Name of your website?Learning-to-invest.net
Your name?
Paul Jorgensen
Your Location (city, etc)
Tokyo
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Learning-to-invest.net is a site for regular people like you and me to learn how to build wealth for a more secure future. The articles posted introduce beginning investors to the basics of investment theory and stratgey.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
When I myself started researching financial planning and investment several years ago, I had a hard time finding user-friendly sources of information. Even sites with names like "Investment 101" seemed to assume a lot of previous financial knowledge. I wanted to create a site that everybody could benefit from, not only experienced investors.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
My first website was a free Geocities site about my travels in Israel. I launched it 10 years ago in 1997. I haven't updated it in years, but it is still up and running.
The title is Jorg's Israel Page. http://www.geocities.com/jorgasaurus
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I wasn't terribly concerned with having a catchy name, but instead focussed on choosing a name that would succinctly describe exactly what the site was about. I think that most people have a fairly clear idea of what to expect when they click on a link to my site.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
Most of the "investment basics" sites are written by professionals who often don't know how to explain things simply to beginners. Similarly, a lot of the personal investment pages discuss only the investor's current activities, without giving much background on the basics of investment. I aim to always write articles and posts simply, and to have basic reference material always accessible on my site.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
Aside from targeted ads such as Google Adsense and perhaps an affiliate link, I don't plan to monetize the website. I will maintain the site mainly for interest, and secondarily for income.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I find that time is a much bigger factor in the success of my website than money. A lot of pay-services portray themselves as the solution to all your traffic-related problems, but unless you know how to make use of the service properly then you are just giving money away.
If I calculated the number of hours I've put into my site in comparison with the money I've made from it, then my hourly wage would be pretty low. But I enjoy maintaining my sites so I don't that I'm unsuccessful.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would hire a tech assistant to maintain the web page itself so that I could focus on adding content and promoting the site. Running into problems with the Wordpress software I use can be frustrating.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I would have to set aside extra time to write more content for the readers to ensure that I can get all of those new visitors to keep coming.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
As for unexpected costs, there haven't been any. A lot of website promotion tools portray themselves as free, only to spring a lot of conditions on you at the last minute and then offer you a pay package. But when that happens I press the cancel button and immediately look elsewhere.
The headaches I have encountered have mostly been related to joiing affiliate programs. Living in Japan, a lot of affiliate programs reject my applications automatically. Or, when I attempt to fill out the application form I see that a US Social Security Number is needed, and there's no way to submit the form without one. Those hassles can be frustrating.
What has been your biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge has been coming up with a site design that I'm happy with, and executing it. I usually have a clear mental image of what I would like to create, but my technical limitations keep me from fully executing my ideas. I've spent more than my share of time reading FAQs and troubleshooting guides.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Article marketing. Article submission services have been great for bringing in visitors directly, and for helping my site make it into the search engines quickly.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I've spent more time tweaking the technical side of things than I expected, and less time writing content than I expected. But that is starting to change, as I'm getting used to the Wordpress software and can now work more efficiently with it.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
Learning-to-invest.net has been up for around a month and I plan to keep developing it and adding content and features until I feel it's a fantastic site. Even if I don't enjoy big gains in traffic and income, I will continue to develop the site because I am learning a lot from building and managing the site. I can use that knowledge in the future to build other sites more quickly and less painfully. So I will actively manage the site as long as I find it useful, and as long as it makes enough money to break even I will leave it up indefinitely.
Would you ever hire a ghostwriter to write content for your site?
Never. My websites are my personal projects and I feel that the content is my personal responsibilty. Maybe hiring a ghostwriter saves time, but I enjoy the process of creating content, and I think it's more honest to my visitors if I write everything myself.
What is your website address?
Learning-to-invest.net
No trackbacks.
Comments
