What Would You Want from a Snake Site?

[Dev_DeCoste]

Hey everyone!

I wanted to take a minute today to get some feedback from all of you. I recently decided to start my own BP website. I'm obviously still learning a lot but believe it will be a great way to help me in the learning process. My original idea was to write some posts helping to cover the basics of BP care, as well as some posts to help save some people money. I've noticed what we've all probably noticed by now: Companies like Zilla and Zoo Med make most of their money off of newbies, myself being one of those. Having run a few websites I know a fair amount about SEO and think I can get my site ranked pretty well so many will see it.

My question is this, what would you want to see on a site like this? I am in no way trying to compete with BPNet. I would actually like to support the site/forum once the website is up and running. My original thought, or goal, when I created this website was to create a place that answers all the basic questions that pop up here over and over. I also just like to write about things that I'm really interested in so it was a win-win for me.

What do you guys/gals think? You can be honest if you think I'm wasting my time haha, part of me is just wanting to do this for the fun/benefit of it. Going to be a big learning experience either way.

Thanks for your thoughts and reading!!

[Rickys_Reptiles]

I think what is more important is WHY are you going to build the site. If you want to educate, it's been done. I think you need to find another angle.

[ChyPie]

Sorry this is off topic but i have a question. I have a baby normal ball python. I plan on breeding him when he comes of age but im wanting to make baby pastels. Really bright yellow pastels. I know its very difficult to have a normal not give birth to more normals but any advice on how i could get close to making baby pastels?

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[Dev_DeCoste]

I think what is more important is WHY are you going to build the site. If you want to educate, it's been done. I think you need to find another angle.

At one point I had thought about monetizing in some way, like promoting better products. But frankly that's a tough market and not really worth the effort. Initially, I want the website to help beginner ball python owners specifically. Answer all of their questions in one place. I also wanted to have a blog roll where I post about stuff that catches my eye, events, etc. A couple friends from back home that bred BPs also wanted to guest post for the site. That was my initial vision..

As I said I am still learning a lot as well. However down the road, say 3-4 years from now minimum, I would like to breed BPs as well. Having a solid website already dedicated to snakes before doing so will make breeding a little bit easier. Not a whole lot, but a little.. That was my second vision for the site.. To add an "available" section and an incubator section..

EDIT

Also, if you think about it every kind of site has been done in one way or another. That doesn't mean another one can't do well too. That's the beauty of the interweb.

[Rickys_Reptiles]

Well, why not just start building and go from there? you could start off with 1 page that would operate as a blog and another page where you could post your FAQ's. Then, when you're ready you can add another 1 or 2 pages for your available snakes and collection etc. Or you could add 20 pages all different and let your analytics show you which are the top 5 most popular and get rid of the rest.

Either way - goodluck!

[OhhWatALoser]

Sorry this is off topic but i have a question. I have a baby normal ball python. I plan on breeding him when he comes of age but im wanting to make baby pastels. Really bright yellow pastels. I know its very difficult to have a normal not give birth to more normals but any advice on how i could get close to making baby pastels?

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you need a pastel to make pastels, I would suggest you read this: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...Basic-Genetics

As for the topic, I wonder what advantage this site would have vs a sticky worthy post in the forum?

[Dev_DeCoste]

you need a pastel to make pastels, I would suggest you read this: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...Basic-Genetics

As for the topic, I wonder what advantage this site would have vs a sticky worthy post in the forum?

No advantage, really. Like I said I'm not trying to compete. However, in the eyes of Google, a sticky here that has the same topic as a post on another site would likely get much better rankings and higher traffic. Google bases most of it's ranking algorithm off of social engagement, that being not only shares on social network but, above all else, comments. And a thread is nothing more than a question followed by a million comments answering that question.

The only benefit of a site over a forum is it is easier to optimize the page/post for Google. You can set the alt texts, headers, body copy, etc. So a well put together post with a fair amount of comments would do about as well as a forum post.

[Dev_DeCoste]

Well, why not just start building and go from there? you could start off with 1 page that would operate as a blog and another page where you could post your FAQ's. Then, when you're ready you can add another 1 or 2 pages for your available snakes and collection etc. Or you could add 20 pages all different and let your analytics show you which are the top 5 most popular and get rid of the rest.

Either way - goodluck!

Thanks! I'll likely do something along the lines of the first method you mentioned.

[bcr229]

Perhaps not necessarily from a snake site, but from a reptile classifieds site in general...

Nothing against KS or Fauna but if you're looking for a very particular animal their search engines for their classified ads still leave you wading through way too many results. I would like one where I can filter based on:
- Species
- Sex
- Hatch Year / Age
- Morph (with the ability to select multiple genes and filter out hets if you only want to see visuals)
- Seller's state
- Price Range
- Proven breeder

If you need to see an example, something like gunbroker.com except for herps.

[Dev_DeCoste]

Perhaps not necessarily from a snake site, but from a reptile classifieds site in general...

Nothing against KS or Fauna but if you're looking for a very particular animal their search engines for their classified ads still leave you wading through way too many results. I would like one where I can filter based on:
- Species
- Sex
- Hatch Year / Age
- Morph (with the ability to select multiple genes and filter out hets if you only want to see visuals)
- Seller's state
- Price Range
- Proven breeder

If you need to see an example, something like gunbroker.com except for herps.

So you're basically thinking of a directory of herps, an inventory more or less supplied by online breeders? Interesting idea..