Bringing new users to the site

erolz · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 6:54 pm Post subject: Bringing new users to the site

Allthough I have been working hard to optimise the site and enter it into search directories and search engines, to try and get more users to visit the site and join up, this process is very slow. The work done to date will accrue benefits in time but I am keen to try and drvie membership numbers up in the short terms as well.

As such I have decided to allocate a small amount of money (from my own pocket) to have the site placed in the 'google ads' system.

Basically until my budget runs out we should appear as a 'sponosred link' on google search for terms like 'cyprus forum' (please do not click on such links as I pay for each click and if peopoe who already know the site click on them the money will run out before anyone new visits us). In addition to this I have set things up so that we should appear on certain websites that use google ads to generate revneue. For these we (well I) pay for evey 1000 'impressions' (every 1000 times the ad is displayed).

So this campaign might not last very long (funds are limited and once exhausted the campaign ends) but it is hopefully not totaly wasted money.

Birkibrisli · Deputy Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 1404 Location: Australia

Erol,
Would you consider calling for donations from the present members of this forum to keep the promotion activities going for a bit longer?
I would be very happy to contribute as I'm sure others would as well.
Just tell us how.

erolz · Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:08 pm Post subject:

Birkibrisli thanks for your generous offer.

For the moment I am not considering such a call for donations.

Firstly I am waiting to see if this is an effective means of bringing new people to the site or not. At the moment the amouts are negliable. We have had 5 'click throughs' to date. 3 from search on the term 'Cyprus Property' at an average cost of £0.76 per click, on on search for 'Republic of Cyprus' at £0.11 and one on term 'cyprus forum' at £0.06. So tha amounts are not very large and I will probably remove the less related and more expensive 'cyprus property' search term link soon as well, futher keeping the costs down. I only added it really because google ads suggested it as a very popular serarch term for cyprus realted searches.

If the add campaign does proove sucessful in getting more memebers to join up then I may consider asking for donations. However that does open up potential problems. How do people know I am spending any donation on advertising the site and not on fags and booze for myself?. How do people know that my motivation in creating the site is to make sure Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots (and others) have a 'netural' space where they can discuss and argue, and not to make money?

So for the time being I am not going to ask for contributions - to keep things as clear and simple as possible.

One thing I did consider as a means to fund sucha campaign into the future was to try and link it to myself giving up or reducing smoking (which I do a lot of). As a encouragement to reduce or stop I could assign any money not spent on cigaretts that I would normaly have spent to going for the sites ad camapaign on google ads. So far this just a 'notion' and I have set aside a modest amount of money for the campaign regardless of my smoking, but if it is sucsessful and I want to continue it past this modest sum, then this was one way I though might work, and do me some good as well.

Birkibrisli · Deputy Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 1404 Location: Australia

Erol,

Hazza · Senior Villager Joined: 22 Aug 2005 Posts: 151

Out of curiousity, if somebody has a link to talkcyprus in their signature on other forums, does it help on where talkcyprus is placed in the search engines?

erolz · Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 7:45 pm Post subject:

brother · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:14 pm Post subject:

I have been posting our link on every cyprus related forum and website that i come accross, so i hope this will get some new people in soon. Wink

erolz · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:19 pm Post subject:

detailer · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:01 pm Post subject:

Erol,

You can consider the term "cyprus chat"

erolz · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:07 pm Post subject:

erolz · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:25 pm Post subject:

OK I got fed up waiting for googleads to get back to me on the problem with the ads not showing so I suspended the 'campaign' that was not working and resubmitted a new campaign and that seems to be working for the moment.

