Hello all,
As some of you may know, Band of Others represents only one site in a small Network of websites that I own/operate under the parent banner of Lifesupporters.com.
The last time we were hacked (about a year ago), I was forced to make some tough decisions on how best to proceed.
At that time, the Lifesupporters.com Network comprised of 3 Communities all with Main Blogs for news items that helped funnel traffic to the forum for discussion.
Listed below are the Communities along with current status indicated in ():
1. Lifesupporters:
Focusing on one site was certainly the best thing I could do at the time and it's helped breath some life into this Community as it sat primarily stagnant for years (we've been online for just over 3 years now).
The Problem:
I'm very pleased with how B2O is starting to progres however the cost to even get this far was great; it killed movie-talk.net and lifesupporters.com is nearly dead as well.
Lifesupporters.com was oficially launched in summer 2003. At its prime, Lifesupporters accounted for well over 3/4 our monthly financial support all generated from articles published on the blog.
For a short time, Lifesupportes.com was actually listed in the Top 100,000 sites online according to Alexa.com.
Movie-talk was created as an experiment to try and gain understanding into the world of SEO. I chose movies because I like watching them and discussing them and if I chose to grow the Community it should become self sustaining in a reasonably small time-frame.
The blog would draw regular traffic because of its image gallery but the Community drew next to nothing except spam bots.
Just prior to suspending the account, I tried an experiment to differentiate the blog from the forum and within a few days the traffic at movie-talk eclipsed both Lifesupporters and Fragtard.
Movie-talk was listed on Page 1 in Google.com for Movie Talk (of course) however it reached the top of Page 3 for Movie Forum (no small task).
The traffic gain was quite literally exponential and I have no doubt that this influx is what drew hackers to attack all 3 sites.
The Goal
...was always to offer what no other Network could. We offered entertainment in some of the biggest mediums available (Film and Games) as well as peer support for a wide range of social issues.
Now I'm trying to understand if perhaps it's time to re-evaluate this original goal and that is where you all come in.
Where it stands, Lifesupporters.com is dying no question about it. Having said that, 3 - 6 solid months of activity will see it flourish once again due to the tremendous trust rank Google has placed on it.
The fact the website is now over a decade old means it sits in a very small niche where most Communities fail in that it has longevity. Google knows it can trust the website to continue an online presence so new original content that is SEO optimized typically sees the front pages of Googles Pages within 48 hours (Blog only).
I'm not worried about Lifesupporters as I've seen it rise and fall many times over the course of a decade+. Also, it adds nothing to Band of Others Membership (I wouldn't expect to see anyone register there) so it constitutes a project that will remain on the back burner for now.
Movie-talk is quite different in this regard as it's open to discuss film which is a large topic. I'm sure everyone here watches movies and/or television so I could see it being a benefit if I were to bring it back online.
The question is, do you see a benefit in bringing movie-talk back online?
If there are even a few people here willing to help foster discussions over at movie-talk then I'd be more than happy to unsuspend the account.
Please let me know.
Thanks,
Ken
As some of you may know, Band of Others represents only one site in a small Network of websites that I own/operate under the parent banner of Lifesupporters.com.
The last time we were hacked (about a year ago), I was forced to make some tough decisions on how best to proceed.
At that time, the Lifesupporters.com Network comprised of 3 Communities all with Main Blogs for news items that helped funnel traffic to the forum for discussion.
Listed below are the Communities along with current status indicated in ():
1. Lifesupporters:
- Blog: http://lifesupporters.com (disabled)
- Community: http://lifesupporters.com/forums (live, inactive)
- Blog: http://movie-talk.net (account suspended)
- Community: http://movie-talk.net/forum (account suspended)
- Blog: http://fragtard.net (live)
- Community: http://fragtard.net/forum (live)
Focusing on one site was certainly the best thing I could do at the time and it's helped breath some life into this Community as it sat primarily stagnant for years (we've been online for just over 3 years now).
The Problem:
I'm very pleased with how B2O is starting to progres however the cost to even get this far was great; it killed movie-talk.net and lifesupporters.com is nearly dead as well.
Lifesupporters.com was oficially launched in summer 2003. At its prime, Lifesupporters accounted for well over 3/4 our monthly financial support all generated from articles published on the blog.
For a short time, Lifesupportes.com was actually listed in the Top 100,000 sites online according to Alexa.com.
Movie-talk was created as an experiment to try and gain understanding into the world of SEO. I chose movies because I like watching them and discussing them and if I chose to grow the Community it should become self sustaining in a reasonably small time-frame.
The blog would draw regular traffic because of its image gallery but the Community drew next to nothing except spam bots.
Just prior to suspending the account, I tried an experiment to differentiate the blog from the forum and within a few days the traffic at movie-talk eclipsed both Lifesupporters and Fragtard.
Movie-talk was listed on Page 1 in Google.com for Movie Talk (of course) however it reached the top of Page 3 for Movie Forum (no small task).
The traffic gain was quite literally exponential and I have no doubt that this influx is what drew hackers to attack all 3 sites.
The Goal
...was always to offer what no other Network could. We offered entertainment in some of the biggest mediums available (Film and Games) as well as peer support for a wide range of social issues.
Now I'm trying to understand if perhaps it's time to re-evaluate this original goal and that is where you all come in.
Where it stands, Lifesupporters.com is dying no question about it. Having said that, 3 - 6 solid months of activity will see it flourish once again due to the tremendous trust rank Google has placed on it.
The fact the website is now over a decade old means it sits in a very small niche where most Communities fail in that it has longevity. Google knows it can trust the website to continue an online presence so new original content that is SEO optimized typically sees the front pages of Googles Pages within 48 hours (Blog only).
I'm not worried about Lifesupporters as I've seen it rise and fall many times over the course of a decade+. Also, it adds nothing to Band of Others Membership (I wouldn't expect to see anyone register there) so it constitutes a project that will remain on the back burner for now.
Movie-talk is quite different in this regard as it's open to discuss film which is a large topic. I'm sure everyone here watches movies and/or television so I could see it being a benefit if I were to bring it back online.
The question is, do you see a benefit in bringing movie-talk back online?
If there are even a few people here willing to help foster discussions over at movie-talk then I'd be more than happy to unsuspend the account.
Please let me know.
Thanks,
Ken
