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View Full Version : Please Check out my Music News Portal



Harold Mansfield
04-27-2009, 07:23 PM
I have seen a couple of Alltop, and PopUrl's clones around, but most are just exact clones, same feeds with a few exceptions.

So, I decided I wanted one of my own that was truly niche specific, and also, a nice little keyword was available in a ".org", and this just seemed to be the best fit for it.

Although I am trying to keep it pretty simple and low maintenance, any suggestions for improvement would be welcomed.

Thanks

The Link (http://www.electronicdancemusic.org)

vangogh
04-28-2009, 01:13 AM
Are all those sites yours? I know the first one is, but how about the others.

It looks really nice. Much cleaner and less crowded than some of the other sites you've shown. Since you mean this as a portal one thing you might want to consider is allowing people to reorganize the sites based on their preference. It would take a little Ajax, but I'm sure there are plenty of free scripts. You'd either set a cookie to maintain visitor preferences or better yet allow people to sign up and store their preferences in a database.

The sign up would allow you to build an email list and offer a number of things to members. There are probably better ways to make money than the ads.

I don't think people need the make text bigger and smaller since browser will take care of that on their own, but I do like the ability to change the background color. I actually like the darker background color as a better look for the site. In either case I'm not crazy about the background color behind the header and I think a better logo would be nice.

Why not add a music search that takes people directly to the iTunes store or another music download site with an affiliate program?

Harold Mansfield
04-28-2009, 09:50 AM
Are all those sites yours? I know the first one is, but how about the others.

It looks really nice. Much cleaner and less crowded than some of the other sites you've shown. Since you mean this as a portal one thing you might want to consider is allowing people to reorganize the sites based on their preference. It would take a little Ajax, but I'm sure there are plenty of free scripts. You'd either set a cookie to maintain visitor preferences or better yet allow people to sign up and store their preferences in a database.

The sign up would allow you to build an email list and offer a number of things to members. There are probably better ways to make money than the ads.

I don't think people need the make text bigger and smaller since browser will take care of that on their own, but I do like the ability to change the background color. I actually like the darker background color as a better look for the site. In either case I'm not crazy about the background color behind the header and I think a better logo would be nice.

Why not add a music search that takes people directly to the iTunes store or another music download site with an affiliate program?

Whoa..that's a lot of stuff !

No all the sites are not mine. (I Wish !)..they are the most relevant publications in the industry, of course mine is first, since I put it together :)

It's really meant to be a lot simpler than that. It's basically patterned after these two sites:
http://wordpress.alltop.com/ (http://wordpress.alltop.com/)
http://popurls.com/ (http://popurls.com/)

Some of the functions of those two sites, like a search, I will probably not include, since it is basically a one page site and all the major publications, and a few blogs are covered on one page.

As far as affiliate links...trust me, they are in there.

I agree that the header could be better. I am working on a new one today.

Preferences for the user ? Something to think about. Sounds like a cool idea. I'll have to see how, or if I can do it myself.

The main purpose, of course is to provide the portal, but it is also what I hope is a strategic SEO move to compliment my other music blog.

vangogh
04-28-2009, 01:59 PM
I had a feeling they weren't all your sites, but I know you have a few and I was pretty sure the affiliate links were in there somewhere.

The preferences would be a good way for you to build an email list. It'll take work to develop the backend system though there are probably open source solutions out there already or commercial products that won't cost too much.

Harold Mansfield
04-28-2009, 03:59 PM
I had a feeling they weren't all your sites, but I know you have a few and I was pretty sure the affiliate links were in there somewhere.

The preferences would be a good way for you to build an email list. It'll take work to develop the backend system though there are probably open source solutions out there already or commercial products that won't cost too much.

That is something worth thinking about. I would have to outsource that, I don't even want to think about tackling it myself, but it is something that I could use on every site.

I did change out the header, and I will probably rearrange everything so it's alphabetical to give it some structure.
I brought a few things over from the other site like the terminology wiki, since the domain is much stronger, and I am adding to the Twitter list of industry personnel (Still haven't seen an easy to use directory, Twitter should have used tagging )

This should give me an opportunity to put "technical" information here, and free up some space on my blog for just articles and promotions.

I should have mentioned that it has the most relevant English Language sites, I have something else planned for non-English sites :).

vangogh
04-28-2009, 11:00 PM
I see the changes. I do prefer the darker background better. I think it fits more with who your typical visitors will be.

