Public Internet Portal

[zinglicious]

I wonder how much is the cost to create internet portal similar to home guru and iproperty? And which types of firms should I contact? Or If I get those college students to do it, do you think they have the competence to design what I want with some extra features?

[Dervish]

Try doing it yourself. It's challenging and mentally stimulating. Lots of online help these days.

[burntan]

Not an easy job, at least not as easy as you think. A portal like that need constant update and improvement, so hire a web developer is better than out source it.

[zinglicious]

While I can and always try to everything as reflected in my restaurant, I kenot hands on to the web designing as I dun have basic foundation in programming. The facebook setup oredi takes me 3 moths to setup!! All the Old Mean Ex Chef has is cooking up some ideas designed to take on the present protal giants in Malaysia.

I can cook for myself and others, but come to techie thingy I am a blurreed sotong. Personally, the berry phone oredi gives me headaches on applications. Now if I use iPhone from Apple or Samsung galaxy - My head would cracked!

As for web designing, I am out of space in my grey areas and most of all the time factor. Have to get it up running by next year as I got tie in marketing programs with 2 major PLC housing developers. I wanna to work with some kids on the college block as it could be a big payback for the kids at the end of the day rather than the companies. After all, most of those web startup were world beaters by the kids at college from Google to Yahoo. Moreover, I think the web needs constant twitches and upgrading.....

Finally the juicy part is if and when the portal is being sold, 10% proceed would go to the charity.

[burntan]

Personally, the berry phone oredi gives me headaches on applications. Now if I use iPhone from Apple or Samsung galaxy - My head would cracked!

As for web designing, I am out of space in my grey areas and most of all the time factor. Have to get it up running by next year as I got tie in marketing programs with 2 major PLC housing developers. I wanna to work with some kids on the college block as it could be a big payback for the kids at the end of the day rather than the companies. After all, most of those web startup were world beaters by the kids at college from Google to Yahoo. Moreover, I think the web needs constant twitches and upgrading.....

Finally the juicy part is if and when the portal is being sold, 10% proceed would go to the charity.

First of all, iphone and Android phone are easier to use than your berry. ^_^

Student is cheap, but they are part timer, not secure, not reliable. They could just quit because they have earn enough money for their iphone and ipad. Talking about facebook, some party pay that Mark Zuckerberg (student) to develope the portal at the begining, see what happen next?

[zinglicious]

(1) What is the cost of hiring a web developer to set up the portal and where can I contact them?

(2) For DIY, where are the sites where I can preview to get to know broadly what is going on?

(3)What are the precautions should I take if I were to entrust the task to the webdesigner to protect the copyrights or etc?

Any Tech Guru who can advise or those who knows college students who are interested to particiapte in this project where part of the proceeds is going to the charities if and when it is profitable.

[kuma]

(1) What is the cost of hiring a web developer to set up the portal and where can I contact them?

(2) For DIY, where are the sites where I can preview to get to know broadly what is going on?

(3)What are the precautions should I take if I were to entrust the task to the webdesigner to protect the copyrights or etc?

Any Tech Guru who can advise or those who knows college students who are interested to particiapte in this project where part of the proceeds is going to the charities if and when it is profitable.

Not a Tech Guru ......but my 2c worth here

Firstly...I commend you for looking at the Web as the way forward....

The 2 references you quoted are huge portals that will not only cost you a pile to replicate but also require you to have a small team to manage. Also bear in mind that they did not just spring up form nowhere to become popular....it would have taken years [and lots of $$ along the way] to build up to the position to where they are.

There is little difference between an Internet based biz as compared to a 'brick and mortar' one....in the later, you have your presence on the ground thus visible, the other you are on the WWW amongst the 14Billion sites today....so you need to work on becoming 'visible' which cost $$ and time. Its like any other biz, just the 'biz model' is a little different.

However, one BIG DIFFERENCE is that with a Web based biz, you can start small [like, really small with a few hundred bucks] and build up along the way, while earning some $$......AND you can compete [well, almost easily with the right strategies ] .....with any of the Big Boys as the Web is an 'even playing field' [of sorts].

If you wish to look at the Web as your next playground....then I suggest you get some knowledge about it. One thing about a Web based biz is that it would be difficult for you to outsource everything and have others run it without a reasonable degree of knowledge on the operations and tech involved...esp if you are a 1 man show.

