I Want to Make a Writing Site
By betsyraeduke
@betsyraeduke (2670)
United States
May 5, 2012 11:59am CST
Hey fellow mylotters/writers! To all of you who are familiar with Textbroker and The Content Authority, I was thinking of possibly starting my own site, similar to the likes of those. (But my site would pay better )
I have created the occasional free website at places such as webs.com (formerly freewebs), etc. However, those have all been pretty basic sites. What I would like to know is, how can I make an interactive board, such as the one found at Textbroker, where clients can post article request and writers can select article assignments? How to do I set up an interactive system that will allow writers to submit their work in the same or similar fashion as they do on Textbroker or Content Authority?
I would also like to create my own fanfiction site, perhaps similar to that of Fanfiction. net. For this I have similar questions. How do I make it so that members of the site can not only submit their own stories, but also have the option of submitting those stories in a series of chapters, if desired, as they can on Fanfiction. net?
Could anyone tell me how to do these things and explain in a simple, non technical, sort of way please? (think of it as explaining web design for dummies, lol)
And, for the sake of discussion, have you ever made your own story site where people could join as members and submit their own stories? If so, what inspired you to do this? Have you ever made your own paid writing site of any kind? If so, tell me about that experience.
2 responses
@SpikeTheLobster (6403)
•
5 May 12
What you're asking is potentially very complex.
The simplest route is to use a simple multi-user posting system - such as a forum - to allow people to post jobs or whatever. Then you'd do all the leg-work of assigning tasks and so on, which would be a LOT of work.
The alternative is to create an interactive site, as you suggested. However, to do that you'll need to either build it yourself or have it built. If you build it yourself, you'll have to teach yourself a CMS or a coding language such as php. If you have it built, you'll have to pay a developer.
In either case, you'll need to design the system before it's built. That's an entirely different skill-set, based around requirements gathering, conceptual modelling, writing specifications and - above all - considering all the possibilities for use/abuse of the system so that it makes sense.
If you decide to pay a developer to do the job, you're looking at a fairly large investment, especially if you don't do the designing yourself (since you'd need two separate professionals with different skills).
The same goes for a fanfic site: you could push a pre-built system to do the job or you can have one built (or build it yourself). Obviously, using pre-built systems limits what you can do, how easy it is to use and so on.
From personal experience (I have a rev share site, PenStars, just about to go into beta), the development costs will be well over $1,000 for a basic automated setup. They could easily be twice (or even five times) as much.
I did all the design work for my site myself, since I have a background in IT which includes process modelling, requirements, testing and a lot of the other ins and outs of development work. I have about 35 pages of text, diagrams, flowcharts and other info that is (according to the dev I'm paying) unusually well-prepared for most projects... and that's the only reason my setup costs are at the lower end. Even so, by the time it hits beta, I'll be well over $1k out of pocket.
If you cant do the system design yourself (processes, not colour choices), you're looking at another grand or two for someone with the required skills.
All in all, for a basic automated system that you have designed and built for you, I'd say you'd need about $5,000 to invest. Just the site dev, $1,000 to $2,000 (depending on complexity and framework). For a truly professional setup, double or triple those costs.
Oh, and you'll need hosting, too. Once you hit more than a few users, that means a VPS which is another couple of hundred bucks - at least - per year.
@betsyraeduke (2670)
• United States
6 May 12
Thanks for the information. Are there any guidelines or how-to guides on the web where I could begin to teach myself coding languages?
@betsyraeduke (2670)
• United States
6 May 12
Thanks vastari, I'll look into those tutorials and I'll see what I can do with wordpress as far as making a fanfic site.
@abhi_bangal (4853)
• Ahmednagar, India
8 May 12
Hi Spike,
I didn't know you had this writing site. I just signed up and as it says, waiting for the doors to open. But how long is the wait? I am sure it will be worth it. I have been a regular reading your forms where you had given me the link of the master list a while back. Though I didn't contribute in written form, I have read almost the entire forum.
I am looking forward to the writing site to start..........
@abhi_bangal (4853)
• Ahmednagar, India
8 May 12
I had some days back inquired about the possibility of having such a writing site. Even then it was Spike who had given some good answers and guidance. It's another thing that my other engagements and the lack of time has not allowed me to give my full attention to my ambition of having one such site. But I am always in the hunt to do it.
Anyways, good luck to your project and remember, I will be a writer there too