Name of your website?PressDr.com
Your name?
Wesley Upchurch
Your Location (city, etc)
Columbia
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Our website offers a free service for webmasters to publish their press releases to help improve their online exposure.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
This particular site came about because I realized that most press release sites only publish your press release online, but do little else to make it a success. I wanted to offer a service where we actually sent the news release to media contacts such as news editors, radio and television anchors, and bloggers.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I launched my own website in 2001, it was a site for about a fictional band, that was really just there to make me look cool.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Well it was just a random domain name that I bought on ebay for a couple bucks and after leaving it dormant for about a year, I decided to develop it.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
For one we actually send our customers press releases to news editors. We don't just post your news to a feed and forget about it.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
The goal of this website? To give an outlet for businesses to share their news to the world.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Only time will tell.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I think we are doing fine on our limited budget. More people would help improve our development time for new features though.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yep no problem. We designed our system to be fully scalable.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
We started with open source code, but quickly realized that to accomplish our goals it would mean developing new applications and coming up with new ways to use the system.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Competing with the heavy hitters in our industry, at first seemed impossible, but our new approach in the industry we seem to be overcoming that obstacle, no problem.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Natural search engine results seem to be doing well for us. But we've only just begun.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
As a college professor of mine told me, "Every thing is harder than it looks, but easier than it seems."
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?
This site isn't going anywhere. We're here for the long run.
What is your website address?
PressDr.com
