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After developing and over 100 different types of web properties in the commercial financing niche, I finally decided to convert this static web site into a dynamic site and to document the process as part of my web training course.
I will follow the same format here as I do in developing my financing sites. i begin with a series of questions:
We begin with the end results in mind. And we start this process by answering a questions.
I’ve elected to create a dynamic site for this project rather than a static site . Here you can see the pros and cons of static and dynamic sites.
What is the purpose of the site? The End Game!
These are the things you want establish before investing any time or resources into building any site. To simply things, I will began with a “Free Content” membership site with upgrade options.
Remember that Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and all of the social media networks are all “FREE Membership” sites with upgrade or paid options. We will follow this same format for this site.
One question remains: “How much time do I want to commit to maintaining the site once it’s live? Very Little.
To do this I will create as much evergreen content as much as possible.
Unlike my other projects, I can’t flip this site because it only has value to me. I can’t sell this domain duranteparks.com to anyone. This domain name only has value to me. The content has a value of it’s own but the domain name has basically no value to anyone except me. So I must give a lot of thought and consideration to evergreen content.
I have a tendency to get board with things and to simply walk away for them. To keep thing interesting, I will document the process and share what tools I use. My site visitors are encouraged to ask questions and post comments. That’s one of the purposes of a dynamic site, user involvement. Or as my friend Jim says, users comments are basically free content and search engine food. This will keep me engaged in the process.
I’ll also use this site to test some different tools and strategies.
I will be using a self hosted server for this site. I will use wordpress as my platform because of it’s ease of use and numerous Free resources.
There are pros and cons associated with everything and WordPress is no exception.
Contrary to what many people say about how great WordPress is, there are a few things that I simply hate about WordPress .
Fortunately, WPress has a massive repository of FREE plugins to address my concerns, to this extra effort makes it worth using, and there’s a very active and knowledgeable community of WP experts should I have any questions or challenges.
No Standard Theme and Plugin formats.
I discovered the hard way that there were no standard format for theme and plugins development.
IMPORTANT!
WordPress is a FREE open source platform licensed under the GNU licensing policy.This is a double edge sword. It is good and it is bad.
This means anyone can use the core license to create any software, theme or plugin for wordpress
Even though WordPress has very clear coding standards, for themes and plugins that are placed in the WordPress Repository.
The Problem
The problem I’ve experienced is that Developers who do not wish to comply with the established code standards are able to circumvent the standard by releasing their products on the open market and not listing them in the WordPress Repository. The problem is that these themes and plugins are marketed as the “latest and the greatest” tool but their product are very unstable, and vulnerable. Many marketers simply do no commit to maintain and developing their products. Their focus is simply to sell their product and not to develop and improve them. For the end user, can easily find themselves with a inferior product with serious security flaws. So be very cautious purchasing WSO and JV Zoo themes and plugins.
Always, check the WordPress repository before purchasing any new theme or plugin because the products have to meet certain standards before they can be listed in the WordPress Repository. Here are the wordpress developer guidelines.
If I developed a plugin or a theme and don’t care to follow the wordpress requirements I would simply market my product directly to the market and not list it in wordpress repository.
Items listed in the WordPress repository must meet some security and compliance standards to be listed.
Example: Paid Membership Pro Lite is available free in the WP Repository here.
The Free plugin can be used to set up a membership web site. You get to use the product and decide if you want more of what it offers.
The Free items in wordpress give you the opportunity to try before you buy and you have a lot of support and experts available in the wordpress community. There’s a degree of safety in getting products from the wordpress repositor.
The upgrade version is available as a fee based upgrade from their website. See the pricing here.
Reputable developers will make their products available in the repository and offer extended or additional features by offering a fee based upgrade.
Free is good but paid is much better.
Let’s begin the site building process.
