Part 1 : "Sitepoint" launch, being the leader and forum benefits

Hi Matt and welcome. Tell us a little about the background to your first major web venture at webmaster-resources.com...
Webmaster-Resources.com actually started off as a hobby back in 1997 as a one-page site on Xoom (now part of NBCi). In April 1998, when the price of domain name registrations at Network Solutions dropped from US$100 for two years to US$70 for two years, I picked up Webmaster-Resources.com and the site was born. Looking back now, I can't believe how frugal I was in the early days but it ended up paying off in the end, as I was forced to do so much with so little.

And what was the thinking behind the decision to relaunch as the SitePoint network?
The SitePoint Network was born as a result of a collaborative effort between myself, Mark Harbottle and Jason Donald, both of whom were working for Sausage Software, when I met up with them in person in Melbourne, Australia in September 1999.

After many months of tossing ideas around for where we wanted to take Webmaster-Resources.com, including an extensive search for a suitable domain name, we wound up launching SitePoint.com in March 2000. The new site featured a professional design, a back-end written in PHP and my SQL, as well as the move to a network structure: Build Your Site (WebmasterBase.com), Make Money (eCommerceBase.com) and Promote Your Site (PromotionBase.com). The network structure allowed us to better organize all of our content in a much more efficient manner, and it allowed our visitors to find what they were looking for much faster.

As it turned out, the network structure was perfect for the type of content we were presenting and for our audience. Many months later, several competitors (including iBoost.com) did something similar.

"Webmaster resources" is a tough market, yet you've established yourself as one of the leaders in the field - to what do you attribute this success?
Being one of the first in the field has definitely helped a great deal. Our constant striving for innovation, fresh content, and our willingness to listen to our audience and their needs has also helped establish us as one of the leaders in one of the most competitive online markets out there.

Given your position, and the morass of competition, do you have any problems with your content being stolen, and if so how do you deal with this?
We've had quite a few incidents of people "borrowing" our content for use on their own web site, certainly many more than I would like. A quick email usually solves the problem. Nevertheless, many people continue to believe that it's all there for the taking, or that a simple one-line link back to us is more than enough in exchange for our content.

SitePoint constantly has to monitor the net for competitors using our content and the like, especially as we get more and more into content licensing, where companies pay us to supply them with articles for their site.

Talking of content, one of the outstanding attributes of the sites is the amount of outside contributions. The SitePoint forums, unlike most forums out there, are well-populated and busy - what's the key to getting the voluntary participation of so many forum members and particularly moderators and advisors?
The Forums themselves are an interesting story. It started out as an experiment of sorts after a lengthy discussion with Federico Carnales, a regular visitor who I occasionally talked to over ICQ. I wasn't sure how the Forums would work out at first but I went ahead thinking that the most I had to lose was the registration fee for Ultimate Bulletin Board.

After a while the Forums blossomed, and Eric Jones and Wayne Luke emerged from the membership base of the Forums as the leaders. They took on the demanding and often frustrating job of keeping discussions flowing, members in check, recruiting new advisors, and the like. They've both devoted an amazing amount of time and energy into building the Community into what it is today. Their professionalism, consistency and proven track record in making good judgment calls has made them invaluable.

What role do the forums play in your business model - is it "just" added value for the site or is a more direct income source possible?
Currently the Forums generate minimal revenue, however that's changing as we've begun selling monthly sponsorships to a single advertiser for a flat-fee, for exposure to our dedicated and loyal Community Members.

We view the Forums as a way to garner feedback, ideas, loyalty, and build brand awareness among our audience. They are also a great way to cut back on those "How do I..." emails which can consume a great deal of our time and draw our attention away from building a business.

Interestingly enough, we've also ended up hiring four people on either a full-time or part-time basis as a direct result of the Forums.

Continued...