Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 12:13 am Post subject: Running Web Ads
I've always had a problem with my website. Even though I can generate over 8,000 hits in 36 hours, I can't get anyone to stay and post.
Here are some fun stats:
Posts per day: 4.57
Topics per day: 0.79
Current RSS subscribers: 19
And yet, the website is basically dead. My posts account for 32.60% of the total.
Whenever i get around to posting something interesting, i can usually manage to get it on "big time" sites like Kotaku and Slashdot. The problem is, people discuss the item on their site and never bother to post on mine. All i'm really doing is giving free content and things for their readers to discuss, usually at a cost of hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for myself. I don't really begrudge them for it, it's the way of the web. If i were angry about it, i'd just stop doing it.
Between the hosting, the domain registration, and various other server related costs, i pay about $350 a year to run my site. I've always been against ads on my own site because this is really a hobby for me, not a business. If i can't afford $20 a month, then gaming is a poor choice in activities.
36 hours ago i posted the design documents for an un-announced Fallout game. Since then, that thread has generated 8300 "unique" hits. A couple of mid-sized gaming sites picked up on it, and i figure a few more will probably see it over the next week.
So i figure if i'm spending all this money, and i can generate this kind of traffic, even if nobody posts on my site anymore, i should at least be able to make some money off of it. So I added google ads to the page. At the rate i'm currently at, by this time next year i should have made exactly $0.00
I don't really know where i'm going with this; like i said before, if it actually bothered me i'd just stop doing it. Just commenting on the realities, i guess.
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 327 Location: Henderson, NV
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:46 am Post subject:
Google's ads take a while to build up.
I would recommend encouraging them to download somehow; perhaps a notice on the board header announcing ways to contribute to discussions?
And yeah, I've experienced the same with a YouTube video -- all the comments are on the sites that post it and not my actual video. That's honestly the one thing about blogs that kind of annoys me ... the dicussions are always in that particular site, so to see the majority of opinions on something you have to do a lot of hunting. Very annoying.
Ha, that is one of the reasons I kind of keep my own website on the down-low. I don't care if people even come to see it, it is just a hobby of mine. If someone stops by and comments about how much they like my site, I feel great, but I don't go about advertising or anything.
Joined: 26 Aug 2003 Posts: 4192 Location: Oakland, CA
Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:27 pm Post subject:
Maybe you shouldn't have web forums then, maybe your site should be a blog with open commenting. As much as I like you and appreciate the stuff you share, I'm not going to register on an unpopulated forum to say thanks.
No, and i wouldn't expect you to. Which is why i renamed and redesigned the site.
At one point i had about 30 active members out of 275 registered. I figure if i keep putting up interesting content, then send out a mass email to everyone who's registered to inform them of the site's "relaunch", i could probably get 20-25 of them back.
When my site was dead for 6 months, i was still getting 200-250 unique visitors. Generally from google searches or residual outside links. And that's not including search bots.
Since Wednesday i've pulled in almost 20,000 unique visitors, mostly through the fallout doc i posted and republicizing old content (starcraft ghost is still popular).
I guess through my rambling i figured out what i was trying to ask in the first place. The reason places like slashdot should make money off my content is *because* they can drive traffic. Once i have the traffic, it's up to me to put up content interesting enough to check my site as it's own destination, instead of being directed there by someone else.
Sad thing is, i've been doing webdesign for 12 years now, and tonight is the first time i've really figured out how it works...
Joined: 20 Jul 2007 Posts: 4 Location: Glendale, CA
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:54 pm Post subject:
Well, I used to visit GH rather regularly, but I usually only post on forums when I have something relevant to add or wish to express thanks (or something similar). I think the last time I was posting regularly on GH was while I was trying to get my Sophia functional, haven't had any project systems since then... As for how to get people to stick around, I'm not sure, but I think that mass e-mail idea and regular articles like you've started posting will get most of the "old regulars" back.
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