I wanted to get an idea of the things that worked and didnt work in 2008 and start making the changes to the site for 2009.
In 2008 we saw a massive down turn in the hits and usage of the front-end of the site, which is to me a terrible terrible thing, for the mere fact it makes the site completely lose income, this is simply because sponsors don't want forum traffic, they find it returns very little.
I want to find the reasons for this and also find out what other parts of the site worked and didn't work. Get an idea of what you would like to see going forward and any ideas for 2009.
I am also hoping I can try and get some sponsorship for the site in 2009 so if you have any contacts or businesses that may be interested, please put them in contact with me.
I am also hoping for some sponsorship of the tipping competition and am hoping to offer a prize for the tipping comp this year, so am wondering whether anyone woul dbe interested in an entrance fee that goes towards a prize, or if there is anyone out there that can offer some sort of prize for the site. I just don't have the means for it unfortunately and the site runs at a loss, so can't pour more money into it than I do, unless we gain sponsorship (don't worry the site isn't going anywhere, it's way too much of a passion for me these days).
One thing I know that effected people posting news to the site and contributing in that manner was the fact that you needed to login twice to post news. This is going to be changed within the next week or so and you will only need to login once and authenticate.
I am going to put a slight ban on having news posted directly to the forums, but am working on some code, that when you post a news article to the front page (and it is approved by a publisher [i need some volunteers ] the site will automatically make a forum post by the user who posted the news, and will link to the news article, with the first part of the article in the news post. This will provide more traffic to the front page of the site, and will also allow for discussion of the article itself.
In 2009 off the back of our success last year I am hoping more people will come forward wanting to help out with the site, whether that be with news posting, editing, publishing, moderating, Unique article creation and whatever else they can think of that will add to this great site and make it interesting for all.
I plan to re-intoroduce the slightly archaic but always popular scrolling headlines at the top of the page, and will be cleaning up the site a little by removing some of the menu's so more can be seen and done.
All your suggestions, assistance, ideas and feedback are welcome and I look forward to it.
Regards
Dan
In 2008 we saw a massive down turn in the hits and usage of the front-end of the site, which is to me a terrible terrible thing, for the mere fact it makes the site completely lose income, this is simply because sponsors don't want forum traffic, they find it returns very little.
I want to find the reasons for this and also find out what other parts of the site worked and didn't work. Get an idea of what you would like to see going forward and any ideas for 2009.
I am also hoping I can try and get some sponsorship for the site in 2009 so if you have any contacts or businesses that may be interested, please put them in contact with me.
I am also hoping for some sponsorship of the tipping competition and am hoping to offer a prize for the tipping comp this year, so am wondering whether anyone woul dbe interested in an entrance fee that goes towards a prize, or if there is anyone out there that can offer some sort of prize for the site. I just don't have the means for it unfortunately and the site runs at a loss, so can't pour more money into it than I do, unless we gain sponsorship (don't worry the site isn't going anywhere, it's way too much of a passion for me these days).
One thing I know that effected people posting news to the site and contributing in that manner was the fact that you needed to login twice to post news. This is going to be changed within the next week or so and you will only need to login once and authenticate.
I am going to put a slight ban on having news posted directly to the forums, but am working on some code, that when you post a news article to the front page (and it is approved by a publisher [i need some volunteers ] the site will automatically make a forum post by the user who posted the news, and will link to the news article, with the first part of the article in the news post. This will provide more traffic to the front page of the site, and will also allow for discussion of the article itself.
In 2009 off the back of our success last year I am hoping more people will come forward wanting to help out with the site, whether that be with news posting, editing, publishing, moderating, Unique article creation and whatever else they can think of that will add to this great site and make it interesting for all.
I plan to re-intoroduce the slightly archaic but always popular scrolling headlines at the top of the page, and will be cleaning up the site a little by removing some of the menu's so more can be seen and done.
All your suggestions, assistance, ideas and feedback are welcome and I look forward to it.
Regards
Dan