Dju Members Website

[gadget 0]

 

I'm a little interested in how you're doing this so quickly. To do it properly will need a database, secure admin area for site owner/admin staff, admin area for DJs.

 

 

Me too..

 

It's something that could be knocked up fairly quickly in my development environment of choice.. (Ruby on Rails)... :joe:

 

Guess it would be fairly easy in some types of CMS or PHP framework..

 

 

David, going back on the rails...

[vokf 0]

<geek> Me too.. </geek>

 

It's something that could be knocked up fairly quickly in my development environment of choice.. (Ruby on Rails)... :joe:

 

Guess it would be fairly easy in some types of CMS or PHP framework..

David, going back on the rails...

 

 

I've got another slightly related (by not exclusively DJ) project that is simmering, so if whatever is used is able to accomodate some of my suggestions, I'l love to hear more.

Currently, I'm coding from scratch with a template engine.

 

Not had a chance to get into RoR, Dave. In fact, I know next to nothing about what it would do for me... (off to Wikepedia now..)

DayJob is LabVIEW/FPGA/C, evening is PHP/mySQL/Jquery - or more ideally DVD+Wine! lol

 

Anyway, back to the grind... lol

[MintyDave 0]

Cant knock Alex for all the hard work but i have to pose the question. If Alex owns the site, pays for domian/hosting why should he do all this for nothing.

 

Are we really looking at another private directory that is just better than all the others with the option of better layout and facilities.

 

Teez said it doesnt matter how many join but surely it would be a wash with dj's in no time and how would the people behind the directory in the first place benefit. Registering with the forum takes no time at all and how would you check all this without djforum admin rights. it will take more valuable time as you will recieve countless applicants.

 

I sound so negative but i do have concernes regarding the work load for you guys

 

If alex is looking to develop a private directory, sell advertising space and look for a subscription then im fully supportive of him and would glady use his site as he has been nothing but helpful on here.

 

if not, may i suggest you look at the nuts and bolts of how it will work before choosing colours and get a more ides from forum members,

 

those who can be bothered to post that is...too busy dj'ing i suppose.

 

 

[Teez 0]

Dave,

 

When I said it doesn't matter how many, I meant it in context of 'if there are only a few subscribers, it doesn't matter'.

 

If the website just has 5 DJ's on it but it keeps appearing at the top of the search pages that's cool with me.

 

I do believe that Dukesy needs to be be brought on board with this as it's his forum that has brought us together. We are also all active supporters of this forum so should ensure that our loyalties remain accordingly.

 

I think the guys who know their stuff should table a wish list of what would be best included in this website and get feedback from this forum using language we all understand.

 

Alex, I think templates are fine but if this is going to be a 'community' site let's get the wishlist first. I'm not trying to dampen anyone, just think there is a logical sequence here and we should try and stick with it to save time and grief.

 

Would be even better if we could incorporate the data on the existing DJ@ search website or offer a re-design, the name of which I can never remember.

 

I repeat, it's not how good or bad the website desig is, it's whether or not any of you geeks can do a better job of getting us to the top of the listings. The client doedn't give a fig what the website is called.

 

I have also identified an amazing website name that is still free on .com and .co.uk (no disrespect again)

 

We could use the 18th as maybe the final sign-off of the website?

 

:joe:

[vokf 0]

I do agree with Teez. I was originally thinking of a non-profit (but non-loss!!).

If its a non-profit, and a more community effort, then requirements should be drawn up before designing anything.

To use some yukky management speak "Lets involve the stakeholders" lol

 

If you consider the effort Dukesy has put into DJ@ (as a non-profit!), lots of work and often late phone calls, an admin group would help share the load.

 

 

If this is a commercial venture, then there are questions as to if it should even be promoted here without Admin approval.

That's not to say I wouldn't support a commercial effort, but there would have to be something special about it to make me part with my hard-earned.

Promotion is not quick, easy or sometimes low cost.

 

Jas

[MintyDave 0]

I do agree with Teez. I was originally thinking of a non-profit (but non-loss!!).

If its a non-profit, and a more community effort, then requirements should be drawn up before designing anything.

To use some yukky management speak "Lets involve the stakeholders" lol

Jas

 

Im all for a community effort, the trouble is with community groups you get the do'ers, the thinkers and the reapers and i have nothing to bring to the table (making me a reaper) in respect to the design and admin of such a site as it is beyond me. I cant even spell HMTLTHMLLHMT ....you know what i mean.

