On-line store vs community/info website

[andre0225]

I have been thinking about creating a website which would be sort of informational type. I would like to aim it at people living abroad. I left Poland almost 15 yrs ago, and have been living in the US ever since. I know firsthand the frustrations of searching for information of any type. There is no centralized repository of sorts of vital information for both newcomers and ones living outside of Poland already for a while (I would like itto be in Polish language, I suppose). Immigration, education, healthcare, work, living are just a few topics of vital interest. I would also like to include free small ads (It would be free to use/post info at the beginning). Or, perhaps, make it interactive so that people can share their experiences and findings on these topics. This, in turn, might generate enough traffic, so that the paid advertisement would come in.

I would like to include links to other places, or perhaps a search engine.

 

The problem is I know very little about website creation. I checked some courses in local schools, but even the variety of them is intimidating to me: at this point I don’t even know which ones would serve my purpose. On the other hand, there is a ton of places on the net advertising website creation as a breeze – Yahoo, of Google web creation packages to name just few.

 

I read page by page on this website, and wonder if anybody could suggest how to approach all this. I know that majority of interest seems to be on internet stores, but perhaps somebody might offer some ideas on community type of page.

Many thanks,

Andre

[jason32835]

Maybe you would be better off setting up a forum site? They are much easier then OsC and might work better for what you want. There are many, but here is one that I've heard of: http://www.simplemachines.org/

 

 

 

 

I have been thinking about creating a website which would be sort of informational type. I would like to aim it at people living abroad. I left Poland almost 15 yrs ago, and have been living in the US ever since. I know firsthand the frustrations of searching for information of any type. There is no centralized repository of sorts of vital information for both newcomers and ones living outside of Poland already for a while (I would like itto be in Polish language, I suppose). Immigration, education, healthcare, work, living are just a few topics of vital interest. I would also like to include free small ads (It would be free to use/post info at the beginning). Or, perhaps, make it interactive so that people can share their experiences and findings on these topics. This, in turn, might generate enough traffic, so that the paid advertisement would come in.

I would like to include links to other places, or perhaps a search engine.

 

The problem is I know very little about website creation. I checked some courses in local schools, but even the variety of them is intimidating to me: at this point I don’t even know which ones would serve my purpose. On the other hand, there is a ton of places on the net advertising website creation as a breeze – Yahoo, of Google web creation packages to name just few.

 

I read page by page on this website, and wonder if anybody could suggest how to approach all this. I know that majority of interest seems to be on internet stores, but perhaps somebody might offer some ideas on community type of page.

Many thanks,

Andre

[Victor Wise]

Maybe you would be better off setting up a forum site? They are much easier then OsC and might work better for what you want. There are many, but here is one that I've heard of: http://www.simplemachines.org/

 

 

I agree with Jason on this one. User generated content and information is the new trend - that is why you were voted Time magazine's man of the year for 2006.

 

That aside, I recommend an English site. That is unless it is for people living in Poland and not America.

 

 

By the way, have you checked out www.executiveplanet.com ?

[andre0225]

Jason, Victor thanks for your thoughts,

I was actually thinking about the language of the site. I think that aiming at the particular niche population, Poles currently living in the US (and there is a lot of us here), I should stick with the native language. The fact ramains that no matter how long we live in the US, English will remain our second language. On another hand, I hope that there are options to edit the site for English language (if the site lives on). Victor, I haven't seen before the site you suggested, but came across www.tinyportal.net (I think I found it thru simplemachines.org, which Jason suggested) - any experiences with these?

 

I like a relative simplicity of the forum type of site from user's view. However, is this type (or templates offered) capable of accepting ads on its pages? Ideally, I would like the page to generate some income to cover the bases.

 

Are there any reasonable readings you could suggest, which would guide thru the steps of the process?

 

Thanks again,

Andre