Kentucky Golfing is Now Live
I just wanted to take a moment to introduce the reason that I’ve been virtually non-existent blogging here on Random Jabber over the last few months (I promise I’ll do better). My third site Kentucky Golfing went live a couple weeks ago and I’m slowing trying to build content and get some interest from local golf nuts like myself.
Take Note: This is What Not to Do
It’s really amazing that this site is finally online. I attribute it being online to my stubborn attitude. I am one of the most competitive people that I know and I hate to lose. Even though this site has been three years in the making, I was bound and determined to succeed and get my idea out there.
I bought the domain name kentuckygolfing.com in 2005 and started to gather ideas for the site. I wanted the domain kentuckygolf.com but it was taken and after contacting the owner, they wanted something like $5,000 for it if memory serves me correctly, so I told them to keep it. Kentuckygolfing.com in my eyes was the next best thing to choose from the available domain names that I could think of. At the time was really into TextPattern and I actually started to developed the site using TextPattern. I was really hung up on getting the “perfect” design rather than just getting it online and tweaking as I went and after around four design changes, I started development. To make a very long story short, at the time I just couldn’t wrap my head around TextPattern enough to do what I wanted to do with the site and luckily for me I stumbled upon ExpressionEngine (EE) because it does everything that I’ve ever needed to do with a site and it’s intuitive enough for a someone like myself who has virtually no programming experience to develop an awesome site. The only problem from that point was all of my ideas. Instead of setting up a simple blog and maybe an image gallery to start, I wanted the whole package and I didn’t go live with the site until I had the whole package developed. Given the chance to do this over, I wouldn’t go this route and I definitely wouldn’t recommend this route to anyone looking to publish their own site. The main thing to keep in mind is to just get it online and out there for the world to see. You can build on it when it’s live and getting traffic. Don’t do it bas-akward like me! I’m actually starting development on my fourth site: logogala.com and I can guarantee you that I won’t make the same mistakes again.
So, after a few more design changes once making the switch to EE and three years later here we are, the site is finally online and I’m left wondering where the site could have been today had I just got it online then instead of now. It’s fun to speculate what could have been, but it’s live now and that’s all that matters. I have to continue to move forward and just see where it goes.
Thoughts?
If you have any thoughts on the site, good or bad, feel free to leave me a comment and let me know. I’ve had one person tell me already that the login section in the header is off in FireFox 3 on Mac and I’m looking into that.
If you’re in Kentucky and into golf, feel free to sign up for an account and visit the Kentucky Golfing Forums and spark up some conversations.
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Comments
Jeremy: Thanks a lot Jeremy, I appreciate that. Thanks for taking a look!
Posted on Wed Jun 25, 2008
Hi Deron, your new site looks really nice - it almost makes me want to start playing golf too 
I love the way how each part of the site seems to belong together (the blog, the gallery, the forum). Great job!
Posted on Thu Jun 26, 2008
Visited your new site. I liked the design and content too. ExpressionEngine was a good choice for it. I am sure that you are going to get some good followers. I love golf. Well, I am not from that area. Sorry for that.
All the best for your success.
Posted on Thu Jun 26, 2008
That looks so well done… gosh, the detail. I love it! Kickass job!
Posted on Thu Jun 26, 2008
Thanks Deron, that’s kind of what I’ve been thinking.
The ExpressionEngine CMS is so flexible, that you get to thinking…
“hey I can build a site that’s the whole enchilada” and “what do I want in my enchilada?”.
Meanwhile, there are certain mini portions of the site, that can just be put out there, and developing traffic –while you build the big-Mo’ site in the background.
Building on the image or brand as you go along.
When designing is a personal challenge that drives you, there’s sometimes nobody else to check with, and it’s better to launch and get some input on the live site.
Thanks for getting back with me then on some of the ideas for my subdomain site idea for a daily gallery, I’m already rethinking the layout and colors.
Unlimited subdomains from a webhost is so-o-oo awesome for dreaming up sites.
Posted on Thu Jun 26, 2008
Thanks everyone! I appreciate the kind words.
Sorry for the delay in this response… I guess I never got notified that anyone responded to this post.
Posted on Mon Sep 15, 2008
Hiya Deron,
Excellent that it is all up and running now. I remember when you were developing this and mentioning certain things on the ExpressionEngine forums.
Really great to see it all up and live in the flesh as it were.
One thing that I think is great is your choice of domain name. Personally I think that Kentucky Golfing flows an awful lot better than Kentucky Golf. Also Kentucky Golf makes me think of a fast food take-a-way!!!
Again, well done on a great looking site. Looking forward to what you do with the Logo Gala site. Are you going to perhaps place a sign-up form on the site so that people like me who are forgetful will get a nudge when it goes live 
Best wishes,
Mark
Posted on Thu Oct 23, 2008
Mark: Thanks for stopping by! Yeah, I’ve been developing Kentucky Golfing for a while now. Thankfully it’s online finally! I think I tried to simply do way too much to start with and should have kept it simple in the beginning and built upon a solid foundation rather than try to incorporate every bell and whistle in the initial launch, but I did and going forward I’ll learn from my mistakes hopefully.
Yeah I like the name too and think it flows nicely. I don’t get the relation to fast food though from Kentucky Golf? How did you come to that conclusion? I actually wanted Kentucky Golf initially but wasn’t about to give someone a few grand for it that they wanted.
As for the sign up form on LogoGala to notify everyone when it goes live. That’s actually something that I didn’t think about doing. What would you recommend for doing that? Just a simply contact form which sends me an email or is there a more efficient way to doing it so I can later contact everyone easily once it goes live?
Posted on Thu Oct 23, 2008
Hi Deron,
All depends on how you will contact people with newsletters and the like (if you are going to be doing that on the site that is?).
If you are using ExpressionEngine though perhaps just use the mailing list module very quickly on the site. That should do it for you and then people are already in the list when you come to use the Communicate module or however you want to do it.
Best wishes,
Mark
Posted on Sat Oct 25, 2008
Mark: Good point. I don’t anticipate having a newsletter once the site goes live, so using the mailing list module may be overkill for trying to gather a list of people who’d like to be notified when the site goes live. I think FreeForm might be best.
Thanks Mark
Posted on Sat Oct 25, 2008
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My name is Deron Sizemore and I am a web designer, web publisher, blogger and serial internet entrepreneur living in Lexington, Kentucky.
Great job on the KentuckyGolf site Deron! It looks sweet!
Posted on Wed Jun 25, 2008