Starting a site like hearth.com

[kestrel]

What is required to start a site like hearth.com? I was thinking, as a Christmas tree grower, that I'd love to have a resource like hearth.com dedicated to growing Christmas trees. Any expert advice out there?

 

[Jack Straw]

I can't help you, but I need some advice. We have planted quite a few white spruce trees and now some are getting big enough for christmas trees. When is a good time of the year to prune them so they have a good shape? I just want to have a few for friends and family, not a business. Thanks

 

[Dix]

I'm sure Craig will chime in.

But I can tell you, it will consume you

 

[kestrel]

I've never grown any white spruce specifically, but spruces and firs are sheared after their growth has been completed for the year. Usually late summer/early fall.

 

[BrotherBart]

Building a website these days is easy. Building a successful website that is industry based is a whole nother story. Craig was in the stove business with industry connections long before he started hearth.com. But the most important part is finding fools that will work for free as moderators for hundreds of hours a year.

 

[iskiatomic]

But the most important part is finding fools that will work for free as moderators for hundreds of hours a year.

Don't sell yourselves short, and fine fools you are! I do believe we all appreciate all of your work. I hear it makes Pen very thirsty.

KC

Poor Doug

 

[webbie]

What is required to start a site like hearth.com? I was thinking, as a Christmas tree grower, that I'd love to have a resource like hearth.com dedicated to growing Christmas trees. Any expert advice out there?

This would not be too hard these days!

I'd suggest revolving the whole thing around a forum - a forum can end up holding 90% of the info that you need. In addition, you probably need some "pages" for other information, but these can be added to many forums.

So the technical part is not too hard for a simple site.

You have to decide on the features you want and study the different packages available. By "packages", I mean the framework that sites are built on. We call them CMS or Forums.....CMS stands for Content Management System. A full blown CMS can run a varied site, like a magazine or newspaper, while a forum.....is pretty much just a forum. Many CMS packages have a forum component.

This is purely the technical end. But let's talk about the basic cost. You can host your new site in various ways - on the lower cost end, the whole thing can be done with free software and hosted for $10 a month. Cheap.

If your traffic builds up much higher, it will cost more...but at that point you are likely to have sponsors to help pay the bills. Either way, the cost of software and hosting is very low compared to the value you get.

You can even farm the whole thing out - that is, there are companies that will setup and host your community.
http://www.invisionpower.com/hosting/select_package.php
is an example....

It's good to have some basic tech knowledge - even if you can't do stuff yourself, it's good to know enough to figure out if you are getting ripped off, using the right packages, etc....

These guys do some decent reviews of forum software:
http://www.forum-software.org/

Study up and let me know if any other questions.

 

[kestrel]

Thanks for the info. I will check it out.