CONTROL
Starting a community had long been a goal of mine. I achieved this goal when I started a Minecraft server a few years back and linked it to a website and forums. For the past three years I have been growing that community and running a gaming server to meet the needs of the gamers who joined my site. However in the past few months I have felt disillusioned by all the problems I faced in running the gaming server. Volunteers who helped me run it helped when it suited them and left on a whim to pursue other things in their life and the issues began to mount up within my server. I decided that something had to change! The change was not to hire different volunteers or pay people to help me run this gaming server! All of which would have eventually let me down again at a later point in time. The answer was to do what I do best and what I do best is managing websites, discussion boards and help spreading the word about new projects and other news in the Minecraft community. I decided to found my own community fansite and marketplace. I decided to take back control!
ENTRY
Having had the idea of founding a fansite for a long time it dawned on me that I would have to run the site seperate to the easy to use low entry software that I ran my server forum from. It would have to look professional and feel professional if it was to attract attention and get people to signup. I immediately went and contacted a few developers on different sites and found the cheapest quote I could come up with and immediately dived in and went for it. Two weeks later I got my refund and moved on but found the exact same problem again with the next developer I assigned to the task. Even having paid more money the quality of work and the time it was taking wasn't worth it. I'm still in the process of recouping my loss. Finally in an act of pure luck a month after the idea first saw the light of day somebody else posted about the exact same issue here on the fastlane forum. When their issue was solved I got my post up and within minutes was contacted by someone who was in this business a long time and I spent two hours messaging them and learning all that I could! At the end of the conversation I recieved a recommendation for a developer and I haven't looked back!
NEED
While the development was underway I set off on vacation for a few days with my family. I used this time to discover why people should actually use my site. What makes it different from our three competitors. What need does my site fulfill. By the end of the vacation I had my answer! All the other sites were either discussion forums or a marketplace none of them included both. My site would be both a discussion forum and a marketplace.
TIME
When I got home from my holidays the site was almost ready and now it was time to decide on an advertising plan. How would I let people know I existed and get them to join my site. Also the major problem all user based content forums face in the beginning is getting the first twenty active members! The vanguard of the site so to speak, the first followers! I decided to forum a skype group made up of the ten most active users on my server forum and see if they were interested in my idea and would be willing to help. While I received a lot of positive feedback not all were willing to help out in the beginning but I had gotten myself six people who would join in the beginning and help populate the forum with meaningful content. I knew that in the beginning it will be tough until we reach a hundred users and content becomes self generating then my time would be divorsed from the site and it would become like a train! All the passengers getting on board with myself at the front making sure nothing goes wrong and making sure they all have a pleasant journey with us.
SCALE
Finally the site was ready! I had poured a lot of time and money into it but the final task for me was to look over my facts and figures to see if it would really work! If after all the hard work is put in I could scale the site! The answer is a resounding yes. Users recommend the site to others and it continues growing and growing. Slowly at first but then it will take off! I have the ability to create an income through yearly membership, advertisments, ebooks/guides, sponsorships and selling products. While also doing something that I am very entusiastic about and have a lot of experience in. I can also see future potential in branching out to other new games that hit the market and setting myself up as a forum management company.
Present
The site went live two days ago! We have 14 registered users, 15 threads with 31 replies. I see this as a good start. Not brilliant but not bad at all. I have also teamed up with other members on this forum and away from it to help advertise the site most of which will begin on Monday! I would also like to thank @BigBrianC, @chasingpaper and @Glorydog for all their continued assistance and advice in our small entrepreneur group on skype!
If anyone is experienced in this field or has any advice for me! Make sure to either reply here or PM me!
www.completeminecraft.com
Starting a community had long been a goal of mine. I achieved this goal when I started a Minecraft server a few years back and linked it to a website and forums. For the past three years I have been growing that community and running a gaming server to meet the needs of the gamers who joined my site. However in the past few months I have felt disillusioned by all the problems I faced in running the gaming server. Volunteers who helped me run it helped when it suited them and left on a whim to pursue other things in their life and the issues began to mount up within my server. I decided that something had to change! The change was not to hire different volunteers or pay people to help me run this gaming server! All of which would have eventually let me down again at a later point in time. The answer was to do what I do best and what I do best is managing websites, discussion boards and help spreading the word about new projects and other news in the Minecraft community. I decided to found my own community fansite and marketplace. I decided to take back control!
ENTRY
Having had the idea of founding a fansite for a long time it dawned on me that I would have to run the site seperate to the easy to use low entry software that I ran my server forum from. It would have to look professional and feel professional if it was to attract attention and get people to signup. I immediately went and contacted a few developers on different sites and found the cheapest quote I could come up with and immediately dived in and went for it. Two weeks later I got my refund and moved on but found the exact same problem again with the next developer I assigned to the task. Even having paid more money the quality of work and the time it was taking wasn't worth it. I'm still in the process of recouping my loss. Finally in an act of pure luck a month after the idea first saw the light of day somebody else posted about the exact same issue here on the fastlane forum. When their issue was solved I got my post up and within minutes was contacted by someone who was in this business a long time and I spent two hours messaging them and learning all that I could! At the end of the conversation I recieved a recommendation for a developer and I haven't looked back!
NEED
While the development was underway I set off on vacation for a few days with my family. I used this time to discover why people should actually use my site. What makes it different from our three competitors. What need does my site fulfill. By the end of the vacation I had my answer! All the other sites were either discussion forums or a marketplace none of them included both. My site would be both a discussion forum and a marketplace.
TIME
When I got home from my holidays the site was almost ready and now it was time to decide on an advertising plan. How would I let people know I existed and get them to join my site. Also the major problem all user based content forums face in the beginning is getting the first twenty active members! The vanguard of the site so to speak, the first followers! I decided to forum a skype group made up of the ten most active users on my server forum and see if they were interested in my idea and would be willing to help. While I received a lot of positive feedback not all were willing to help out in the beginning but I had gotten myself six people who would join in the beginning and help populate the forum with meaningful content. I knew that in the beginning it will be tough until we reach a hundred users and content becomes self generating then my time would be divorsed from the site and it would become like a train! All the passengers getting on board with myself at the front making sure nothing goes wrong and making sure they all have a pleasant journey with us.
SCALE
Finally the site was ready! I had poured a lot of time and money into it but the final task for me was to look over my facts and figures to see if it would really work! If after all the hard work is put in I could scale the site! The answer is a resounding yes. Users recommend the site to others and it continues growing and growing. Slowly at first but then it will take off! I have the ability to create an income through yearly membership, advertisments, ebooks/guides, sponsorships and selling products. While also doing something that I am very entusiastic about and have a lot of experience in. I can also see future potential in branching out to other new games that hit the market and setting myself up as a forum management company.
Present
The site went live two days ago! We have 14 registered users, 15 threads with 31 replies. I see this as a good start. Not brilliant but not bad at all. I have also teamed up with other members on this forum and away from it to help advertise the site most of which will begin on Monday! I would also like to thank @BigBrianC, @chasingpaper and @Glorydog for all their continued assistance and advice in our small entrepreneur group on skype!
If anyone is experienced in this field or has any advice for me! Make sure to either reply here or PM me!
www.completeminecraft.com
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