Mobile Phone Website

This one was very similar to the earlier mobile phone website. In fact, it was basically a copy, with different products.

The first site was for a customer and it was doing so well, very quickly, with search engine visitors that I decided to build my own copy, with a different datafeed.

Both sites were built using affiliate datafeeds, so all that I needed to do was to choose a different affiliate merchant and promote their phones. Lessons then learned from either site benefitted the other.

Unfortunately, I put effort into getting my copy some traffic, the customer expected it to happen my magic. My site is still out there (but it needs some TLC), his has been abandoned.

Endowment Mis_Selling Website

This was another venture into my own ideas. I already had a mortgage website running, so thought that connected with that it would be a good idea to run an endowment mis-selling website. Given I was going through the claim process myself at the time, it was on my mind!

So I set up this website, after travelling an hour each way to speak to a solicitor willing to buy leads from me. I generated a good number of leads and started off my own affiliate scheme (other affiliates generating leads for me).

But the solicitor was very slow responding to me and would take months to tell me which leads had signed instructions (the point at which I was paid). He asked me to see him again, so I travelled the hour there on the train, waited in reception for three quarters of an hour, because he was running late, then had a 2 minute chat with him then a few minutes with another guy. All both wanted to know was how to change their own website for better optimisation, nothing to do with what we were actually running together.

But it was taking ages to get cash from them. Usually a couple of months to confirm payments were due then even longer to chase up all of the outstanding invoices, so in the end I pulled out of the agreement. The website is still live, and will remain so until it expires, but just earning a bit of Google cash instead.

On the whole, I now stick to recognised affiliate schemes as they are far easier to get your cash from!

Ebook Website

Here's a customer that does try very hard with their sites.

He writes ebooks and sells them through his one page sites. We started with a financial guides, that was eventually withdrawn because of the complexity of keeping up with FSA recomnendations.

Then came the 'How To Play Blues Piano', which is still about, followed by 'A Football Manager's Guide', which went live about a month ago.

He has promoted these through article writing and PPC as well as other methods. Sales aren't going to help him retire, but they are there as a reward to his efforts.

What's more, he's a good customer. Not only paying on time, but also easy to please and tells me exactly what he wants. I love customers to be like that!

Mobile Phone Website

This one was another site for the same guy as yesterday's post. He obviously thought he was onto a good thing - finding a cheap webdesigner who could quickly put together sites for him.

I do have my own (older!!!) version of a similar mobile phone site. I've used adsense, leaflets and other forms of advertising to promote it and got plenty of commission from it - more profit than he was paying me to build a site for him. But again, like yesterday, he expected me to build a site and it to run automatically for him, at no effort or cost.

It's sad because it was a good website and did instantly start getting search engine visitors. But with no work, a phone site quickly goes stale and loses the interest of the search engines. I did try to get him using simple techniques such as news or a blog, but he didn't have the time and patience. It was expected that it would only take me to build him a couple of web sites and then he could become a millionaire.

If only it was that easy! But for the sake of a few adverts, the website failed. It wouldn't have taken much - just a small google campaign or some pop under advertising.

Insurance Affiliates Website

This was one of those customers that thought if he paid me a couple of hundred pounds in return I'd give him a site that was top of google listings for every conceivable search keyword.

It didnb't seem like that at the start. I thought the site he wanted was a basic directory of insurance schemes for him to promote through his existing outlets. But no, when it went live he expected to sit bck, cash monthly cheques and maybe pay me a further hosting charge the following year.

I'd say he was disappointed! Yes, I built a directory site that looked good and generated some search engine visitors, but the number dropped off as he wasn't using a news feature nor adding any new merchants. There was no attempt at marketing the site, so it failed.

Yes, I can build sites that draw people in and tick over nicely, but they require work from me each month to maintain their positions and content, like comparemortgagerates. And if I'm putting in that much effort that you are earning thousands each month, do you think I'd just be charging you a couple of hundred a year?

Hotels Website

This one was another idea of my own - another affiliate scheme I worked with for a while, and still do promotes occasionally. But the site didn't get the traffic I wanted, was hard to maintain (hence the low traffic...) and I'd thought of a different way of running it so decided to change tack.

So how did this one go wrong? It was a good idea, but it just took a huge product feed (10,000 hotels), split them into regions and expected people to find them. There was no real attempt to provide anything new - no original content. And my update method involved building the whole site on my laptop (using perl scripts) and then uploaded. 10,000+ hotels, plus relevant regions - it was never going to work!

Worse still, after I registered the URL I did a search on it and found various references to it in Google - but they were before I registered the site. Then I started to read these references and the previous site owner had basically destroyed the reputation of the site with search engines and so got out.

So it was an uphil struggle and I never really got the site a suitable page rank, so I surrendered when the site was up for renewal and let it expire.

The affiliate scheme was a good one - but like many ideas, it's on the back burner as there's too much other work waiting to be done.

Personal Injury Directory Website

You can tell by looking back over the portfolio how by the time this site was written, the business was getting busier. The occurrences of own sites is reducing - well this is one.

