Health Analytics Website Updates

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I signed an agreement with the owner of Health Analytics on Tuesday (had been trying to meet with him for a week) to start some updates and revisions to their website. I created the original site back in September and now they are looking for some general updates in content, images, and adding a couple new pages.

The plan is to knock these updates out within the next week and a half so that we can move on to another part of the project which will be a flash animation introduction for the site that will take some more time.

Working 10 hour days all week really puts a drain on your available time to work on side businesses and projects. Getting up at 6 AM, being at the office by 8 AM if not earlier, working until 6 PM, driving home in traffic, having dinner, doing a little work, and then going to be around 11 PM to try and get a decent amount of sleep to just get up at 6 AM to do it all again leaves little time to get the work done. This weekend will allow me a few solid hours that I can concentrate on getting the majority of the work done.

I also have about a week and a half left in the timeline to complete the updates and additions, so I should have plenty of time.

Know someone needing a website developed or updated? Send them my way.

TheRavenSymone.com Update

A couple months ago I launched a niche celebrity fan website called TheRavenSymone.com. The main purpose was to look at the ability to create small 5 page niche websites, throw some AdSense code on them, and let them roll. I wanted to do a little review of how that went.

SEO Work

I didn’t do much SEO work at all with the site. I added in the keywords and search phrases, but that was it. Besides a few links to other sites and incoming links, all traffic must be coming from either direct type ins or search engine results. I would like to get some more links to the site, and also optimize it some more with more keyword usage in the content to help it grow some.

AdSense Revenues

So the real reason that the site was started was to make a little money off of it and I have. In the time that the site launched to date, TheRavenSymone.com has earned about $32.00. The start was a little quick with clicks, which came from showing the website on places like Young Go Getter but the earnings slowed down. Now they have picked up again, bringing in anywhere from 25 cents to $1.0 a day.

Other Revenue Sources

I haven’t had the chance to do it yet, but I want to apply to Text Link Ads for the site and see if it will get accepted. By adding TLA to the site, it could easily bring in some larger revenue numbers.

Future Plans

*Continue developing the website: edit content to be more keyword dense, add more pictures, and get more links
*Add Text Link Ads
*Advertise the website more, look into purchasing some AdWords to get sponsored links and more exposure.

Was it successful? I’d say so. I have made my money back from the domain name and then some.

Would I do it again? Of course! I am hoping to develop a couple more similar websites during the summer while I am home. My goal is to launch 2-4 of these similar sites within the first month of summer (May to June). If each website would be able to bring in just a dollar a day, say for 4 websites, that’s about $120 a month. This could turn into a solid passive income stream if I can continue to develop the websites.

If anyone else is taking this approach to building a portfolio of websites and earning some money, I would love to hear your experiences. What have you been doing that works? What problems have you faced?

Virginia Hiker Update

I haven’t gotten the chance yet to move Virginia Hiker to its own hosting, but it will be happening soon, along with Dorm Room Biz. I am hoping that the move will help with getting some more hits and exposure.

Once the new hosting is in place I will be able to do some more advertising and really try to optimize the site to make it successful. I will be adding more trail reviews, pictures, and gear reviews.

If anyone out there reading Dorm Room Biz is interested in the outdoors, hiking, or backpacking, please drop me an email if you would be interested in contributing to the site! You do not have to be from Virginia or hike in Virginia to contribute!

ProfessionalGFX Update

The web development business has been a little slow lately for us and after talking with some other developers and designers, I have been hearing the same thing – so maybe it’s an industry trend of a slow period. Anyway, ProfessionalGFX has hit a slow spell and we are looking for new clients as always!

I am currently working on some updates to BCW Prints and Temple Workout Gear. My client for these projects has also promised a few referrals to friends and others that she works with, so I am looking forward to being able to develop those relationships.

We are also looking at creating a new design for the ProfessionalGFX website which will feature more of a portal/network look displaying our internet properties (Virginia hiking trail information, dorm room business help, and a Raven Symone celebrity website) and also for our clients to get some more exposure. Finding that middle ground between portfolio and network is the problem. Any suggestions? Feel free to comment.

Radford Auctions Update

eBay is a wonderful thing! Any website that allows others to come together and trade things they don’t need anymore buy someone wants deserves high praise. My partner and I have been working steadily to grow Radford Auctions over the last couple months. We have started keeping an inventory of different camping and outdoor items and also continuing to advertise our services. We have started working with a local bike show sho is looking to start selling some of the items and parts that they have laying around. Hopefully this will bring some god money in! On top of that, my partner, Zach, is working to establish a relationship with a few of the local Walgreen’s stores to have them donate items to use that are not selling or are on clearance in the stores. We sell the items and split the auction earnings with a non-profit student organization that supports free enterprise at Virginia Tech.

