matjkd

Yeah I'd say mailchimp too. It's simple to use, has some good starting templates, and it's free up to a point.

hello. I'm building a site at the moment that really needs a lot of traffic for it to make money, it's a new site and currently doesn't have many visitors each day. I have a twitter account set up for the site which so far has about 70 followers, which I'm working to increase. I'm also working in other ways to try to increase traffic. The site offers an affiliate program, but despite the offer of giving people free money no one seems interested in that (though that might change if the site had more sales). I was therefore thinking of doing some sort of giveaway, the new Nexus 5 is out later this month so that might be a good prize. I'm thinking peoples names get put into a hat if they manage to refer someone via the affiliate program or purchase a template themselves, the more they refer or buy the better their chances of winning... My concern is, since there is zero interest in the affiliate program so far, will the chance of winning a brand new £300 smartphone sway people? or will I just end up forking out for a brand new phone for someone after making one sale or something? Does anyone have any experience of this kind of promotion? any tips? Thanks in advance

If you do write one from scratch I'd recommend at least using a php framework such as codeigniter (http://ellislab.com/codeigniter) or similar. Frameworks such as this take care of a lot of the more complex work (such as security, which is something you don't want to get wrong), leaving you to concentrate on usability and the like. Also, I would utilise other peoples plugins and scripts wherever possible, not only does it save you reinventing the wheel, but for example; you'll probably learn more implementing a user login system someone has written for codeigniter than you would writing one on your own. I've found I've learnt the most about coding by looking at and using the work of experienced developers.

I found this tutorial http://www.problogdesign.com/wordpress/load-next-wordpress-posts-with-ajax/ It uses wordpress though, which you may not be using.. but may be easily adaptable..

I'm developing an online Marketplace here http://bootstrapsauce.com for buying and selling twitter bootstrap themes. The content needs some work. I'm rubbish with words! but apart from that it's all working. I started with an opensource shopping cart built in codeigniter (called gocart), and modified it by adding the ability to submit products. I also wrote the affiliate system myself, and when you're logged in it tracks your sales, telling you how much you're owed from sale or affiliate links.

I've been doing it for about 11 years or so now, a mistake I made early on was to undervalue myself. It's tempting to take on work because it's work, even if the price seems a little low. The end result of that is I'm now in a position where I'm constantly busy but I'm not earning as much as I'd want after this long. I think if you learn to say no to clients early on you'll get more money quicker. It helps to have some good contacts before going freelance though. Another point though, if you work for a company as a developer or designer, you can expect 15k - 40k, maybe a bit more if they're nice. If you work for yourself, you could earn anything from zero to 500k (or more). Being freelance isn't as safe but its far more rewarding.

Hi, my name is Mat, I've been running a web development company for around 11 years now. My company website is http://redstudio.co.uk (though it's a bit short of content as I never get time to work on it) I've also started developing some template marketplaces http://bootstrapsauce.com and http://foundationsauce.com which could become useful resources for people on here (either buying or selling). Hopefully I'll pick up some tips on here, or be able to help others with some of the skills I've accumulated over the years.