Starting out..........

[Rekino]

Hao Crisis and Sakura-san!

I was wondering if you could tell me how you started out with Sakura-crisis.net. How you two knew each other and how you did the site. Because I need some tips so that me and my friend can build the managa site we want. You don't have to answer if you don't want but thanks if you do!

Jao
Rekino

[crisisdreams]

Oh, sure! I'd love to tell you about it! Err...this is only my side of the story though...and it's not very interesting. ^^**

We knew each other through school in Hong Kong. [img]biggrin.gif[/img] We both really loved making websites then, and even were in an Advanced Web Design class together. (Basic Programming was a pre-requisite and I snuck in the class without it, so I was pretty lost with all the database stuff. ^^*** )

Anyways, then Sakura DITCHED me and went to New Zealand! And we decided "oh let's make a site" over ICQ. We found a pretty decent sounding web host, split the cost of it, and er...decided randomly that we would do scanlations. Honestly...I don't know how that idea came up. It was a lot better than our previous ideas though. O__O

We ran into a lot of problems initially, including finding a layout that worked for a scanlation site and promoting our site (we got 10 vistors a day at first! And only cause Sakura kept refreshing the page......). Our biggest problem was probably that we chose the wrong host before. They kicked us off the server because we were using too much bandwidth (they refunded us though! Nice) so we moved to another server which said "we don't charge bandwidth" but had some fine print guidelines that we missed over. So we finally moved to Chambergates.com which a lot of other scanlation sites used, and which really DIDN'T have a bandwidth limit. And we're still on it! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Erk...I know you probably only wanted a paragraph, but I talk a lot when I get nostalgic...

Anyways...things to watch out for if starting your own website...

CHOOSE THE RIGHT SERVER! Very very important! Don't go through the pain and the money wastage that we went through. (We didn't get any money back from our second server) If you're going for a site that will have lots of hits and consume huge bandwidth, get a server that gives unlimited bandwidth. (And get it from recommendation by someone else, not because it sounds nice) Compare prices...a lot of webhosts give you nothing for huge costs while just finding the right one will save you so much money and give you 10 x more features!

Umm...when you first start out, if you don't have experience, your site will probably be...very bad. Our's was. My first scanlation was pure *insert word to be censored by message board*! But you get more experience, and you get better at things!

Ohhh and be sure to promote your site on the right places! Put it on search engines (especially Google...er...I don't know if they take site submissions or not though)! Put it on directory listings of sites similar to yours! (Our visitor count shot up when we mysteriously appeared on Noated.com...though neither Sakura nor myself had submitted our site there. O__O )

Good luck! If you ever set up your site, let us know so we can link ya'!

<font color="#660033" size="1">[ January 28, 2003 11:02 AM: Message edited by: Crisis ]</font>

[Lady Elanor]

Very interessting. [img]smile.gif[/img] You two can really be pride, this is the best scanlation site i know. How long does it exist?

[Rekino]

Thankies alot Crisis-chan for the info! It really helps. I'm happy that you managed to take the time out and tell me about your site. I'm trying to promote your site as well. I'm getting my friends to put a link to your site on theirs. I really like Sakura-san's and your site. It's my favourite scanlation site! Hope you can finish Count Cain soon!

Jao
Rekino