Re: Need Portal Site Info
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Originally posted by LdyLnWolf1
Anyone have links to some good articles on building portal sites?
Hello LdyLnWolf!
I have to ask Lee about the articles. He has written about practically every aspect of the net, it’s to the point that I no longer know what we have on line anymore. And if we don’t he will certainly know where to point you.
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What sort of software would I need?
There are a lot of different types of programs available. It depends on how detailed you want to be, how technically inclined you are, how much time and money you want to spend.
We have a few sites, including GWW, that we use Focal Media’s (http://www.focalmedia.net/) Power Seek program. The site works on templates, the data is stored in MySQL and it is relatively easy to install. They also have a program called Turbo Seek, which is almost identical, but stores the information/data in small flat txt files.
We’ve also have used Gossamer Threads, Links SQL program http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scripts/index.htm It is, also, template driven, relatively easy to install and they have both an SQL version and a flat file data version called Links 2.0.
Now, these are examples of many portal programs available. These just happen to be the products we prefer using.
Which type of program to choose is determined on what kind of portal you want to create.
- Some people just create a link directory (webmasters submit their site, you accept or decline and then add it to your directory);
- Others create a link directory with search capability (same as above but they site has a search function);
- And others create a directory and search engine (take submissions like the above AND use a program crawl the web for sites to include).
There are different layers to choose from. We do all three types.
And I think these are the three most general ideas of a portal site.
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And how, exactly, does a portal site make money?
Well for us there are few ways we make money from plain and simple to more complex.
- We have regular advertising (banners, buttons, consoles, etc);
- Premium text links (which are pre paid premium links that appear at the top of extra category OR links with sponsor codes).
These are the simplest ways to generate revenue.
Another is Pay Per Click data inclusion - This is where is can get complicated LOL
These are listings that we import from our PPC partner. When a surfer does a search on my site, their search words are sent to a program that pulls data from the PPC partner database and adds it to the results. Then if a surfer clicks those links we make a set amount per click. Now I wouldn’t do anything like this to start off, and I say this from experience. Once the site traffic was high enough I added this option and it made money.
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Portal sites aren't independent search engines are they? ... or are they?
They can be. But I think I answered this question above ;)
I hope I didn’t confuse matters for you LOL My rambling posts sometimes generate more questions than answer HAHAHAHAHAHA
And of course if you do have more questions, ask away. We all like to help out here, as you see ;)
My best regards,
Gary-Alan