clicking your ads or buying your products. You have to stay on your toes. Forget this bullshit "passive" fantasy that you have where you just work on your site for 1hr a week and money flows in like clockwork. Think about how popular Myspace used to be..but look at it now compared to facebook. You have to be ever vigilant and innovative in terms of your product and your marketing to ensure that you have an edge and a unique selling point. If you get lazy your site may suddenly become uncool and there may not be any way to save it. Pay attention to what other similar sites are doing.
As I said earlier, these are MY views on this topic. This is how I would approach a problem. If you disagree, that does not make us mortal enemies. There are multiple paths to multiple solutions! Hopefully you enjoy this post (You better like it, I spent hella time on it :icon_super
.Books:
Landing Page Optimization - Your "Landing Page" is the first page a person sees when they access your website. This book offers some design tips to improve your conversion rate. A conversion is when a guest user decides to register or join your site!
Online Learning:
Lynda.com has some great video tutorials that cover a wide array of web development topics.
TutsPlus.com Similar to Lynda this is also a personal favorite of mine for video learning materials on various topics.
I'm not paid by the authors of the book that I mentioned and neither am I being paid by the owners of those websites. They are just things that I find useful.
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum:
Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited by a moderator:
