Name of your website?Newsflyja
Your name?
Kerry-Ann Thomas
Your Location (city, etc)
Kingston, Jamaica
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Newsflyja (news-fly-J-A) is a new Jamaican website where one can stay current with breaking news in Jamaica & the rest of the world. We have regular updates on News (Business & Celebrity), Entertainment, Business and Finance, Jamaican attractions and history etc. The information or content on this site is hip, fun, informative and educational.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I was spending a lot of time on the internet and i decided to compile my own information and arrange it in a way where individuals can have a "Taste of Jamaica" without actually coming here.i wanted a site where visitors can spend time on the internet and obtain information thus building their general knowledge.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
This is my first website, and it was launched May1, 2008.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The content of my website is news based intertwined with general information that is both informative and beneficial to my visitors, so my husband and i decided to have news in the name and from the saying in Jamaica that "news fly fast" we agreed newsfly and we added the Ja because we wanted it to have a Jamaican base.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
Worldwide Jamaica is know for the wonderful landscape, coffee, reggae etc. but of late the violence in our country seem to be the most talked about topic, i arrange this website to highlight the attractions of jamaica through the Jamaican Pipeline Page coupled with severeal other facts and history. This website is different because the information is arrange in a way that caters to the visitors overall development. for example, the Do It Yourself information, the Trivia and Fun Page, The Did You Know section etc.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I am definatley keeping this site, it is my goal for it to grow in such a way that the information will assist in the overall development of visitors both young and old.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
My investment of time and money at this point equal to my sucess. I have recieve the greateset satisfaction of seeing on average that Newsflyja has over 150 visitors daily. This site was not established as a money making veture, it was started with the aim of self development, both for myself and mu daily visitors.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would get a professional web developer as i am now doing this myself and i had no previous knowlege of such. this would let the information on the site ,more accesible and user friendly. this would aslo assist in getting information fom professionals in their area of expertise so that my information will be more detail and direct focusing on the needs of individuals and the general maintainance of the website.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes, the information is updated daily and i also work from home plus this is a hobby of mine. So i will definately will be able to keep up with the demand. Additionally currently i have four person who are working with me.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Well since i am using weebly which ofers free webshosting as i cannot afford to purchase my own domain, sometimes i ahve a lot of promlems where sometimes i arrage the information it show up a different way on the wbesite,sometime the weebly site goes down m(the daily page views), i would love for when visitors click on a link it opens in a new page but that does not work on weebly. The advertisment cost has skyroceted because jamaican are somewhat reluctant to going on a website for certain information etc.
What has been your biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge is advertising ( getting person to visit the site).
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Joining Social Networking sites such as My space, Facebook, HI5 etc.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It has not in anyway, i am doing somthing i love and on a much larger scale so it is what i expected.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
I have been running the site for a month and i will continue to keep it for as long as i am living and able to. i plan in the future to employ person to mainatain each page etc.
What is your website address?
Newsflyja
