Name of your website?Infocentral
Your name?
J Linares
Your Location (city, etc)
Gibraltar
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Offers information on counselling and promotes counselling professionals in Gibraltar and Spain.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Lack of such information when someone really needs it. No web directory in Gibraltar to advertise counsellors that is relevant to mental health.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
January 2007. It started with a basic 5 html pages. Now the website is php driven and some are database driven.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
infocentral, meaning the centre of information accessible for anyone. The lighthouse used is a symbol that I use to denote clarity and focus.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
Its locally based in Gibraltar and the overall design is better than the competitor in Spain.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To help individuals who need the information and promote the counselling profession as over the years, it has received very bad publicity from "counselling therapists" who are not properly qualified and pose a danger to the client. We only register qualified or trainee counsellors so that they can help the person who needs it. The website is not intended to be for personal income, the money gained is used to support the website and improve on it.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Investment in money is not a problem as it is backed by the subscribers. I provide the input in web developement. All I have to worry about is time and that everything works fine.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Invest in high end servers with redundancy. I'll do the rest.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes, it has already grown from a small website and can keep up with demand. If you refer to web content, the website can grow as limited to the hard disk capacity. If you refer to traffic volume and high volume of page requests, then I would need a high end server.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Server crashes, hard disk crashes, lightning surges that destroys communications equipment, normal wear and tear and no internet access because it is out of my control. All of these cost money to remedy unfortunately.
What has been your biggest challenge?
In developing the website from scratch and promote it.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Spreading panflets, mouth to mouth advise, business cards.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Its getting more popular by the month which originally, I didn't think that it would get that popular. I even have the backing of the local Gibraltar Association for counsellors and psychotherapists.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
It has been running for 1 year and is in a continuous development cycle and monitoring. As long as the website is popular, I plan to keep on developing it further.
Are you a qualified web applications developer?
Yes :-)
What is your website address?
Infocentral
