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HomeInvestmentsCreating a New Alternative Stream of Income–My First Non-Blog Website Part I

Creating a New Alternative Stream of Income–My First Non-Blog Website Part I

Since I started this blog, I have talked about why I believe that multiple streams of income is the best way to accumulate wealth and why I want multiple streams of income.  To meet my goal I have used this personal finance blog, my dividend income portfolio, my very small law practice…and now my newest website, Pregnancy Pool.  Pregnancy Pool is free way to involve family and friends with the birth of your child by letting them guess when the child will be born, his or her weight and his or her gender.

 

First Steps In Creating the Website

Find Website Market Inefficiencies

The first step was one I stumbled upon inadvertently, it had to be determined whether there was a market inefficiency.

I was out for dinner with a buddy and his wife.  They were expecting a child within the next and since they know I like almost anything to do with gambling and I can create websites they asked if I would set up their baby pool.  Of course, I said “Hell Yea, buddy.”  With a full stomach and a few beers in me, I searched for “Baby Pool” “Pregnancy Pool” and other similar terms.  There were websites but they were either horrible looking or weren’t free.  So I created a makeshift option on one of my other domains.  It worked out beautifully, and I thought to myself I can’t be the only one searching for this service, and dissatisfied with the options out there.  So where do I go from here…

Create the Game Plan

The next step was to create a mind map.  In the particular mind map the first step was:

Create Website

Kind of a big one huh? Well first thing is first, I had to choose a domain, I tested out a bunch on family and friends and came up with Pregnancy Pool.  I then purchased the domain and a hosting plan.  This was all done for under $60 for the year.

Next up was the hard part – the back end of the site.  I was insistent on creating it myself, I mean I run this awesome blog, how hard could it be?  Well I found out quickly it was above my head.  At that point I had to determine whether it was cost feasible to create the website with a budget of under $1,000.  Why $1,000? Anything above $1,000 I would have to really determine the idea’s profitability under $1,000 I could take the reasonable and calculated risk.

I contacted a ton of US web designers but I was looking at minimum of $2,500 and a maximum of $10,000.  Woah, this is a simple website there is no way that it should cost that much, but after my 18th phone call with a web designer I remember reading 4 Hour Work Week and Tim’s love for freelancers.  I quickly got my copy and re-read his tips for using them and where to find them.

I signed up for an account on with ODesk, which lets you post your job for free! I made requirements specific and made it clear I wasn’t paying anything until I had the basic site set up.  After weeding through what felt like a hundred guys who had questionable English skills and had no idea what I was looking I found my man, Ravi!

We worked together over the course of 3 weeks to get the site up and running.  While I hired another free lancer to apply a theme and get the overall look, I still go back to my man, Ravi for little changes which I send over a $10 or $20 depending on the bug.

If you were wondering about that cool Pregnancy Pool button it was designed by the guy who did My Journey to Million’s logo and countless others throughout the personal finance blogging world, Peter from Bible Money Matters and Logos for Websites.  If you’d like to add a smaller version of the cool button to your site feel free to use the code below.


HTML Text box

Crystal from Budgeting in the Fun Stuff and anti-Evan sentiments was cool enough to throw me a spot on her great blog.

This post probably explains why I recently wrote, Get off Your Ass and Follow Through with Your Business Idea! Next time I will go into how I am promoting the site and the monetization aspect.

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23 COMMENTS

  1. So what’s the plan for monetizing your site, Evan? I’m guessing ads – ads for expecting and new parents maybe?

      • Ah, yep – and I’m just guessing (again) here but I would think you could have a higher click-through rate on those ads. Soon-to-be and new parents seem to want to learn/look at everything they can. It’d be interesting to hear how the ads perform (without violating Google’s TOS).

  2. Good luck with the new income stream Evan! I’m interested in how you plan to monetize…looking forward to your follow up post.

  3. What are your plans going to be for marketing your website to grow traffic?

    One of the things I love about blogs is that one can build relationships with other blogs and with regular readers, and that helps grow traffic for free (at least free in terms of cash).

    With a static site, one might not have the network effect of having blog friends regularly linking to it, adding to their blog link lists, and so forth. So what’s the plan going to be? Paid advertising?

    (I’m curious because I’ve tossed around the idea of a static site of my own.)

    • I agree that it is much harder to build a community, but I am not looking to build a community, per se, but rather use word of mouth to spread the site.

      I had one friend create a pool and had a few other people promote it and I hit more impressions than a normal day here!

      It didn’t continue today, but we’ll see!

  4. Congratulations on the new site!!

    I wondered about the coding when you mentioned it in the early retirement extreme post (or linked to your get off your @ss post). I am in the same boat as you…I have this need/desire to do everything myself, yet quickly find I am in over my head!!

    Anyways, I am looking forward to reading more about the site and your efforts and really hope that you find success.

    • As long as you know EXACTLY what you are looking then you can go for a freelancer. If you ever want to talk about an idea throw me an email!

  5. I was amazed by your previous side activites… You are one of the busiest people I know!

    Good luck with this new site!

    • I am not sure I am the busiest I just use the time on the couch when the wife is watching her horrible TV lol

      • I wish I was a blogger during my son’s “Wiggles” and “Teletubbies” show watching years… Talk about horrible TV!

        Luckily, those have pretty much past by the wayside (your soooo lucky!).

  6. That’s awesome. Love to see fellow bloggers branching out and starting up a new biz. Maybe this will spur some new ideas out there. Keep us posted on how it’s doing, how you monetize and lessons learned!

  7. Good idea to get some non-blogging sites running. Blogs are about as non-passive as a stream gets. What process did you use to vet the oDesk candidates?

    • Amen on the work blogs take!

      Vetting the oDesk candidates was tough. I made them answer questions to gauge whether they actually understood what I was looking for. I ended rejecting probably 92% before it even got to negotiating.

  8. Agree with Rachel – all the sites I’ve tried to set up in the past few years are blogs, and no wonder I’ve only been able to keep the big one going!

    So I’ll be very interested to see how the money aspect works out for Pregnancy Pool. Good luck!

    • It really is tough. Mainly because I LIKE reading about personal finance and checking out other PF sites.

      Mommyhood sites aren’t as fun to read and comment on lol

  9. Hey Evan – this is a great idea and congrats on the launch. Here is a suggestion:

    Make it like a wedding registry – in other words, allow people to search for a couple’s name from the first page without the need for them to register or login.

    Hope this helps!

    Keep up the good work,
    Kimberly

  10. Hey Evan,

    Congrats with your new site.

    I was smiling when i read that this idea came up and you did some researches while your belly full of beer LOL hillarious!

    Good luck with your site, and i wish all the best.

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