Collecting the emails through a login won't be hard. All you'll need is to connect the site to a mailing list. I'm assuming the site is on WordPress. If so there's a plugin to connect you to phpMailList (I think that's the name), which like has an auto installer through your hosting control panel. I forget the plugin name, but I think it's relatively easy to find.

What will be harder is coming up with something that will make people login and probably coding that up.

Harold Mansfield
04-29-2009, 11:26 AM
If it goes the way I expect it to go, I am sure I can come up with a reason for people to log in. The problem is, I would rather do things like that from the blog (124 beats per minute). I don't want to get this one bogged down in things that would be better done over there....and I want to keep this one, very low maintenance.

But I guess you think that it would work better here, huh ?

I'm gonna keep it on the burner till I can come up with an effective way to tie in the other 2 related sites. No sense in doing it 3 times for the same market.

As I work out the bugs, I am considering removing the function bar at the top, keeping the color black, and adding something else in that spot...I guess it would be a perfect place for a "log in".

vangogh
04-29-2009, 12:11 PM
You can probably do the login on 124. The thought just popped into my head with this site since most portals allow you to sign up and set some preferences. You know it could be more useful here since you can probably collect more info like which sites people visit the most or move to the top of the page.

The wider collection of sites might have the potential to gather more info.

Harold Mansfield
04-29-2009, 04:33 PM
You can probably do the login on 124. The thought just popped into my head with this site since most portals allow you to sign up and set some preferences. You know it could be more useful here since you can probably collect more info like which sites people visit the most or move to the top of the page.

The wider collection of sites might have the potential to gather more info.

I was certainly thinking that way on the back end stats :), actually a lot of things popped into my head regarding potential marketing applications.

Dropping in a Popularity Plug in today as well.
Perfect timing too since "124" has really begun to finally realize it's potential.

A lot of things will have to come step by step, since this template obviously doesn't have the function of some of the wider known portals, basically just the layout..so this will cause me to learn more about a little programming.:mad:

But I can definitely see the potential.

vangogh
04-29-2009, 04:38 PM
Lost of potential as you start collecting some basic info and build an email list.

You might find you don't need as much programming as you think. Maybe there are WP plugins out there to do most of what you want already.

Glad I seem to have generated some ideas for you at least.

Harold Mansfield
04-29-2009, 11:15 PM
Lost of potential as you start collecting some basic info and build an email list.

You might find you don't need as much programming as you think. Maybe there are WP plugins out there to do most of what you want already.

Glad I seem to have generated some ideas for you at least.

You always do.:)

vangogh
04-30-2009, 01:36 AM
Thanks. Good to know someone thinks I have the occasional good idea.

Harold Mansfield
05-02-2009, 05:00 PM
Just added a site description, page link menu and search (top and bottom) function to the home page.

vangogh
05-02-2009, 08:45 PM
Nice additions. The description lets you know right away what the site is about. The about link in the top menu isn't working. It's working fine at the bottom.

The site is shaping up nice.

Harold Mansfield
05-04-2009, 02:20 PM
Just updated the DJ directories for Twitter and My Space, and also added DJ publications and Product news, and Night Life City Guide Pages...to round out the content.

vangogh
05-04-2009, 06:20 PM
Nice addition. The images in front of the links don't seem to be loading for me though.

elsoft
05-05-2009, 10:24 AM
The site looks great eborg (124).Just curious to know.How are you going to earn from a ssite without google adsense.Vangogh was mentioning somewhere that there are better ways to earn than with adsense.

Harold Mansfield
05-13-2009, 11:06 PM
The site looks great eborg (124).Just curious to know.How are you going to earn from a ssite without google adsense.Vangogh was mentioning somewhere that there are better ways to earn than with adsense.

I don't like Google adsense on my blogs at all. I think it is the lowest paying program on the web, with the most policy changes, and gives you the least amount of control.

Every ad on most of my sites are mine and go to other sites that I own that sell something. So I make it off of affiliate programs.

I 'm not saying adsense is the anti-christ or anything, it's just not for me. I don't like the lack of control over what ads are displayed, or sending traffic to another site that sells something that I can sign up for a program and sell myself.

I do use adsense as sort of a space filler in the side bar of some of my BANS sites (Build A Niche Store - Ebay Partner), but I don't look at it as part of my revenue plan.