GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 34 - February 2016

#16 TheGooner Private Member Originally Posted by Landofbetting When you talk about buying an off the shelf CMS I’m a bit confused as I thought WordPress was free and then you can buy certain themes? Is that what you meant? If so I may well do that and start playing around with it so at least I can start to get a feel for it for future projects. Yes, that was what I meant. WordPress is free, but there is still a little bit of work in installing it with the theme of your choice, and learning how to import and add content correctly. If you have not done it before then it can be a bit confusing. Have you set up website software/bought hosting/registered a domain before? Can you confidently do all three? If you have the money available and want to make quick progress, then finding an expert that will help you through this process is a good idea. You might only need 5-10 hours of their time, but having a bit of guidance would be useful. After doing it once with someone’s help you will quickly find that you learn enough to do the next one yourself (probably). I don’t know many good gambling affiliates that are NOT do-it-yourselfers to a major extent. Most are involved on their sites on a daily basis, including coding changes, design changes and SEO changes. The nature of building affiliate websites is flexibility and adjusting to change. (I do know of one group — a big successful group — where the lead lady is not technical, but they have technical people on staff.) Originally Posted by Landofbetting Pulling my hair out here as I’m really not sure what is best! If you are frustrated at this stage then you’ve got a lot of frustration to look forward to. In the end there is no definitive right or wrong option, all choices will have pluses and minuses and you will make errors and learn from them. Given your frustration/confusion at this stage, I don’t think that you know enough, understand enough, or have experienced enough affiliate operations to be able to go to the design market and spend money to get an effective custom product sat this stage. My advice would be GET STARTED. Choose a WordPress site and a theme — get it installed with help — and begin the learning process. It may not be what you end up with, but it’s a cheap option. In three months you will definitely know a lot more and can think about other options. Originally Posted by Landofbetting Let’s say I buy a theme like Flytonic and don’t want to change the layout much, just add content and work on the SEO. Are these themes easy to use? Do I need to know how to code anything? “ Reply With Quote #17 RacingJim Public Member I agree with the consensus. I wouldn’t chuck a load of money at it when it sounds like you are still at an early stage. Better to learn cheaply. Try learning how to use WordPress, use the Flytonic templates first as they are very good for beginners and some cheap £5 a month hosting. Get good at the basics before you start splashing the cash on developers. There are too many who will see you coming and take your hard-earned money off you without really delivering what you need. You’ve got to be on your game when you start paying developers/ companies to do stuff for you. You have to be knowledgeable to an extent in websites so you can communicate what you need and most importantly not get ripped off. “ Reply With Quote #19 Landofbetting New Member Thanks everyone for all the really useful advice. I have decided to buy the Flytonic themes and hire a WordPress expert on a three-month contract to help me develop the site and teach me at the same time. Wages are quite low where I live and I can employ someone for three months and keep a large chunk of my budget for future work that may be needed. I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going and obviously share the end result. “ Reply With Quote 21 From the GPWA Forums