Turning ideas into a website

There really is no limit to what you can do with a website.  If you have the idea, you can turn it into a .com (or .co.uk or whatever).

I’ve been really lucky recently in working on three great projects (amongst others) that started out as three really good ideas.

3right.co.uk

3right.co.uk is a website that has taken four successful maths books and allowed people to use them online.  In schools, the books are used on a 1-1 basis between a tutor and the pupil.  The website has been developed so that pupils can use the site by themselves with the tutor providing support as and when required.

David Sharp (of Power Of 2 Publishing) contacted me in Spring 2009 and told me how the books worked and wanted to see how whether they would translate into a website as there were certain rules in how the books should be used by pupils.

The site launched in October 2009 and in March 2010 was nominated at the Education Resources Awards in the “Special Educational Needs” category.  Feedback has been positive from all the schools using the site with a primary school in Kent saying “Our children just love using it”.

home-searcher.co.uk

Last week, Home Searcher was launched.

This is a site I’ve been working on for a client since the beginning of the year, although we had our first meeting last November.  The basic premise is that it costs too much to sell your home through a traditional estate agent and with local papers finding their way into recycle bins as soon as they come through the letter box, the only place houses are advertised are on the web, the only people advertising houses on the web are estate agents so you’re back to where you started.

So Phil Shields of Debt Free World had an idea that’s been had before, create a website where home owners can come along and sell their property and those who are looking to move can come along and find what they are looking for.

The major difference is how that property will get onto the site.  Home owners won’t be able to do it themselves.  Instead, a locally based property advisor will come to your house, take some pictures, talk about your property, find out how much you want to sell it for and then put it on the site for you.  They will also be able to offer advice on mortgages as, if you’re selling your current house, you’ll probably be looking to buy another one.

The cost of this service?  £29.95 per month for three months and then free after that (or a one-off fee of £75). 

It’s an idea that has already got the backing of The Mortgage Alliance and has been featured in The Financial Times and on myintroducer.com.

one more site

The final site is a great idea and the team behind it are prepared to do a lot of publicity and not let the website try and do it all by itself (very few websites can).  I’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement so can’t talk about it yet but on June 1st, if all goes well, there’ll be more details.

So…

So, what ideas have you got?  Can you think of a way for the Internet to help make your work easier, whether it’s at work, home or school,  I’m always ready to listen to ideas and discussing how we can turn those ideas into a website.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Ian T