Name of your website?The World of iPhone
Your name?
K. Mitchell
Your Location (city, etc)
Pittsburgh
Please give us a short summary of your website?
This is a site dedicated to discussing nothing but the iPhone. It was created to be a place where anyone who wanted an iPhone would be able to find out all of the details and figure out how to get it without spending a fortune.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I'd spent the summer teaching Dreamweaver and Flash. One day I realized that I could be spending my time making a new website. I'd been working with so much web development software. That's where my brain was at the time.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I launched my first website about one year ago. It was a promotional site for the band that some friends and I formed in high school.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Haha! Wow, now that's a question. I didn't really get to decide. I was on a domain search and I just kept typing in domain names, all of which were taken, until I found one that I could work with. It was nice because I was able to make a nice logo from that name.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
I've noticed that there are free iPhone giveaway sites that don't provide much information. There are iPhone discussion sites that don't provide unbiased information and details. There are informational and review sites that don't offer discussion OR free iPhones. My site does all of the above and I'm busy working to add more every day.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I'm hoping that this site will give me some flexibility with my life so that I can quit my day job soon and spend more time at home. Families are stronger that way. Eventually though I would like to sell it for a large amount of money to pay off my school debt. If it works well enough, I'll just replicate the idea, change it up a bit, improve upon it and start all over again... without the debt.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
It's hard because you want to spend all of your time working on your website because you know that there's more potential for growth of income in the future. The only problem is that you have to live and survive in the mean time. Consequently, you have to sacrifice that time for a steady job so that you can pay bills until your website makes enough money to surpass that steady income.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Hmmmm... I'd probably be buying iPhones in bulk at wholesale prices and selling them cheaper than Apple and AT&T on my site. I'd have to think really hard about what else I might change. My mind set is usually geared towards the minimum budget with the maximum payoff. Other than that I'd spend a lot more on advertising and boosting my page rank on Google.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yeah that wouldn't be too hard. I'm automating everything so that the only time I have to make changes is right after I get paid. Ultimately what happens is that if I had to spend 7 hours every day of constantly updating payment information and what not, it would be for a LOT of money. Then I'd probably sell to the highest bidder.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Costs aren't a big deal. Finding advertisers and learning how to program has given me many headaches. I still have a headache now from programming. I think I'm going to go take a tylenol. Be right back...
What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge is me. It's hard for me to keep myself focused and dedicated on working. I always get distracted so easily and I want to do other things.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Google adwords worked wonders but I decided that I'd do a lot more updating before I spend any more money.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Well it's about as hard as I thought it might be. Getting traffic is a little harder than what I thought it would be. My brother makes websites too and he's a lot better at driving traffic to his site than I am.
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?
It's seriously only been a couple of months. It will be an awful long time before I get discouraged. Businesses take a long time to grow. I'm not going to assume that I'm any better.
If your website goes exactly as planned, what will you do in the future?
If I'm able to make a good enough amount of money to give me some freedom, I'll use that time to do my true passion: making video games.
What is your website address?
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