Technical Information Website
Before I worked for my current employer in life insurance I built credit scorecards for banks. Scorecards are the mathematic models that help banks to decide which customers are creditworthy and which ones aren’t, many of you have come across them through FICO scores. The maths behind these models is fairly complex but not beyond most A’ level students, the application of the models is however more of an art requiring an understanding of the lending business as well as the maths.
Having worked for 2 banks that used automated software to build their models I had a good idea about the “art” of applying them but eventually ended up having to code the models myself using tools like SAS and SPSS to do the maths from scratch. Learning this the hard way prompted me to set up a credit scoring website for others who were interested in scoring and related techniques. 3 years later I was still getting emails from all over the world asking technical questions about this field.
The joy of this obviously is that it allows you to build a network of focussed individuals that you can either market to, or collaborate with to develop tools or products to sell to others. There are numerous technical fields to which this could apply.
In order to build a website containing technical information about something you will either need to have that knowledge or be prepared to research it. The technical information involved could be something mathematical such as credit scoring or could relate to engineering, agriculture, architecture or any number of technical industries. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are, as there are likely to be people more junior within your industry and even undergraduates who are interested in a future career.
You also don’t need to worry too much about SEO and other web marketing techniques. Joining some related chat rooms or bulletin boards with your site as your signature block is likely to be sufficient. In fact you could create a mini version of your site in Myspace or Squidoo to bring in additional interested visitors. The key is that the information they find there is useful and sufficient to keep them coming back either as a reference, or because you are constantly adding new materials. One of the best ways to develop this community is to create a forum or guest book that your users can interact with.
If you get this right you will be invited to speak at conferences, get better job offers, maybe be asked to write a chapter for a book (I was). You could even go into consultancy simply by becoming the web expert.
Once your site takes off you need to think about how to monetarise it, whether it be through selling books on your chosen subject matter, doing some consulting on the side, offering training courses, etc. Materials/products do not have to be your own, feel free to endorse other people’s products providing you can negotiate a commission for doing so.
If you already work in a technical field then you probably have all kinds of information swimming around in your head. This can all be backed up with training materials and text books that you have lying around in the office and at home. Be careful not to copy anything wholesale, or to re-use anything that your employer owns the copyrights to. If you have a good understanding of your field though you should require minimal research to put your site together.
If you are interested in a field but do not yet have sufficient experience to put a whole site together then consider collaborating with others, or using your free time to undertake some original research as opposed to playing ball and watching TV. If you ask people who are in the same field they will usually be happy to point you in the right direction; although sometimes the subjects are still obscure enough to throw you. A colleague once thought that all the help I needed was log2/20, which before you ask I had to go and look up and would have to again today.
Technical sites don’t have to be pretty. If you are cack handed and not at all design oriented you can still put together a site that people will read. My first site was orange with blue text….hmm.
There is no point having a lovely site with lots of visitors if you don’t make any money from it! Google ads won’t make you rich so write and add some e-books, or create premium content for paid members.