Making a website (kinda SR)

[justcuz]

So I'm thinking about doin up a little website for here in Michigan. Laugh away, but in short I'd like to focus on getting reliable snow reports and educated speculative reports out in the winter for various ski areas around MI...the snow fall varies so much around the state depending on how close you are to any of the great lakes (10" to 300") and I want to get all the info in one spot. It will also focus on tracking wind in the summer for kiters, sailors, and windsurfers..........and MAYBE some mountain biking stuff.

Questions are: How tough is it to get one up and running and keep it up and running (time wise)?

Do you guys actually read this sh!t for your parts of the country or would I be wasting my time?

What about small sponsors like a local shop to mitigate some of the costs of getting it going? Is it possible?

I really think there are enough people in the state that would appreciate something like this....but seeing as maggots are amongst the most harsh, blunt, and straightforward people I know, I thought I'd see what the concensus is.

Thanks for any help.

[fez]

its not reallly all that hard or expensive. but there is a learning curve for sure. especially if you arent really all that technically oriented. How popular will it be? hard to say, projects like these tend to take on lives of their own after a while. Just ask TGR if they thought they would have such an active board on their site when they started it.

look around for cheap web hosting, there are plenty of places I cant recommend any offhand, but im sure some folks here would have some suggestions. Before you settle on one, search the boards at http://www.webmasterworld.com/ to see what their rep is.

Also look around for a free open source content management system (CMS). PHPNuke isnt bad, Plone is another pretty good one, there are others for sure. If you have any programming skills then a language you know may make an difference. Most will be overkill for what you want to do, but you will probably grow into it.

Most any decent CMS will have banner ad management, a news section, stuff like that.