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albummaster
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  • #1
  • Posted: 08/30/2007 11:30
  • Post subject: Hi all
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Traffic's a bit slow at the moment, I think because of summer. Just wondered if anyone had any ideas for new features they'd like to see on the site to help the site be more popular? I was thinking maybe some sort of tagging system so that you could run a chart for a certain tag e.g. tag an album with jazz, rock etc to see the top albums in each genre. Any other ideas are welcome...
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bc1991





  • #2
  • Posted: 08/31/2007 20:51
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Albummaster:

I like that tagging sytem idea of yours. I don't have any good ideas right now, but I'll think something that might help. I love this place, I think there's a really good interaction between the site and the user, but yes, traffic has been a little slow lately.

Maybe something it could help it out a little more, is the visual aspect of the site. Maybe a different banner, althoug the current one is not bad, but it is very minimalistic, so maybe needs something more eye-dropping. This is my opinion, so it would be good to know what Yellowbook, 111th Beatle, Afterhours and Mr. Shankly think of this, as they are regular users too.

But I think it is an excellent job on this site so far, and thank albummaster you for your time given on it.
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AfterHours



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Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

  • #3
  • Posted: 08/31/2007 23:52
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I think a great way to increase the popularity of the site immensely would be to add a "best songs" category and a "best films" category with the same tools and lists you provide for "best albums". Perhaps, later on, you could even add "best novels" and "best paintings", etc. Of course, the only problem from here on would be to change the title to something that covers those categories--but doing this would be worth increasing the traffic that would come from adding those categories.

Additionally, I work for a company called NetBiz (see www.netbiz.com). Through a business relationship we have with Google, we specialize in placing websites on the 1st page of Google under one or more relevant searches (meaning, we research the search phrase beforehand to ensure it's getting traffic and then price it based on the results). As you probably know, being on the 1st page of Google searches is a proven way to increase your exposure and attract attention to your site. It starts at just $50 per month, on a month to month agreement--meaning you're not locked into a contract and you can continue for as long as you wish. The other great thing about it is that your site would be the only one we'd plug into the search(es) you purchased--I can't sell it to anyone else once you own it. This means you'd be the only one guaranteed to be on that first page everytime that search is entered. Usually, the best searches start at around $100 per month. Additionally there is a one time only $79.95 account creation fee (no matter how many search phrases you purchase you never have to pay the set up fee again).

Let me know if this interests you and I'll go ahead and do the research to find out which search phrases are available and how much they'll cost. Feel free to send me some searches you'd like to be under as well, and I'll make sure to check into all of them.

Email me at blavoie@netbiz.com. I'll be back in my office this coming Tuesday. Leave me you phone number and I'll get back with you that morning and I can go over everything with you.

Good luck with improving this awesome site!
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albummaster
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  • #4
  • Posted: 09/01/2007 07:54
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Thanks for your feedback guys. The site ranks top on Google and Yahoo! for the main search phrases (best album ever and variations), the problem is there are not many back-links yet and it's not a frequently used search term. We've not promoted the site very much on other sites as we wanted to build traffic naturally and the site doesn't make money, the ads just cover the hosting costs so we can't really afford paid advertising. Back-links are very important to get but obviously it takes time for people to find your site and then to like it enough to link to it.

We did think of adding best songs and variations, but then the danger is that the site loses its focus and might get a little 'lost'. But maybe something like that has to happen to build up broader traffic...a bit of a dilemma.

There is a design update in the pipeline and there's literally an email sitting in my in-box from a designer containing some new graphics which need incorporating into the site. We thought it would be worthwhile to get some feedback on new features and then make it a bigger update so if you think of anything else that would make the site a bit better than please let us know.

Thanks for your continued support.
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AfterHours



Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

  • #5
  • Posted: 09/04/2007 17:21
  • Post subject: more exposure
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Hi albummaster,

I did the research. Here are the top 15 searches that relate to this site, including the monthly prices based on the amount of traffic they produce:

1. music website $240
2. music albums $225
3. cd albums $100
4. classic albums $75
5. music lists $75

Those are the only significant ones. There are 10 others: best albums, 500 best albums, best albums of the 90s, best album, top albums, great albums, best charts, top 10 albums--all of which received a moderate degree of traffic but none of them very significant, each one rather volatile as regards traffic (sometimes good traffic, other times not). Each of these would be $50 per month.

I searched for your site under the top 5 searches above and couldn't find it at all (on each I checked at least the first 5 pages), and experienced the same results with the other searches. It is possible that at varying times you could show up there randomly, but I didn't see you under any of the searches on any of the pages (I looked up to page 5 and in a few cases up to page 10).

So, as you've mentioned above, you are simply not under any of the popular searches, which is why you're not receiving a lot of traffic. In order to get the traffic you want you'd need to purchase one of the top 2 searches above or 2 or more of the other 3. This would get you guaranteed 1st page results at all times under those search(es) and would give you a much higher potential than you're currently experiencing, to receive traffic onto your site.

I do understand that you would prefer to not pay for advertising, but are you currently paying for anything that could be substituted for this? You could turn this into a much more legitimate website with more traffic coming in, and then you could charge for advertising on it, add a section to the site for premium, paying users only (perhaps a section to play test the songs/albums?).

Let me know what you think.
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albummaster
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  • #6
  • Posted: 09/05/2007 05:18
  • Post subject: Re: more exposure
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Hi AfterHours

At one point, we had a few back-links from Wikipedia which helped traffic a lot but these links got removed by somebody else after being on there for quite a few months. The links were on very relevant pages like Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums so I'm surprised and disappointed that somebody took them off.

On the more specific searches we do quite well in the search rankings but, the more generalised it gets, the lower we rank. To take the example of 'music albums', the first page includes Amazon, BBC, Billboard etc, we just aren't on that scale at the moment but by being a niche, it gives us more of a chance against these big guys but on the less popular searches.

Traffic volumes on this site are definitely seasonal, we get a lot more traffic in the months leading up to Christmas and it always seems to tail off during the summer.

The site started off without any thought of making money, it was just a fun thing to do (and still is.) To cover even $50 a month, we'd need a hell of a lot extra traffic just to break-even because the conversion rate is so low.

I think the best way for us to get more traffic is to keep adding new features and content and then the back-links will follow. The more back-links we get. the better our PageRank will be and the higher our rankings on the search engines. A hard way of doing things but financially is the most sensible at the moment.
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AfterHours



Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

  • #7
  • Posted: 09/05/2007 15:45
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Makes sense albummaster. Let me know if at any time in the future you become interested in increasing your exposure by being put on the 1st page of Google. I really do enjoy this site quite a bit and I look forward to its content expansion. Good luck and thanks for responding!
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