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Would you borrow a small amount of money to start a small website?

froggyboy604

froggyboy604

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Yes, I will think about borrowing a small amount of money for a domain name, and for shared web hosting to start a small website since good domains are harder to get these days, so you need to register them fast. Free web hosting is also less reliable than paid web hosting.

I used a credit card to buy a domain name, and pay for web hosting in the past because Credit cards were one of the payment options available.

Credit cards are basically short term loans which most users can pay back the minimum payment with interest, or full amount with no interest before the end of the due date.
 
Nope, websites are like trying to get a product going and its near impossible these days to read people to see if they would like it and make it popular. It's a gamble I wouldn't take.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
Nope, websites are like trying to get a product going and its near impossible these days to read people to see if they would like it and make it popular. It's a gamble I wouldn't take.
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Borrowing $1-10 dollars to register a good domain name for a year is a good idea since you can always use the domain for a blog, forum, or static website. I think some domain registers also give you a small amount of free web hosting, or let you use a free host like wordpress.com, blogspot.com, free forum host which let you use custom domains, etc with your domain name. There are fewer good short and catchy .com , .net, and .org domain names, so if you register a good one, you maybe able to sell the domain name for more than $10 if you never end up using the domain name.

There are also cheap shared hosting which is under $5 a month, and good enough for running a small website or forum. There are some smaller web hosts let you pay for hosting on a monthly basis.

You can also use a free web host, but free web hosts are very risky to use because some of them close down suddenly when the owners can no longer afford to keep their free web host up or well maintained.

I think, if website owners work hard, they can get a small to medium group of members on a forum, and blog. But, it is a lot harder to be very popular these days, so it is probably best to subscribe to cheaper shared web hosting instead of spending a lot of money for a VPS or dedicated server web hosting plan which is more expensive, and harder to maintain.
 
No, I hate paying off things and get in the land of crap if you don't pay off. And so borrow money is an no no for me
 
I would never do that. That's basically spending money for something that you can never be able to gain any profit, as far as I know.
 
Claraviolet said:
I would never do that. That's basically spending money for something that you can never be able to gain any profit, as far as I know.
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It is possible to earn enough money by selling stuff, advertisements, donations, and sponsors to cover the yearly subscription cost for a yearly $10 .com website domain name, and yearly $60 or less regular shared web hosting which is good enough for most websites which only get a few hundred visitors a day.

Website owners who stay motivated, and continue adding content, promoting their website, and improving their site have a better chance that it will be profitable.

Sometimes people pick a website topic like "News" with a lot of competition from bigger websites like Yahoo, AOL, YouTube, etc which also post content about News, so it is more difficult to get enough visitors to earn money from by selling stuff to them, advertisement, and donations because of the large amount of competition from other News sites.

There are also people who are less knowledgeable about their website's topic, and not hard working, so website owners who are not as knowledgeable on their website's topic, or hard working end up getting fewer visitors, and profits compared to a website which is run by someone who is more knowledgeable, and hard working.
 
Nope. I wouldn't do it. If I can think it is easy to get the money to pay the loan back, then I might as well wait.


I don't like relying on loans; much less on credit cards. If you can't afford to pay back the amount you're taking out you will be paying a lot more through interest and fees. If it is something I could afford but cannot wait, then I'd probably rather ask a friend than taking credit.

I have some savings and even then when something makes me think "I'll just pay the money back next week", I take it as a yellow flag and I have to ask myself if the reason I am thinking in such transaction is because it is something that can't wait, or just me being impatient. A loan for me is a big deal, better left for emergencies.

Starting a small website is not something I'd feel particularly rushed to try and get running straight away. I also think I would take it in parts. I'd get the domain URL first if I am convinced what I want it to be. I can always work with the coding side of my website before buying the hosting or using a free host version in the meanwhile to prepare the database. I am sure there is something I can be doing for this new project that's got me this pumped up.
 
froggyboy604 said:
It is possible to earn enough money by selling stuff, advertisements, donations, and sponsors to cover the yearly subscription cost for a yearly $10 .com website domain name, and yearly $60 or less regular shared web hosting which is good enough for most websites which only get a few hundred visitors a day.

Website owners who stay motivated, and continue adding content, promoting their website, and improving their site have a better chance that it will be profitable.

Sometimes people pick a website topic like "News" with a lot of competition from bigger websites like Yahoo, AOL, YouTube, etc which also post content about News, so it is more difficult to get enough visitors to earn money from by selling stuff to them, advertisement, and donations because of the large amount of competition from other News sites.

There are also people who are less knowledgeable about their website's topic, and not hard working, so website owners who are not as knowledgeable on their website's topic, or hard working end up getting fewer visitors, and profits compared to a website which is run by someone who is more knowledgeable, and hard working.
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Well I don't think many people would like to donate and not to mention that you will have to bare all the hosting costs and such....it wouldn't be a cake walk.
 
Claraviolet said:
Well I don't think many people would like to donate and not to mention that you will have to bare all the hosting costs and such....it wouldn't be a cake walk.
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I agree, donations are not a easy way of earning money to pay for hosting unless the site's owner can make a site more active and the members are generous , and donate to help out the site.

I think the amount of donations depends on the topic of your website. More members maybe more willing to donate if the website provide a lot of free and useful advice on pet care, school work help, and math tips, or a service like forum promotions. Personal blogs may not be a good way to earn money from donations because they are less helpful to most people.

