A couple weeks ago I decided on my first actual “project”.  While I had up some arbitrage sites and sorts that allowed me to get my feet wet, I figured that building a quality website with great content that generated return visitors was the way to go.  I also decided a great way to generate constantly updated unique content, and therefore return visitors, was by developing a forum.  The members post unique content for you and come back to check it frequently!

 I also came to the realization that web design and programming are certainly not my strong points.  My competitive advantages lie in two core areas: creative ideas and marketing.  So logically, I should outsource much of my designing/programming.  I spent several days locating a vBulletin designer/coder that had a strong portfolio and references to boot.  When I finally found one, I was still quite apprehensive about paying him $300 upfront to get started.  I thought, “what if he just takes my money, AND my idea, and walks away?”  It was a possibility… but it didn’t happen.

Within 2 days he showed me a beautiful sample skin and today, I sent him an e-mail about a few last minute changes before coding it and installing hacks.  The e-mail he sent me back was nothing short of depressing: in a few short days he would be going out of the country… for a 6-month period!

I hit a homerun on my first at-bat for finding an excellent designer/programmer and now he’s leaving the country!  Tonight, not only did I scramble to give him last minute changes to this forum, but I agreed to purchase a skin in his portfolio that wasn’t being utilized.  So there is good news and bad news.

Good news = I’ll have 2 beautiful forums by the end of the weekend.

Bad news = I have to find a new designer/programmer and if anything goes wrong when my current guy leaves the country… I’m pretty much screwed.

When it’s all said and done, here will be my expenses:

• 2 forum skins w/coding = $1,200
• 2 vBulletin licenses = $320
• 2 domain names = $18
• Grand Opening Advertising budget = $400
• TOTAL = $1,938

A nearly $2k investment means my financing pool is pretty much dried up for the forseeable future.  My main goal in the next couple weeks is develop a marketing plan to immediately bolster membership for these forums so I can immediately begin monetizing the sites.  Of course, I’ll have a long term plan of action too.

While I’m working on building forum membership, I’ll be creating a list of ideas and opportunities to work on next.  I already have 2-3 bigger ideas that will take a lot of designing and coding help… these will have to wait.  While I build up my queue of upcoming projects, I’ll also be mapping out some content sites that I can work on myself.  I’ll probably end up buying some really cheap templates for these content sites because what I make pretty much looks like crap.

In the meantime, I have two HUGE priorities.  (1) build membership in forums (2) map out a plan for these sites AND future sites.

I also have one huge dilemma: finding a new designer/programmer.  A few of my ideas I wouldn’t even want to share with somebody unless I could get a Non-Disclosure Agreement signed and I’m leaning towards finding someone local I can sit down and talk to about my ideas.  I have too many priorities!  Let’s just get these forums up and running and start writing a more detailed plan and strategy for these and upcoming projects.  Here goes nothing…