the Junkyard: Question 8
 
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Question 8

Question 8

Posted by: Mhaddy on 07/14/2001
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What advice would you give to any aspiring individuals looking to get involved in such a thing?

Dave 'Fargo' Kosak: See previous answer.

Frans P. de Vries: Don't expect to get rich (obviously :)) Try to find out what you enjoy doing online, contribute to an existing site that covers that or, if you're adventurous, start a new site for it. Most importantly, stick to it; success (however you measure it) doesn't come overnight, but watching a site grow can be very rewarding. Also, a somewhat mature and professional attitude will win you the respect of your peers and the loyalty of your visitors in the long run, so if you value that then focus on doing "your thing" as well as you can and don't sneer at competing sites, much less steal from them if you're in a bind for new content. And don't forget there's life away from the computer too ;)

Adam 'Barak' Perfect: Offer your services to one of the existing sites, even if all they offer you is a job posting/submitting news for posting. From there you can show your skills and when the site gets re-designed or they make a new one, they may ask you to take a more active role once they know what you can do.

Having said that, Haloplayers was done the other way. A group of six friends put a bit of money in to get some domain names and we just worked hard on creating the site and getting it noticed.

Anthony 'Rayn' Maio: Turn back now :) Half-kidding there. Its extremely hard work and it can get very frustrating. Securing the right equipment and hosting for sites is arduous at best. My advice to those that are interesting in getting involved is that you do it for the right reasons. Don't expect oodles of money or on-line fame, you really need to enjoy web development to stick with it.

Brian Clair: I would tell them to first ask themselves why they want to become involved. As above, if it's for fame and fortune - don't bother. If they've got the passion to enter the gaming industry and they're deliberate in how they approach things, they should do alright.

John 'Rizzuh' Jensen: Effort, effort, effort. We all can't make it in this world by being a lone gunman. I started out on CS-Nation as just a normal staff member, everyone should. Experience is more important than having something be yours and only yours. Most people are flakes, they give up way too easy, or they sign up to get fame (which they won't get, it's a damn CS fan site) or a CS.net e-mail address. Most people leave empty handed, I think any of the 20,000 strategy guys that did nothing for months on end can attest to that.

Louis Wu: I'm assuming you're talking about gaming sites when you say 'this sort of thing'... and if you are, I'm NOT the right person to talk to, since I don't make any money at it. (On the contrary... I SPEND a lot of money maintaining the family of sites.)

Rob 'Keltic' Shea: Running ladder sites is a tough business these days, when we started our planning there were only a handful of sites, but since then a large number have cropped up. If you are running a gaming web site, with any kind of content, you need to be focused on the content you offer and making sure that it’s of value to viewers. Neat code and pretty pages won’t get you very far. Provide compelling content and keep it fresh. In the long run, this is harder and takes more time than programming or any technical issues.

Tyler 'TySoft' Lott: Send in an example of your work to the websites that you’d like to work with. If they have openings in staff positions and they like what you sent in you’re in luck.

Joscha 'fraGGle' Dzielak: Don't think about money! You won't never get a cent if you just do a site for the money you want to get. The best way to make a site, is go and look if you can find anything you miss. If you miss some forums or filebases for a game, get a domain, make a small design and fill out the missing features. Expect about 3 visitors in the first few weeks (so don't install a counter on your site) and do your job day by day even if it pi***s you off. After two months of work your visitors will see that your site is not just a "one-day-thing" so they will ask you to help you and come back and tell their friends to visit your site. (tJY: It doesn't always work like this, heh, but he's got the idea ;).)

Matt 'Acrappa' Martinez: Couldn't tell you, I have no experience with business websites.

Ben 'Hypn0tik' Tamler: Well...be prepared to work very hard. It will be rewarding in the long run. It takes alot of community involvment to get something like this up and running. Meaning...less time playing the game, and more time talking to people, visiting websites, ect...

Manveer 'Eidolon' Heir: Same thing I would say for any job: don't expect millions of dollars, persist at getting the job, and work on your writing skills. Personally, I wouldn't recommend getting into the website biz for a while until things start to settle again - it's very volatile and not a good way to try to earn an actual living.

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