For a small website, collecting $50 or less in donations to pay for 1 year of shared hosting is possible if a website has a lot of useful content which got published when the website officially opened to the public instead of a site with very little content. Getting more donations is possible if the website's owner actively promotes their site with a lot of content on social networks, forums, blogs, search engines, and offline promotion like telling their friends, family, co-workers, and strangers about their new website.

There is always a chance a few generous members donate $10-30 to help out a site which helped them with something, so only a few people need to donate to get enough money to pay for shared web hosting.
 
froggyboy604 said:
I agree, donations are not a easy way of earning money to pay for hosting unless the site's owner can make a site more active and the members are generous , and donate to help out the site.

I think the amount of donations depends on the topic of your website. More members maybe more willing to donate if the website provide a lot of free and useful advice on pet care, school work help, and math tips, or a service like forum promotions. Personal blogs may not be a good way to earn money from donations because they are less helpful to most people.

For a small website, collecting $50 or less in donations to pay for 1 year of shared hosting is possible if a website has a lot of useful content which got published when the website officially opened to the public instead of a site with very little content. Getting more donations is possible if the website's owner actively promotes their site with a lot of content on social networks, forums, blogs, search engines, and offline promotion like telling their friends, family, co-workers, and strangers about their new website.

There is always a chance a few generous members donate $10-30 to help out a site which helped them with something, so only a few people need to donate to get enough money to pay for shared web hosting.
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Well, even so, it's hard for a new website to get donations and displaying ads would never help the webmaster...
 
Demon_Skeith said:
New websites always get the short end of the stick.
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I agree new websites usually get the short end of the stick unless the website owner is already popular, or the owner is a talented website maker who know how to make great websites which quickly get a lot of traffic from search engines, social networks, and other places.

I once knew a forum promoter on another forum who knew how to make a new forum active by promoting a new forum a lot on other forums, websites, and forum promotional sites.
 
froggyboy604 said:
I agree new websites usually get the short end of the stick unless the website owner is already popular, or the owner is a talented website maker who know how to make great websites which quickly get a lot of traffic from search engines, social networks, and other places.

I once knew a forum promoter on another forum who knew how to make a new forum active by promoting a new forum a lot on other forums, websites, and forum promotional sites.
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I hope he is doing it without annoying the other forum staff. Not many forums allow advertising after all
 
Claraviolet said:
I hope he is doing it without annoying the other forum staff. Not many forums allow advertising after all
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I think he mostly used his signature links, link exchanges, and post exchanges which most forums allowed. Some forums also has a section on the forum for people to promote their forum, blog, and personal non-business sites.
 
froggyboy604 said:
I agree new websites usually get the short end of the stick unless the website owner is already popular, or the owner is a talented website maker who know how to make great websites which quickly get a lot of traffic from search engines, social networks, and other places.

I once knew a forum promoter on another forum who knew how to make a new forum active by promoting a new forum a lot on other forums, websites, and forum promotional sites.
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You got to have a good hand at advertising if you want to get somewhere. I saw someone once single handily get a forum popular with his methods. Wish I could have gotten him on as staff.
 
I would if it was for a form of ecommerce website, or something of which was actually selling something. For a forum or a basic blog however, I wouldn't bother.
 
I may also borrow some money for an eCommerce website where I plan to sell products and services where I earn enough money to easily payback the yearly bill for shared web hosting which is about $50-60 in many cases.

I think it maybe worth it to borrow money to setup a non-profit charity site, and use some of the donation money for web hosting since it is un-professional to setup a charity website with a tumblr, blogspot, or wordpress.com domain name which can make a charity look like a scam which may make it get fewer donations to support a cause like feeding the poor.

Borrowing money to get web hosting can also raise your credit score which would be useful if you ever plan on borrowing money to buy or rent a car or home in your mid 20s-50s years when you have a better job with higher earnings.

In some countries like the US and Canada which uses a Credit Score system, it is sometimes worth it to take out small loans which you know you can payback before the due date like using a credit card to pay for $60 a year web hosting, groceries, and gas.

People with higher credit score usually can get approve for bigger loans, and pay less money in interest on loans for big purchases like a car, schooling, home, or land which usually require you to take out a loan to buy.

Some home rental landlords, or employers places don't accept people with very low credit scores.
 
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Claraviolet said:
I hope he is doing it without annoying the other forum staff. Not many forums allow advertising after all
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Take this website for example, it has a place where you can promote your own website.

From what I've seen, about 80% of all gaming and anime forums have something similar, so if you have something that appeals to gamers then it's not a bad way to get some exposure.
 
KeithStone said:
Take this website for example, it has a place where you can promote your own website.

From what I've seen, about 80% of all gaming and anime forums have something similar, so if you have something that appeals to gamers then it's not a bad way to get some exposure.
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I think if a forum owner does not allow any members to promote their forum, blog, twitter, etc, some members may not join because a lot of forum users join a site mainly to promote their personal forum, blog, and social networking profiles like Twitter and YouTube, and they may become active if they enjoy the forum's community.

Most forums I been a member of has a sub-forum for promoting forums, and websites, but users usually need to post 5 or more posts before they are allowed to promote their link to a forum, blog, or social networking profile.

There are also some forums which has a website review section where members and staff can review other members websites to give them helpful feedback for improving their site.
 
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