 

I still believe that if successful the directory will go bonkers and very soon the likes of Alex Entertainment, Robstar etc etc etc, will be lost among the crowds so exclusivity needs addressing. Like many have said the DJ@ spends a lot of time doing the DJ@ thing for the love of the industry so possibly a DJ@ only membership could be a requirement, as i said before benefiting us all in the long run if people sign up to dj@

 

As i cant offer any skills i would be happy to annonomously sponsor the venture with no preferential treatment whatsoever.

 

maybe a poll should be started to work out some of the very basic requirements ie

 

non profit community site yes or no

sell advertising space to retailers etc to raise funds

 

entry requirements - foum member, DJ@ affiliate member/full member

 

then start looking at the nuts and bolts

 

Just a thought

 

[AlexEntertainment 0]

((( LONG POST WARNING )))--((( LONG POST WARNING )))--((( LONG POST WARNING )))

 

Heya guys,

 

Ok... I think I'm getting there..... I've looked at all the features you guys have mentioned and believe I can pretty much incorporate all of them ( hopefully ) but I see there are some questions and I hope I can answer most of them below... I'm going to try and be as open and transparent with my site with you guys as I possibly can be :) ....ok, lets see, which question first?

 

-- How am I building this? --

 

For those wanting to know how i'm doing it so quickly, I am using a CMS to build this :) hehehe! It's amazing what these things can produce. But I'm not giving away all my secrets yet.... ;)

 

-- Costs and time --

TBH, I don't mind helping out DJU members as this forum and community have helped me out no end :) it's nice to be able to put something back .... and besides, domain names are cheap enough these days, and hosting wise, I have a fantastic reseller service so I'm not worried about costs (at this moment in time unless we have to upgrade servers or anything... LOL )

 

Also, I can assure you from the outset, i will NOT be adding forum functions to this site......!! And this site is completely NOT FOR PROFIT!! Listings will be completely free for ALL DJU members!!! And if we decide to open to the public, we will look at it from there....

 

With regards to covering costs and 'time costs', I have the option of running two things.... advertising modules and "featured listings"

 

My thought regarding advertising is: outside companies can advertise with us.... not sure which ones yet, but we'll see.

 

My thought regarding "featured listings" are : keep it cheap and keep it local. I was thinking Featured listings would cost £1 a week, and would be based on TOWN/CITY and not county. The user can only select one town at a time too. There would be a maximum of 2 featured listings at any one time, to prevent overload.

 

These odd mini payments will help pay for the development and maintenance of the site should we need to upgrade.... and additional cash left over can be put towards other things for DJU members, such as advertising the site, forum meet ups, donations to the forum.... etc..

 

The other option is to have free featured listings based on USER VOTES.... but then this would be biased and unfair in my view... as some people may NEVER get the chance to be featured!?

 

 

 

-- Administration and team work --

 

I think the site will require an admin team eventually and i would be looking for volunteers.... to help relieve the load (if it's popular that is). I currently have a User Management System in place ready for this eventuality.

 

The admin team would only ever consist of DJU members... and even though I know dukesy has loads to do already, I would love to have him on board too (awaits PM from dukesy)

I agree that we would need someone with Moderator access to be able to check the DJU member details at first... but eventually if we open the site to the public, the member detail check wouldn't be required.

 

 

-- SEO Friendly URLS --

With regards to this subject, at the moment the url address would look like this :

 

COUNTRY : mobiledisconetwork.co.uk/home/england/

COUNTY SECTION : mobiledisconetwork.co.uk/home/england/hampshire/

(NOT ACTIVE YET) LOCATION URL : mobiledisconetwork.co.uk/home/england/hampshire/cityname/

ACTUAL LISTING : mobiledisconetwork.co.ukhome/england/hampshire/listing-name (listing name would be company name)

 

The reason for this layout is because we can add extra areas :

 

mobiledisconetwork.co.uk/home ---- main site area

mobiledisconetwork.co.uk/shop ---- perhaps a shopping area

mobiledisconetwork.co.uk/venues --- open it out to venues and allow them to list with us....

 

Can you see where I am going with that????? It's just an option to give us extra roads to travel... if we want to.

 

 

Also... the listing title already appears as the page title!! :)

 

 

 

-- Features --

Ok, currently here are the features lists that I've got working so far....

