Name of your website?YouK: Free websites for writers
Your name?
Chris Jones
Your Location (city, etc)
York
Please give us a short summary of your website?
YouK (pronounced UK) is a network of sites. Each site is hosted and edited by a writer who has a passion for their subject. Sites aim to inform and guide readers and all writers invite feedback and questions.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Having worked for a big American site I decided there was scope for a site that was aimed at the UK reader and provided an opportunity for writers to flex their creative muscle.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
In 2007, the YouK site.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I tried to reflect the fact that it was for you (the reader) by you (the writer) and had a UK focus - hence - YouK
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
It is still evolving but we ask each writer to focus on just one topic and become a recognised and knowledgeable writer in that area. We provide a free website and subdomain to writers. We pay writers for every article they submit and we operate a revenue share scheme from any money we make from advertising.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To grow, develop, and provide a great UK user experience
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
We see ourselves as something of a slow burn site. We have no financial backers but we believe in the site as something we choose to invest our time and personal finance in. If people like what they see our site will continue to attract writers.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
We would want to maintain the core ideas of a UK personality, individual writers that people can connect with, and a diverse range of topics. Anything that supported this would be encouraged, especially the development of a community forum that is dynamic and interactive.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
In truth, we haven't thought this far ahead. If things really started to move we would certainly be looking for expertise and guidance and more in the way of capital investment
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
We always thought there would be interest from people who had an interest in writing but we didn't expect we would have quite so many applicants from people who (a) don't read what the site is about(b)who can't actually write (c) who simply copy things from other sources and try to pass it off as their own.
What has been your biggest challenge?
When we began formulating the idea we got a lot of conflicting advice about the best software, best marketing approach and things we must and must not do. In the end we felt, for better or worse, to go with what we knew. So far this has worked well.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
The writers themselves. Because they have an investment in their own site they use a variety of methods to promote their site and, by implication, ours.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
So far it hasn't, but it is early days yet.
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?
We started the site in 2007, so it is still new and of modest size. Unlike some of the big players who probably have clear objectives in terms of profit, we don't. From our perspective its less of a business and more of an extension of personal passions with writing.
How does the system work?
We invite anyone with an interest in writing to request an available topic. After 12 articles have been submitted we provide the writer with their own subdomain and access to the site via an intuitive interface. From then on writers can upload articles, podcasts, images etc to their own site whenever they wish.
What is your website address?
YouK: Free websites for writers
