Name of your website?The Addiction News Network
Your name?
Jon Heller
Your Location (city, etc)
Palm Springs, CA.
Please give us a short summary of your website?
The Addiction News Network is a constantly updated source for addiction research and treatment advances, the "war" on drugs, laws and effects, and addiction news stories from around the world.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I hadn't built an addition-based site since the sale of my first one, SoberRecovery, about 18 months ago. It had become my life and it was time to let it go. Now it's time to come back!
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
September of 2000 I began building a list of links. That list turned into thousands of pages, hundreds of Top Ten and Top 20 rankings, and a Community with over 35,000 registered members. Oh, and about 10,000 unique visitors a day.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I took two words that meant something, and for some crazy reason put them together so they meant nothing! One advantage, it wasn't a "word", so it was easy to find all over the net.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
The Addiction News Network will ALWAYS have fresh content. Multiple RSS feeds both in and out, original articles. Eventually I hope to get into podcasts and more video. For now though, always new content.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
At this point I see keeping this as a "helper" site for other sites I launch. The goal is to attain authority status, and be able to jump-start other web offerings.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Money? I did pretty good on the sale of my first, and biggest, site. Since then, however, I'm glad I don't eat much. And success is usually a standard held up to you by others. I'm ok with what I do, and that's all that matters.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Oh boy...toys. Cutsom everything, of course.And at least one piece of proprietary softwware...something that was really cool, worked really well, and, if I wanted, I could give away.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I learned some lessons last time...get help BEFORE you're up to your neck in it...
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
I'm using WordPress on this project and I simply could not get the feed to parse...nor could I get anyone at WP to answer my support request. Without an outgoing RSS, I consider the site at about 25%> Finally, I fixed it. And it was one of those "doh!" moments. I simply re-installed the theme...
What has been your biggest challenge?
Fighting my way up the rankings. In 2000, there were a handful of us doing addiction and addiction based websites. Today, you can find a six-bed, county-funded sober living home with its own webmaster.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Deep linking from my other sites. Although I sold my main site, there were about 15 others that I held on to...they rank, they have seniority, and they are all topical. Sites like treatment-hotline.com, 800cocaine.com and AffordableDrugTreatment.com have helped...a lot.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It hasn't. Even after some time off I fell right back into being an obsessive-compulsive developer.
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?
I didn't create it for income, so I expect to see Addiction News Network around for some time, especially since it delivers content to many of my, and other webmasters sites.
Any regrets?
When I launched my original site, the goal was to help deliver services to those that needed them in an entirely new way...online. And while that was accomplished, and we affected a lot of people, the number that still nedd help is staggering. We (addiction webmasters) have o come up with something brand new...something that will reach everyone from kids to addicted seniors, with a message they can all here.
What is your website address?
The Addiction News Network
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