I am stuck at a crossroads...so here I am

Well, I've been debating and going back and forth and weighing out my options. And after all is said and done, I'M STILL CONFUSED! I have so little that I need to do but it just seems so freaking big.The main task at hand now, is to see if we want to stay with Dolphin as our software provider.

Is what we are trying to do matching up with what Dolphin can do.

For the most part it is, but there are significant factors that seem to be playing against our plan. The crazy thing is, everything that we wish to do with the site now, is pretty small. But for some reason everyone wants to charge so much money to do small customization. So do I pay for that overly priced customization or do I find a software that would offer half of the things Dolphin doesn't offer, for half the price the developer is charging for one module customization? These are the questions that we are dealing with right now.

Don't get me wrong Dolphin is a decent software and it has taken us a long way. But it is imperative that the simple things at least work properly. Maybe I'm just becoming lackadaisical with the project.  I get to the point where when I'm tired of looking at something, I want to create something new for the eyes. I think that is something that I need to really work on.

BUT that is the least of my worries because I pretty much want to figure out if I want to swap out the media player with a branded one, so my members can sell  mp3's (which is what I was going with just a few days ago) OR do I want to create a web store for my artists? OR do I want to use the dolphin store that's included with our site. See these are the things that I must figure out. Either way though I think that I want my media player swapped out regardless of the decision I make. Finding a developer who is willing to do it for a decent price is the hard part. Decent for me is within my buget,  $150 and below. Everyone wants to charge more than the darn software. (whats wrong with this picture)I rather learn on my own and figure out how to do it, Matter of fact I might just do that.

I guess I'm going to start these articles for my site now. I haven't posted them yet due to work. But I'm about to make a few adjustments to the site and throw some content on board. Confusion can keep you from getting a lot of things done, I tell ya!

Moving on....

So basically I sat down and I re read all of the comments that were made on my last post and came up with a conclusion. Everyone is basically saying that SEO is mostly about the content that you put on your site. So if you have engaging, interesting content on your site, the traffic will come? That to me sound too easy to be true. It makes sense to a certain degree but I feel like there are a few things missing. Link building sounds like it could play a part in this process but I'm just not sure exactly where.

I've been checking out a site called imreportcard.com, actually I use to write for them  (in a way). And I've found a lot of different things on that site that pertains to traffic building and website services. Well truthfully I've found a list of sites but I have yet to try any of them. I'm not in the mood to give my money away for temporary success, if you will. I want something that is more long term.

I was thinking about email marketing. How should I feel about this? I go and buy a bulk listing of emails from my targeted demographics and send invitations. I thought that this might have been a good idea.

Or would this just be another whack way of going about getting members?  I mean if we open the door to just certain people then we can build a quality community, right? Once we get the ball rolling then we can open the doors to a larger demographic.

Just an idea................