I wanted a way to keep track of how much time I spent on the computer working on different things. To this end I began to use a program called Wakoopa. This is a cool program that tracks what programs your using and for what times. I really liked the program but it wasn’t playing well with a program I like even more called Digsby. Wakoopa kept crashing on me and it appears that the problem is with my laptop somewhere as no one else seems to have the same issues I do.

Not really wanting to take the time to troubleshoot I switched to another tracking program called Rescue Time. I like this program even better because instead of just reporting that I’m using “firefox”, it reports what web pages I’m actually visiting. When you spend as much time online as I do this is a huge added benefit.

All of this is just way to complain about how much time I lost this last week because my job got in the way of my site work. I went from being able to spend 14 hours on site development two weeks ago to only 4 hours last week. Fortunately it looks like I’ll be able to ramp up a bit more time this week which should put us into the final stages of development.

As the time to launch draws nearer my excitement is building. It’s about time to start collecting reviews so be on the look out for an announcement later this week.

As you can see from Tom’s post below, we have a logo.

Tom is working on designing the site, I’m drumming up interest and looking into advertising. OpenX is looks like something I’d like to try, but I’m not sure how it works exactly. I’ll be taking a longer look at it tonight.

Also, I’m going to create a banner logo for others to post in their blogs to help us advertise the launch. We hope all of our blogger friends will pump it occasionally for us.

We are still looking for investors, advertisers, etc. If you are interested, please let us know!

Until then, make mine PTR!

You may want to note the countdown clock at the right. That represents how many days there are until “The Launch”.

Tom worked very hard to make that. It looks great, Tom!

Judge Ito Sidebar: He might sell give you the code for that, if you are interested.

Here is the first draft of the site’s Landing Page.  I’m pleased with it myself but we’ll see what kind of reaction I get.

Next up is the category layout page.  Fortunately this will be universal for all categories so I don’t need to have them nailed down 100% yet.

I’ve been spending some time learning more about Google Sites. Were using that for our intranet and I’m liking it so far.  It’s easy to add sites to serve as project pages and you certainly can’t beat the cost.

I’m also going to work on adding some sidebar content to this blog detailing what software were using so far in the development process.  Nothing out of the ordinary but I want to keep everyone updated on the process.

Let me know what you think of the layout.

First off I want to welcome Michael “EasyCure” Preedin to the Poker Tech Reviews family. Michael is taking over the role of Director of Marketing and Sales. I look forward to his valuable contributions as we grow this business from idea to a flourishing contributor in the poker community. Michael will begin posting here as things continue to develop so I invite you to stay tuned for his updates.

If you’ve read over our plan so far and found that this is something you want to support, and/or become directly involved in, I encourage you to contact us. We’ll need Writer’s, Designer’s (Graphic and Web), Editor, and many other useful skill sets. Investment opportunities are available as well.

There is still much to be done, and with the right group of dedicated people we will succeed.

Revenue generation will be accomplished through the use of advertising space.  The initial plan is to have a launch sponsor(s) on board who will have all of the advertising space located on the landing page.  Reviews deemed the most popular via page hits will have ads populated by an advertising program.  The remaining pages will feature Google adsense banners.  This strategy will be reassessed based on contractual expirations and performance factors.  In order to generate revenue during the development phase of the site standard blog advertising will be sought.

The Workflow or Operating Procedure for the business represents how we get things done.  The tools that will be in use may change from time to time but consistency in the chain of events should leave everyone with a defined set of goals.

Review Submission

A good submission will break down the software application using the categories previously laid out.

• User Interface presentation
• Usability
• Features
• Ability of the program to meet intended goals

Included with this breakdown should be screenshots of the application in use.  A rating based on the Four Aces system needs to be submitted for each of the assigned categories.  The website associated with the application as well as contact information for the developer needs to be attached to the review.

Editing

Once submitted the review moves through the Editorial Process.  Each article needs to be checked for completeness.  If it does not contain all of the required information it is returned to the writer for follow up.  If it contains all necessary information it is then edited for presentation.  This includes checks for spelling, grammar, and punctuation.  Once the review has been polished it is submitted for approval.

