idibidi Interview Name of your website?idibidi Your name? Chris Your Location (city, etc) London Please give us a short summary of your website? The idibidi mobile website directory contains links to high quality mobile websites which have been designed for use on mobile phones. Users who register for an account can bookmark sites in the directory and then access them directly from their mobile phone at idibidi.mobi.~~ What inspired you to launch your own website? As an experienced IT professional with a self-confessed addiction to gadgets it seemed the only sensible choice. I also feel that the current crop of mobile website directories contain a lot of junk which, compounded with the difficulties experienced when trying to search the mobile internet, make it difficult to find great mobile content. When did you launch your first website, and what was it? I first launched QuiText in 2007 but it is no longer active. The website provided text message support to people quitting smoking as I am an ex-smoker. I stopped the project after one year due to lack of interest on the net. It was my first website launch and I learned a lot - primarily that traffic is very hard to get!!! :-) How did you decide on a name for your website? Finding a domain name is hard!!! I was lucky to come across idibidi as fits in well with the concept of a small, mobile internet. It also has a kind of symmetry about it which is pleasing to the eye. What makes your website different from other, similar offerings? idibidi doesn't list junk. All directory entries are checked on modern mobile handsets to ensure they display well. Also, we look for great, useful content which remains in mobile format. E.g. We don't list mobile sites which, after a couple of clicks, take you to the full size version of the website. What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?) To become the number one mobile website directory on the internet and have lots of happy customers. How does your investment of time and money balance against your success? Quite well, although my wife may disagree. I built idibidi on my own, in my own spare time. Capital outlay has been negligable and running costs are very small. If I charged myself for my time however, I would be thousands of dollars in deby. If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site? The idibidi concept has been designed around easy maintenance but I would invest tools to find and list mobile websites. I would also invest in a greater internet presence such as full time blogging or more traditional online marketing. If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand? Sure. This site has been tested to be scalable (several hundred hits a second - I wish!) and maintaining the listings and accounts is relatively simply as this can be done remotely and from mobile devices. What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with? Trying to run a sophisticated website with reduced security privileges caused an almost complete re-write of the code when I first installed it on my webhost provider. That wasn't too great. What has been your biggest challenge? Time. I work full time and have young kids. The site has been created primarily when commuting but also some long evenings and weekends have been sacrificed. What method has been most successful for promoting your website? So far stumbleupon is driving some great traffic and we are working our way slowly up the google search results. We've only been launched for a few weeks but we're already on page one of google for "mobile website directory". How has running your website differed from your expectations? It hasn't really. I understand the amount of effort it takes to create a new website and the maintenance of it can be done remotely anytime from either a desktop PC or mobile phone. 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? The site launched in August this year. I imaging I will keep it going for at least a few years even if things don't grow as planned because a) I enjoy running it and finding mobile content and b) It helps keep my IT skills fresh! Why do you do it? It's just a great feeling to have created something which other people think is worth while. What is your website address? idibidi | 