For a start....I would take Venuspop's suggestion seriously....you can learn everything you need online....takes a while though......if you are one of those who needs someone to teach/coach you.....then watch the adds in the papers [usually Star]. Some suggestions [though not necessarily recommendations].............Looking at the Online model I think you are looking at......google 'Fione Tan' or someone who is in your neighbourhood 'Dechen Lau'......note that the cost of training and coaching will cost you a small sum too .....Attend their 'free previews' to get an idea of what's involved in the training.

I reiterate....you can learn all for FOC [well almost] but it will take many hours behind the screen and you must be a self learner. I recommend this route if you can because it will let you identify which model of Internet biz is best suited for you. When you go for coaching, they normally teach what's trendy and what they know best.

Your best teacher is GOOGLE and YOUTUBE D

p/s
Some of the stuff you have online is already a good start...your FB and YT sites can bring you a lot of biz....now you learn how to promote them effectively to bring you views and then clients. You might want to consider adding a Blog and building a List. Also make hyperlinks in your Sig here so people can just click to go to your FB, etc [Google it]

[burntan]

(1) What is the cost of hiring a web developer to set up the portal and where can I contact them?

(2) For DIY, where are the sites where I can preview to get to know broadly what is going on?

(3)What are the precautions should I take if I were to entrust the task to the webdesigner to protect the copyrights or etc?

Any Tech Guru who can advise or those who knows college students who are interested to particiapte in this project where part of the proceeds is going to the charities if and when it is profitable.

Seek a partner who able to develope the site is better than hire one, it will solve your 1,2,3 problem all together.

[palmdoc]

1. Get a good domain name
2. Decide if you want a local hosting service or foreign one - that depends on your anticipated audience
3. Self publish with a CMS (content management system) - Wordpress highly recommended for ease of use, flexibility and customization. At the end of the day a portal needs the content. Design is only part of the package.

Some hosting services can do it all for you - register domain name, setup website etc. I highly recommend Exabytes which is a Penang based company. Excellent support and service.

[Dervish]

(2) For DIY, where are the sites where I can preview to get to know broadly what is going on?

.

Lots of free hosting sites available these days. They are good training ground for you to learn. You can start off with a free site and opt for an upgrade later. They help you register your domain name and there is also an option to submit your site to Google. All free. Most importantly, these sites are user-friendly.

The most popular is wordpress.com
http://en.wordpress.com/about/

It is basically a blog site.

My personal favorite is:

www.webs.com

Here, they offer you a free site to toy around with. There is an option to upgrade when your business picks up. This site came with a home page, a forum, blog section, photo albums etc. When you leave it to others, you may or may not like what they're doing.

And Alwin, really. It's not difficult. If you can dish up that seafood spaghetti whatchamacallit, you can do this.

My two cents ...

[kwchang]

Up to this stage, we have no idea what Alwin expects the "portal" to do. If I go by my knowledge of a portal, it is a gateway to an online service site. It then is more involved than a blogsite (something as proposed using wordpress). A blog site is mainly static with publications added as pages.

Knowing Alwin's business, he is probably thinking of an interactive site whereby data is stored in a database and the users would be able to obtain information interactively. I suspect he would also have password access for clients as well as property owners whereby the information is only accessible to selected viewers. The system would also accord rights to the data owners to upload or edit the contents.

With that, the simple free web services and blogs suggested will be too simplistic. what Alwin would need are -

• database manager(s)
• webpage designers
• webpage programmers - PHP? CMS? and so forth
• security services - preferably packaged in by the web host
• backup andrestore service - probably provided by the web hosting services

All these add up to cost (just like running a regular company with associated staffing) - as rightly mentioned by Kuma. Finally, since Alwin claims he is not knowledgeable, he will need to engage a reliable manager.

This sounds ambitious. Alwin should talk to real professionals if this is the way he wants to go.

[kuma]

Some greats places to start from, as shared by Venuspop there....

If I may add a little....

Wordpress is the most commonly recommended CMS now....they offer you a free site, but on that they do not encourage anything promotional....you will be removed. To use WP for biz....you need to host it on external paid/free service. Of course you would need to learn how to manage it but its not difficult and there's lots of free video help even on YT. The one great feature of WP is the multitude of plug-in's that you can use to enhance your site's look and functionality.

If you don't want to dish out for Hosting just yet...then choose a free one, but you need to be aware that most won't give you an Add Free one.....The 2 below are the industry recommendations, [and ADD FREE] for those wanting free hosting.

