Posts Tagged ‘suggestions’
4 items.
I’m getting some negative feedback on the in-text ads, which doesn’t surprise me. I have to keep reassuring people that it’s only a trial and I want to see how the ads perform. I can report that initial earnings have not been stellar. So it’ll be a pretty easy decision to pull the plug unless something revolutionary happens in the next few days.
So you understand where I’m coming from, it’s important for me to monetize the content on Theater Hopper to help support other projects I’m pursuing. Things like publishing books and producing t-shirts. Or bankrolling things like convention appearances.
The recent redesign significantly cut down on the number of ads that were being displayed on the site. Obviously this affects the bottom line. I’m trying to figure out a way to make up the difference without going all banner-crazy again and cluttering things up.
I have two ideas:
- Advertising in the RSS feed. This is long overdue, actually. I’m all for delivering content using means that make it most convenient for the user to read it. But people utilizing the RSS feed do not visit the site and that limits opportunities across the board. The RSS feed will not become ad-heavy, but I do intend to more thoroughly align the feed more closely to the experience the main-site provides.
- Sponsorships. Instead of a half-dozen tiny ads junking up the site, how do you guys feel about one large ad in the upper right hand corner sold through a one-on-one basis?
I’m sure you’ve seen those page peel ads on other sites that allow you to put one large ad behind the “skin” of the home page and then peel away on rollover to reveal the whole image. I think it’s a good way to attract content-relevant advertisers while not interfering with the site design.
I know this is a lot of business talk and I probably shouldn’t be sharing these thoughts with you. I don’t want to give you the impression that my pursuit of Theater Hopper is all about money. Please understand that money earned by the site is reinvested back into the site. I consider it a tool that allows me to do more with the characters — things I think you will enjoy.
I’m very interested in your feedback. Please leave your comments below!
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Incidentally, if anyone is interested in what I’m listening to while I’m catching up on my commissions today, you can check out my Last.fm page:
Friend me, if you like. I’m always looking for new musical suggestions!
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I don’t really look at my site traffic like I used to. I used to be quite obsessed with it.
I suppose it’s a good thing that I don’t look at it much anymore because I think if you put too much emphasis on it, then you might not be doing the work for the right reasons. Clearly, after nearly 8 years in the game, it should be evident that Theater Hopper is a labor of love.
But at the same time, because I love what I do, I want other people to love what I do. I won’t deny that it’s an ego boost to know people are reading and enjoying your work.
So it bummed me out a little yesterday when I looked at my traffic statistics and read the monthly averages by year since 2002.
Theater Hopper’s boom years were 2004 – 2006. These days, I probably see a third of the traffic I saw back then. Obviously my life is much different these days. I have two kids, I’m taking night classes for my Master’s degree. I’m a pretty busy guy. I don’t have the time to promote the comic like I used to or brainstorm ideas on how to market it.
I think part of the traffic decline can also be attributed to the sheer sizes of the archives. If I were a new reader, I don’t know if I could stand to read through 1,000+ comics.
Certainly you don’t NEED to read through the archive to “get” what Theater Hopper is about. I think the topical nature of the comic sees to that. But, still… It’s daunting. So I’m always impressed when I hear from new readers who invest the time to check out the history of the comic.
But I think my biggest problem is that I don’t advertise the site. Like, at all. I’ve never been very good about advertising Theater Hopper. I’ve always relied on the relationships I’ve established with other creators and the fan base to establish word-of-mouth. So, I suppose by those standards, Theater Hopper is very successful!
I don’t think it would hurt for me to advertise the comic a little bit, though. But the reason I haven’t done it in the past is because I’m terrible at designing ads for my site and I am awful at deciding which sites to put them on.
Some of this should be obvious. “Advertise with other web comics. Advertise with movie blogs.” But when you start talking about popular web comics and movie blogs, advertising costs an arm and a leg and I psych myself out of doing it because I’m not confident that the banner ads I’ve designed will attract new readers.
I’ve been thinking about designing banner ads that parody popular movie posters. Tom holding up a piece of soap that says “Theater Hopper” instead of “Fight Club.” That kind of thing. Designing a bunch of those kind of ads would certainly keep me busy. But beyond that, I’m lost. I feel like I need to talk to a consultant, or something.
Does anyone out there have web site marketing experience? Even if you’re not a paid professional, what would you do in my situation? I need to step outside of my own head a little bit. Maybe there is a very obvious solution that I’m overlooking.
Just trying to stir up a little discussion. Please leave your comments below. Thanks
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Back in the day (which was about two years ago on the internet time-line) I had a Facebook fan page. It was great, but I recently decided that I should take the Facebook thing a little more seriously. So I established a Facebook “business” page instead…
http://www.facebook.com/theaterhopper/
I’m still trying to kind of figure out the difference between the two. But the biggest difference I can determine is that status updates from this page will appear in your feed if you make yourself a fan. So it’s a really great way to stay connected to the comic and reminded of it when it updates.
I’ve been investing some time into making my new Facebook page a little more than just a bookmark on the site. So I’ve added tabs for Cast information as well as popular Story lines. I’ve gotten great feedback on these – people have been asking how I added them, so I assume people are looking at them.
The Cast information is a rehash of what’s already on the site. But the Story lines page is all new content. In fact, I plan on adding to it in the near future! So if you have any suggestions as to what story lines represent Theater Hopper the best, I would love to hear your suggestions! Feel free to leave them in the comments area below.
Of course, if you’d like to become a fan of the new Theater Hopper Facebook page, that would be cool, too.
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