I recently launched www.FreeLandlordSoftware.com Dec 1. Since then I have had 70 members join and the last week, I'm averaging 4-5 new members per day. My adsense ads are doing better than expected. I'm wondering what direction I should go with these new members? I am looking for suggestions. I need to brainstorm. My best idea is an email newsletter that links back to get repeat traffic while I continue to SEO and advertise ALOT more. Any input is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Add a discussion forum .. it will mean repeat visitors and more adsense revenue. Could also result in interesting discussions and topics for your site & blog.
Why not simply ask your forum members what features they would like to see - make them happy and they will stay - implement changes that they don't like and they will leave.
Lol, sorry, me being very presumptious... thought he was talking about members joining a forum Ok scrap the word forum - just ask your members what they think... ... and perhaps set up a discussion forum for your members! I knew what i meant even if nobody else did
I think Sabian meant forum as in the website in general.. adding a forum is a good idea. I don't have time to code it from scratch. Any idea where I could find asp.net (vb preferably) code to add a forum? It would have to be MS Access based b/c I don't have sql server or know how to use mySql right now. I also threw around the idea of a contest or giveaway but didn't get much response when I tried it the first time. thoughts?
You can start your search here ASP Forum Software Just remember Rome was not built in a day. Just setup the forum and see how things go. All you need is five daily active members and you will be on your way. Your site targets a much more mature readership so i doubt a contest would generate a lot of interest.
Starting a forum and newsletter is good idea. Check your website stats to see which web pages are the most popular for your visitors. This way you will see what they are interested in.
A forum/newsletter would definitely be a good idea, especially if you can have your main site and the forum be connected (so anyone that signs up on your site gets signed up on the forum w/ the same user/pass). That would also open some money making opportunities through offering ads on the forum, or even in the newsletter (depending on how many members you have). Ron
Wow, thanks for the encouragement. I'm very excited by this thread. It's very inspiring. I can easily program the dual user sign up so I'll keep that in mind. How do I offer ads in the newsletter? I tried doing an html newsletter but the adsense ads do not show up in the newsletter and i'm not even sure if it's agains google tos. Is there another service I could use to run my ads in the newsletter?
That link for the ASP forums is very useful. I will definatly browse it and pick a free one from there. I guess your right about the contest. I was wondering why my test didn't get any interest but the mature audience seems like a good reason. What are your thoughts on a chat application?
Chat would be cool, could also be boring if everyone is not online at the same time. I think put up a forum first and then send out a newsletter(and suggest people check out the forum). Concentrate on quality with the newsletter not quantity, so maybe send one out every two months to start off ... also two months will give your forum time to develop and there should be interesting threads ti add to the newsletter. Your next 6 months should be targeted at getting the forum going .. in the long run the forum will be feeding the site, you will see.
Ever heard of the entireweb newsletter? they do a webmaster/seo newsletter that gets sent out to over 500,000 subscribers... advertising banners on their cost from $150 each! http://www.entireweb.com/newsletter (i think) If you worked directly with adverters to sell advertising spots for banners on your newsletter you will make a lot more money than you're ever likely to ever make using adsense. Of course to make this work you first need to provide a good newsletter and build a good quality number of subscribers. All being told though you could charge say $10-$20 per banner or something once you get to say 100 subscribers... I personally feel and have found that working directly with advertisers brings a much greater income... sure it takes time to sort out... but in the long run its better.
Ok, nix the chat. Your right, I think it would be boring if no one was there to chat with. I will focus on the forum. I just wrote another site for step families and added a free version of a forum on there. Check it out at http://onefamily.bornmannfamily.com if you have a chance. BTW, i'm the one in the middle if you want to place a face to the forum posts... I'll check out that link for the newsletters and get back to you guys. I like the idea of getting advertisers for my newsletters myself. How did you go about attracting advertisers? Cold call/emails? I don't really have any contacts that I can think of besides local real estate guys and such.
I bet if you added a better look to your website/touched up on it a bit you could get even more members/day!
I know that. My question is how to optimize the memebers that I have while I work for more traffic... I just want to brain storm a little about what to offer these new members to keep them coming back. thanks for the input though.