 

* GeoTagging (using google maps)

* Full Detailed write up

@@ including features checklist such as karaoke, visuals... etc...

 

* Photo Gallery (at the moment, restricted to 5 pictures, but this can be increased)

* Video Upload via Youtube (currently restricted to 1, due to spacing on the profile page)

* Contact form - contact on the DJ you want to, not 10 others like goodparty or UKEntertainers! No Bidding War!!

* Reviews and ratings by the general public

* ability to have yourself in 5 different towns or counties (again, this can increased or decreased)

* FEATURED PROFILE but only in 1 town at a time (again, can be increased or decreased)

* Advanced Searches.... type a word and it searchs the whole profile!! or the tags I set it to search

 

 

There are still a few features that I am working on.................

 

-- Jason -- specifically for you now --

I'm intrigued by your simmering project :) ... I've also got something in the horizon which will (i think) be interesting too...

When ya free, give me a call and we see if it's something we could possible intergrate :) --- thats if you want to of couse hehe :)

 

 

 

-- Associations --

From the customer point of view, I think the website should NOT be affiliated with any association to their view (even though it highly supports DJU and DJ@ ;) hehe)... we don't want to confuse them.

However I like the idea of adding an association section in the profile details!! We could include linking via this too.

 

 

 

------------------------

Ok enough from me now... back to work I go :) ......

 

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully that's answered some of the questions, and will no doubt have created more! LOL

 

Speak soon guys

 

xx alex xx

 

By the way minty.... nothing wrong with being a reaper :)

 

I enjoy being a doer!! :)

Edited April 22, 2010 by AlexEntertainment

[MintyDave 0]

 

With regards to covering costs and 'time costs', I have the option of running two things.... advertising modules and "featured listings"

 

My thought regarding advertising is: outside companies can advertise with us.... not sure which ones yet, but we'll see.

 

Thanks for the answers Alex, good post!!! as always!!!

 

selling advertising space would be good but be slow to start with unless you get an initial sponsor.

 

My thought regarding "featured listings" are : keep it cheap and keep it local. I was thinking Featured listings would cost £1 a week, and would be based on TOWN/CITY and not county. The user can only select one town at a time too. There would be a maximum of 2 featured listings at any one time, to prevent overload.

 

I have to vote against featured listing im afraid as that all of a sudden dips in the realms of the deep pocketed national service providers, pushing out the people who this web site is for. Also paying £52 per year for us rural service providers would not be cost effective. Not many people search for DJ's in a town like Richmond or Buxton and I cover 7 or 8 small market towns to get work. once you get north of leeds / York its a bit sparse!

 

Would a standard subscription be better with the content being the driving force behind the search results? That way we get what we put in.

 

Just thinking of whats fairest!

 

Dave

[AlexEntertainment 0]

In all honesty, I would prefer to keep the site completely free.... so I might remove the featured function at the moment....

 

I might implement it as a County feature?? Based on things like user votes... and you can only be featured once every 6 weeks perhaps?

 

Not sure.... we'll see! :)

 

All I know is, I would prefer not to charge at all for this site! And tbh at the moment, there is no need to.

Hosting is paid for for the next two years and domian is registered ( or in process of it... just waiting now...) already :)

 

 

[MintyDave 0]

great, im sure somebody will pay for your curry on the 18th.

 

More input needed i think from everybody on a few issues to see if we all agree.

Dave

[vokf 0]

Thanks for the answers Alex, good post!!! as always!!!

 

selling advertising space would be good but be slow to start with unless you get an initial sponsor.

I have to vote against featured listing im afraid as that all of a sudden dips in the realms of the deep pocketed national service providers, pushing out the people who this web site is for. Also paying £52 per year for us rural service providers would not be cost effective. Not many people search for DJ's in a town like Richmond or Buxton and I cover 7 or 8 small market towns to get work. once you get north of leeds / York its a bit sparse!

 

Would a standard subscription be better with the content being the driving force behind the search results? That way we get what we put in.

 

Just thinking of whats fairest!

 

Dave

 

 

My thoughts are also against featured listings. Why should a DJ with deeper pockets been listed above others?

 

I assume the system has the ability for membership levels, so perhaps allow the subscribing DJ's to have more features on their profile?

This would potentially allow MORE income as you would not be restricted to 2 featured listings per area.

