How to manage a Web Portal? Part I

What you mean by Web Portal, wiki says “A web portal, also known as a links page, presents information from diverse sources in a unified way.”

As per me if you have a website which has multiple topics covered with huge amount of data and have a particular way of representing a content can called a portal.

These are my View points with a little experience I have :

1. Key ingredients of a portal.
2. Start that counts.
3. How to keep the portal running. keep a eye on competitors.
3. What are do and dont’s
4. Most important how to generate revenue.
5. summery.

So what are the key ingredients of a portal.

a. Most important it need to have a target Audience :

Who will visit your website and why.. this should be your first question. or other way around think of what your portal is all about and then think if who will be your target audience.

You must know what will piss of your target audience and try avoiding it. Also very important for you is to know what kind of impression you want to create about your portal in the minds of your target audience. it’s very important that the target audience not only visit your site again and again but also share with some new target.

E.g : http://www.moneycontrol.com
They not only allow you to create your own portfolio of shares but helps users with some valuable updates on the share market. What can piss of their users is a strong recommendation by the site for purchase of a share made it’s user loose some money.

b. Domain name:

know it’s difficult to get the domain names which you think will be best for the portal but again try out the other options like .in.org etc…

It’s important for you to have a proper domain name as it not only helps you with SEO but also better for the TG to remember and recommend.

c. Content makes the difference :

So some one should read, like (FB), share (SM) your content. It can be a help full tips, reviews, gossips or eventually can be rumors as well.

So you must have a minimum content person checking the content or writing the content for the site. Again the content will be as per your target audience and not very generic.

d. Technology that helps you with updates :

If you are running a portal then it is important that you need a back end system which will help you with quick and regular updates. you can either use word press(wordpress.com), drupal ( http://drupal.org/) and many other open source CMS to build the portal.

e. Design keep it simple.

Design of the portal need to reflect the essence of the portal. Make it sure to keep it simple and well spaced. Don’t try to to put to many links or don’t cramp it to give a portal link. User love to see a simple article deign with related links provided at right place. Use light and fresh colors and generic font for better readability.

Highlights : New or upcoming things on a portal needs a proper highlight to give a user a reason to come back to the site.

f. Newsletter

Weekly newsletter or in some cases daily newsletter is most inessential aspect of the portal. This not only work as a reminder to your register users but also helps in getting required push in the hits to the site.

Please note newsletter need to be a useful peace of mail which will either beneficial to users (like offers, discounts, happenings, trick and tips of the week, joke of the week) or need to be a regular update of the website. Newsletter requires some attractive design to attract uses to click. Mostly newsletter give a brief information and ask use to click to read more. So for a portal newsletter work as a banner.

g. Social Media presence

Portal need to build on it’s social media connects. The most powerful is Facebook and twitter. There is no fix number that you should achieve in respect of followers on both FB and twitter but it’s necessary to have a conversation going between the portal admin and the followers.

Try to get more followers from the target audience rather than the random users.

I will be putting my thoughts on “Start that counts.” soon… keep reading and let me know how did you find it.

SEO Mantra

While doing some research on SEO found few links which explains you the SEO concept in simple words.

One of them is

Freeloack SEO tips ( drupal)

1. Google is a popularity contest

The more sites link to your site, the more popular your site becomes.

2. Google punishes spammers

Comment spam does work — for a while. But at what cost? If you engage in this type of behavior, you’re ruining the forums you’re posting in, creating ill-will towards your site, and ultimately this tactic will backfire.

3. Google rewards good content

Best thing you can do to get your site found is write something that some audience cares to read, share, and talk about.

4. Search engines are a key audience with special needs

Create a relevant title
Page title and URL
Use header tags, not bold.
Use Search-Engine Friendly URLs
Provide a sitemap
Provide custom meta tags

5. Links, content, optimization

Social media :Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Biznik
Content, of course, is the end goal — without good content, people may come to your site but they won’t come back.

6. Shortcuts

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Biznik -
Buy your traffic -Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Offline marketing – PR activities

7. Your competition

To kill: The practice of SEO is a constant cycle of measurement, experimentation, adjustment, and analysis.

Mumbaikar.com dedicated a section for Swine flu

Swine flu fully covered by Mumbaikar.com

Site has a dedicated section on swine flu. It includes info about preventive measures, tips , contact numbers, swine flu map, Dr. on board & cartoons.

Nice design and very helpful content.

Mumbaikar Salutes Gavaskar on his 60th B’day.

Mumbaikar slautes Mastre.

Gavaskar was title India’s Best Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year in 1966… intersting read more details on. Mumbaikar.com

You must dance to have cake

Pritesh and me in action.

Special performace by our own mithunda nilesh

This is a board from the parking lot of Juhu beach.Swiss banks have billions of parked money form the corrupted indian politicians.

Twitter provided me a search option on the twitter page.. how come I don’t know?

Foody day for a B’day boy

Kya Caricature! Wah Bhai Wah!

Kohlapur in mumbai

New hotel for non-veg lovers Purepur Kohlapur

Egg masala plate with two rasa pandhra and lal rassa.. for 95 rs.

Chikan fry thali with bhakri .. will cost you 140 rs again with both curry..

Ganesh enjoying his Egg masala.. he found it spicy.. but must try..

They have articles printed and kept on table .. gives a review of the hotel in news paper.

Hotel has a loft . good amount of space , definatly will help to reduse he waiting..

This review comes from my friend Ganesh, who recently visited a place called ” purepur Kohalapur”. Before I start with anything I must tell you this is a specifically a non-veg restaurant. Kohalapur is famous for it’s 2 type of rassa ( gravy)1. Pandra rassa  ( white Gravy) and tambda rassa( red gravy).. look don’t go by name both gravies are very hot. yes, but it’s true these gravies hold a different identity and Kohalapuri dish can’t be complete without it.

He found the hotel is quite spacious and good ambiance. You will have all thali’s in the restaurant like chicken thali, egg thali and mutton thali  and different variety in that thali as well. Each thali will cost you around 140 rs.  Apart from this you will be able to order the specific dish separately. Don’t try masala milk

They say they are ready to deliver the food @ any corner of mumbai with small charge and if the total bill goes above 800 rs then the home delivery will be free…:)

Got few details abut the restaurant:

Shop no 1, 2, Aditya appt, parleshwar road , in front of parleshwar mandir, Parle East. Mumbai 400057.

Landline :  022 26134569 / 26136181

Let’s see the rating

Food Quality       ::   7.5 /10

Value for money ::   7/10

Ambiance           ::    6.5/10

Overall rating     ::     7/10