Ask the Expert – Maintaining Multiple Websites with Nick La
Ask the Expert is a weekly series here on Design Informer. Maintaining multiple websites is the theme for this week. Nick La is this week’s expert.
Nick La is a Toronto based freelance illustrator and web designer. His main focuses are designing stock icons, illustrations, and beautiful CSS websites. Nick’s work has been featured in many online portals and design publications such as: Computer Arts, Web Designer Magazine, Practical Web Design (.Net magazine), DIGIT, and Web Design Index.
Maintaining Multiple Websites
What are the different websites that you maintain?
I run the following sites:
- N.Design Studio
my portfolio site - IconDock
my stock icon shop - Best Web Gallery
I feature the best design sites - Web Designer Wall
blog about design trends
and tutorials - Jobs on the Wall
job board for designers
5 different websites. That sounds like a lot of work. How much time every week do you spend maintaining these websites?
About 50 to 60 hours per week.
Can you give us some insight on your typical work day?
My typical work day: check emails first after I get up, feed and walk my dogs, go to Starbucks or tea shops to work, come home at night, take a break for dinner and TV, then browse or read blogs at late night.. pretty much it. I don’t work at home nor the office. I like to hop around and work at different locations. I find it very refreshing and inspiring because I’m constantly in different environments and see different people.
Do you have a schedule that you follow, or do you just work on whatever you feel like?
No, I don’t have a fixed schedule. My schedule is very flexible, so I guess you can say I work on whatever I feel like. However, I do have deadlines and goals that I set for myself.
What are some of the main distractions that you have when working on these different websites?
The main distractions are: TV, Internet, my dogs, Twitter, and email notifications.
How do you eliminate or minimize these distractions?
To eliminate distractions, I get out the house and turn off my WiFi when I need to focus.
Are there any benefits to running all your sites separate vs. just combining them all into one really big website?
I can’t really combine my sites together because each one serves a different purpose (ie. IconDock is for icons, Web Designer Wall is for design related articles, and Jobs on the Wall is for design jobs). I find it is easier to manage and market because each site has its unique target.
Out of all your different websites, which do you spend the most time working on?
I spend the most time on Web Designer Wall.
What one advice would you give someone who wants to expand their business by building and maintaining multiple websites?
Before you build another site, make sure it will serve different purposes and you will have time to manage it. Otherwise, just focus on the existing one.
Are all your websites hosted on the same server?
Yes, all my sites are hosted on the same server.
Conclusion
I just want to thank Nick for doing this interview. If you plan on running multiple websites, then you definitely need to follow Nick’s advice.
The next topic will be about creating large scale sites with WordPress. We have a very talented developer that has worked on some really big projects. I don’t want to give out too much details yet, so please stay tuned. You can follow me on Twitter and subscribe to the RSS feed here.
Jacques//An1ken
November 25th, 2009 2:19 pmReally great and inspiring interview. Especially the hands on feedback for managing a few sites at a time.
Thanks for the article.
Jacques
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Jason Bobich
November 25th, 2009 2:47 pmI found this to be surprisingly inspiring… the dream living is possible :) .. by the way, huge fan of Web Designer Wall
twe4ked
November 25th, 2009 3:51 pm50-60 hours a week! wow :)
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Kawsar Ali
November 25th, 2009 10:11 pmNick is da man! his work is just amazing
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texturezine
November 26th, 2009 2:16 amvery nice post. Great jobs Nick La. Thanks!
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Jad Limcaco
November 26th, 2009 4:24 am@Jacques – You’re welcome! Keep up the great work on Creative Overflow!
@Jason – I’m also a huge fan. His illustrations are great.
@twe4ked – Yes, that just shows you how dedicated Nick La is to his work.
@Kawsar Ali – Agreed :)
@texturezine – Yes, it was very kind of Nick to do the interview. BTW, you got some pretty nice textures on your blog. Just keep pumping out more great textures!
swarnaw
November 26th, 2009 4:56 amthanks admin
Rob Cubbon
November 26th, 2009 6:59 pmI’m huge fan of Nick La and I’ve been visiting most of those sites for ages. Interesting to get a glimpse into his work week. I’ve recently turned off the alert for incoming email and I’ve found it helps me concentrate better! I wonder if Nick does that.
.-= Rob Cubbon´s latest Blog Entry – First thoughts on the 4 Hour Workweek =-.
mr. tunes
November 26th, 2009 8:31 pmthank you for this advice. i am currently struggling because i have a normal music site where i release songs and podcasts, but i am working on another concept where i talk directly to other artists and DJs with tutorial videos. one instinct is to combine them into one, but another is to keep them separated cause the tutorials aren’t for the average person.
Designing Studios
November 27th, 2009 9:40 amreally great & simple the way he is, the work he does i like him… u ROK…
Thanks & Regards,
Designing Studios
Soh Tanaka
November 27th, 2009 11:09 amAwesome interview :-)
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Jad Limcaco
November 27th, 2009 3:55 pm@Rob Cubbon – I tried doing that before, but it just doesn’t work for me, but I have heard a lot of people who only check email once a day, some, like Tim Ferriss (4 Hour Workweek) check it even less than that.
@mr. tunes – I’m glad that you found the advice useful.
@Soh – Get ready, cause you’re interview is coming soon!
Andrew Brinker
November 27th, 2009 11:38 pmShort, sweet, and to the point. If anything though, I would have liked a bit of information about where you should be in the development of one site before moving on. This can be definitely be seen as a personal choice, just based on your capacity to sustain a new site, but hearing his thoughts on it would have been nice.
Good article though, nice insight.
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Jad Limcaco
November 28th, 2009 3:41 am@Andrew – Good point! I would like to know that as well. I should have asked that question. Like you said, it’s all a personal choice, but for me, I think that you shouldn’t start a new site until your current one is already developed and to the point where you don’t have to spend too much time on it.
On the other hand, I have read elsewhere that you should start a site to see if it works right away, and if it doesn’t, then just kill it and move on to another website project.
Em
November 28th, 2009 12:46 pmGreat interview! I was quite surprised to learn that you work in public places. That must be interesting.
Jad Limcaco
November 28th, 2009 6:54 pm@Em – Yeah, I was surprised as well. I don’t think I can do it, but I guess it works for Nick!
Min Kim
November 30th, 2009 9:58 amAwesome!
Big fan of Nick’s work
Jad Limcaco
November 30th, 2009 11:53 pm@Min – Yes, he does have a lot of fans and you’re one of them. BTW, nice site!
Ted Goas
December 2nd, 2009 7:54 amGreat advice! I will try doing his more often. I also like your idea of floating around coffee shops. Every try a library or something like that?
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Dani
December 3rd, 2009 1:47 pmWow never realized he spent that much time managing all those sites. Hes got amazing talent, hes one of my favorite designers to follow on Twitter. Thanks for writing this article it was very informative :)
Jad Limcaco
December 3rd, 2009 2:21 pm@Ted – Thanks for reading the article. I myself have tried to work at coffee shops, but I just couldn’t seem to do it. Plus my laptop broke. :(
@Dani – You’re welcome! Make sure you check back often for more of the “Ask the Expert” series.
MexiChriS
December 3rd, 2009 6:41 pmI love Nicks work & personally check up regularly, on the daily to be honest, on his sites. Great feature post!
- MexiChriS
Jad Limcaco
December 21st, 2009 1:51 pmI’m thrilled that you enjoyed the post Chris. I’m also an avid follower of Nick La.