I started a parenting website back in 1998. I started it on yahoo clubs, they got rid of yahoo clubs and then I moved to ezboard.com. That got pricey so I moved it to its own domain and hosting. I have been struggling with it ever since.
I know just enough php, css, html, mysql etc. to get it up and running and maintain it, I think barely but maybe I underestimate what I know.. who knows.
It consists of a message board forum (vbulletin) with 500 forums inside, a chat with unlimited rooms and currently over 100 made rooms. Parenting, articles, info, and tools. None of which are prefect or done right now.
The whole site is a large oil painting that is very much not finished but definately worth looking at and hanging in your living room til it gets it next coat of pain or next details.
I pay out roughly 15-30 bucks a month for the site and I make nothing off it.
However I have gotten over 100 sponsors who have sent products from their websites for prizes to give away to members for random contests we hold on the message boards and such.. Which I currently needs to run 6 prizes that are long overdue to be mailed out, but not forgotten.
The site is big, roughly 10,000 members Plus the chatters.
Usually my hosting company asks if it is a p**n site when I call for tech support due to the way the front page looked and how may hits it gets daily. I changed the front page though. So I am not sure if they still think that and if it still gets that many hits. I have not had the time to look lately. It was a cute but realistic looking model pin up graphic, no nudity.. and it said Enter,
I can not currently afford to pay a staff, which is what I need to make the site run more smoothly and progress to the next level.
I offer my chat room to any mom, expecting mother to be, women trying to conceive, dads, and groups of moms.
I offer free private chats to them.
Many websites that people cna go make groups at, moms specifically..have no chat room.
So that is where my chat comes in.
My chat is of course available to the members of my message board as well.
So here is the issue, people come in and they all come at different times, missing each other by sometimes 1-2 minutes not only in chat but on the message boards so things are not going well and becoming less and less active.
In my files I can see how they are missing each other by mere seconds or minutes so they think everything is deserted and they leave too.
It happens with the message boards too,
We try to get volunteer staff but they do so much and then stop. Some stop due to lack of time, and some do to the lack of response from the MANY many members. They make their efforts and people do not do much to respond.
More members join daily, more chatters join daily. Yet they all miss each other and makes the site look deserted at times.
So with a site with much potential, lots of options, freedom to its members, and a lot of members, without all the commercialism involved.
Where do I go next and how do I coordinate these people. I feel like I have done all I can to an extent.
I do this for fun, for supporting others and in hopes to make MONEY someday soon.
What would you do?
I never finished but half a year of college, took no courses in web design, graphic design, or programming. I learned what I learned on my own. I feel I do not know enough though. I do not feel I have time for college right now, I have a family and young children that need me.
The website is http://www.a-mommys-world.com
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