Radford Auctions is doing well so far and we are just trying to determine the best way to grow and expand the business!

Project Updates Coming Soon!

I know its been a while since giving any project update son the things that I am working on, so over the week I am going to highlight my projects and give some updates on how they have been doing and where they are headed.

I will go over different details of Radford Auctions, ProfessionalGFX, Virginia Hiker, Dorm Room Biz, and also a couple new projects that I am starting.

So stay tuned!

BCW Prints Website Launched

Over the weekend, as I mentioned, I met with one of my web design clients to finally finish up her website. We sat down and went through all of the sections and determined any list minute changes which have been fixed. Now that everything has been updated, the website has been launched at http://www.bcwprints.com.

I would be interested in hearing your feedback on the site and how it is laid out. We took a lot of time debating about making an ecommerce/shopping cart backend for the site as opposed to just listing the individual products and prices. Eventually, the cost effectiveness of just listing the products won out. Maybe that will be an upgrade in the future.

B.C.W. Prints Inc.

TheRavenSymone.com Launched

I had been reading about a guy who has been creating about 3-4 sites a week based on celebrities. Each site was only a couple pages with very basic info- biography, pictures, links. Yet he loaded them up with AdSense and is making $2.00+ from each site per day. Hes now up to a collection of 20 sites I believe.So, I decided to give the strategy a try. I created a site on the first celebrity that I thought of that wasn’t always in the spot light but is still active in TV and movies….Raven Symone from Disney’s That’s So Raven and other stuff.

I searched for a domain name and came up with www.theravensymone.com. Not too bad I don’t think. Now, I put the site together in a couple hours over two days.

So, this is my little experiment. Hopefully over the next couple weeks I can create up to another 5-10 of these sites, submit them to some different places for link exchanges and see if I can get some money back from them.

Check the site out and give me a little love, I am interested in how much they may pay. Let me know your thoughts…now its time to check out get some SEO for some tips on getting some traffic!

The Raven Symone

Getting content from web design clients – a battle from hell!

So, I have finished up a new website for a client and it has taken a lot longer than was anticipated. The reason? Getting content from my client took a very long time (2+ months). The original timeline for the project was about 6-7 weeks. I was on schedule and ready to go, however, it took a very long time and many many emails to get the content I needed from my client to finish up the website. The project started in August, and now it finally launched just a few days ago and here it is almost a new year.

I know many of you out there that read Dorm Room Biz are web designers in some sort of fashion and deal with clients on a daily basis just like I do. So I wanted to share a few different ways in which I think may be helpful to keep your projects on schedule and have a successful on time launch – focusing on getting the content from the client.

1. Set a schedule – It is important when you start a new project to clearly lay out with the client a schedule of when things will be completed on your side and when they are expected to be completed by your client. Once agreeing to something pleasing to both of you, agree to it and move forward. It is very important that you try your hardest to keep to the schedule and stress the importance of it to your client. However, while setting a schedule, build in time for delays in the project – such as waiting for responses or content from the client. If you think a project will take you 5 weeks, add an extra week or even two if you have the time to do so and it won’t cause any problems (with other projects or financially).

Read more »

Health Analytics Website Officially Launched!

I have been working for the past few months on the new website for Health Analytics and it has finally been launched. I started this project back in August and it was supposed to be quick and finished within a month and a half. Well, as many of you know, it is a pain to try and get content from a client and this ultimately held the project back and kept it going a lot longer. If I knew it was going to take this long I would have charged much more! I will be posting an article about getting content from your client either later today or tomorrow with some helpful tips on how to make the process much easier.

Anyway, the website came out really good and the client is extremely pleased with it. We are meeting tomorrow to talk about any final changes and settle up on the rest of the cost. I would love to hear your comments on the site design and what you think about it. Also, please let me know if you find any errors. The site is at: http://www.healthanalytic.com/

Speaking of website design, in case you or someone you know is in need of a new website or graphics work, feel free to contact me. My business, ProfessionalGFX, is always looking for new clients to fill our plate with. I have a very talented team of designers and developers that I work with to put together projects and we would love to take care of your needs. Feel free to contact me at http://www.professionalgfx.net.