Author Topic: So I built a website.  (Read 3749 times)

frost7777

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So I built a website.
« on: March 17, 2018, 07:22:22 PM »
OK, just a little background. 
I'm a software engineer, my work is pretty much limited to data migrations between databases. I don't work on software development, user interfaces or any front end stuff like that.  So feeling a little bit hemmed in, I decided to play around with building a website just to expand my experience a little bit and was hoping for some feedback.

I'm not selling anything, and at this point don't have any monetization enabled.  But would absolutely love some thoughts on weather or not this site could be turned into a side gig if I put some advertising, or affiliate links on the site.  I freely admit that I have absolutely no idea what I am doing in regards to web marketing or website design for that matter.

www.modernnomads.org

Some more info after your first impressions.
1.  The website is rebuilt every night.
2.  The image on the landing page and the quote are randomly drawn from my database and change nightly.
3.  Procedures check for new videos every day and add the links to my database.
4.  All of the sub pages/lists are regenerated nightly.
5.  I only have 6 publishers in my database currently.  I am in the process of expanding the list, but don't think I want to go over 20 publishers.

Thank you in advance for any feedback.

mozar

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Re: So I built a website.
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2018, 04:11:43 PM »
First of all can you put a video on your landing page? Like the header?

So you're a video aggregator? There are so many youtube channels of people who go out and interview people who are traveling then film/edit/ and post to their own channels and are getting a following that way. Check out Dylan Magaster. And the youtube algorithm also does this. Nice website though. You can put adds on it if you want.

zazpowered

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Re: So I built a website.
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2018, 02:38:30 AM »
I think it could be hard to get traffic to this sort of site since people will probably just search on Youtube. The site itself looks good though

frost7777

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Re: So I built a website.
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2018, 06:18:50 AM »
Thank you @mozar and @zazpowered,
Yes the site is a video aggregator.
I could add a video header, but I would need to get rights to something, I'm not very good at producing my own videos.  Will also check out Dylan Magaster.

Future plans are to add interfaces to vemio and dailymotion, so I can pull those videos in as well.  Would that add enough value to drive traffic to a niche site like this?

Thank you both for taking the time to review it.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2018, 07:40:05 AM by frost7777 »

neo von retorch

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Re: So I built a website.
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2018, 07:06:48 AM »
Your Title doesn't have spaces in it, so browser tabs show "ModernNomadsNewThi..."

Minor typo, need a space (and probably a comma):
Quote
Everyday Modern Nomads

Probably better as a semi-colon:
Quote
or host travel videos, we are

On New This Week, fix the date being wrapped (viewed at 100% on Windows/Chrome.)

Can descriptions/synopses be added to the New This Week video listing?

Maybe hide "Grab Your Bag:" until you have a listing, or put something like "Maybe this can be you?" with a link to contact you to become a publisher?

Add a link to contact you to become a publisher ;) And maybe a real honest to goodness "about" page that talks about who YOU are and your interest in being a modern nomad.

frost7777

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Re: So I built a website.
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2018, 06:30:04 AM »
Thank you so much @neo von retorch.  Direct and actionable feedback!  I like it.
Quote
Your Title doesn't have spaces in it, so browser tabs show "ModernNomadsNewThi..."
 
Fixed.  Added Spaces to the main page and the New This Week browser tabs.
Quote
Minor typo, need a space (and probably a comma):
Quote
Probably better as a semi-colon:
Quote
On New This Week, fix the date being wrapped (viewed at 100% on Windows/Chrome.)
These have all been fixed.
Quote
Can descriptions/synopses be added to the New This Week video listing?
Great Idea.  I have modified my background code to pull the short description into my database.  In trying to keep the presentation clean, I think the best approach would be to remove the thumbnail image from the New This Week table, add an additional column that contains an icon for "more info" which will trigger a pop up window containing the video thumbnail and short description when hovered over.  Probably a week or two before I get that coded.
Quote
Maybe hide "Grab Your Bag:" until you have a listing, or put something like "Maybe this can be you?" with a link to contact you to become a publisher?
I have a couple publishers on my list to go under this column.  Need to review their videos some more and create a write up for them.  Hope to have that done within a week.
Quote
Add a link to contact you to become a publisher ;)
On my list of future enhancements.
Quote
And maybe a real honest to goodness "about" page that talks about who YOU are and your interest in being a modern nomad.
Like all of your other suggestion, you are right!  I will have to think about this for a while on how to work that in.  Please realize that you are talking to an introverted programmer and even posting on this form is out side of my comfort box. :)


Thanks again for the great feedback.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2018, 07:41:33 AM by frost7777 »

xoxoseo

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Re: So I built a website.
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2018, 10:22:28 AM »
Hi, you need to do keywords research first.  Title of the main page has no keyword, e.g. Video Aggregator - Modern Normands, it also should have H1-H3. The main keyword should be mentioned about 2-3 times in strict match, plus synonyms and long tails. I would recommend visiting moz blog, they have lots of great materials, particularly about basic technical optimization. If you don't do it in a proper way, you will: need to acquire/buy too many links or forget about organic traffic.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: So I built a website.
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2018, 12:25:03 PM »
Some more channels for you to check out.

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frost7777

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Re: So I built a website.
« Reply #8 on: March 28, 2018, 06:07:38 AM »
Thanks for the tips @xoxoseo.  I have to admit that SEO is kind of a mystery to me.  I checked out the moz blog and will do some more research to see what I need to change.

Thanks for the channel suggestions @2Birds1Stone.  I have added them to my list of publishers to review.

Site development is on hold for the moment.  I volunteered to help a local organization with a project, and that has burned through all of my evenings for the last week.  Expecting that this new project will keep me busy for at least another week.  After that, my focus can turn back to the website. :)
« Last Edit: April 04, 2018, 07:42:00 AM by frost7777 »

Forever Wednesday

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Re: So I built a website.
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2018, 10:10:08 AM »
Nice start, I'm also experimenting with web design. :) I think perhaps some parts of the layout can be rearranged and styling adjusted, but that's more a sort of tweaking process.

One thing I like about the homepage is that you give an overview of all of channels on a single page. This makes it easier than Youtube to identify a channel I might want to follow. If you shortened the descriptions and rearranged things so that the height of each of these sections were shorter, more could fit into the browser window which would make it easier for me as a user to compare them. The keywords could also feature in the description so I immediately know if it's something I'm interested in without having to read the entire description (i.e. "Sail Boats", "Trailers", and other search terms).

frost7777

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Re: So I built a website.
« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2018, 10:59:26 AM »
After a couple weeks of distractions, my focus is coming back around to the website.

Per @neo von retorch
Quote
Can descriptions/synopses be added to the New This Week video listing?
A popup containing the thumbnail and short description has been added to all videos on the site.  Not just the new this week tab.

Per @xoxoseo
Keywords have been added to the title.  Implemented the H1-H3 heading tags and modified some of the headings to use more keywords.

Per @Forever Wednesday
Based on your feedback I have broken the "What's Your Travel Style" out into its own section and placed it towards the top of the page to give the viewer a better idea of what kind of videos they are going to be looking at.  The "About" section has been moved to the end of the page.  Will take a look at changing the format of the Publisher profiles to take up less space in the future.

At this point I'm am going to focus on adding additional publishers to the site.  I have a significant list to go through.  Once the site has 20 to 25 publisher, then I will switch back to focusing on adding enhancements to the site.  I appreciate all of the feedback so far!  Thank you.