Byet

000webhost

I will go with 'Byet' as it gives you a more space, higher Bandwidth and has Fantastico which helps in your installation of Wordpress...in fact just about all features of the paid services.


Having said [as above]....if you want just a simple site and Blog to start off, go with 'Webs' [see venuspop post] or use Blogger.com ....this is Google's so you need a Gmail and its free for life PLUS no Adds [unless you want them and get paid for it] and very simple to use.

Another great Free place to start, which is also loved by Google is Squidoo. This is easy to use too but is choked with their adds ......one of our fellow Forumers who has a lot of stuff up on Squidoo is the 'Goodguy'

Of the above....I would recommend Blogger....I know of at least 2 of our members here who have very good Blogs set up there. Squidoo has a slightly different functionality.

[kuma]

Up to this stage, we have no idea what Alwin expects the "portal" to do. If I go by my knowledge of a portal, it is a gateway to an online service site. It then is more involved than a blogsite (something as proposed using wordpress). A blog site is mainly static with publications added as pages.

Knowing Alwin's business, he is probably thinking of an interactive site whereby data is stored in a database and the users would be able to obtain information interactively. I suspect he would also have password access for clients as well as property owners whereby the information is only accessible to selected viewers. The system would also accord rights to the data owners to upload or edit the contents.

With that, the simple free web services and blogs suggested will be too simplistic. what Alwin would need are -

• database manager(s)
• webpage designers
• webpage programmers - PHP? CMS? and so forth
• security services - preferably packaged in by the web host
• backup andrestore service - probably provided by the web hosting services

All these add up to cost (just like running a regular company with associated staffing) - as rightly mentioned by Kuma. Finally, since Alwin claims he is not knowledgeable, he will need to engage a reliable manager.

This sounds ambitious. Alwin should talk to real professionals if this is the way he wants to go.

You are right....that's why I have suggested that he go and study the market, BUT more so, what exactly he plans to do. I would NOT recommend him starting out something like iProperty, without some background. Just look at their profile....they are huge!

My suggesting,.... of him learning some ropes first..... is because if he goes out and look for some web developers to get his 'dream' started......they may proceed [business mah]....and he's going to find out what's in store, luckily for starts,....about 30K later

I suggest he use some of the ways available online today [free too] to promote his current biz....he already has some sort of a good start with his FB and YT sites.

p/s
I have shared other related stuff, as I believe that many others follow our Threads and some may have similar interest.

[zinglicious]

It would be not a one man show. There would be starring, co starring, guest starring, screen writers and producers while it would be co-directed by me. The movie would have to be popped with a BIG BANG to take on the Big Boys i.e. iproperty.com, homeguru.com and propwall.com showing at the internet sites near you.

Spaghetti to Ziti, Fusilli to Fetucinne in seafood or meat balls -no problemo - but come to techie terms from hosting to designing, tweaking to customizing, I be blurred sotong in the deep blue sea. Those days back even setting up the blogspot.com to upload content takes 2 months and later cannot upload the wording content as it came up with hindustani characther instead of English alphabets! Though have had set up facebook and youtube but not the design in mind. Jush taruh only.

I would be going through the advice given to see wassup of what's going on and thanks guys or gals for the heads up. There is oredi adequate marketing, customers bases and design in mind but the only thingy missing is the big picture - "The Portal" which is to set up without shutdown, hecks and hacks. Since I am going after the Big Boys, I have to create the content I wanted it to be user friendly, impactful and EZ search mode.

Unlike Zing@Subang where I have limited my advertising and marketing skills, it is all out with all the blasts & blitz. From the Mean Olde Ex Chef, I have morphed into suave looking, action packed like Bond, James Bond 007. - Licence to kill. Me - Win, Al Win 008 - Licence to thrill.

[zinglicious]

I think the Eye has hit the mini jackpot here. What I need is a manager to oversee the overall operation as I would be too busy do marketing at the pasar to deal with developers and cooking up dishes to stimulate clients with the data bases that I have access to.

By setting this portal, not only I dont have to face 2 face with hundreds of customers, the customers can interact with each other in thousands of time or ways through the portal network.

All the info and suggestions given by the forumers is gonna to useful to me where at least I know what is going on, what is going to happen when I finally talk to the professional people to set it up. What I am clueless is what is the estimate budget for the inital set up?

But seriously, if I have my way, I like the whiz kids to do it where they can share the pot of golds of internet wealth if the protal become blockbuster. The guy of iproperty.com is that whiz kid who not only set it up but eat up home guru.com and propwall.com.