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Ok, so a few things have been on my mind lately in regards to the site in general. So allow me to ramble a bit here.
First of all, thank you to each and every one of you who posts here. Thanks to everyone who shares a link on Facebook, who sends out a link on twitter or retweets a link on Twitter. Thanks to everyone who who has ever helped out around here, even the odd reviewer who has taken the screeners and ran for the hills (I won't name names so don't ask).
BIG THANKS to the people who do still churn out reviews here - I know sometimes I have to push you guys to hit deadlines and I know sometimes I have to kick things back for rewrites but that's the nature of the beast. On the internet, 'content is king' and we have a lot of content here. Your efforts have allowed me to update this site every damn day for over three years straight and I take a lot of pride in that not just because we are prolific but because I feel we do good work.
As far as the site in general goes, Amazon revenue does not pay the bills. I don't want to put ads up as long as I can keep paying the hosting fees out of pocket and I don't want to do a fundraiser because, without going into details, the last one I was involved with left a bad taste in my mouth. It's a minimal expense, really, but since people occasionally ask me how much money the site makes, I figured I'd bring it up - not much. haha. I'm not quitting my day job any time soon. But to anyone who uses the link, thank you. You're certainly not obligated to do so and I definitely understand why some people don't want to shop at Amazon but I appreciate the bits and pieces that come in and help keep the lights on around here.
Traffic - I get asked about this a lot too. It varies month to month but each year we've been seeing a definite increase over the year prior. That's a good thing. While I don't consider ourselves to be in competition with anyone there are a lot of sites out there that are bigger than this and there are a lot of sites out there that are more established than us and while we're getting bigger all the time, it's nice when the numbers speak to that. And they do. We're hardly doing big corporate site numbers but for a site that specializes in stuff out of the mainstream, we're doing well. Facebook has put a big dent in movie discussion boards all across the web and there are days when I see it quiet here and see it hopping over there and think about closing up the board and just doing the review thing on the main page - but then I think it over and realize I'd hate that. I like the interaction we have here. I really enjoy interacting with friends old and new - some of us go back well over a decade at this point and that's awesome when you think about it.
As far as growth opportunities go, I'd like to hear from you. There have been suggestions of a site related podcast in the past. Videocasts too. Stuff like that. I'm not sure I personally have the bandwidth to take that one but I wouldn't write it off under the write circumstances.
As far as main page/review content goes - are there any studios you'd like us to go after for coverage? Any comic companies you want to see covered? Record labels? Any interview suggestions or feature article ideas you might want to throw our way? Do it! Speak up! I'd sincerely appreciate any and all feedback from anyone who wants to offer it - I want to keep the site interesting to the people who want to read it.
It was a big decision leaving AV Maniacs when I did, and it was not an easy one for me to make. The politics of it don't matter at this point but the short version is that I needed to do something where I felt we could grow and I wasn't getting that there. I'm getting that here and I'd like to keep it going. Your feedback and/or suggestions would help with that.
And again, I thank you all - lurkers, posters, contributors and even the naysayers who chime up now and again. This site is a LOT of work but so long as I feel it's worth it and so long as people keep appreciating it, I'll gladly make sure it continues (and I don't see an end in sight any time soon).
First of all, thank you to each and every one of you who posts here. Thanks to everyone who shares a link on Facebook, who sends out a link on twitter or retweets a link on Twitter. Thanks to everyone who who has ever helped out around here, even the odd reviewer who has taken the screeners and ran for the hills (I won't name names so don't ask).
BIG THANKS to the people who do still churn out reviews here - I know sometimes I have to push you guys to hit deadlines and I know sometimes I have to kick things back for rewrites but that's the nature of the beast. On the internet, 'content is king' and we have a lot of content here. Your efforts have allowed me to update this site every damn day for over three years straight and I take a lot of pride in that not just because we are prolific but because I feel we do good work.
As far as the site in general goes, Amazon revenue does not pay the bills. I don't want to put ads up as long as I can keep paying the hosting fees out of pocket and I don't want to do a fundraiser because, without going into details, the last one I was involved with left a bad taste in my mouth. It's a minimal expense, really, but since people occasionally ask me how much money the site makes, I figured I'd bring it up - not much. haha. I'm not quitting my day job any time soon. But to anyone who uses the link, thank you. You're certainly not obligated to do so and I definitely understand why some people don't want to shop at Amazon but I appreciate the bits and pieces that come in and help keep the lights on around here.
Traffic - I get asked about this a lot too. It varies month to month but each year we've been seeing a definite increase over the year prior. That's a good thing. While I don't consider ourselves to be in competition with anyone there are a lot of sites out there that are bigger than this and there are a lot of sites out there that are more established than us and while we're getting bigger all the time, it's nice when the numbers speak to that. And they do. We're hardly doing big corporate site numbers but for a site that specializes in stuff out of the mainstream, we're doing well. Facebook has put a big dent in movie discussion boards all across the web and there are days when I see it quiet here and see it hopping over there and think about closing up the board and just doing the review thing on the main page - but then I think it over and realize I'd hate that. I like the interaction we have here. I really enjoy interacting with friends old and new - some of us go back well over a decade at this point and that's awesome when you think about it.
As far as growth opportunities go, I'd like to hear from you. There have been suggestions of a site related podcast in the past. Videocasts too. Stuff like that. I'm not sure I personally have the bandwidth to take that one but I wouldn't write it off under the write circumstances.
As far as main page/review content goes - are there any studios you'd like us to go after for coverage? Any comic companies you want to see covered? Record labels? Any interview suggestions or feature article ideas you might want to throw our way? Do it! Speak up! I'd sincerely appreciate any and all feedback from anyone who wants to offer it - I want to keep the site interesting to the people who want to read it.
It was a big decision leaving AV Maniacs when I did, and it was not an easy one for me to make. The politics of it don't matter at this point but the short version is that I needed to do something where I felt we could grow and I wasn't getting that there. I'm getting that here and I'd like to keep it going. Your feedback and/or suggestions would help with that.
And again, I thank you all - lurkers, posters, contributors and even the naysayers who chime up now and again. This site is a LOT of work but so long as I feel it's worth it and so long as people keep appreciating it, I'll gladly make sure it continues (and I don't see an end in sight any time soon).
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