Site History

[ElKootcho]

Being a newcomer to this site, I'd like to hear the history of this site i.e. How long has it existed, how is it being promoted, what can we, as designers, do to help get the word out? I think the site is a fantastic idea and I'd hate to see it fade away from lack of customers. Maybe one day it will expand to the point of including ad design, brochures, etc. with a smallish stable of quality designers turning out nice product.

[Palmer]

I will answer that tonight when I have more time. Thanks for the interest.

Palmer

[Palmer]

The beginning
The site officially launched December 12th, the first batch of invitations for the Design Team went to certain selected members of the SitePoint.com community forums. Mike (naramation) was brought on shortly after to help Moderate and assist in certain modifications of the forums. Zoe (demex) won her position as Moderator from one of the early contests I held. They have been excellent additions to the staff and have been a big help as the site has grown. The first contest was posted by ImageConstrux on December 15th. The first winner was rabbitdog. The biggest part of the success has been from the members of the Design Team, without their hard work, dedication and talent we'd have nothing here. I'm very grateful they've put many hours of work into their designs to give the contest holder exactly what they wanted. A big thanks goes out to them.

The promotion
I budgeted $100 dollars and started a Google AdWords campaign. I think that brought in 1 contest :( I've put the word out at SitePoint.com and I've also submitted our site to several business directories as well as search engines and web directories like DMOZ. Next step would be to submit it to webmaster resources directories and work on a few promotions with other sites. You can get the word out by telling anyone you know who owns a business and needs professional graphics. One way the other members of the design team promote this site is in their signatures of the various forums they belong to.

The future
I don't think it will fade away from lack of contest holders. If it does fail (which is highly unlikely) it will be from lack of participation from the Design Team. From the looks of how happy the contest holders have been so far, the word will get out. We've seen a comfortable steady growth over the last month and a half. I like the way things are going. Regarding the print contests. We have enough members on the Design Team now that work in that industry to cover that type of contest. I'll be starting a new forum for those contests tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks again for the interest,
Palmer

[ElKootcho]

Thanks for the response. I am happy and honored to be involved at such an early stage. I will do my best to participate and promote as opportunity allows as I'm sure everyone associated with this site is doing. :D

[missingarrow]

Originally posted by Palmer@Feb 9 2003, 10:27 PM
The first contest was posted by ImageConstrux on December 15th.
Arrggg... I so wanted to post the first contest :(

dan

[Meldy]

I have a suggestion :o :) . You may have this already, and I may have just totally missed it. But what if you had a section of past winning designs? To show the success of this site. It would be really neat to look back and see what others have done, and it would be cool for potential clients to see how divers and creative the design team is. I know there is the issue of space as well, and feel free to beat me for terrible ideas! LOL :blink:

[Palmer]

Yep, already done. Go to the home (http://www.designoutpost.com/) page and on the left at the bottom are the archives. I should probably make it more apparent. I need to move the link to a place more people will see it.

[Meldy]

Hey Thanks! I knew I probably had looked over it. :D

Some really good stuff here!

[AhmedF]

I think people like me will refer new customers to you :-)

I saw someone mention this site on SPF, and lo and behold I ended up here.

I liked the work so much I put up a contest .. I then recommended this stuff to haxorboi, told him to keep the price decent, and he also posted up a contest.

I also talked to another person about this, and she says she should also post a logo competition up next week sometimes.

One suggestion Palmer ... perhaps a little referral program might help? I Dont really care... I have seen some great stuff, and have no problem in mentioning it to other people .. but perhaps like $5.00 for every comptition posted, or $10 for every designer referred to the site would help out.

Just a suggestion ... dont bite! :lol:

[Palmer]

No that's a very valid idea. In fact Mike (naramation) already said he could get it going. I have no problem disclosing what profit I make from each contest. It's the 10% shipping fee. That's my cut to cover the site expenses, hosting, advertising, etc. PayPal then takes 2.2% for their processing fee for business accounts and that leaves me with 7.8% profit on each contest.

Let's take a $40 contest for example. My profit would be $3.12. Obviously I would lose money on an affiliate program in that contest if I gave $5 to the refferer. So I guess what I need to do is convince the designers that if they're willing to part with 10% of their winnings, it will mean many more contests in the future. The thing is, I know this place would not work without their participation so I want to keep them happy. I know that they really put a lot of time into these contests with no guarantee they'll win. I owe the success of this site to them and how professional they are.

But, I really do appreciate you sending contests are way. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising. I'll let you know when we get an affiliate program implemented.