The World of Joel Szerlip » Movie-Stop

The Temporary Closure of Movie-Stop

Joel — Wed, 30 May 2007 13:55:39 +0000

It was around three to four months ago I opened up Movie-Stop a website that I had in development for a few months before hand, and had it in mind for years now. The site started out well increasing in visitors daily and even reviewing a few movies from some small indie studios. However I have come to the conclusion that maintaining that large of a score of a website with any degree of success with only two people on staff was just not going to happen, it was just far to much upkeep and not enough momentum going forward. Its a shame to have to come to this but with the growing time constraints of school and my job maintaining that vast of a scope of a website just doesn't seem possible. So in the coming weeks I will be working on ways to shrink down the site a bit without taking away its flavor and its appeal. Any ideas or feedback would be great, but if not get ready to enjoy a much more efficent Movie-Stop.net!

Moving to a New Server

Joel — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:34:42 +0000

In the process of working on revamping a lot of my own websites I have officially opened an account with HostMonster.com a rather reasonable hosting company that should do the trick for my upcoming and current sites. From what I can see thus far I have quite a bit of confidence in them as a host and I hope to see 100% uptime from them, unlike my last hosts. I am planning to move this blog to those servers in the near future, possibly this weekend. I am a little nervous about doing it but it should be good to get on a much faster and more reliable server. I already have my brother Jake's blog (FullofJake.com) hosted on my server space as well as some of my new TV sites that I will be working on once summer rolls around. So far I have been impressed with HostMonster's customer support who have already helped me with a few of my own questions. I'll let you know how it goes, plus I got a free domain with signup, gotta love that!

Future Projects Unsure, Options Available

Joel — Wed, 23 May 2007 23:27:39 +0000

My biggest problem in developing websites is that I start with an idea, and that idea multiplies in so many different ways that the final product isn't usually what I had intended, or it is and its to complex. Thus is the problem I am having with Movie-Stop.net right now. The site itself is doing well, but I fear that the site is to complex and to many ideas and not enough follow through. My fear is that what wanted to be a "movie site" has become far to much and thus the initial idea was to broad. I am working on cutting back a bit, focusing on what I enjoy which is more the news and reviews aspect. So I am thinking of switching the site to a more "blog" style format which would leave more room for personalization and reviews. This would take out the need for movie pages for each movie and such which takes up the majority of my time working on the site.

Moving forward that is my concept and idea that I am wrestling with and one that I will be working on in the coming weeks/months. As for new projects, this should come as no secret, I love TV, and thus I have some fan site ideas that are going to be for some of the big TV shows on already and new to this fall. More information will come on that later, but I think these are the type of projects that I will start to undertake, rather then putting in the crazy man hours of more complex websites.

DVD’s I am looking To Purchase

Joel — Wed, 09 May 2007 02:58:29 +0000

Well Jenn and I even before Movie-Stop.net have tried to build up our DVD library so when we get married we have an extremely elusive and impressive collection. I recently purchased Rocky Balboa and Casino Royale and have some movies I am looking to add to the collection. So right now I am searching eBay and Half.com for the best deals. Here are some of the movies I want to buy that are out now or will be sometime this year:

- The Office Season 3
- Jericho Season 1
- Heroes Season 1
- The Pursuit of Happyness
- Blood Diamond
- The Prestige
- Batman Begins
- World Trade Center
- The Godfather Trilogy
- Greatest Game Ever Played
- Breach
- Antitrust

Back from the Desert. Back in Action.

Joel — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 23:47:56 +0000

Well we got back last night from Indian Wells where we had a few days of fun in the sun. The tournament itself has undergone a few changes some for the good and others not so much. Whatever the case is the whole experience was a lot of fun and lets just say I got a nice deal of sun which is always a good thing. Anyways let's talk about some upcoming things that we are going to be going through here in the World of Joel.

First off I have two weeks left in my first quarter here at UCI and let me just say I have learned a lot about taking classes here at UCI and I know that this is just not one of those schools that I can just make my way through. This quarter has been the most stressful and frustrating quarters I have experienced and I am just going to go at the Spring Quarter with as much diligence and determination that I can possibly give the quarter.

Movie-Stop.net is continuing to go forward with more and more hits each and everyday. We have brought a new writer to the realm. He is a guy who I have worked with on past projects including my Radio Show, he is Kaleb Schwecke and will hopefully help continue to add content on the website and take us to the next level. Speaking of Movie-Stop we are continuing to go in the right direction I feel with more and more content and news that is updated daily. Any comments or recommendations would be appreciated.

Goals for Movie-Stop.net Over the Next 6-8 Months

Joel — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:07:24 +0000

So we are a few weeks into the launch of Movie-Stop.net and already we are making great strides forward. First off over half of our 25+ visitors a day are coming from Google which is a good thing, and that is without really any optimization of search engine submission. Secondly our updates have been as consistent as possible with news everyday and reviews coming in every other day. I do want to start getting more "in theater" reviews however the cost of going to see movies these days doesn't warrant it as easily. Some goals however for the site are as follows:

- Create Some RSS Feeds for the News, Reviews, and Coming Soon
- Message boards would help with bringing more of a community feel
- Update design to make a bit more flashy and interactive, the current design I am happy with but could use some spicing up.
- Hire one more writer
- Start to contact movie Public Relations contacts and start receiving movies for review
- Have a few Giveaways
- Increase unique visitors to the triple digits by May 2007.
- Continue to upgrade the CMS with more options and better unification.
- Start doing some advertising on various websites.
- Get my first check from Google!
If you have any recommendations on the website please let me know as all help would be greatly appreciated!

First Week of Movie-Stop.net

Joel — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 12:30:05 +0000

So I have been going at Movie-Stop.net for the whole first week and so far so good. We have had some good comments from our piers and have been doing pretty good with content. I have posted a minimum of one news post per day except for one, and have been able to post a total of 6 reviews with a few still waiting to be posted. The traffic coming in has been up and down and I hope to see a steady increase this week.

We actually already got our first two movies for review as well which is a good sign, unfortunately they were Anime movies so nothing major yet. I am using Netflix to supply the rest of our review content as well as just going to see movies. So, so far so good with the site. Jake and I have been consistent with reviews and news posting and if we can keep a good rhythm going for the next few weeks we should be on our way!

Movie-Stop.net Has Launched! Check it Out!

Joel — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 02:29:22 +0000

Hey all faithful readers of WorldofJoel.com, my new project has finally launched and I have to say I am very excited about it! The website is Movie-Stop.net and I have put a lot of work into making a great movie website. The website includes news, both movie reviews for DVD's and movies that are currently in theater, as well as information about movies that are going to be coming soon. Please tell me what you think of the website and any suggestions you may have. I will continue to update you on the status of the website as news comes about! Enjoy the website!