I actually took the laptop away with me on a short holiday and wrote this site whilst I was on the holiday. It wasn't bad, but as business got busier, I just never had the time to develop it the way I wanted to. I'd intended to research loads of personal injury lawyers around the country and list them. I'd hoped for tons of traffic and generating leads to sell onto the lawyers.

I got the site in, with a respectible directory and had many requests for others to be listed into it. But I just never seemed to get the time to fully work on it - there was always customer work to be done instead. So I decided to concentrate on the mortgages and cottages websites instead. This one lasted until the URL renewal, at which point it was still receiving requests for new listings, then I let it drop.

A good idea, but as with many of my own I just couldn't afford the time to market and maintain the site. Such are the woes of a successful business!

Holiday Rental Villa Website

This was (and still is) a nice site that I get on with the owners well, even though I've never met nor spoken directly to them! Only ever emailed these customers, as with a lot.

They approached me for a quote when they were preparing to leave this country and set up their new rental business in Spain. They liked the quote, but decided to hang on until they were up and running before getting the site live. But I suggested we start straight away so that the search engines had chance to find the site. By including fresh photographs of the villas being built, it was also a very good way of showing friends and family back home the latest progress.

Eventually the villas were ready and we went ahead and built a full site, which they still continue to update regularly. Of course, for the first part of the life of the site, displaying the progress of the build, I gave them that as a freebie. So they were really pleased.

Travel Agent Website

This website was one of three websites all first published in a matter of weeks of each other and all for travel agents. What's more, all used the same affiliate scheme to provide their online booking for their package holidays.

This customer is still with us and is talking about extending out by specialising in the cruise market - so hopefully a new site there in a month or two. This one was bright and colourful, yet clean and professional looking. It was also an early venture into content management systems - with the owner able to add new offers, which are summarised on every page and displayed in full on a special page. The newer sites have a far easier to use system!

Property Website

This one wasn't a long lived customer! Quite an involved site and for a very good price (for him). I have noticed during my years of web design that those customers that pay the least expect the most - this one held that true.

There were loads of contact forms (used as surveys) on the site, with different questions dropping in and out of the screen depending on previous answers. It was a nightmare to code and even worse to test. There was always a question appearing when it shouldn't do, or one not appearing when it should.

When it came to the renewal time a year later he told me my charges were far too high and wanted to host the site himself. But he never came back asking for the code to host the site - I expect he realised that my charges were actually cheaper than anything he could get himself.

At least the site was more work and experience and another for the portfolio when we were just startign up and a little bit quiet.

Travel Agent Website

This site arrived to us as a referal from an existing customer. A travel agent with an existing site and relationships with suppliers, he wanted a new site that better comibined his offerings and gave a newer, fresher feel than the free site he already had.

We combined some vila schemes along with a package holiday affiliate scheme to provide plenty of choice for his customers, giving loads of earning potential.

A few of his standard pictures decorated the site, along with some graceful graphics to produce site any travel agent would love. In fact, during the build process another travel agent saw the site, and signed up for one himself!

Cottage Holidays Website

This is another of our own websites and one that has served us really well over the years. But, as I often write, it's in need of a bit of work now.

I did try to update the site a few weeks ago, but only got half way through it before work loads prohibited further changes, and to be honest, it's in dire need of finishing off.

It's a shame, really, because over the years it's more than earned it's keep in affiliate revenues and Google Adsense alike. Each has earned far more than I would have charged for such a site.

The basic idea is that we take a feed of aroun 1,700 cottages in the UK, add a few more from other feeds and produce this static site. There's loads more feeds I could integrate, but I just need the time.

This has got to be one of the top of my hit list to refresh, especially as when I just looked at it I found a couple of broken links.

Hopefully, by the end of February, a new version will be live. Shame it will have missed peak booking season. Oh well, there's always next year...

Holiday Flats Website

This was a simple website to advertise new a holiday flats business on the south coast.

Just a simple website to show what they had to offer. We had to convince the owners that they were not writing a tourist guide to the area as every bit of text sold the beauty and features for miles around, yet nothing mentioned the flats.

That's an important point to remember when creating a holiday flats website. The visitor to your website is almost certainly sold on visiting the general area, so concntrate on selling what you have to offer over what another place offers. If there are attractions within an easy reach then the availability of these attractions is what you should feature, not why your visitors should visit them, which could equally well apply to accommodation 50 miles away.

When creating a holiday flats website include photographs of any special features - roll-top baths, double showers, BBQ areas, four poster beds etc. Also mention all your special features in the text. But don't try to sell the general area to the visitor - that's probably already taken place.

Loan Calculator Site

Here's one of our own sites that we're still running, but as always if time allowed it could do with a lot of TLC!

Basically the original idea was to bring together loan calculators from everyone that we could find providing them. Where possible, these would be affiliate links, so that we earned a commission. Add to that Google Adsense and there's a nice little earner.

And it worked well, apart from there weren't many affiliate schemes with this simple tool. It's a shame because the reason behind the idea was the realisation that on other sites of our own, such links worked many times better than banner links.

As with many of our own sites, we've just not had the time to maintain it, giving priority to customer's websites instead. But I'm sure that over the next few months as we reduce the number of own sites that this one will be given the attention it so desperately needs. After all, it still gets some traffic for us and covers its keep.