If a client was looking for a DJ and decided 2 or 3 looked good - the DJ(s) with more features (YouTube/Facebook/Higher number of images in gallery etc)

 

If you can allow the DJ to provide as much information as possible, it will really help with comparisions for the client.

Consider a DJ with a "basic" listing of 2 images, no Facebook Link, no YouTube Link, verses a "Advanced" listing with 10 images, links to other services (youtube/djep/dji/facebook etc). Much more value for the DJ, and also more information for the client.

 

However, the "results" pages, ie listings of DJs in a specific town would be neat.

 

Looking at UK-Disco, the featured DJ's vs standard DJ's shows what I'd be very worried about. No incentive for clients to click on non-featured DJ's.

There are about 5 or so active Hertfordshire DJ's here. If Ray and Jose pay for featured listings, then StardustSA (Steve), Sonic (Steve) and me will be left with listings of little value.

If this listings showed some basic info, with enhanced profile pages, there would be more opportunity for income, and a much more level playing field.

I've got no problem paying for quality advertising, but if this is to benefit all DJ's then the featured listing sound be seriously reconsidered to avoid the site looking like all the others!

 

The SEO rules probably need to be tweaked. Top level will receive more priority that lower. So;

mobiledisconetwork.co.uk/home/england/hampshire/listing-name

 

Should be:

mobiledisconetwork.co.uk/hampshire/listing-name

 

If you want an non-uk version, either get a correct domain;

mobiledisconetwork.ie

or subdomain..

 

There are 2 non-essential levels in the URL, these will harm SEO. Also a homepage for Hampshire with some blurb provided by some DJ's would also help. (one thing the other directories do not have)

 

Will try to call asap for a chat!

Jas

 

[AlexEntertainment 0]

Do you think listings should be organised by COUNTY or TOWN/CITY?

 

I'm undecided... at the moment I'm doing it by CITY only.. but obviously when you bring in TOWNS and VILLAGES.... it becomes a bit overloaded LOL

 

However, the down side of county is, some counties are big and some DJ's only cover a few areas within the county?

 

Ohhh... choices choices choices! :)

[Teez 0]

I'm trying to not read all the technical jargon for two reasons, one I don't understand it and two I will make my views known the same way that we critique other peoples websites which is by looking at the draft and making comments.

 

I think it needs to start off as a community based website that covers its own costs. Yes, some of you guys are doing this for free and I think we should all be grateful for that.

 

I don't agree that there is a need too separate ourselves from this forum. It is, after all our common bond (other than our trade) and I don't think a 'community' website should lose sight of that.

 

I agree that there is a need to 'filter'who joins etc to avoid it being a donkey that everyone jumps on the back of. The solution is actually quite easy.If you agree with the principle that you must not separate the connection between the website and the forum then here is my suggestion.

 

I do agree that you should have 'featured' DJ's and in order to qualify for this you need to have reached a certain number of posts on this Forum. Clearly that can be monitored in order to prvent anyone abusing that process. It's the regular contributors on this forum that are generating this so I think that is a way of 'rewarding' their efforts. It's also an encouragement to bring more people into the circle.

 

If you do want to sell space then that option can run in parallel with the number of posts but I think the payment option needs further discussion at a later stage (although the facility needs to be built in)

 

With regards to ownership, again I think that's something Dukesy needs to be involved with and if he's there on the 18th then hopefully it can be discussed.

 

I would say that if the site does bring in subscription revenue (only if it's successful) then one way of recognising the founder members could be a discounted fee on the annual insurance premium. Funds can also be ploughed back in to things such as Google Adwords. I think it's still early days for that level of detail but there are many simple ways of resolving matters like this.

 

I'm hearing a lot about web design but nothing about SEO. Can the experts please post how they can make this site the absolute best, every time. No point having a beautiful sports car sitting in the garage with no petrol!

 

:joe:

[MintyDave 0]

Do you think listings should be organised by COUNTY or TOWN/CITY?

 

I'm undecided... at the moment I'm doing it by CITY only.. but obviously when you bring in TOWNS and VILLAGES.... it becomes a bit overloaded LOL

 

However, the down side of county is, some counties are big and some DJ's only cover a few areas within the county?

 

Ohhh... choices choices choices! :)

 

Cities are a bit sparse up here mate and like i said we have to go by small market towns

 

North yorkshire - englands largest county but only 0.6 million residents.

