I have recently engaged a writer to write some webpages for one of my Internet projects.

So I was thinking, what if I partnered up with a writer and let them write about their area of expertise. I would produce and market a specific website for that content (not an eBook or POD).

Any successful site on the Internet needs to provide valuable and high quality content. That is the only way it will develop and attract a growing numbers of visitors. But there are also a lot of technical and analytical tasks that support that success.

I am proficient at the technical and analytical things. But I cannot write great content.

How would we earn money? Through ads and product recommendations that are related to the topic of the site. If the writer has published books on that topic, the site will naturally promote them as well.

The process would be something like this:

1) The writer suggests a topic (in a non-fiction area)

2) I research it for viability and come back with a list of related keywords

3) Together we develop a structure for the site (at the start we should be able to plan the content for around 50 pages at 500-800 words each)

4) Then the writer just delivers the written pieces and I program, design and maintain the site.

5) Once the site has around 150-200 pages (so it would have a similar size to a book), it is maintained by a blog, e-zine and smaller updates of the content (probably a new piece of 300-500 words once a fortnight).

6) We share the revenue

My questions are:

Would you enjoy that or see it as below your standards to publish on a website?

Would you feel comfortable earning from advertising and product recommendations (naturally only the ones that are worthwhile)?

What share of the income would you expect to receive?

Would you be willing to share the costs of the production of the website (I am talking external costs, e.g. hosting, graphic design, etc.) or only be interested, if I covered the full investment?

What questions do you have?

Looking forward to your feedback.

Alexander

Hi Georganna,

there is probably nothing in this world that has not been done before. But it can always be improved upon.

What sort of content sites you are referring to?

From your signature I can see that you've got a blog with quite a bit of action on there and are also providing website building services for people.

So you've got the expertise to do the technical part yourself. But don't you have a host of clients who are great writers but do not want to get into the technicalities of building websites?

Alexander

You are right, it is easy to get content on the web, but without promotion, it will not attract enough visitors (and thus cannot earn money).

But in reality, there is no way to know the outcome without testing it.

I have found my writer and will pay him for his work.  In six month I'll share the outcome.

Thanks for your input.

Alexander