GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 34 - February 2016

FROM THE GPWA FORUMS M any of the newest members of the GPWA are just getting started in the industry, and as a result, they have a lot of questions. In a recent thread, Landofbetting asked whether he should build his own website or outsource the job. He got lots of great advice from our more seasoned members, and thanks in large part to that advice, came to a conclusion on how to proceed. We’ve posted most of the thread on the following pages, but if you’d like to read the entire thing, you can find it at http://gpwa.org/382. Build your own website or pay someone to do it? #1 Landofbetting New Member What are the main advantages and disadvantages of having your website built by a professional design company as opposed to doing it yourself? Surely if you have the money to spend then it’s better to pay a professional … or am I missing something? “ Reply With Quote #2 Triple7 Public Member If you’re a good coder and want something customized, do it yourself. If you’re not a good coder and want something customized, hire someone, but be prepared to pay some money. Paying peanuts results in getting monkeys. If a customized website isn’t necessary, use some theme. Themes usually do have a lot of features. Better to use a standard theme than let some joker make something customized. For customized websites, just work with pros who know what they’re doing. “ Reply With Quote #3 Landofbetting New Member Yeah that was pretty much what I was thinking. Agree completely about paying peanuts! I think if you are going to pay someone to do it then make sure you are using someone that is actually going to do a very good job. When paying someone to build a site for you what are the main things that you should make sure they do? For example, security, etc. “ Reply With Quote #4 Triple7 Public Member Exactly. Also, a gambling site needs some typical features that a lot of other websites do not have. You need to specify exactly what you want. You need to think about that, because your website needs to be fast and nice- looking but also it must be possible to maintain it in an efficient way. You need to be sure that: • They build exactly what you want! • They need to build a website with features, not a stan- dard theme with a bunch of plugins. • They use clean code and know what they’re doing. • Make a clear agreement about support after. Ask for a manual or something which includes how things need to be updated, how things are coded, etc., so that anybody else can work on your website. It’s very difficult to work with somebody else’s work, because everybody has his own way of making things. Perhaps I did forget some things, but these things for sure are things to remember. I hired some people [in the past] and I paid peanuts and I received monkeys. Most self-declared Web specialists just use some theme or copy some theme and add a bunch of plugins and some code. Also, designers just use what is better for them. Like “Hey, better no banner there,” because it costs them some time to make that. The most important thing is that you know exactly what you want. To be honest, if don’t have much experience with having gambling sites, you’d better start with a standard theme (Flytonic or something like that). Then you learn what you want, what you need, etc. Once a customized website is made, it’s expensive to make changes and if people do not do things in a logical way, it can be almost impossible to change some things in a reasonable way. “ Reply With Quote From the GPWA Forums