 

From my own web stats i see that some people have searched for mobile disco + village name.

 

it is hard as some live on county borders and may not work in their own county, or as you say work in specific areas. Scarborough is in North yorkshire but it is a gruelling 70 miles away and takes nearly 2 hours to get there.

 

Obviously you cant list every town in the uk but what about a postcode based search - is that possible

[AlexEntertainment 0]

First Draft is almost complete.... I'll post a link soon... I promise :)

 

 

I don't agree that there is a need too separate ourselves from this forum. It is, after all our common bond (other than our trade) and I don't think a 'community' website should lose sight of that.

 

Sorry teez, I dont think I explained myself well... LOL.... basically, what I mean is, customers don't need to see DJ@ information on the front page as I think it would confuse them.. however we would have details regarding DJ@ and DJU on the site.

 

 

I agree that there is a need to 'filter'who joins etc to avoid it being a donkey that everyone jumps on the back of. The solution is actually quite easy.If you agree with the principle that you must not separate the connection between the website and the forum then here is my suggestion.

 

I do agree that you should have 'featured' DJ's and in order to qualify for this you need to have reached a certain number of posts on this Forum. Clearly that can be monitored in order to prvent anyone abusing that process. It's the regular contributors on this forum that are generating this so I think that is a way of 'rewarding' their efforts. It's also an encouragement to bring more people into the circle.

 

I can only see one problem with this..... long standing members would in theory be automatically entitled to Featured listings..... and it may cause newbies to spam the forums with useless or non related posts.

 

 

If you do want to sell space then that option can run in parallel with the number of posts but I think the payment option needs further discussion at a later stage (although the facility needs to be built in)

 

Payment feature is already built in :) ... but I'm thinking of disabling it at the moment.... i think for the moment, listings should be free to entice the DJU members to register... :)

 

 

I would say that if the site does bring in subscription revenue (only if it's successful) then one way of recognising the founder members could be a discounted fee on the annual insurance premium. Funds can also be ploughed back in to things such as Google Adwords. I think it's still early days for that level of detail but there are many simple ways of resolving matters like this.

 

Complete agree with this... plough the money back into the site to advertise and boost it's rep.....

 

I'm hearing a lot about web design but nothing about SEO. Can the experts please post how they can make this site the absolute best, every time. No point having a beautiful sports car sitting in the garage with no petrol!

 

SEO is a tricky area, and unfortunately no one can ever guarantee top spot.... but the system used at the moment on this site I'm build use's the formula that has worked for me so far :)

 

It uses the equation I've worked on for ages content + ( page title and description ) = higher google rankings

 

Each lisiting page has the company name, and I'm working on adding extra things into the page title to help increase SEO. Description wise, each category will have a description and page title to help it out.

 

The other thing is sitemapping and linking.... sitemaping is the easy part and will help google trace out our site, linking on the other hand will be harder as the site will be (for the moment) specifically for DJU members.

 

With regards to google adwords and advertising, we'll look at that a bit later on...... thats not a major thing at the moment ( in my view anyway LOL )

 

 

 

[MintyDave 0]

 

I think it needs to start off as a community based website that covers its own costs. Yes, some of you guys are doing this for free and I think we should all be grateful for that.

 

Too true and im with you on that one teez

 

I don't agree that there is a need too separate ourselves from this forum. It is, after all our common bond (other than our trade) and I don't think a 'community' website should lose sight of that.

i think that we are talking about distancing from the association not the forum, the forum is nothing to do with clients anyway but the fact we are all in an association is good pr

 

I agree that there is a need to 'filter'who joins etc to avoid it being a donkey that everyone jumps on the back of. The solution is actually quite easy.If you agree with the principle that you must not separate the connection between the website and the forum then here is my suggestion.

 

 

I do agree that you should have 'featured' DJ's and in order to qualify for this you need to have reached a certain number of posts on this Forum. Clearly that can be monitored in order to prvent anyone abusing that process. It's the regular contributors on this forum that are generating this so I think that is a way of 'rewarding' their efforts. It's also an encouragement to bring more people into the circle.

i think we are talking association members not just forum members, however i may be wrong - the forum is only here because of the association

 

 

 

With regards to ownership, again I think that's something Dukesy needs to be involved with and if he's there on the 18th then hopefully it can be discussed.

i dont think, going from his post, he wants anything to do with the directory

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2010 by MintyDave

[AlexEntertainment 0]

Cities are a bit sparse up here mate and like i said we have to go by small market towns

.....