Approval

The Publisher considers the review for acceptance within the site.  This is subjective based on the writing quality and appeal to the target audience.  The review may go through a verification process at this time or be sent back for clarification if needed.  If the review is accepted for publishing the software developer is contacted and made aware of the submission.  The developer is also given the opportunity to display a graphic representative of the overall score if the rating is above average or excellent.  The review is then submitted for publishing.

Publishing

In this final stage the review is laid out graphically for distribution to the website and uploaded.

Marketing a small business can often be more of an art than a science. Some of the factors involved include target market, goals, strategy, and budget. In order to mesh these out here is the preliminary Marketing Plan for PokerTech Reveiws.

Target Market

The initial target market is the online poker player. This segment is represented by a wide swath of people but the core target group is represented as white males, in their early twenties, with disposable income. This will be the easiest target group for initial contact and expansion encompassing the gambit of serious players will follow afterwards.

Goals

To generate 100,000 page views per month within the first three months. Within one year the page views should expand to 700,000 per month. Page views should be at 1,000,000 per month within 18 months.

Strategy

Utilize the network of poker bloggers through mention of site within posts. Banner ads promoting the site through select bloggers sites. Mention on various poker forums through means which are within the posting guidelines of the individual forums. Placing of “Review Graphics” (a graphic representing the rating given by PokerTech Reviews) at sites which have had products reviewed by PokerTech Reviews.

Budget

In keeping with the No Cost philosophy their will be no budget for marketing. The niche market nature should lend itself to intense viral marketing. The nature of which negates any need for an initial marketing budget.

That’s a little misleading.  This is not a true “No Cost” startup.  What the statement represents is the belief that where money can be saved, it should.  The philosophical approach applied is that if something can be accomplished at no cost, with the end result being the same as a paid approach, then the no cost solution should be used.  Factors including time investment and learning curve will be taken in to account when applied to a solution.  The reasoning for this philosophy is to make the business as mobile and profitable as possible.

Operationally the costs have been minimal to this point and a new expense tracker has been located in the sidebar.  By clicking on the dollar amount a breakdown of current expenses will be listed.  At this stage the breakdown covers the cost of domain registration and hosting services.  Man hours will not be tracked because the value of time invested correlates to future revenue earned.

The core description of the business was covered here. To borrow from that post:

This will be a poker software and hardware review site titled PokerTechReviews.com. The site will provide reviews and ratings of online poker add-on’s, tools, and the online site’s software. It will also include reviews of the hardware players use to compete online. This will include monitors, computer hardware, chairs, and even desks. Eventually I plan on expanding to the technology behind brick and mortar casinos featuring computerized tables, RFID chips, and whatever else the future holds. Software reviews will be the primary focus on launch but I do plan to expand as quickly as possible into the hardware reviews.

Site Reviews

This will be a scoring based review system. The system will be represented by four(4) Aces.

• One Ace is below average
• Two Aces is average
• Three Aces is above average
• Four Aces is excellent

The four ace system was chosen for it’s ease of recognition and understanding. To determine an overall rating for the program or product an average score of select individual criteria will be done. In the case of software reviews the criteria will be in these select categories:

• User Interface presentation
• Usability
• Features
• Ability of the program to meet intended goals

Reader Reviews

Through the use of the comment system a reader will be able to render their own rating of a program or product. This will also be a four(4) Aces system. Unlike the Site Reviews this will solely be an overall rating. Users will not have access to individual criteria ratings. The average Reader Rating will be displayed along with the Site Rating.

Previews

For upcoming programs that are deemed of high interest to the community a preview of the program will be done. This will be completed with the help of the developer unless the program is in public beta. In this case a preview may not include developer input. Previews will not be rated since by nature this program will not necessarily represent the final release.

Interviews

Along with select reviews and previews their may also be an interview with the software developer(s).

Site Design

Development environment is still to be determined. When developed the site should be intuitive to use. Posting of reviews by writers should be easy to accomplish without any intervention or help from others. Maintenance of comments and addition of site features should be done without need for outside developers.