Any tips for starting personal website vs blogsite for Overlanding? Anyone making a small business out of it?
Starting Overland Website
- Thread starter OilSlik
- Start date
After I posted this, I kinda sensed how it might be taken the wrong way. I didn't mean to make it sound like on level with what OB has going on...(Sorry Mike and Founders if it sounded like I was infringing)...but I have come across others members with really attractive personal and regional websites.
I was just curious how others have made their web startups...ie Wixom, etc...any good ones out there vs ones to stay away from.
I intend it to be an information portal to regional interests, trails, campsites etc for other Overlander to use. Figured it would be a nice hub to have for those in Northern Michigan or those wanting to check it out.
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I was just curious how others have made their web startups...ie Wixom, etc...any good ones out there vs ones to stay away from.
I intend it to be an information portal to regional interests, trails, campsites etc for other Overlander to use. Figured it would be a nice hub to have for those in Northern Michigan or those wanting to check it out.
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Influencer II
WordPress is great for blogs... That's what I use for overland F150. For shopping carts I use shopify
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My wife is a social psychology professor, so I tend to think about this stuff often, but I have wondered what type of personalities and motivations it takes to essentially start a brand or youtube channel (usually both).
I really enjoy the content from all of these creators. The motivations seem to be a spectrum ... Some seem focused on making it a business, such as Expedition Overland with sponsors, while others are purely documenting the lifestyle and have a following. It certainly would seem you need to have an entertaining personality to make it worth watching.
We have some great content creators as OB members. I have been following @SwellRunner / Jason and @Jake Wettern | iamjake recently. I think Jake is the Casey Neistat of overlanding (he probably borrows some stylistic things, for good reason, but he also is more real/honest than Casey (who at this point I am more convinced is pretty guarded, but fakes it well). Understandably he also needs to make a living off his channel, since that is basically is full time job, being a content creator.
I am excited about this community and trips, but I won't even put a sticker on my rig (other than the OB emblem).. So I am probably not the person to ask about branding. :D
I really enjoy the content from all of these creators. The motivations seem to be a spectrum ... Some seem focused on making it a business, such as Expedition Overland with sponsors, while others are purely documenting the lifestyle and have a following. It certainly would seem you need to have an entertaining personality to make it worth watching.
We have some great content creators as OB members. I have been following @SwellRunner / Jason and @Jake Wettern | iamjake recently. I think Jake is the Casey Neistat of overlanding (he probably borrows some stylistic things, for good reason, but he also is more real/honest than Casey (who at this point I am more convinced is pretty guarded, but fakes it well). Understandably he also needs to make a living off his channel, since that is basically is full time job, being a content creator.
I am excited about this community and trips, but I won't even put a sticker on my rig (other than the OB emblem).. So I am probably not the person to ask about branding. :D
Thanks for following myself and Jake and the shout-out - appreciate it!
I'm a small business owner and used to dabble in video a few years ago. I enjoyed the process of working with media and had been waiting for years to find something I could be passionate enough about to fuel the learning process that comes with doing what I'm doing.
This is all purely hobby for me but I'm entrepreneurial, so everything eventually turns into a business for me at some point! I've just been trying to be careful with how what I'm doing evolves because I don't want to take away from the creative and fun aspects of it that allows me to enjoy it so much.
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Advocate III
If you're at all adept with basic site-building and html, you can easily get a domain of your own and run Wordpress to help manage it. A lot of great features and automation and integration with whatever social media you might be on. You don't have to get your domain through Wordpress. Lots of info on Wordpress tools and blogspot tips, too, through simple google searches.
At the end of the day, if you have something interesting to share that's of value, you can gain an audience and use that audience to create financial opportunities for yourself by, again, providing valuable products or services. Business is simple in concept, but hard work. You have to be willing to give 150% to ensure whom ever you are catering to is getting then best you have to offer. This is why it requires passion to be successful. Success comes after hard work. And hard work requires passion to be sustainable. And passion is required to be genuine.
Sorry. I'm ranting. Going back to sleep now. [emoji5]
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Thanks for the great replies. This was what I was looking for. I can not make it a sole business...as I am maxed out currently with being a Trauma/General surgeon. Therefore, I don't get out enough to personally put on a "show" for people. My trips would be too few and far between. But a nice site like Overland F150 would be a nice side project.
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I second this!
I actually was a Wordpress dev in a previous life (didn't do any super heavy stuff, but it was at the beginning with Wordpress). Actually, if I'm starting something that I don't want to put a lot of time in managing it, I'll just do a free wordpress.com (as opposed to a self-hosted site (wordpress.org) - that way I don't have to worry about site updates, vulnerability issues, etc.
Although, there is way more capability doing a self-hosted version of Wordpress.
I have a pretty good amount of experience in owning, creating, developing and hosting websites. I currently own about a dozen sites for various purposes.
Someone mentioned WordPress. That is a fantastic tool super user friendly, free and there are a ton of things you can add to it to make it as custom as you would like. I actually use it when making sites for friends/family because it is so easy. Hosting is cheap enough and you wouldn't need to pay for anything other than the bare minimum from nearly any hosting provider.
I also recommend to people as they start to possibly do a blogger site first. I recommend this to people because it is completely free Google hosts it for free. I have helped any number of people start a site/blog (as well as done it myself) and then in a few months later they have basically forgotten about it. You can get your feet wet there and then convert it to a WordPress site if you would like.
While I no longer do development for a living, I'd be glad to answer any questions and help get you pointed in the right direction.
Someone mentioned WordPress. That is a fantastic tool super user friendly, free and there are a ton of things you can add to it to make it as custom as you would like. I actually use it when making sites for friends/family because it is so easy. Hosting is cheap enough and you wouldn't need to pay for anything other than the bare minimum from nearly any hosting provider.
I also recommend to people as they start to possibly do a blogger site first. I recommend this to people because it is completely free Google hosts it for free. I have helped any number of people start a site/blog (as well as done it myself) and then in a few months later they have basically forgotten about it. You can get your feet wet there and then convert it to a WordPress site if you would like.
While I no longer do development for a living, I'd be glad to answer any questions and help get you pointed in the right direction.
Wordpress and Blogger both have free sites, which allow you to play with two different sets of tools and see which you like best. I do things old school and every time I launch a new site or project, I always go back to 1and1 and a Wordpress install on a shared hosting domain with FTP access. I had shut down all my domains some years back, but since Photobucket decided to run off all its customers rather than ask for subscriptions at reasonable rates, I have gone back to hosting my photos on my own site. Life is tumultuous right now, and I haven't had the time to put into really getting my site put together like I want, but at least it's there if I find the time.
