Heimwerker.de – Just do it.
Development and support of the first German online DIY market portal
In the 1990s, Marketing Factory began with the conception, creation, editorial support and marketing of the first German online DIY portal.
Over the course of its 20-year lifespan, the portal underwent various relaunches and a switch to responsive web design, as well as the implementation of the Heimwerker.de app.
The content portal was maintained and expanded with its own in-house editorial team and quickly established itself as one of the leading and highest-traffic portals in the DIY/construction market sector in Germany.
Project duration | 1996–2016 |
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Project Details
Content, Marketing & Monetization of the Portal
Monetization was almost exclusively through online advertising revenue and affiliate commissions. Therefore, a high visibility of the content in search engines was a basic requirement for success. For the latter, we relied on a combination of a search engine friendly content management system and web server.
High quality content was made possible by our own in-house content editorial team, which had previous experience in creating high-quality guidebook content and preparing the content in a way that was suitable for search engines. We relied on joint development of user-relevant content with manufacturers and advertising partners (e.g. authentic DIY tests by real experts). The focus was also on tailoring the content to particularly sales-promoting advertising placements.
By strongly involving users via community offerings (such as the DIY forum or special participatory activities) and social media channels, large amounts of valuable user-generated content were generated.
Technical features of the Heimwerker Portal
Since a large proportion of visitors to the DIY portal came to the website via mobile devices, a responsive web design (incl. variable ad slots) was introduced and implemented relatively early on. Furthermore, a dedicated hybrid app for iOS (Heimwerker.de app) with content dynamically generated from the CMS content was developed and published.
Meaningful images are essential for illustrated step-by-step instructions and guide texts. For the correct maintenance and output of all copyright-relevant information, Marketing Factory developed an individual image credit extension for the automatic output of copyright-correct image credits for photos from heterogeneous sources.
Furthermore, individual extensions were designed for the following use cases:
- Extension for the targeted and automatic placement of extremely well-fitting affiate products for Amazon and partner stores of our e-commerce customers.
- Extension "Most read articles" with daily updated data from the Google Analytics interface
Marketing Factory set up and operated its own ad server to market the various advertising spaces.
The benefits of having your own successful content portal as a digital agency:
- Steady passive income through revenue from online advertising and affiliate programs.
- Flexible work on your own portal for optimal utilization of the online editorial team between customer load peaks.
- Gain valuable own experience in CMS, SEO and content marketing without having to wait for a suitable client project.