Obviously you cant list every town in the uk but what about a postcode based search - is that possible

 

 

How about I implement something like this :

 

http://demo.gomoxiemedia.com/

 

Have a look at the bottom, and you'll see a radius option too

[MintyDave 0]

How about I implement something like this :

 

http://demo.gomoxiemedia.com/

 

Have a look at the bottom, and you'll see a radius option too

 

Thats an idea, not sure its the perfect solution as im out of my depth but it looks like a very usefull tool. Ukcampsites use something like that since the majority of campsites are rural.

 

granted it costs but like i said i would happily donate for the cause to get setup

 

any other ideas folks?

[Teez 0]

Too true and im with you on that one teez

 

i think that we are talking about distancing from the association not the forum, the forum is nothing to do with clients anyway but the fact we are all in an association is good pr

 

i think we are talking association members not just forum members, however i may be wrong - the forum is only here because of the association

i dont think, going from his post, he wants anything to do with the directory

 

 

Which post ???

 

:joe:

[MintyDave 0]

Which post ???

 

:joe:

 

This one, its burried on page 2

 

 

If you take a look at the portal page, you'll see a link to the 'Which Mobile Disco' site and also another site which I inherited when I bought ownership of the forum - http://www.uk-mobile-disco.co.uk

There are also banners to both sites which appear randomly in the banner rotator at the bottom of the forum. The banner for the Which Mobile Disco site which we are discussing here also contains an RSS feed which updates to show the latest 5 or so listings which have been added to the site. There are also active links on forum discussions - there is no mileage in spamming even more links from the same site.

 

If you log out of the forum and view the index (portal) page, you will see a yellow bar at the top of the page which invites guest visitors to the forum to click on it if they are looking for a mobile disco. Clicking on it takes them to the UK Mobile Disco site. This means that if any guest should accidentally stumble across the forum during a search for a Mobile Disco then they will be directed to a site which lists mobile discos and gives the 500+ mobile discos listed on there the opportunity to quote.

 

It has to be said that out of the 500 mobile disco's listed on the UK Mobile Disco site, only about 30 of them bother to play fair and put up the return link banner which is obligatory. However, I don't have the time to check every single listing and website to make sure that the site banner is in place, however if you are volunteering for such a task then don't hesitate to send me a P.M.

 

Most of my time is spent between moderating the forum and running DJ@. Running DJ@ alone takes out about 3 - 4 hours of free time out of my day, including weekends and its not been unknown for a new member to sign up at 1AM on a Sunday morning, pay their membership and have their membership and PLI details by 1.30AM the same day!

 

You would be surprised how many professional Dj's are in a mad panic on a Saturday Afternoon because they have just found out that they need PLI for their Saturday evening gig - in 3 or 4 hours time. I can't be around helping them, AND building websites. I do have a life and a family and I think that the 21 - 28+ hours every week that I VOLUNTEER towards helping and advising other DJ's is enough thank you. As Josh says, that's well beyond the time that most DJ's spend helping themselves, let alone their colleagues.

 

At the moment, running DJ@ takes the greater precedent. However I won't be adding external links to individual DJ sites / directories from DJ@ purely because DJ's may want to use our pli Validator link on their own websites in order to offer a real time check of their pli status to clients and venues, and if they feel that they are linking directly to a site which contains details of their competitors then they may not use this valuable and useful resource!

 

However, since there seems to be a genuine interest shown by some into building this site, how about I give you the hosting and webspace free of charge and you build something? All you need to do is to pay £6 for a .co.uk domain for 2 years and let me know what the domain name is, and I'll set up the space and PM you the control panel log-in details within the next 48 hours? Can't say fairer than that can you?

I'm offering you the opportunity to put this idea into practice at my personal expense (not DJ@'s)

All you need to do now is accept. smile icon

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2010 by MintyDave

[Robster 0]

I think i am right in saying the forum existed way before the association and they are ran completely separately .

 

This is a open forum for members who follow the forum rules and is free

 

and the association is for full members a subscription based association even though ran by the same person they are completely separate.

 

I would prefer a radius and town rather than a county ..Manchester is big and i dont want to be travelling to some parts of it.

