Name of your website?Bellport NY
Your name?
DanO
Your Location (city, etc)
Bellport New York
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Our site is a local area community site run by actual members of the Bellport NY area. We offer regularly updated news, local business reviews, upcoming event information, and just about everything else you would want to know about the area. We have also implemented a community forum so that members can directly participate in ongoing discussions on our site.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I started this site to fill an information gap on the internet. For many years I have lived in the village of Bellport, and I have always loved it. The problem cam when I started looking on the internet for local area information. There was just not much to be found. I had to change that, and so we started Bellport-NY.Com.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I launched my first site about 8 years ago. It was a simple personal website including family photos etc. Beleive me it was not very advanced. I like to think I have come a long way since those humble beginnings.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Simple. I named it after the place I live.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
Our site is much more personal to the area. Since all the news and information comes directly from local residents it offers a much more real and clear look at the area.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To grow our site even more and reach more readers.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
We don't make much of any money from this site in comparison to the time we invest. In fact it really just pays for itself as far as hosting etc. It is not our goal to turn profit though. It is our goal to provide a quality service to our neighbors.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Grow faster.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Hosting gets expensive after a while. Especially if you run 10's of websites as I do.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Finding time to do it all.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Word of Mouth and Search engines.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Its pretty well what I expected, we did get a better response than first anticipated though.
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?
this site is still a baby, only a couple months old. We will continue to run this site for many years to come if all goes well.
Would you do it over again?
Heck yeah!
What is your website address?
Bellport NY