Below is a list of the search terms I have chosen, and a yes/no as to if they showed up when I searched and some notes where I had to increase my maximum bid price to get on the first page of sponosred ads for that term

Cyprus help yes
Cyprus info yes
Cyprus information yes
Greek Cyprus yes
Tassos Papadopoulos yes
Republic of Cyprus yes
R o C yes - though searches bring up Republic of China and r o c skincare products
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus yes
Mehmet Ali Talat no
Turkish Cyprus yes
clerides yes
cyprus yes - 3rd at £1.11
cyprus bicommunal yes
cyprus bicommunal forum yes
cyprus chat no
cyprus chat forum no
cyprus discussion yes
cyprus forum yes
cyprus political forum yes
cyprus problem yes
cyprus talk yes
denktash yes
enosis yes
eoka yes
makarios yes
north cyprus yes - 6th at 71p
northcyprus yes -
northern cyprus yes - 3rd at 1.11p
south cyprus yes
southern cyprus yes
turkish invasion yes
unficyp yes
cyprus dispute yes
cyprus green line yes
Cyprus UN no

The 'no' on cyprus chat,cyprus chat forum, mehmet ali talat and cyprus UN are apparently because google ads do not think that I would get any chance at a click through on these search terms so will not list the add - at least as far as I understand, the terminology and explainations are not that clear imo.

erolz · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:14 pm Post subject:

Just for info

I have decided to 'turn off' the search term 'cyprus'. It is (since I resubmitted the ad) the most popular search term I am currently using. However it is also one of the most expensive and I am not convinced of it's value given the limited budget I am working on.

The term 'cyprus' has been searched on 1,148 times since I activated the ads. Of these times it has been searched, 14 times someone gas clicked on the talkcyprus ad. It has costed an average of £0.92 for each of these clicks (because other advertisers are 'competing' to advertise on this term. We have not got a sinble new signup from these 14 click throughs. Thus I am removing the search term.

The only other click throughs we have had other than these are as follows

1 on the term "Tassos Papadopoulos" out of 20 such searches for that term at a click through cost of £0.06

1 on the term "Turkish Cyprus" out of 10 such searches at a cost of £0.16

1 on term "eoka" out of 7 such searches at a cost of £0.06

We have not got any new signups from these either. However given how much cheaper they are and their greater chance in resulting in a sign up I am going to turn of the 'cyprus' search term. This means we will get many more less click throughs in a given time period, but hopefully we will get more signups from the clickthroughs on other terms we get and can run the ads fo much longer because there are less click throughs and they are much cheaper per click through.

I have to say I am finding this whole google ads thing fascinating. The access to how often terms are searched and how 'valuable' different terms are (ie how competetive advertiser bidding for these terms is) that you get access to as an advertiser is very interesting (to me anyway).

TVSET · Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:55 am Post subject:

While spending money on Google Ads is all good, there is always another approach. Let me explain.

Currently, Talk Cyprus is "Yet another forum" if you don't mind me say so. It is one of the five or so forums that cypriots and people either living in Cyprus or planning to come use to chat. All of these forums are practically the same and it doesn't matter much which to use. All of them have a bunch of people in that can answer basic questions about Cyprus.

Chatting is a totally different issue is very much unrelated. There are plenty of places to chat on the Web. And while Talk Cyprus helps being one of these places, it shouldn't be it's primary goal. In my opinion that is.

In order to get more visitors, both registered users and one timers, Talk Cyprus has to stand out. It has to be different somehow. And since Cyprus is the part of the name, I think it is a good thing to theme around it.

By now you probably think that I haven't get laid recently or just have nothing better to do than brag about life, universe, and everything. That's not true. I have a point and it is about to emerge. :)

I think that the Forum functionality is good. People can sign up, post and get replies. But there is a lot that can be added to this. I think that a site wrapped around a forum would greatly improve the situation. This website can have a bunch of stuff about Cyprus in general and related to the forum in particular. Some of the ideas:

- Frequently Asked Questions
- List of places to see, eat in, etc
- Recent happenings in Cyprus (maybe in a blog form, with the link to the forum thread discussing the post)

A site like this can attract a lot of people. If done properly that is. The search engine ratings will blossom too. And with more visitors to the site, the forum will get more attention too.

Needless to say, the production of such a website and later on its maintenance will require a lot of time and effort. But if you really want to attract a lot of people here, than I think this is the way to go.

P.S.: I was frequently distracted while writing this, so if something doesn't make sense - let me know and I will correct it. Smile

brother · Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 11:48 am Post subject:

cannedmoose · Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 11:53 am Post subject: