Progress update

Well, over the last week I have had to concentrate on my core work.  So if you are wondering why there has been no post over the last few days you know why!

Hope to give another update – with some real progress by next monday.

First Screen Shot

Ok, here is a screenshot showing some blogs that have been submitted – this is just test data at the moment.  To submit a blog is very simple, it is just a short form consisting of the URL, Title, Description and Category.

After a blog has been submitted, members can vote for it – every vote will increase its vote count and blogs with the most votes will appear on the front page of the site. There will be different views available – i.e. Top Blogs Today, Top Blogs This Week, Top Blogs This Month, Top Blogs In Each Category etc.

Members can also leave comments on other blogs and also view who has voted for the blog (although this is limited to just the user names at the moment).

At the moment each page has google adsense – which will be one of the ways to generate revenue.  The next week or so is going to be very busy so I hope to give another update in about 10 days or so.

Next things to do are to implement the different views

Core Features Underway…

I am quite happy with my progress so far – http://www.blogrelief.com.  I have spent about 10 hours so far (mostly very late at night) and managed to implement some of the core features.

Some of the core functionality implemented includes:

1. Members can submit their blogs so they are viewed by visitors and other members
2. Members can vote for blogs their favourite blogs
3. Members can leave comments on other blogs

I will add in some screenshots soon.

Lots to think about and do…

To create a website that will generate money for charity requires time, effort and money.

1. Time – I am working in my spare time – so basically less TV (that’s a good thing, right?). 
2. Effort – Being productive is key so I don’t waste any time.  So I have come up with a few ideas which I am now sticking to.  I have been using rapid development techniques to create a website as quickly as possible but something that is still robust enough to support many members and visitors.
3. Money – I have now paid for the domain name, hosting and various bits of software totalling about £500.00 so if this fails, I will have wasted money that I could have just given to charity instead! 

The key factors for my solution revolve around:

1. Content is king
2. Viral Marketing is essential

Viral marketing happens when people have a reason to use the features on the website and share them with others.  Creating enough content myself would not be possible, so the members of the site need to create and own the content.  Mixing these up, I need a solution where members create the content that they then want to tell others about – Hmmm I seriously doubt it is that simple, but that is what I am going to do for the first beta version!

Giving To Charity…

After reading the Duncan Bannatyne Biography, I decided that I wanted to help raise money for charity.  Duncan has done lots to help various charities and some would say it is easy to give to charity when you have lots of money – but I would think that the bigger your empire the more difficult it is to find time to help charities.  In the past I have given a little to various charities – I have never sat down and really thought about which charities are the most deserving.  All I know is that if I add up every penny I have given to charity then it would come to less than one week of my wages!  Even worse, I have never spent 1 minute of my life working for a charity to help raise any money.

After this information sunk in, I realised that I really should try to do something that will help raise money for charity.  My options are:

1. Give more money to charity
2. Find a local charity and go and ask if I can help for say 4 to 8 hours a month
3. Try to raise money myself and give the proceeds to various different charities

I like number 3 the best – as really it is both 1 and 2 combined.  I will invest my own money[1], and spend my own time[2] creating something that I can sell to make money for various charities[3]

So this blog is about my adventure on how I can turn my thoughts into a product that I can then sell to make money for charity.