 

I think planning and preparation are needed as i don't understand half of what's said in these posts .

 

There is no way of showing how good a DJ is and rewarding them with the featured spot only if they are computer savvy and can do facebook , pictures videos etc ..that doesnt mean they are a good dj though and i cant think of a system that would reward good dj's fairly who may lack those computer skills (playing devils advocate for a sec)

[vokf 0]

My nearest city is St Albans... or City of London. There are LOTS of towns and venues in the area.

So...Towns-probably too many (and I cover probably 10's of towns!), Cities, too sparse.

 

I do have a database of all postal towns in the UK. The Google Maps integration is also good (but $50 or $100 is a bit steep - I've done Google Maps integration, and its fairly easy using their API)

Adding pins to show the location of each DJ is fairly easy if we have a postcode.

 

I'm on the Herts/Essex/Middlesex border, so by County is also a bit tricky (unless I can be on multiple countys)

 

the forum is only here because of the association

I *think* that is not right, I'm sure Dan can confirm, but I think the forum was here first. Dan wanted to promote good practices, and so launched DJ Associates as a mainly ethics driven Association.

This changed a few years ago to include PLI as a benefit of membership, and the Association was re-launched with new content.

However, I could be talking out my .....

 

 

however we would have details regarding DJ@ and DJU on the site.

I don't think that is nessesary for clients.

Do we want clients signing up to the forum to view the posts made by DJ's? I had a wedding client that found one of my posts the other week.

Considering some people do post content in the wrong place and its publically visible - I don't think link/details of DJU should be promoted to clients.

The same really applies to DJ@. There is an ethics section which all members agree to, but otherwise, there is little useful information for clients.

 

If you visited a Plumbing site- would you be interested in checking out the Gas Safe (Corgi) website?

Also, not all members of DJU are DJ@ members, and vice versa. If the site promoted either, and it was open to DJU and DJ@ members it could be misleading.

 

Better effort would be spent on real content - aka town/county information, guides on booking DJ's etc.

Possibly a description of some common Jargon, ie uplighting/moodlighting, etc. Would be good for SEO.

 

Nothing wrong in listing DJU and DJ@ in the DJ's admin area, but we need to keep client focused here, so details of venues/hotels/resources, and mainly DJ listings.

I guess later on, branching out to Party goods suppliers, Wedding Services suppliers, Venues/Halls etc etc.

 

I also don't think checking members posting levels here in DJU should entitle directory DJ's to other levels. This would have to be a manual process, and therefore not practical. Also - if I left the forum for any reason, or was banned for late night drunken abusive postings :norfolk: ...would I then lose my listing?

 

I'm not planning any of that (but I have been known to do strange things after 8 cans of Special Brew lol), but these need consideration if the site was tightly bound to the forum.

 

There is also considerations as to how many DJ's would join if it were strictly DJU or DJ@ only. Going back to McCardles "I.C.B.A" point, there is a very real chance that it could only have 20 or 30 DJ's listed.

This (IMO) would not be useful to the client, as many areas would not be covered.

Clicking on Devon and seeing 1 or 2 DJ's would not be good.

Clicking on Hertfordshire and seeing 5 would be a bit better. From the guys in here, I don't know of any that offer Karaoke in Hertfordshire...

 

So, welcoming all from the DJ community would bring in originals content, funds to cover overheads and possible advertising (if they wish to enhance their profile), and the profile of the site.

This would mean welcoming those from other forums and associations.

 

Jas

[MintyDave 0]

i stand corrected the association started after the forum.

 

Trouble with an open directory, like i said the 5 Hertfordshire djs could soon turn into 50 hence the founders could miss out.

 

How about strict entry criteria

PLI, PAT and lengthy application form, return links photos etc all to be done at once not whenever

[vokf 0]

One thing that has been forgotten/ignored;

 

There already exists a Directory

 

http://www.uk-mobile-disco.co.uk/

 

 

Surely, it would be better to chat with Dan/Admin to offfer help in re-vamping that site?

 

This would be a better option - the domain is "old", which is better for SEO. There are over 400 members, and with a little bit of presentation work, it would be revamped..

 

Jason

[MintyDave 0]

Very good point, why re-invent the wheel

 

surely it must be easy enough to save all the current details but there maybe issues who has access to the data and the site and would people want it messing with, especially Dan?