Anatomy of PixelsAnyone.com Launch

Thought I'd share this story with you...
It's Jane's perspective on launching PixelsAnyone.com, written while she was entertaining her 2 1/2 year old grandson.

Jam on the carpet

© 2005 Jane Mark

Phil and I just got back from visiting my 2 and half year old grandson. If you ever want joy and delight in your life-have a grand child. I highly recommend it! :)

Sometimes you need it to give you a break from your busy, internet life. Especially when trials and problems, all businesses go through at times, appear on the scene.

There is an old Irish saying...

The possibility of bread landing jam side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.

It's based on the the principal that... Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.

Whenever you undertake a new project on the net, you need to have nerves of steel and a hearty constitution. It takes guts and determination to endure the birth of any new program, especially when that program involves complicated programming.

Two weeks ago Phil and I decided to get into the Pixel business. We loved the idea of driving people to one site with a lot of links on it and where our advertising clients can get continual click through's to their sites without any effort on their part. We also wanted to provide an effective advertising program for a one time cost that would let our clients advertise forever.
The concept was a pretty simple one. Kind of like baking a cake.
You take a pile of traffic, a splash of links and dollop of intrigue and you have a winning formula for your clients.

And so, Pixels Anyone?... was born.

But...like many births, the route is not as simple as it looks.

If you look at the site, it looks like a Picasso painting, but to get it online was something of a tech nightmare.

First all of the images had to be placed on the site manually which took over 30 minutes an image. It quickly became apparent to us that it was not the ideal way to run a site like this.

So we decided to automate everything.

The other thing we considered was tracking. Unless an advertiser put their own tracking link in their url, there was no way to track the hits people received to their site and even though we had our own test sites up the site which were getting lots of traffic, we had no way to track the hits for all our clients.

We instructed our programmer to automate the whole process and that is when the nightmares began.

The way scripts are born

Scripting can be a very messy process.

First you need a good idea.

Next you need someone who can describe that idea in detail so that a programmer can fully follow your idea and put in into coded form. This is called specking the script.

Then you need a good programmer who can follow your specs and...

Lastly you need to test and retest your script to make sure it is working as you envisioned Each step along this process can be hazardous.

For an example, not every idea can be put into code and even if it could, it may not be cost effective to develop it so when you have a new idea, you need to ascertain the cost and the time required to turn your idea into a reality.

If you decide an idea is worth pursing, you need to design spec pages for your programmer so that your idea is clear in every detail to him or her.

This is not just writing down a bunch of words which approximates your idea, it is actual html pages that walk the programmer through each and every step the end user will see when the script is finished.

For example you need to set up an admin area and list every function that you want the admin area to perform-every link must be listed on the page.

If there is a members area, you need to design that in precise detail.

Accompanying your html detailed pages, are a set of instructions to the programmer that tells him/her what function follows what-what the script does first and second and third and so on.

This can be a lengthy process and, if you have a number pages involved on your site, each page must be described with the same level of specificity. So, for example, if you have a home page, a login page, a contact page, a privacy page, a bio page a logout page and an order page. You must deliver all of these pages to your programmer so he/she knows how they all fit together.

Once you deliver the specs, the programming can begin but inevitably as your script begins to take form, things you did not consider in the beginning crop up and you have to make decisions as to how to change or modify your original concept in order to make it work effectively.

For example, on Pixels Anyone, when we decided to automate the script, the first attempt at it had the page loading to slowly and a way around that had to be found.

Things like this crop up no matter how careful you are in preparing your specs.

As the script begins to develop new ideas will present themselves to you and you will need to improve on your original idea. When they do, and they always do, you need to revise all those original specs to incorporate your new idea or changes. Then comes the extensive testing phase.

The result is a script you think works right and you release it to the public.

It's only when you present it to the public and place the script under load that you discover all the hidden flaws that did not come to light before.

One of our Partners, Shari Thomas, calls this "launching with your shorts down."

But here's where you are faced with 2 business choices.

1. You can hold your script from public scrutiny and keep testing it until it is perfect, or...

2. You can release it to the public, put it under heavy load and fix the bugs as they present themselves.

The second way is the most profitable way but it's also the most hair raising...

The alternative is to never release a script because you are afraid it will have some flaws in it. That is death in any business, particularly on the internet, where this happen instantaneously.

Through experience we found it works best if you launch it and then ask your subscribers or members to help you debug it. Most people are more than willing to help. Otherwise you will find that all your good ideas remain on the drawing board forever

There are time you need to bite the bullet, plunge into the deep end and swim fast. If you have a good programmer working with you, like we do, they will be there to correct all the errors as they present themselves.

It's okay to spill jam on the carpet occasionally as long as you are willing to spend a little time and effort cleaning it up:)

Jane

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Jane Mark is CEO of JPE Advertising, a Full Service
Professional online Ad Agency. Together with her partner,
Phil Basten, Jane has written numerous articles for the
WebPro Times and has helped develop some of the most
popular advertising programs on the web.
http://jpeadvertising.com